In Apollodorus' Spartan reckoning, Oebalus begat Tyndareus, Hippocoon, and Icarius by a Naiad nymph, Batia; so Hippocoon stands brother to the father of the Tyndarids. He had many sons of his own — Dorycleus, Scaeus, Enarophorus, Eutiches, Bucolus, Lycaethus, Tebrus, Hippothous, Eurytus, Hippocorystes, Alcinus, and Alcon — the Hippocoontids.2Pseudo-Apollodorus — Bibliotheca 3.10.4–3.10.5

With the help of these sons Hippocoon expelled Icarius and Tyndareus from Lacedaemon; the exiles fled to Thestius and fought beside him in his war with his neighbours, and there Tyndareus married Leda, the daughter of Thestius. Apollodorus tells Heracles' later campaign as vengeance: he marched on Lacedaemon to punish the sons of Hippocoon, angry that they had fought for Neleus and angrier still that they had killed the son of Licymnius; in the fighting he slew Hippocoon and his sons, and the exiles returned, Tyndareus succeeding to the kingdom.3Pseudo-Apollodorus — Bibliotheca 3.10.5; 2.7.3

Pausanias tells the seizure as a quarrel over the throne: Hippocoon disputed the kingship with Tyndareus, claiming it as the eldest, and once Icarius and his partisans were gone he had so far surpassed Tyndareus in power that he forced him to retire in fear. Afterwards Heracles brought Tyndareus back; the Lacedaemonians said that Heracles, having slain Hippocoon and his sons, held the land in trust for Tyndareus until his own descendants should return.4Pausanias — Description of Greece 3.1.4, 2.18.7

Pausanias gives the feud its spark: Oeonus, a young cousin of Heracles and son of Licymnius, came to Sparta, and when a house-dog rushed him at the palace of Hippocoon he felled it with a stone, whereupon the sons of Hippocoon ran out and beat him to death with their clubs. Heracles, wounded in the first encounter, withdrew by stealth, then made his expedition against Sparta and avenged himself on Hippocoon and on his sons for the murder of Oeonus. Walking the city, Pausanias points out the trophy Heracles raised for the killing, and the tombs and hero-shrines of the sons — Eumedes, Alcon, Dorceus by his fountain, Sebrus who gave his name to Sebrium — scattered along the running-course and through the town.5Pausanias — Description of Greece 3.15.4–3.15.5, 3.10.6, 3.14.6–3.15.2

In Ovid's catalogue of the Calydonian boar hunt, the four sons whom Hippocoon sent from old Amyclae take their place among the heroes; the poet there names Hippocoon the father-in-law of queen Penelope.6Ovid — Metamorphoses 8.531–532