A Messenian prince, son of Perieres by Gorgophone, daughter of Perseus, and brother of Aphareus, Tyndareus, and Icarius; father of the Leucippides Hilaira and Phoebe, whom the Dioscuri carried off, and of Arsinoe.1
Apollodorus reckons Leucippus among the sons Gorgophone, daughter of Perseus, bore to Perieres when that prince had taken Messene — Aphareus and Leucippus, and Tyndareus and Icarius beside them. The genealogist at once flags the seam: many, he says, hold Perieres to be no son of Aeolus but of Cynortas son of Amyclas, and so refers the whole line to the family of Atlas.2
Retelling the pedigree on Stesichorus' authority, Apollodorus makes Cynortes father Perieres, who marries Gorgophone and begets Leucippus; yet some say instead that Aphareus and Leucippus were sons of Perieres son of Aeolus, with Cynortes begetting Perieres, Perieres begetting Oebalus, and Oebalus the Spartan kings — so that Leucippus' very rung on the ladder shifts with the teller.3
Leucippus' name endures through his daughters, the Leucippides Hilaira and Phoebe. These the Dioscuri carried off from Messene and married, Pollux begetting Mnesileus by Phoebe and Castor begetting Anogon by Hilaira — the abduction that set Castor and Pollux against their cousins Idas and Lynceus.4
Hyginus names the maidens as betrothed brides of the Apharetids before the seizure: Phoebe a priestess of Minerva and Hilaira of Diana, snatched by Castor and Pollux in their love, so that the dispossessed bridegrooms Idas and Lynceus took up arms.5
Pausanias records the Spartan cult of Hilaira and Phoebe, whose maiden priestesses bore the goddesses' own name, the Leucippides — though he notes that the author of the Cypria called the two daughters of Apollo, not of Leucippus.6
Beside the abducted pair Leucippus begat a third daughter, Arsinoe, with whom Apollo lay and who bore Asclepius — though Apollodorus adds that some deny it, holding the healer no son of Arsinoe but of Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas.7
Pausanias judged the descent of Asclepius from Arsinoe the least likely of the versions he knew, yet preserved the Delphic oracle, sought by Apollophanes the Arcadian, that named the healer the son of Arsinoe and so a Messenian.8
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
