But the Argives, on learning afterwards the flight of the Thebans, entered the city and collected the booty, and pulled down the walls. But they sent a portion of the booty to Apollo at Delphi and with it Manto, daughter of Tiresias; for they had vowed that, if they took Thebes , they would dedicate to him the fairest of the spoils. Compare Diod. 4.66.6 (who gives the name of Tiresias's daughter as Daphne, not Manto); Paus. 7.3.3 ; Paus. 9.33.2 ; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.308 . After the capture of Thebes , when Alcmaeon learned that his mother Eriphyle had been bribed to his undoing also, That is, as well as to the undoing of his father Amphiaraus. See above, Apollod. 3.6.2 . he was more incensed than ever, and in accordance with an oracle given to him by Apollo he killed his mother. Compare Thuc. 2.102.7ff. ; Diod. 4.65.7 ; Paus. 8.24.7ff. ; Ov. Met. 9.407ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 73 . Sophocles and Euripides both wrote tragedies called Alcmaeon , or rather Alcmeon , for that appears to be the more correct spelling of the name. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 153ff., 379ff. ; The Fragments of Sophocles , ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. i. pp. 68ff. Some say that he killed her in conjunction with his brother Amphilochus, others that he did it alone. But Alcmaeon was visited by the Fury of his mother's murder, and going mad he first repaired to Oicles Oicles was the father of Amphiaraus, and therefore the grandfather of Alcmaeon. See Apollod. 1.8.2 . in Arcadia , and thence to Phegeus at Psophis . And having been purified by him he married Arsinoe, daughter of Phegeus, Paus. 8.24.8 and Prop. i.15.19 call her Alphesiboea. and gave her the necklace and the robe. But afterwards the ground became barren on his account, So Greece is said to have been afflicted with a dearth on account of a treacherous murder committed by Pelops. See below, Apollod. 3.12.6 . Similarly the land of Thebes was supposed to be visited with barrenness of the soil, of cattle, and of women because of the presence of Oedipus, who had slain his father and married his mother. See Soph. OT 22ff. ; Soph. OT 96ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 67 . The notion that the shedding of blood, especially the blood of a kinsman, is an offence to the earth, which consequently refuses to bear crops, seems to have been held by the ancient Hebrews, as it is still apparently held by some African peoples. See Folk-Lore in the Old Testament , i.82ff. and the god bade him in an oracle to depart to Achelous and to stand another trial on the river bank. The text is here uncertain. See the Critical Note. At first he repaired to Oeneus at Calydon and was entertained by him; then he went to the Thesprotians, but was driven away from the country; and finally he went to the springs of Achelous, and was purified by him, Achelous here seems to be conceived partly as a river and partly as a man, or rather a god. and received Callirrhoe, his daughter, to wife. Moreover he colonized the land which the Achelous had formed by its silt, and he took up his abode there. Compare Thuc. 2.102.7ff. ; Paus. 8.24.8ff. As to the formation of new land by the deposit of alluvial soil at the mouth of the Achelous, compare Hdt. 2.10 . But afterwards Callirrhoe coveted the necklace and robe, and said she would not live with him if she did not get them. So away Alcmaeon hied to Psophis and told Phegeus how it had been predicted that he should be rid of his madness when he had brought the necklace and the robe to Delphi and dedicated them. According to Ephorus, or his son Demophilus, this oracle was really given to Alcmaeon at Delphi . See Athenaeus vi.22, p. 232 DF , where the words of the oracle are quoted. Phegeus believed him and gave them to him. But a servant having let out that he was taking the things to Callirrhoe, Phegeus commanded his sons, and they lay in wait and killed him. His grave was overshadowed by tall cypresses, called the Maidens, in the bleak upland valley of Psophis . See Paus. 8.24.7 . A quiet resting-place for the matricide among the solemn Arcadian mountains after the long fever of the brain and the long weary wanderings. The valley, which I have visited, somewhat resembles a Yorkshire dale, but is far wilder and more solitary. When Arsinoe upbraided them, the sons of Phegeus clapped her into a chest and carried her to Tegea and gave her as a slave to Agapenor, falsely accusing her of Alcmaeon's murder. Being apprized of Alcmaeon's untimely end and courted by Zeus, Callirrhoe requested that the sons she had by Alcmaeon might be full grown in order to avenge their father's murder. And being suddenly full-grown, the sons went forth to right their father's wrong. Compare Ov. Met. 9.413ff. Now Pronous and Agenor, the sons of Phegeus, Paus. 8.24.10 calls them Temenus and Axion. carrying the necklace and robe to Delphi to dedicate them, turned in at the house of Agapenor at the same time as Amphoterus and Acarnan, the sons of Alcmaeon; and the sons of Alcmaeon killed their father's murderers, and going to Psophis and entering the palace they slew both Phegeus and his wife. They were pursued as far as Tegea , but saved by the intervention of the Tegeans and some Argives, and the Psophidians took to flight. Having acquainted their mother with these things, they went to Delphi and dedicated the necklace and robe According to Paus. 8.24.10 ; Paus. 9.41.2 , it was the sons of Phegeus, not the sons of Alcmaeon, who dedicated the necklace at Delphi . The necklace, or what passed for it, was preserved at Delphi in the sanctuary of Forethought Athena as late as the Sacred War in the fourth century B.C., when it was carried off, with much more of the sacred treasures, by the unscrupulous Phocian leader, Phayllus. See Parthenius, Narrat. 25 (who quotes Phylarchus as his authority); Athenaeus vi.22, p. 232 DE (who quotes the thirtieth book of the history of Ephorus as his authority). according to the injunction of Achelous. Then they journeyed to Epirus , collected settlers, and colonized Acarnania . Compare Thuc. 2.102.9 ; Paus. 8.24.9 , who similarly derive the name of Acarnania from Acarnan, son of Alcmaeon. Pausanias says that formerly the people were called Curetes. But Euripides says The reference is no doubt to one of the two lost tragedies which Euripides composed under the title Alcmaeon . See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 479ff. that in the time of his madness Alcmaeon begat two children, Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone, by Manto, daughter of Tiresias, and that he brought the babes to Corinth and gave them to Creon, king of Corinth , to bring up; and that on account of her extraordinary comeliness Tisiphone was sold as a slave by Creon's spouse, who feared that Creon might make her his wedded wife. But Alcmaeon bought her and kept her as a handmaid, not knowing that she was his daughter, and coming to Corinth to get back his children he recovered his son also. And Amphilochus colonized Amphilochian Argos in obedience to oracles of Apollo. Amphilochian Argos was a city of Aetolia , situated on the Ambracian Gulf. See Thuc. 2.68.3 , who represents the founder Amphilochus as the son of Amphiaraus, and therefore as the brother, not the son, of Alcmaeon. As to Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus, see above, Apollod. 3.7.2 .