Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

After Heracles’ death, Eurystheus continued to hunt his children. The Heraclidae fled with Alcmene and Hyllus to Trachis, then to Athens; when Eurystheus marched against Attica, the Athenians (and, in some tellings, Theseus’s sons) fought him. Eurystheus was defeated and killed—by Hyllus, or by Iolaus restored to youth, or by Alcmene’s order after capture—and his head was brought to Alcmene. An oracle forbade the Heraclids to return to the Peloponnese until three generations (or “the third fruit”) had passed; Hyllus’s premature attempt ended in his death in single combat with Echemus of Tegea (or at the Isthmus), and the host withdrew. In the third generation Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus (sons of Aristomachus, or Aristodemus’s twin sons Procles and Eurysthenes after their father’s death by lightning) led the successful return, guided by Oxylus the one-eyed Aetolian as the “three-eyed” helper the oracle required (Oxylus rode a one-eyed horse). They crossed into the Peloponnese, defeated Tisamenus son of Orestes, and divided the land by lot: Temenus drew Argos; the sons of Aristodemus drew Lacedaemon; Cresphontes obtained Messenia by trick (casting a lump of clay that dissolved so his lot came last for the richest share). So the “return of the Heraclids” becomes the classical charter for Dorian kingship in Argos, Sparta, and Messene—framed as rightful recovery of Heracles’ inheritance rather than foreign conquest.