Hyllus and Echemus: Single Combat at Tegea

Catalogue ID: 03-heroes/194-hyllus-echemus-tegea-herodotus-apollodorus

Cycle: Heroes — Heraclidae / failed first return

Version line: Herodotean / Apollodorean / Pausanian — Hyllus’s death stalls the return

Sources: Herodotus 9.26; Apollodorus, *Library* 2.8.2; Pausanias 1.41.2, 8.5.1, 8.45.3

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/03-heroes/194-hyllus-echemus-tegea-herodotus-apollodorus.md

Characters

Achaean — party to the compact
Echemus — king of Tegea; victor
Hyllus — son of Heracles; challenger; slain
Temenus — later successful leader (third generation)

Places

Isthmus — approach of the Heraclid host
Mount Helicon — duel site and Echemus’s kingdom
Rhamnus — prior refuge of the Heraclids (background)

Themes

Narrative

When Hyllus attempted to lead the Heraclidae back into the Peloponnese before the fated term, the Achaean (or Peloponnesian) host met them. Agreement replaced a general battle with a duel: Hyllus against Echemus, king of Tegea (son of Aeropus). If Hyllus won, the Heraclids might take their inheritance; if he fell, they would withdraw for a stated term (three generations, or fifty/one hundred years in variant numbering). Echemus killed Hyllus. The Heraclids kept the oath and withdrew; only in the third generation did Temenus and his brothers succeed. Herodotus cites the duel as Tegea’s proud charter in the Plataea debate over wing-command. Catalogue it apart from Eurystheus’s Attic death and from the successful return.