Oxylus Guides the Heraclidae into Elis

Catalogue ID: 03-heroes/237-oxylus-heraclidae-elis-pausanias

Cycle: Heroes — Return of the Heraclidae / Eleian foundation

Version line: Pausanian / Apollodorean — one-eyed Oxylus as guide; bargain for Elis

Sources: Pausanias 5.3.5–5.4.4; Apollodorus, *Library* 2.8.3; cf. Strabo 8.3.33

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/03-heroes/237-oxylus-heraclidae-elis-pausanias.md

Characters

Cresphontes — Heraclid leaders who take the other lots
Eleian king — displaced or spared
Haemon — father of Oxylus (Aetolian line)
Oxylus — Aetolian guide; one-eyed man or rider of one-eyed horse; founder-king in Elis

Places

Elis — Oxylus’s allotted and guided prize
Peloponnese — theatre of the Return
Pleuron — Oxylus’s origin

Themes

Prophecy

Narrative

When the Heraclidae at last invaded the Peloponnese, an oracle told them to take as guide a man with three eyes. They met Oxylus son of Haemon (Aetolian), riding a one-eyed horse (or himself one-eyed from a mishap)—together “three eyes.” Oxylus led them and bargained that he should receive Elis as his portion. Cresphontes, Temenus, and the sons of Aristodemus drew lots for Messenia, Argos, and Sparta; Oxylus took Elis, sparing or displacing the Eleian king according to version, and established Aetolian settlers. Pausanias links his house to later Eleian kings and to the sacred politics of Olympia. Catalogue Oxylus’s three-eyed guide-trick and Eleian bargain apart from the general Heraclid lot-division.