HERACLIDE, the descendants of Hercules. In a general sense, the term is applied to all the families of Greece that traced their origin to the great mythic hero of their country. In a more limited sense it is restricted to those descendants of Hercules, who, along with the Dorians, conquered the Peloponnese. They were, in fact, the Normans of Grecian history. The story goes, that after the death of Hercules (who had been deprived of his lawful rights by Eurystheus through the craft of Juno), his children were obliged to take refuge for their lives in Attica. They were there welcomed by Theseus, who furnished them with the means for taking the field against the usurper Eurystheus. With the aid of the Athenians, they defeated and slew the tyrant, and settling quietly in their ancient homes, effected what is known in Greek history as the "return of the Heraclidae." At the end of the first year of their return, however, they were once more driven out by a pestilence. Again they sought refuge in Attica, and subsequently among the Dorians. Backed by a band of Dorians, they once more made for the Peloponnese. At the Corinthian isthmus they met the army of the Pelopidas, their chief opponents, under the command of Echemus, king of Tegea. In single combat with this chief, Hyllus, the Dorian leader and son of Hercules, was killed. Hereupon his followers retired, after promising to make no further
Heraclides attempt on the Peloponnesians for 50, or, as some say, 100 years from that time. They broke their promise, however, for, 30 years after the Trojan War (which itself began 10 years after the death of Hylus), Cleodæus, the son of Hylus, headed the third expedition which, like its predecessors, failed. Cleodæus fell in battle, and his son Aristomachus, who, 20 years later set out to avenge his death, met the same fate. The fifth attempt was at length successful. Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodemus, the three sons of Aristomachus, fitted out a powerful fleet on the Corinthian Gulf, and with the assistance of the Ætolian Oxylus, defeated the Peloponnesian forces under Tisamenes, the grandson of Agamemnon, and reduced the whole of the Peloponnesians except Achaia and Arcadia. The conquerors then proceeded to divide the spoil. Cresphontes obtained Messenia; Argos was allotted to Temenus; and Lacedæmon to Procles and Eurystheus, the two sons of Aristodemus, who had been killed just before the expedition set sail. The conquered natives were either driven into exile, or reduced to slavery.
Thus was accomplished the great event of the "Return of the Heraclidae." The traditional accounts of it vary considerably in many of the details, many of which are no doubt purely mythical. But that under the myths there lies a substratum of historical narrative is universally agreed. But it is difficult, nay impossible, to say where the myths end and the history begins. In the meantime, we may with most safety accept the verdict of K. O. Müller in his Dorians. After carefully comparing all the legends about the Heraclidae, as found in the classics, that scholar inclines to deny the conclusions of the ancients that the Peloponnesians were conquered by Dorian adventurers under Achean chiefs. He attributes to a later period those parts of the legend that described the Heraclidae as the sons of the Tirynthian Hercules, and prefers to trace them back to a Doric hero of the same name. Historically it is not true that the Peloponnesians were thus early and totally subdued. Its subjugation by the Dorians was reserved to a much later date.