ABSTRACT
DEION (or Deioneus), who has no myths of his own, ruled the province of Phocis in Central Greece. He married Diomede, daughter of Xouthos, who bore him a number of children including Kephalos, whose stormy marriage with Prokris in Attica was considered in Chapter 10 (see pp. 371ff), and PHYLAKOS, the eponymous founder of Phylake in southern Thessaly.216 Lying to the south-west of Iolkos and Pherai, Phylake ranked with Achilles’ home-town of Phthia in mythical history as one of the two main cities of Phthiotis, the south-eastern region of Thessaly. Phylakos married Klymene, daughter of Minyas, who bore him two children, a son IPHIKLOS and a daughter Alkimede, who married Aison to become the mother of Jason.217 As was recounted earlier in the chapter, Phylakos imprisoned the seer Melampous for trying to steal his cattle, but later released him to enable him to find a cure for the impotence that he had unwittingly induced in his son Iphiklos (see further on p. 427). Iphiklos was duly cured and married a certain Astyoche who bore him two sons of note, PROTESILAOS, who was the first of the Greeks to leap ashore at Troy and the first to be killed (see further on p. 450), and PODARKES, who commanded the men of Phylake and neighbouring cities in the Trojan War after the death of his brother.218 In late epic, Podarkes was said to have fallen to the Amazon Penthesileia in the last stages of the war;219 he was named Podarkes or ‘Swift-foot’ in commemoration of his father’s most remarkable capacity, his prodigious swiftness of foot. For it was said that Iphiklos could outpace the wind, and that he could run so swiftly over standing corn that the ears had no time to bend or break, or so swiftly over the sea that he never sank beneath the surface.220 This is mentioned in a fragment from the Hesiodic Catalogue, and was certainly a very ancient feature of the tradition since Homer refers to Iphiklos as a particularly fast runner and knows that his son was called ‘Swift-foot’.221 Some claimed that he won the foot-race at the funeral games for Pelias.222
