ABSTRACT
Son of Andraemon or his son Haemon; king of Elis. When Oxylus had been banished from his native Aetolia to Elis on account of his accidental killing of his brother Thermius, he met on his homeward journey the Heraclids (descendants of Heracles) who, in obedience to the Delphic Oracle’s command to wait for three generations, were preparing to invade the Peloponnese. Oxylus was driving a one-eyed mule at the time, and the Heraclids, who had received an oracle bidding them make the ‘three-eyed one’ their leader, asked him to guide them. He took them southwards through Arcadia rather than through fertile Elis, which he wished to save for himself. The Heraclids under Temenus defeated Orestes’ son Tisamenus; Oxylus returned to Aetolia and led an army of his compatriots to invade Elis. The king, Dius, resisted, and the matter was settled by a single combat between two champions, an Elean archer, Degmenus, and an Aetolian slinger, Pyraechmes. The Aetolian won, and Oxylus ruled Elis in peace. He shared his rule with Agorius, because Pelops, an early king of Elis, was Agorius’ ancestor.
