Erato   

son of Polycritus, being the foremost in violence. This person told
him "he should not carry off a single Eginetan without it costing
him dear- the Athenians had bribed him to make this attack, for
which he had no warrant from his own government- otherwise both the
kings would have come together to make the seizure." This he said in
consequence of instructions which he had received from Demaratus.
Hereupon Cleomenes, finding that he must quit Egina, asked Crius his
name; and when Crius told him, "Get thy horns tipped with brass with
all speed, O Crius!" he said, "for thou wilt have to struggle with a
great danger."
Meanwhile Demaratus, son of Ariston, was bringing charges
against Cleomenes at Sparta. He too, like Cleomenes, was king of the
Spartans, but he belonged to the lower house- not indeed that his
house was of any lower origin than the other, for both houses are of
one blood- but the house of Eurysthenes is the more honoured of the
two, inasmuch as it is the elder branch.
The Lacedaemonians declare, contradicting therein all the poets,
that it was king Aristodemus himself, son of Aristomachus, grandson of
Cleodaeus, and great-grandson of Hyllus, who conducted them to the
land which they now possess, and not the sons of Aristodemus. The wife
of Aristodemus, whose name (they say) was Argeia, and who was daughter
of Autesion, son of Tisamenus, grandson of Thersander, and
great-grandson of Polynices, within a little while after their
coming into the country, gave birth to twins. Aristodemus just lived
to see his children, but died soon afterwards of a disease. The
Lacedaemonians of that day determined, according to custom, to take
for their king the elder of the two children; but they were so
alike, and so exactly of one size, that they could not possibly tell
which of the two to choose: so when they found themselves unable to
make a choice, or haply even earlier, they went to the mother and
asked her to tell them which was the elder, whereupon she declared
that "she herself did not know the children apart"; although in good
truth she knew them very well, and only feigned ignorance in order
that, if it were possible, both of them might be made kings of Sparta.
The Lacedaemonians were now in a great strait; so they sent to
Delphi and inquired of the oracle how they should deal with the
matter. The Pythoness made answer, "Let both be taken to be kings; but
let the elder have the greater honour." So the Lacedaemonians were
in as great a strait as before, and could not conceive how they were
to discover which was the first-born, till at length a certain
Messenian, by name Panites, suggested to them to watch and see which
of the two the mother washed and fed first; if they found she always
gave one the preference, that fact would tell them all they wanted
to know; if, on the contrary, she herself varied, and sometimes took
the one first, sometimes the other, it would be plain that she knew as
little as they; in which case they must try some other plan. The
Lacedaemonians did according to the advice of the Messenian, and,
without letting her know why, kept a watch upon the mother; by which
means they discovered that, whenever she either washed or fed her
children, she always gave the same child the preference. So they
took the boy whom the mother honoured the most, and regarding him as
the first-born, brought him up in the palace; and the name which
they gave to the elder boy was Eurysthenes, while his brother they
called Procles. When the brothers grew up, there was always, so long
as they lived, enmity between them; and the houses sprung from their
loins have continued the feud to this day.
Thus much is related by the Lacedaemonians, but not by any of
the other Greeks; in what follows I give the tradition of the Greeks
generally. The kings of the Dorians (they say)- counting up to
Perseus, son of Danae, and so omitting the god- are rightly given in
the common Greek lists, and rightly considered to have been Greeks
themselves; for even at this early time they ranked among that people.
I say "up to Perseus," and not further, because Perseus has no
mortal father by whose name he is called, as Hercules has in