Last king of troezen?

[krugos]

In a source naming the kings of Troezen, it says that after Pittheus' rule, the city was added to Argos. That would place the end of it as an independent city near my story (historically it was indeed under Argos rule at some point before becoming again independent), so it would be great to use.
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I can't seem to find information about this event, though. Is there any story related to this? Was any king of Argos related to Pittheus? I think his grandson Theseus helped Argos recover their dead after the 7 against Thebes, what link had Theseus with Argos? Or was it just that Argos invaded Troezen? Or any other reason why Pittheus had no successor?

Hope the questions are not crazy, lol, any help, even speculation, is appreciated.

 

[Alejandro]

Pittheus was a son of Pelops and Hippodameia, meaning that he had three sisters, all of whom were the married to sons of Perseus who became kings in the Argolid. These sisters were Lysidike, who was married to Mestor; Astydameia, who married Alkaios (and became a great-grandmother of Herakles); and Nikippe, who married Sthenelos (and became the mother of Herakles' enemy Eurystheus). Sthenelos' and Nikippe's son Eurystheus eventually became the most politically powerful king of Argolis in his time, but after him, his uncle Atreus, a brother of Pittheus, became king of the region and was succeeded in this position by his own son Agamemnon. Tlepolemos and Eratos, sons of Herakles (and thus great-great-great-nephews of Pittheus), each once ruled over the city of Argos.

With regard to Troizene [Troezen] itself I've read two different versions of the succession from Pittheus. In one, upon Pittheus' death, Theseus becomes king of that city in addition to his paternal heritage of Attika but in a more common one Pittheus survives both Theseus and Theseus' son Hippolytos, the latter of whom bore the misfortune of having his stepmother Phaidra lust after him. When Hippolytos refused to cuckold his own father with her, Phaidra lied to Theseus that Hippolytos had tried to rape her, and Theseus cursed his son to die by the hand of Poseidon. But Hippolytos had been a devotee of Artemis, who bribed Asklepios with a huge fee so that he could resurrect Hippolytos, which he did. After this Hippolytos went to Troizene, into which his great-grandfather Pittheus welcomed him and made him his successor to the city's throne. Hippolytos was later buried in the city and his grave supposedly protected Troizene from its enemies. I'm not sure if Hippolytos' son Deïphobos is supposed to have succeeded him upon his death or not. (Also, Akamas and Demophoön, Theseus' sons by Phaidra, received the children of Herakles [among whom would have been Argos' future kings Tlepolemos and Eratos] into Attika as political refugees when Eurystheus had banished them from the Argolid.)

 

[krugos]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of the story about Hippolytus being resurrected. My interest in Troezen is precisely as the scenary of Hippolitus death and the whole thing with Phaedra, I don't think I'll have other use for the city (except for flashbacks to Theseus early years which are before my story begins). So I wanted to know if by the time of Hippolytus death the city was part of Argos and perhaps tell the story of how Pittheus kingdom ended. But I can go with the version you mentioned about Pittheus surviving Theseus and the city remaining independent during my whole timeline, inherited by a resurrected Hippolytus.

I was checking my notes and couldn't find the Heracles' sons you named as kings of Argos, I have anotated a Heraclid dinasty started by Temenus but that happens long after Troy's war and I'm not going that far in my story. Will look them out and see how to incorporate them in my story, I have yet to investigate and work out the Heraclids wars so my knowledge about this is very basic.

Can't use Eurystheus as ruler of the Argolis as a link to Argos since the region is not unified in my timeline (I guess that's one of those unavoidable contradictions in mythology, as some name him as ruler of Argos), in my story he would be limited to Mycenae which merged with Argos much later during Orestes rule. Even Argos itself is divided in three, with a king for each region, during most of my story, which should be over by the time of Sthenelos' rule (perhaps the confusion comes from mixing this Sthenelos, son of Capaneus, with the father of Eurystheus who had the same name). The city would be one single kingdom again during the rule of Sthenelos' son, and after him Orestes merged Argos with Mycenae and Sparta.

The family links to Pittheus are very useful, it's so hard to keep track of who's related to whom, so thanks again for the information!

 

[Alejandro]

Here's some additional information about Hippolytos in Troizene which you may perhaps be able to use to flesh out your narrative world: Hippolytos, upon becoming the city's king, built a temple to Artemis Lykeia, "Wolfish Artemis." It is possible that this Artemis, like Artemis Taüropolos, was worshipped by the Amazons. (Hippolytos' mother Antiope was originally a princess of the Amazons.) After his [first or second] death, Hippolytos was worshipped at his native city of Athens in association with Aphrodite; and the women of Troizene, previous to their marriage, dedicated a lock of hair to him. At Troizene there was a racecourse called Hippolytos' Racecourse, above which was a temple of Aphrodite Kataskopia, the "Peeping Aphrodite" or "Aphrodite the Spy," built on the spot where Phaidra used to gaze at her stepson through a myrtle by having pierced holes through its leaves whenever he was at his exercises, and down into Roman times this myrtle still existed in this condition. When Phaidra, in despair, could find no relief of her passion for him she would vent her anger upon this myrtle. Both Hippolytos and Phaidra were eventually buried near this tree. Phaidra had also dedicated a temple to Aphrodite Hippolyteia (which I imagine must've seemed just a little bit strange to her husband). In front the house in which Hippolytos had lived in Troizene there was what was called the Fountain of Herakles, whose water Herakles had discovered.

Apollodoros is the one who says that Tlepolemos was king of Argos before he was banished from the city for killing his great-uncle Likymnios. He then took his Argive wife Polyxo with him and fled to Rhodes, whose king he became and whose army he led against Troy. Apollodoros and Pausanias are the sources for Eratos, whose mother was a certain Dynaste. This might be a confusion of a different son of Herakles, named Dynastes, and whose mother Erato was one of the fifty daughters of Thespios. Eratos, son of Herakles and Dynaste, however, is said, while he was king of Argos, to have made an expedition against the town of Asine in Messenia, which he besieged and conquered. Chronologically, Tlepolemos and Eratos would have to have been kings of Argos around the same time, under the reign of the overlord Agamemnon. Perhaps Eratos replaced Tlepolemos upon the latter's banishment. It is also said that the Sthenelos who reigned in Argos around the time of the Trojan War, also under Agamemnon, and who became the father of King Kylarabes, was actually not the son of Kapaneus, but the son of Iphis, son of Alektor, son of Anaxagoras, son of Megapenthes, son of Proitos, the brother of Akrisios (grandfather of Perseus), so there's some additional confusion for you ! If you need any more family link info, or help disentangling all the links, I'm happy to be of assistance.

 

[krugos]

The additional confusion is welcome, haha. Thanks a lot for the info, it is indeed very useful to me.