Salmoneus

Salmoneus drove his chariot through the streets of Salmonia, dragging brazen cauldrons bound with hide behind it. Their noise imitated Zeus’s thunder. He hurled oaken torches into the air and expected his subjects to mistake them for lightning. Some torches fell among them and scorched them. Salmoneus transferred sacrifices intended for Zeus to his own altars and declared that he was Zeus. His subjects hated him.

Salmonia stood near the source of the river Enipeus, a tributary of the Alpheius, in the eastern confines of Elis. Salmoneus first reigned in Thessaly, then led an Aeolian colony to Elis and built the city there. Alcidice, his wife, died many years before him while giving birth to their daughter Tyro. Zeus finally answered Salmoneus with a real thunderbolt. It destroyed Salmoneus and his chariot, and burned down the whole city of Salmonia.

The family line ran back to Deucalion and Pyrrha. They had Hellen, Amphictyon, and Protogeneia. In one telling, Hellen was the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. In another, Zeus was his father. Hellen had three sons by the nymph Orseis: Doros, Xouthos, and Aiolos. He divided the land among them. Xouthos received the Peloponnese, and his sons Achaios and Ion gave their names to the Achaeans and Ionians. Doros received the land opposite the Peloponnese and named its people Dorians.

Aiolos became king of the lands around Thessaly and gave the name Aeolians to their people. He married Enarete, daughter of Deimachos. With her, he fathered Cretheus, Sisyphos, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, and Perieres, and five daughters. In one telling, Salmoneus was the son of Aiolos and Enarete. In another, he was their grandson.

Salmoneus left Thessaly and led an Aeolian colony to the eastern confines of Elis. There he built Salmonia near the source of the river Enipeus, which flowed into the Alpheius. He became king of the new city. Salmoneus was a son or grandson of Aeolus, and his family also included Sisyphus, who founded Ephyra, later called Corinth.

Salmoneus grew arrogant and wanted to place himself on the level of Zeus. He claimed that he himself was the god. He took Zeus’s sacrifices from the god’s altars and ordered that they were offered to him instead. His subjects hated him, but they obeyed him as he pursued his claim to divine power.

Salmoneus drove through the streets of Salmonia in his chariot. He tied dried animal skins and bronze kettles behind it, then dragged them along the ground to imitate Zeus’s thunder. He also hurled flaming oak torches into the air and called them lightning. Some torches fell among his subjects and scorched them. He expected them to mistake the flames for bolts sent by Zeus.

Zeus punished Salmoneus with a real thunderbolt. The bolt destroyed Salmoneus, his chariot, and the whole city of Salmonia.