Αλητης
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Through his father Hippotes Aletes was descended from Heracles who was his great-grandfather. On his mother's side he was descended from Iolaus, Heracles' nephew (Table 31). His name, which means wanderer, had been given him by his father because he was born at the time of the migration of Heracles' descendants, when Hippotes had been banished for murder and was travelling from town to town (see Heraclidae). When Aletes reached manhood he decided to seize Corinth and expel the Ionians and the descendants of Sisyphus, who were reigning there. Before putting his plan into action he went to consult the oracle at Dodona, who promised that he would succeed if he fulfilled two conditions: first, that someone should give him a lump of Corinthian earth, and second that he should attack the town 'on a day when crowns were being worn'. The first condition was fulfilled when Aletes, having asked an inhabitant of Corinth for a piece of bread, was given, as a gesture of scorn, only a clod of earth. To satisfy the second condition he marched against the town on a day when the inhabitants were celebrating a festival in honour of the dead and were all wearing crowns, as was customary on such an occasion. Aletes had persuaded the daughter of Creon, the king, to open the gates of the town to him on that very day by promising to marry her. The girl had agreed to the bargain and duly surrendered the town to him.
Subsequently, Aletes undertook an expedition against Athens. The oracle had in fact promised that he would be victorious if he spared the life of the king. But the Athenians, who knew what the oracle had said, persuaded their king, Codrus, who was sixty-six years old, to sacrifice himself for his people and so Aletes failed in his undertaking.
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Another Aletes, son of Aegisthus, figured in the legend of Orestes and Electra.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Conon, Narr. 26
- schol. on Pind. Nem. 7, 155
- Paus. 2, 4, 4; 5, 18, 8
- Plutarch, Quaest. Conv. 5, 3, 677b
- See also Codrus.