PELIAS, PELIADES. Pelias, a celebrated character in Greek fable, was the son of Poseidon and Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus. Because Tyro afterwards married her father’s brother Cretheus, king of Iolcus in Thessaly, to whom she bore Aeson, Pheres, and Amythaon, Pelias was by some thought to be the son of Cretheus. He and his twin-brother Neleus were exposed by their mother, but were found and nurtured by a herdsman, who called one of them Pelias, because his face was discoloured by a blow from the hoof of a mare, and the other Neleus, because a bitch had out of pity suckled him. When grown to manhood they discovered their mother, and Pelias slew Sidero, Tyro’s stepmother, on the altar of Hera, whither she had fled, because she had ill-used their mother. On the death of Cretheus Pelias made himself master of the kingdom of Iolcus. (According to others, after the death of his half-brother Aeson, he ruled as regent for Aeson’s son Jason.) He had previously quarrelled with his brother Neleus, who went to Messenia, where he founded Pylus. Pelias married Anaxibaea, daughter of Bias, or, according to others, Philomache, daughter of Amphion, and became the father of a son, Acastus, and of daughters, Pisidice, Pelopea, Hippothoe, and Alcestis; to these daughters (called Peliades after their father) others add Amphinome, Evadne, Asteropaea, and Antinoe. In order to rid himself of Jason Pelias sent him to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece, and he availed himself of the absence of the son in order to put to death his father Aeson together with his mother and brother. When Jason returned with the golden fleece he cast about how he should avenge the death of his parents. In this he was helped by Medea, who persuaded the Peliades to cut in pieces and boil their father Pelias, ...