”5the mastery over Pleuronia, however, was held by Thestius (the father-in-law of Oeneus and father of Althaea), who was leader of the Curetes; but when war broke out between the sons of Thestius, on the one hand, and Oeneus and Meleager, on the other (“about the hog's head and skin,
”6as the poet says, following the mythical story of the boar,7 but in all probability about the possession of a part of the territory), according to the words of the poet,“the Curetes were fighting, as also the Aetolians steadfast in battle.
”8So much for the accounts which are more closely related.
1 Archemachus (fl. not later than the third century B.C.) wrote works (now lost) on the History of Euboea and Metonymies (Change of Names).
2 "Cura." From this passage one might identify the "Curetes" with the "Abantes" (see 10. 1. 3), whom Homer speaks of as "letting their hair grow long behind" (Hom. Il. 2.542). According to a scholium (on Iliad l. c.), the Euboeans wore their hair long behind "for the sake of manly strength." The Greeks in general, however, let their hair grow long all over the head in Trojan times, being often referred to by Homer as the "long-haired Achaeans."
3 The Greek adjective used is ἀκούρους ("acurus").
4 10. 2. 3, 22.
7 Known in mythology as "the Calydonian boar."
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