[357] See Welcker (Griechisch. Tragöd. ii. p. 583) on the lost tragedy called Œneus.
[358] Timoklês, Comic. ap. Athenæ. vii. p. 223.—
Γέρων τις ἀτυχεῖ; κατέμαθεν τὸν Οἰνέα.
Ovid. Heroid. ix. 153.—
“Heu! devota domus! Solio sedet Agrios alto
Œnea desertum nuda senecta premit.”
The account here given is in Hyginus (f. 175): but it is in many points different both from Apollodôrus (i. 8, 6; Pausan. ii. 25) and Pherekydês (Fragm. 83, Didot). It seems to be borrowed from the lost tragedy of Euripidês. Compare Schol. ad Aristoph. Acharn. 417. Antonin. Liberal. c. 37. In the Iliad, Œneus is dead before the Trojan war (ii. 641).
The account of Ephorus again is different (ap. Strabo. x. p. 462); he joins Alkmæôn with Diomêdês: but his narrative has the air of a tissue of quasi-historical conjectures, intended to explain the circumstance that the Ætôlian Diomêdês is king of Argos during the Trojan war.
Pausanias and Apollodôrus affirm that Œneus was buried at Œnoê between Argos and Mantineia, and they connect the name of this place with him. But it seems more reasonable to consider him as the eponymous hero of Œniadæ in Ætôlia.
[359] Ephor. Fragm. 29. Didot ap. Strab. x.