A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἀρχίας), of Corinth, the founder of Syracuse, B. C. 734. He was a Heracleid, either of the Bacchiad or the Temenid line, and of high account at Corinth. In consequence of the death of Actaeon [ACTAEON, No. 2] he resolved to leave his country. He consulted the Delphic Oracle, which directed him, says Pausanias, who gives the three hexameters, " to an Ortygia in Trinacria, where Arethusa and Alpheius reappeared." According to an account given in Strabo, Steph. Byz., and at greater length, with the four verses of the Oracle, by the Scholiast to Aristophanes, he and Myscellus, the founder of Croton, were inquiring together, and when the Pythoness asked which they would choose, health or wealth, Myscellus chose health, and Archias wealth; a decision with which, it was thought, the afterfortunes of their colonies were connected. Archias sailed in company, we are also told by Strabo, with Chersicrates, his countryman, and left him at Corcyra : as also Myscellus at Croton, in the foundling of which he assisted. Thence he proceeded to his destination. (Thuc. 6.3; Plut. Amat. Narr. p. 772; Diod. Exc. ii. p. 288; Paus. 5.7.2; Strabo, vi. pp. 262, 269; Steph. Byz. s. v. Syraens.; Schol. ad Arist. Eq. 1089. See also Clinton, F. H. B. C. 734, and vol. ii. pp. 264, 265; Muller's Dor. 1.6.7.)

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