Histories

Herodotus

Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).

Now the sovereign power that belonged to the descendants of Heracles[*](Descendants of Heracles seems to mean descended from the Asiatic sun god identified with Heracles by the Greeks.) fell to the family of Croesus, called the Mermnadae, in the following way.

Candaules, whom the Greeks call Myrsilus, was the ruler of Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis; he was descended from Alcaeus, son of Heracles; Agron son of Ninus, son of Belus, son of Alcaeus, was the first Heraclid king of Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis and Candaules son of Myrsus was the last.

The kings of this country before Agron were descendants of Lydus, son of Atys, from whom this whole Lydian district got its name; before that it was called the land of the Meii.