Cleobis And Biton

CLEOBIS and Biton, two young Argives, were the sons of Hera’s priestess at Argos. When the time came for her to perform the rites of the goddess, and the white oxen which were to draw her sacred chariot led not yet arrived from the pasture, Cleobis and Biton, harnessing to the chariot, dragged it to the temple, a distance of nearly five miles. Pleased with their filial devotion, the priestess prayed that the goddess would grant them the best gift she could bestow on mortals; and when she had performed her rites, they went to sleep in the temple, never to wake again.
b. A similar gift was granted to Agamedes and Trophonius, sons of Erginus. These twins had built a stone threshold upon foundations laid by Apollo himself for his temple at Delphi. His oracle told them: ‘Live and indulge yourselves in every pleasure for six days; on the seventh your heart’s desire shall be granted.’ On the seventh day both were found dead, in their beds. Hence it is said: Those whom gods love die young.
c. Trophonius, after death, was awarded own oracular shrine in Boeotian Lebadea.
1. The myth of Cleobis and Biton apparently refers to the human sacrifices offered when a new temple was dedicated to the Moon-goddess: at Argos, twin brothers were chosen as surrogates for the co-kings, and harnessed to a moon-chariot in place of the white bulls, the usual sacrifice. They will have been buried under the temple threshold to keep away hostile influences; perhaps this was why the twins Castor and Polydeuces were sometimes called Oebalides, which may mean ‘sons of the temple threshold’ rather than ‘of the speckled sheep- skin’. The priests of Apollo evidently adopted this practice at Delphi, although they denied the Moon-goddess, to whom the sacrifice should have been made, any foothold in the temple.
2. The seventh day, which was sacred to the Titan Cronus (and to Cronian Jehovah at Jerusalem) had ‘repose’ as its planetary function; but ‘repose’ signified death in the goddess’s honour-hence the hero-oracle awarded to Trophonius.

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