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Aetolus and Pronoe, daughter of Phorbus, had sons, Pleuron and Calydon, after whom the cities in Aetolia were named. Pleuron wedded Xanthippe, daughter of Dorus, and begat a son Agenor, and daughters, Sterope and Stratonice and Laophonte. Calydon and Aeolia, daughter of Amythaon, had daughters, Epicaste and Protogenia, who had Oxylus by Ares. And Agenor, son of Pleuron, married Epicaste, daughter of Calydon, and begat Porthaon and

Evenus begat Marpessa, who was wooed by Apollo, but Idas, son of Aphareus, carried her off in a winged chariot which he received from Poseidon.[*](As to Evenus and Marpessa, see Scholiast on Hom. Il. ix.557; Eustathius on Hom. Il. ix.557 p. 776; Plut. Lives. 40; Hyginus, Fab. 242 (who calls Evenus a son of Herakles). According to the first two of these writers, Evenus, like Oenomaus, used to set his daughter's suitors to run a chariot race with him, promising to bestow her on the winner; but he cut off the heads of his vanquished competitors and nailed them to the walls of his house. This seems to be the version of the story which Apollodorus had before him, though he has abridged it.) Pursuing him in a chariot, Evenus came to the river Lycormas, but when he could not catch him he slaughtered his horses and threw himself into the river, and the river is called Evenus after him.

But Idas came to Messene, and Apollo, falling in with him, would have robbed him of the damsel. As they fought for the girl's hand, Zeus parted them and allowed the maiden herself to choose which of the two she would marry; and she, because she feared that Apollo might desert her in her old age, chose Idas for her husband.[*](Compare Scholiast on Hom. Il. ix.557 (who cites Simonides); Eustathius on Hom. Il. ix.557 p. 776; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 561; Paus. 5.18.2.)