ord "tyrant" meant in Greece,--a despot
who set aside the law and ruled at his own pleasure, but who might be
mild and gentle in his rule. Such were the tyrants of Sicyon, spoken of
in our last tale. The tyrants of Corinth, the state adjoining Sicyon,
were of a harsher character. Herodotus, the gossiping old historian
tells some stories about these severe despots which seem worth telling
again.

The government of Corinth, like most of the governments of Greece, was
in early days an oligarchy,--that is, it was ruled by a number of
powerful aristocrats instead of by a single king. In Corinth these
belonged to a single family, named the Bacchiadae (or legendary
descendants of the god Bacchus), who constantly intermarried, and kept
all power to themselves.

But one of this family, Amphion by name, had a daughter, named Labda,
whom none of the Bacchiadae would marry, as she had the misfortune to be
lame. So she married outside the family, her husband being named Aetion,
and a man of noble descent. Having no children, Aetion applied to the
Delphian oracle, and was told that a son would soon be borne to him,
and that this son "would, like a rock, fall on the kingly race and right
the city of Corinth."

The Bacchiadae heard of this oracle, and likewise knew of an earlier one
that had the same significance. Forewarned is forearmed. They remained
quiet, waiting until Aetion's child should be born, and proposing then
to take steps for their own safety.

When, therefore, they heard that Labda had borne a son, they sent ten of
their followers to Petra (the _rock_), where Aetion dwelt, with
instructions to kill the child. These assassins entered Aetion's house,
and, with murder in their hearts, asked Labda, with assumed
friendliness, if they might see her child. She, looking upon them as
friends of her husband, whom kindly feeling had brought thither, gladly
complied, and, bringing the infant, laid it in the arms of one of the
ruffianly band.

It had been agreed between them that whoever first laid hold of the
child should dash it to the ground. But as the innocent intended victim
lay in the murderer's arms, it smiled in his face so confidingly that he
had not the heart to do the treacherous deed. He passed the child,
therefore, on to another, who passed it to a third, and so it went the
rounds of the ten, disarming them all by its happy and trusting smile
from performing the vile deed for which they had come. In the end they