into which the umpire of their dispute, who had
decided in favour of Hercules, was changed. Ambracia was on the
coast of Epirus, and gave its name to an adjacent inlet of the sea,
called the Ambracian Gulf. Antoninus Liberalis tells us, on the
authority of Nicander, that Apollo, Diana, and Hercules disputed
about this city, and left the decision to Cragaleus, who gave it in
favour of Hercules; on which, Apollo transformed him into a rock.
Very possibly the meaning of this may be, that when the people of
Ambracia were considering to which of these Deities they should
dedicate their city, Cragaleus preferred Hercules to the other two,
or, in other words, the feats of war to the cultivation of the arts
and sciences. Apollo was said to have turned him into a stone,
either because he met with his death near the promontory where a
temple of Apollo stood, or to show the stupidity of his decision.
Antoninus Liberalis is the only writer besides Ovid that makes
mention of the adventure of the sons of the Molossian king; he tells
us that Munychus, king of the Molossi, had three sons, Alcander,
Megaletor, and Philaeus, and a daughter named Hyperippe. Some robbers
setting fire to their father's house, they were transformed by
Jupiter into birds. This, in all probability, is a poetical way of
saying that the youths escaped from the flames, contrary to
universal expectation.

The opinions of writers have been very conflicting as to the origin
of the oracle of Dodona. Silius Italicus says that two pigeons flew
from Thebes in Egypt, one of which went to Libya, and occasioned the
founding of the oracle of Jupiter Ammon; while the other settled
upon an oak in Chaonia, and signified thereby to the inhabitants,
that it was the will of heaven that there should be an oracle in
that place. Herodotus says that two priestesses of Egyptian Thebes
being carried off by some Phoenician merchants, one of them was sold
to the Greeks, after which she settled in the forest of Dodona,
where a little chapel was founded by her in honour of Jupiter, in
which she gave responses. He adds, that they called her 'the dove,'
because being a foreigner they did not understand her language. At
length, having learned the language of the Pelasgians, it was said
that the dove had spoken. On that foundation grew the tradition that
the oaks themselves uttered oracular responses.

Notwithstanding