Editing Lydia (section)

==== In Greek mythology ====
For the Greeks, [[Tantalus]] was a primordial ruler of mythic Lydia, and [[Niobe]] his proud daughter; her husband [[Amphion and Zethus|Amphion]] associated Lydia with [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] in Greece, and through [[Pelops]] the line of Tantalus was part of the [[founding myth]]s of [[Mycenae]]'s second dynasty. (In reference to the myth of [[Bellerophon]], Karl Kerenyi remarked, in ''The Heroes of The Greeks'' 1959, p.&nbsp;83. "As [[Lycia|Lykia]] was thus connected with [[Crete]], and as the person of [[Pelops]], the hero of Olympia, connected Lydia with the Peloponnesos, so Bellerophontes connected another Asian country, or rather two, Lykia and [[Caria|Karia]], with the kingdom of [[Argolid|Argos]]".)

[[File:Πακτωλός.jpg|thumb|The [[Pactolus]] river, from which Lydia obtained [[electrum]], a combination of silver and gold.]]
In Greek myth, Lydia had also adopted the double-axe symbol, that also appears in the Mycenaean civilization, the ''[[labrys]]''.<ref>Sources noted in Karl Kerenyi, ''The Heroes of the Greeks'' 1959, p. 192.</ref> [[Omphale]], daughter of [[Iardanus (father of Omphale)|Iardanos]], was a princess of Lydia, whom [[Heracles]] was required to serve for a time. His adventures in Lydia are the adventures of a Greek hero in a peripheral and foreign land: during his stay, Heracles enslaved the Itones; killed Syleus, who forced passers-by to hoe his vineyard; slew the [[Serpent (mythology)|serpent]] of the river Sangarios (which appears in the heavens as the constellation [[Ophiucus]])<ref>Hyginus, ''Astronomica'' ii.14.</ref> and captured the simian tricksters, the [[Cercopes]]. Accounts tell of at least one son of Heracles who was born to either Omphale or a slave-girl: Herodotus (''Histories'' i. 7) says this was [[Alcaeus (mythology)|Alcaeus]] who began the line of Lydian [[Heracleidae]] which ended with the death of [[Candaules]] c. 687 BC. [[Diodorus Siculus]] (4.31.8) and [[Ovid]] (''Heroides'' 9.54) mentions a son called Lamos, while pseudo-Apollodorus (''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]'' 2.7.8) gives the name Agelaus and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (2.21.3) names Tyrsenus as the son of Heracles by "the Lydian woman". All three heroic ancestors indicate a Lydian dynasty claiming Heracles as their ancestor. Herodotus (1.7) refers to a Heraclid dynasty of kings who ruled Lydia, yet were perhaps not descended from Omphale. He also mentions (1.94) the legend that the [[Etruscan civilization]] was founded by colonists from Lydia led by [[Tyrrhenus]], brother of Lydus. [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] was skeptical of this story, indicating that the [[Etruscan language]] and customs were known to be totally dissimilar to those of the Lydians. In addition, the story of the "Lydian" origins of the Etruscans was not known to [[Xanthus of Lydia]], an authority on the history of the Lydians.<ref>[[Robert Drews]], ''Herodotus 1.94, the Drought Ca. 1200 B.C., and the Origin of the Etruscans'', in ''Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte'', vol. 41, no. 1, 1992, pp. 14–39.</ref>

Later chronologists ignored Herodotus' statement that [[Agron of Lydia|Agron]] was the first Heraclid to be a king, and included his immediate forefathers Alcaeus, Belus, and Ninus in their list of kings of Lydia. Strabo (5.2.2) has Atys, father of Lydus and Tyrrhenus, as a descendant of Heracles and Omphale but that contradicts virtually all other accounts which name Atys, Lydus, and Tyrrhenus among the pre-Heraclid kings and princes of Lydia. The gold deposits in the river [[Pactolus]] that were the source of the proverbial wealth of [[Croesus]] (Lydia's last king) were said to have been left there when the legendary king [[Midas]] of [[Phrygia]] washed away the "Midas touch" in its waters.
In [[Euripides]]' tragedy ''[[The Bacchae]]'', [[Dionysus]], while maintaining his human disguise, declares his country to be Lydia.<ref>Euripides. ''The Complete Greek Tragedies Vol IV.'', Ed by Grene and Lattimore, line 463</ref>