MARPESSA

a daughter of Evenus and Alcippe. (Apollodorus i)

She was the wife of Idas and became by him the mother of Cleopatra, or Alcyone, wife of Meleager. Their daughter was called Alcyone because Marpessa was once carried off by Apollo, and lamented over the separation from her beloved husband, as Alcyon had once wept about Ceyx.

Idas carried off Marpessa, the daughter of Evenus, for whose hand Apollo also was suing, and was assisted by Poseidon, who gave him a winged chariot. Evenus, who pursued him, could not overtake him, but Apollo found him in Messene, and took the maiden from him.

The two lovers fought for her possession, but Zeus separated them, and left the decision with Marpessa, who chose Idas, from feat lest Apollo should desert her if she grew old. (Apollodorus i) The two brothers, Idas and Lynceus, also took part in the Calydonian hunt and in the expedition of the Argonauts.

In the latter expedition Idas killed the boar which had destroyed Idmon in the kingdom of Lycus, but when he attempted to deprive Teuthras, king of Mysia, of his kingdom, he was conquered by Telephus and Parthenopaeus.

The most celebrated part of the story of the Apharetidae is their fight with the Dioscuri, with whom they had grown up from their childhood.

"So long as Meleager was in the field things went badly with the Curetes, and for all their numbers they could not hold their ground under the city walls; but in the course of time Meleager was angered as even a wise man will sometimes be. He was incensed with his mother Althaea, and therefore stayed at home with his wedded wife fair Cleopatra, who was daughter of Marpessa daughter of Euenus, and of Ides the man then living. He it was who took his bow and faced King Apollo himself for fair Marpessa's sake; her father and mother then named her Alcyone, because her mother had mourned with the plaintive strains of the halcyon-bird when Phoebus Apollo had carried her off. Meleager, then, stayed at home with Cleopatra, nursing the anger which he felt by reason of his mother's curses. His mother, grieving for the death of her brother, prayed the gods, and beat the earth with her hands, calling upon Hades and on awful Proserpine; she went down upon her knees and her bosom was wet with tears as she prayed that they would kill her son--and Erinys that walks in darkness and knows no ruth heard her from Erebus.

From The Iliad IX