LEGENDARY YEARS Even from the legendary years the role of the Prefecture of Serres was active. Syleas was famous in the region of Serres, a king who lived in Paggeo area. It is said that Syleas was forcing the passers-by to work in his vineyard. He wanted to do the same with the hero Hercules. However, Hercules killed Syleas and his daughter Xenodiki after destroying Syleas’ vineyards. Also, according to mythology, Hercules went past the Prefecture of Serres while he was returning from Thrace. It is said that, at the time, the inhabitants complained to the hero about the great damages, which were caused by the frequent floods in Strymon River. The field of Nysio was placed in the Prefecture of Serres, where Pluto hooked Persephone, Dimitra’s daughter. According to Apollodoros the Athenian, Lycurgos the king of Idonus, people who lived close to Strymonas was the first one who ventured to oust Dionysus from his country. After that, Dionysous went to Nereid Thetis, while Idonus captured the Bacchus and the Satyrs of this escort. But they were soon emancipated due to God Dionysus’ intervention, which made Lycurgos take leave of his senses. Then the king, through his insanity, killed his son Dryad, believing that he was a vine and only after that happened, Lycurgos came to his senses. After that the land stopped being productive and God gave the oracle that the soil would be fertile again, only if the Idonus people killed Lycurgos. In fact, as soon as the Idonus people found out about the oracle pinioned and took the king to Paggeo and sentenced him to a firghtful death in conformity with Dionysus’ instructions. In so many words, he was left to be mangled by wild horses. The son of Theseus, Dimophodas or Acamas, kept an intimacy with this place. According to mythology he got married to Phylis, the daughter of native king. Some time later though, he abandoned her and went to Athens. After that, the unhappy king’s daughter hanged herself in Nine Ways (Amfipolis), in despair. Aries, from whom the Golden Fleece came from, was the fruit of Poseidon and Theophanus’ love, the daughter of Visaltis, first ancestor of the Visalts who lived in the area of Nigrita. Visaltis in order to release his daughter from the crowd of suitors, who were mobbing her, took her to an island. However, her suitors, who were spellbound by her beauty were not discouraged, insisted and discovered her shelter. So one day they arrived at the island, whose inhabitants did Poseidon metamorphose into animals and they started killing them. Then, the god of sea metamorphosed his rivals into wolves and, after he was metamorphosed into a ram and the girl into a young ewe, was united with her. That is how Aries with the Golden Fleece was born, someone who played an important role in the myth of the Argonauts. |
Then, Hercules solved the problem of the river’s bed and relieved the inhabitants from the big disasters. That was the tenth labor of Hercules.