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In Euripides' play, Archelaus, an exile from Argos, destroys Cisseus, the treacherous king of Macedon, in his own snare, and fleeing thence founds a city, named, from the goat which led him, Aegae (Hygin. 219). He appeared on the stage as a goatherd (Dio Chrys. p. 70-1). In the other version Caranus, after helping Cisseus, the king of Orestis, to conquer the Eordi, guided by a goatherd surprised the stronghold which he renamed Aegae. Both stories emphasize the part played by a goat, and it is significant that the goat remained the standard of Macedon and the device on its coins.

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