A hint of matrilineal descent in archaic times among the
Boeotian Minyans of Greece is in Apollonius' aside concerning Jason's heritage:
"So many then were the helpers who assembled to join the son of Aeson. All the chiefs the dwellers thereabout called Minyae, for the most and the bravest avowed that they were sprung from the blood of the daughters of Minyas; thus Jason himself was the son of Alcimede, who was born of Clymene, the daughter of Minyas."[4]
A further hint of archaic matrilineal descent is that Clymene's consort is offered in two versions: she was usually cast as the wife of
Phylacus (son of
Deioneus, son of
Aeolus) or in some versions, Aeson was fathered by
Cephalus, otherwise the consort of Procris.[5]
Along with Aeson, Alcimede was forced by the usurping
Pelias to commit suicide. She hanged herself or else drank, along with her husband and the child
Promachus, of bull's blood and so died.
Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volume 286. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928.
Online version at theio.com.
Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library