<P> The name Tyrsenus appears elsewhere as a variant of Tyrrhenus, whom many accounts bring from Lydia to settle the Tyrsenoi / Tyrrhenians / Etruscans in Italy . Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1.28. 1) cites a tradition that the supposed founder of the Etruscan settlements was Tyrrhenus, the son of Heracles by Omphale the Lydian, who drove the Pelasgians out of Italy from the cities north of the Tiber river . Dionysius gives this as an alternate to other versions of Tyrrhenus' ancestry . </P> <P> Herodotus (1.7) refers to a Heraclid dynasty of kings who ruled Lydia, yet were perhaps not descended from Omphale, writing, "The Heraclids, descended from Heracles and the slave - girl of Iardanus ..." Omphale as slave - girl seems odd . However, Diodorus Siculus relates that when Heracles was still Omphale's slave, before Omphale (daughter of Iardanus) set Heracles free and married him, Heracles fathered a son, Cleodaeus, on a slave - woman . This fits, though in Herodotus the son of Heracles and the slave - girl of Iardanus is named Alcaeus . </P> <P> But according to the historian Xanthus of Lydia (fifth century B.C.) as cited by Nicolaus of Damascus, the Heraclid dynasty of Lydia traced their descent to a son of Heracles and Omphale named Tylon, and were called Tylonidai . We know from coins that this Tylon was a native Anatolian god equated with the Greek Heracles . </P> <P> Herodotus asserts that the first of the Heraclids to reign in Sardis was Agron, the son of Ninus, son of Belus, son of Alcaeus, son of Heracles . Later writers know a Ninus who is the primordial king of Assyria, and they often call this Ninus son of Belus . Their Ninus is the legendary founder and eponym of the city of Ninus, referring to Ninevah, while Belus, though sometimes treated as a human, is identified with the god Bel . </P>

Who was the amazon queen heracles served for three years while wearing women's clothing