In
Greek mythology, the
Heracleidae (; ) or
Heraclids were the numerous descendants of
Heracles (
Hercules), especially applied in a narrower sense to the descendants of
Hyllus, the eldest of his four sons by
Deianira (Hyllus was also sometimes thought of as Heracles' son by
Melite.) Other Heracleidae included
Macaria, Lamos,
Manto, Bianor,
Tlepolemus, and
Telephus. These Heraclids were a group of
Dorian kings who conquered the
Peloponnesian kingdoms of
Mycenae,
Sparta and
Argos; according to the literary tradition in
Greek mythology, they claimed a right to rule through their ancestor. Since
Karl Otfried Müller's
Die Dorier (1830, English translation 1839), I. ch. 3, their rise to dominance has been associated with a "
Dorian invasion". Though details of genealogy differ from one ancient author to another, the cultural significance of the mythic theme, that the descendants of Heracles, exiled after his death,
returned after some generations in order to reclaim land that their ancestors had held in
Mycenaean Greece, was to assert the primal legitimacy of a traditional ruling clan that traced its origin, thus its legitimacy, to Heracles.
