Adrastus, a man of Phrygia, while out hunting with Atys, as he was called, the son of the Lydian king, Croesus, unwittingly struck and killed the boy while hurling his spear at a boar. And although he had slain the boy unwittingly, he declared that he did not deserve to live; consequently he urged the king not to spare his life, but to slay him at once upon the tomb of the dead youth. [2] Croesus at first was enraged at Adrastus for the murder, as he considered it, of his son, and threatened to burn him alive; but when he saw that Adrastus was ready and willing to give his life in punishment for the dead boy, he thereupon abandoned his anger and gave up his thought of punishing the slayer, laying the blame upon his own fortune and not upon the intent of Adrastus. Nevertheless Adrastus, on his own initiative, went to the tomb of Atys and slew himself upon it.Const. Exc. 2 (1), pp. 219-220.
