the horses being described as whiter than snow and as whiter than the feathers of the river swan in the myth attested of Rhesus's connection with the "Apollonian" . Rhesus's status as a famous hunter also denoted his belonging to the royalty, since the hunt was a royal privilege among the peoples of southeast Europe and western Asia, and according to myth he had expelled pestilence from the Rhodope Mountains. Rhesus's attributes and traits such as his magical weapons and him being loved by women defined him as a typical warrior-hero, hence why he was the first king of his dynasty; Rhesus's herds of horses denoted him as a hunter (the hunt was a test of valour for kings), but were also a symbol of wealth, implying he was very rich and therefore had economic power, similar to the Zoroastrian Yima, who is described in the Avesta as having many fields and great herds of bulls to represent how rich he was; his weapons were an important mark of social rank in the unstable times when he lived. Rhesus's hunting moreover represented the act of sacrifice; his possession of many herds of white horses, which were symbols of royalty, was a defining attribute of rulers in their role of animal agriculturists. Rhesus fell in love with Arganthone, who, unlike the rest of the women, was not a housewife, but a huntress, and despised men and did not want to interact with them before meeting Rhesus, thus being a variant of the huntress . The love between Rhesus and Arganthone therefore represented the union between the Hero , with whom the king was identified, and the goddess . Rhesus went to help Priam during the Trojan War and was killed, either by Diomedes or by the goddess Athena. Rhesus's body was itself buried in the "silver-veiled mountain", and after his funeral, wild animals would willingly offer themselves as a sacrifice at his heroum. After Rhesus's death, Arganthone mourned him, and his mother declared that he would not go into the dark earth, but that Persephone would give her back his soul and he would "live as the diviner of Dionysus", meaning he would continue to be a priest isolated in the "silver-rich mountains" similarly to Orpheus on Mount Pangaeum or Mount Piereia, or in the cave in Mount Kogaion. The second son of Strymon, Olynthus, died during a lion hunting trial