Cragaleus was an old wise man pasturing his cattle when, all of a sudden, Apollo, Artemis and Hercules appeared before him. They nominated him as a judge in their contest to become the patron deity of Ambracia. Apollo claimed that the city belonged to him, because his son was king of Epirus, and his grandson was the man after whom Ambracia was named. He had created order and justice, and had assisted the Ambracians to depose their tyrant. Artemis argued that she had saved the people from another tyrant, when she sent a lion cub to him, when he was hunting. The tyrant took it up into his hands, and the mother fell on him and killed him. Hercules reminded them that he had defeated all the peoples of Epirus, and that all Corinthians descended from him. Cragaleus recognized that the city belonged to Hercules, but Apollo was furious and turned the poor man into a stone.