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The History of Herodotus: Page 34
Volume Two - Book VI
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117. In this fight at Marathon there were slain of the Barbarians
about six thousand four hundred men, and of the Athenians a hundred
and ninety and two. Such was the number which fell on both sides; and
it happened also that a marvel occurred there of this kind:--an
Athenian, Epizelos the son of Cuphagoras, while fighting in the close
combat and proving himself a good man, was deprived of the sight of
his eyes, neither having received a blow in any part of his body nor
having been hit with a missile, and for the rest of his life from this
time he continued to be blind: and I was informed that he used to tell
about that which had happened to him a tale of this kind, namely that
it seemed to him that a tall man in full armour stood against him,
whose beard overshadowed his whole shield; and this apparition passed
him by, but killed his comrade who stood next to him. Thus, as I was
informed, Epizelos told the tale.
118. Datis, however, as he was going with his army to Asia, when he
had come to Myconos saw a vision in his sleep; and of what nature the
vision was it is not reported, but as soon as day dawned he caused a
search to be made of the ships, and finding in a Phenician ship an
image of Apollo overlaid with gold, he inquired from whence it had
been carried off. Then having been informed from what temple it came,
he sailed in his own ship to Delos: and finding that the Delians had
returned then to the island, he deposited the image in the temple and
charged the men of Delos to convey it back to Delion in the territory
of the Thebans, which is situated by the sea-coast just opposite
Chalkis. Datis having given this charge sailed away: the Delians
however did not convey the statue back, but after an interval of
twenty years the Thebans themselves brought it to Delion by reason of
an oracle.
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119. Now as to those Eretrians who had been reduced to
slavery, Datis and Artaphrenes, when they reached Asia in their
voyage, brought them up to Susa; and king Dareios, though he had great
anger against the Eretrians before they were made captive, because the
Eretrians had done wrong to him unprovoked, yet when he saw that they
had been brought up to him and were in his power, he did them no more
evil, but established them as settlers in the Kissian land upon one of
his own domains, of which the name is Ardericca: and this is distant
two hundred and ten furlongs from Susa and forty from the well which
produces things of three different kinds; for they draw from it
asphalt, salt and oil, in the manner which here follows:--the liquid
is drawn with a swipe, to which there is fastened half a skin instead
of a bucket, and a man strikes this down into it and draws up, and
then pours it into a cistern, from which it runs through into another
vessel, taking three separate ways. The asphalt and the salt become
solid at once, and the oil[108] which is called by the Persians
/rhadinake/, is black and gives out a disagreeable smell. Here king
Dareios established the Eretrians as settlers; and even to my time
they continued to occupy this land, keeping still their former
language. Thus it happened with regard to the Eretrians.
120. Of the Lacedemonians there came to Athens two thousand after the
full moon, making great haste to be in time, so that they arrived in
Attica on the third day after leaving Sparta: and though they had come
too late for the battle, yet they desired to behold the Medes; and
accordingly they went out to Marathon and looked at the bodies of the
slain: then afterwards they departed home, commending the Athenians
and the work which they had done.
121. Now it is a cause of wonder to me, and I do not accept the
report, that the Alcmaionidai could ever have displayed to the
Persians a shield by a previous understanding, with the desire that
the Athenians should be under the Barbarians and under Hippias; seeing
that they are evidently proved to have been haters of despots as much
or more than Callias the son of Phainippos and father of Hipponicos,
while Callias for his part was the only man of all the Athenians who
dared, when Peisistratos was driven out of Athens, to buy his goods
offered for sale by the State, and in other ways also he contrived
against him everything that was most hostile:
[122. Of this Callias it
is fitting that every one should have remembrance for many reasons:
first because of that which has been before said, namely that he was a
man of excellence in freeing his country; and then also for that which
he did at the Olympic games, wherein he gained a victory in the horse-
race and was second in the chariot-race, and he had before this been a
victor at the Pythian games, so that he was distinguished in the sight
of all Hellenes by the sums which he expended; and finally because he
showed himself a man of such liberality towards his daughters, who
were three in number; for when they came to be of ripe age for
marriage, he gave them a most magnificent dowry and also indulged
their inclinations; for whomsoever of all the Athenians each one of
them desired to choose as a husband for herself, to that man he gave
her.][109] 123, and similarly,[110] the Alcmaionidai were haters of
despots equally or more[111] than he. Therefore this is a cause of
wonder to me, and I do not admit the accusation that these they were
who displayed the shield; seeing that they were in exile from the
despots during their whole time, and that by their contrivance the
sons of Peisistratos gave up their rule. Thus it follows that they
were the men who set Athens free much more than Harmodios and
Aristogeiton, as I judge: for these my slaying Hipparchos exasperated
the rest of the family of Peisistratos, and did not at all cause the
others to cease from their despotism; but the Alcmaionidai did
evidently set Athens free, at least if these were in truth the men who
persuaded the Pythian prophetess to signify to the Lacedemonians that
they should set Athens free, as I have set forth before.
124. It may
be said however that they had some cause of complaint against the
people of the Athenians, and therefore endeavoured to betray their
native city. But on the contrary there were no men in greater repute
than they, among the Athenians at least, nor who had been more highly
honoured. Thus it is not reasonable to suppose that by them a shield
should have been displayed for any such purpose. A shield was
displayed, however; that cannot be denied, for it was done: but as to
who it was who displayed it, I am not able to say more than this.
125. Now the family of Alcmaionidai was distinguished in Athens in the
earliest times also, and from the time of Alcmaion and of Megacles
after him they became very greatly distinguished. For first Alcmaion
the son of Megacles showed himself a helper of the Lydians from Sardis
who came from Crœsus to the Oracle at Delphi, and assisted them with
zeal; and Crœsus having heard from the Lydians who went to the Oracle
that this man did him service, sent for him to Sardis; and when he
came, he offered to give him a gift of as much gold as he could carry
away at once upon his own person. With a view to this gift, its nature
being such, Alcmaion made preparations and used appliances as follows:
--he put on a large tunic leaving a deep fold in the tunic to hang
down in front, and he draw on his feet the widest boots which he could
find, and so went to the treasury to which they conducted him. Then he
fell upon a heap of gold-dust, and first he packed in by the side of
his legs so much of the gold as his boots would contain, and then he
filled the whole fold of the tunic with the gold and sprinkled some of
the gold dust on the hair of his head and took some into his mouth,
and having so done he came forth out of the treasury, with difficulty
dragging along his boots and resembling anything in the world rather
than a man; for his mouth was stuffed full, and every part of him was
swelled out: and upon Crœsus came laughter when he saw him, and he not
only gave him all that, but also presented him in addition with more
not inferior in value to that. Thus this house became exceedingly
wealthy, and thus the Alcmaion of whom I speak became a breeder of
chariot-horses and won a victory at Olympia.
126. Then in the next
generation after this, Cleisthenes the despot of Sikyon exalted the
family, so that it became of much more note among the Hellenes than it
had been formerly. For Cleisthenes the son of Arisonymos, the son of
Myron, the son of Andreas, had a daughter whose name was Agariste; and
as to her he formed a desire to find out the best man of all the
Hellenes and to assign her to him in marriage. So when the Olympic
games were being held and Cleisthenes was victor in them with a four-
horse chariot, he caused a proclamation to be made, that whosoever of
the Hellenes thought himself worthy to be the son-in-law of
Cleisthenes should come on the sixtieth day, or before that if he
would, to Sikyon; for Cleisthenes intended to conclude the marriage
within a year, reckoning from the sixtieth day. Then all those of the
Hellenes who had pride either in themselves or in their high
descent,[112] came as wooers, and for them Cleisthenes had a running-
course and a wrestling-place made and kept them expressly for their
use.
127. From Italy came Smindyrides the son of Hippocrates of
Sybaris, who of all men on earth reached the highest point of luxury
(now Sybaris at this time was in the height of its prosperity), and
Damasos of Siris, the son of that Amyris who was called the Wise;
these came from Italy: from the Ionian gulf came Amphimnestos the son
of Epistrophos of Epidamnos, this man from the Ionian gulf: from
Aitolia came Males, the brother of that Titormos who surpassed all the
Hellenes in strength and who fled from the presence of men to the
furthest extremities of the Aitolian land: from Peloponnesus, Leokedes
the son of Pheidon the despot of the Argives, that Pheidon who
established for the Peloponnesians the measures which they use, and
who went beyond all other Hellenes in wanton insolence, since he
removed from their place the presidents of the games appointed by the
Eleians and himself presided over the games at Olympia,--his son, I
say, and Amiantos the son of Lycurgos an Arcadian from Trapezus, and
Laphanes an Azanian from the city of Paios, son of that Euphorion who
(according to the story told in Arcadia) received the Dioscuroi as
guests in his house and from thenceforth was wont to entertain all men
who came, and Onomastos the son of Agaios of Elis; these, I say, came
from Peloponnesus itself: from Athens came Megacles the son of that
Alcmaion who went to Crœsus, and besides him Hippocleides the son of
Tisander, one who surpassed the other Athenians in wealth and in
comeliness of form: from Eretria, which at that time was flourishing,
came Lysanias, he alone from Eubœa: from Thessalia came Diactorides of
Crannon, one of the family of the Scopadai: and from the Molossians,
Alcon.
128. So many in number did the wooers prove to be: and when
these had come by the appointed day, Cleisthenes first inquired of
their native countries and of the descent of each one, and then
keeping them for a year he made trial continually both of their manly
virtue and of their disposition, training and temper, associating both
with each one separately and with the whole number together: and he
made trial of them both by bringing out to bodily exercises those of
them who were younger, and also especially in the common feast: for
during all the time that he kept them he did everything that could be
done, and at the same time he entertained them magnificently. Now it
chanced that those of the wooers pleased him most who had come from
Athens, and of these Hippocleides the son of Tisander was rather
preferred, both by reason of manly virtues and also because he was
connected by descent with the family of Kypselos at Corinth.
129. Then
when the appointed day came for the marriage banquet and for
Cleisthenes himself to declare whom he selected from the whole number,
Cleisthenes sacrificed a hundred oxen and feasted both the wooers
themselves and all the people of Sikyon; and when the dinner was over,
the wooers began to vie with one another both in music and in speeches
for the entertainment of the company;[113] and as the drinking went
forward and Hippocleides was very much holding the attention of the
others,[114] he bade the flute-player play for him a dance-measure;
and when the flute-player did so, he danced: and it so befell that he
pleased himself in his dancing, but Cleisthenes looked on at the whole
matter with suspicion. Then Hippocleides after a certain time bade one
bring in a table; and when the table came in, first he danced upon it
Laconian figures, and then also Attic, and thirdly he planted his head
upon the table and gesticulated with his legs. Cleisthenes meanwhile,
when he was dancing the first and the second time, though he abhorred
the thought that Hippocleides should now become his son-in-law,
because of his dancing and his shamelessness, yet restrained himself,
not desiring to break out in anger against him; but when he saw that
he thus gesticulated with his legs, he was no longer able to restrain
himself, but said: "Thou hast danced away thy marriage however,[115]
son of Tisander!" and Hippocleides answered and said: "Hippocleides
cares not!" 130, and hence comes this saying. Then Cleisthenes caused
silence to be made, and spoke to the company as follows: "Men who are
wooers of my daughter, I commend you all, and if it were possible I
would gratify you all, neither selecting one of you to be preferred,
nor rejecting the remainder. Since however it is not possible, as I am
deliberating about one maiden only, to act so as to please all,
therefore to those of you who are rejected from this marriage I give
as a gift a talent of silver to each one for the worthy estimation ye
had of me, in that ye desired to marry from my house, and for the time
of absence from your homes; and to the son of Alcmaion, Megacles, I
offer my daughter Agariste in betrothal according to the customs of
the Athenians." Thereupon Megacles said that he accepted the
betrothal, and so the marriage was determined by Cleisthenes.
131. Thus it happened as regards the judgment of the wooers, and thus
the Alcmaionidai got renown over all Hellas. And these having been
married, there was born to them that Cleisthenes who established the
tribes and the democracy for the Athenians, he being called after the
Sikyonian Cleisthenes, his mother's father; this son, I say, was born
to Megacles, and also Hippocrates: and of Hippocrates came another
Megacles and another Agariste, called after Agariste, the daughter of
Cleisthenes, who having been married to Xanthippos the son of Ariphron
and being with child, saw a vision in her sleep, and it seemed to her
that she had brought forth a lion: then after a few days she bore to
Xanthippos Pericles.
132. After the defeat at Marathon, Miltiades, who even before was well
reputed with the Athenians, came then to be in much higher estimation:
and when he asked the Athenians for seventy ships and an army with
supplies of money, not declaring to them against what land he was
intending to make an expedition, but saying that he would enrich them
greatly if they would go with him, for he would lead them to a land of
such a kind that they would easily get from it gold in abundance,--
thus saying he asked for the ships; and the Athenians, elated by these
words, delivered them over to him.
133. Then Miltiades, when he had
received the army, proceeded to sail to Paris with the pretence that
the Parians had first attacked Athens by making expedition with
triremes to Marathon in company with the Persian: this was the pretext
which he put forward, but he had also a grudge against the Parians on
account of Lysagoras the son of Tisias, who was by race of Paros, for
having accused him to Hydarnes the Persian. So when Miltiades had
arrived at the place to which he was sailing, he began to besiege the
Parians with his army, first having shut them up within their wall;
and sending in to them a herald he asked for a hundred talents, saying
that if they refused to give them, his army should not return
back[116] until it had conquered them completely. The Parians however
had no design of giving any money to Miltiades, but contrived only how
they might defend their city, devising various things besides and also
this,--wherever at any time the wall proved to be open to attack, that
point was raised when night came on to double its former height.
134.
So much of the story is reported by all the Hellenes, but as to what
followed the Parians alone report, and they say that it happened thus:
--When Miltiades was at a loss, it is said, there came a woman to
speech with him, who had been taken prisoner, a Parian by race whose
name was Timo, an under-priestess[117] of the Earth goddesses;[118]
she, they say, came into the presence of Miltiades and counselled him
that if he considered it a matter of much moment to conquer Paros, he
could do that which she should suggest to him; and upon that she told
him her meaning. He accordingly passed through to the hill which is
before the city and leapt over the fence of the temple of Demeter
Giver of Laws,[119] not being able to open the door; and then having
leapt over he went on towards the sanctuary[120] with the design of
doing something within, whether it were that he meant to lay hands on
some of the things which should not be touched, or whatever else he
intended to do; and when he had reached the door, forthwith a
shuddering fear came over him and he set off to go back the same way
as he came, and as he leapt down from the wall of rough stones his
thigh was dislocated, or, as others say, he struck his knee against
the wall.
135. Miltiades accordingly, being in a wretched case, set
forth to sail homewards, neither bringing wealth to the Athenians nor
having added to them the possession of Paros, but having besieged the
city for six-and-twenty days and laid waste the island: and the Parians being informed that Timo the under-priestess of the goddesses
had acted as a guide to Miltiades, desired to take vengeance upon her
for this, and they sent messengers to Delphi to consult the god, so
soon as they had leisure from the siege; and these messengers they
sent to ask whether they should put to death the under-priestess of
the goddesses, who had been a guide to their enemies for the capture
of her native city and had revealed to Miltiades the mysteries which
might not be uttered to a male person. The Pythian prophetess however
forbade them, saying that Timo was not the true author of these
things, but since it was destined that Miltiades should end his life
not well, she had appeared to guide him to his evil fate.
136. Thus
the Pythian prophetess replied to the Parians: and the Athenians, when
Miltiades had returned back from Paros, began to talk of him, and
among the rest especially Xanthippos the son of Ariphron, who brought
Miltiades up before the people claiming the penalty of death and
prosecuted him for his deception of the Athenians: and Miltiades did
not himself make his own defence, although he was present, for he was
unable to do so because his thigh was mortifying; but he lay in public
view upon a bed, while his friends made a defence for him, making
mention much both of the battle which had been fought at Marathon and
of the conquest of Lemnos, namely how he had conquered Lemnos and
taken vengeance on the Pelasgians, and had delivered it over to the
Athenians: and the people came over to his part as regards the
acquittal from the penalty of death, but they imposed a fine of fifty
talents for the wrong committed: and after this Miltiades died, his
thigh having gangrened and mortified, and the fifty talents were paid
by his son Kimon.
137. Now Miltiades son of Kimon had thus taken possession of the
Lemnos:--After the Pelasgians had been cast out of Attica by the
Athenians, whether justly or unjustly,--for about this I cannot tell
except the things reported, which are these:--Hecataois on the one
hand, the son of Hegesander, said in his history that it was done
unjustly; for he said that when the Athenians saw the land which
extends below Hymettos, which they had themselves given them[121] to
dwell in, as payment for the wall built round the Acropolis in former
times, when the Athenians, I say, saw that this land was made good by
cultivation, which before was bad and worthless, they were seized with
jealousy and with longing to possess the land, and so drove them out,
not alleging any other pretext: but according to the report of the
Athenians themselves they drove them out justly; for the Pelasgians
being settled under Hymettos made this a starting-point and committed
wrong against them as follows:--the daughters and sons of the
Athenians were wont ever to go for water to the spring of Enneacrunos;
for at that time neither they nor the other Hellenes as yet had
household servants; and when these girls came, the Pelasgians in
wantonness and contempt of the Athenians would offer them violence;
and it was not enough for them even to do this, but at last they were
found in the act of plotting an attack upon the city: and the
narrators say that they herein proved themselves better men than the
Pelasgians, inasmuch as when they might have slain the Pelasgians, who
had been caught plotting against them, they did not choose to do so,
but ordered them merely to depart out of the land: and thus having
departed out of the land, the Pelasgians took possession of several
older places and especially of Lemnos. The former story is that which
was reported by Hecataios, while the latter is that which is told by
the Athenians.
138. These Pelasgians then, dwelling after that in
Lemnos, desired to take vengeance on the Athenians; and having full
knowledge also of the festivals of the Athenians, they got[122] fifty-
oared galleys and laid wait for the women of the Athenians when they
were keeping festival to Artemis in Brauron; and having carried off a
number of them from thence, they departed and sailed away home, and
taking the women to Lemnos they kept them as concubines. Now when
these women had children gradually more and more, they made it their
practice to teach their sons both the Attic tongue and the manners of
the Athenians. And these were not willing to associate with the sons
of the Pelasgian women, and moreover if any of them were struck by any
one of those, they all in a body came to the rescue and helped one
another. Moreover the boys claimed to have authority over the other
boys and got the better of them easily. Perceiving these things the
Pelasgians considered the matter; and when they took counsel together,
a fear came over them and they thought, if the boys were indeed
resolved now to help one another against the sons of the legitimate
wives, and were endeavouring already from the first to have authority
over them, what would they do when they were grown up to be men? Then
they determined to put to death the sons of the Athenian women, and
this they actually did; and in addition to them they slew their
mothers also. From this deed and from that which was done before this,
which the women did when they killed Thoas and the rest, who were
their own husbands, it has become a custom in Hellas that all deeds of
great cruelty should be called "Lemnian deeds."
139. After the Pelasgians had killed their own sons and wives, the earth did not bear
fruit for them, nor did their women or their cattle bring forth young
as they did before; and being hard pressed by famine and by
childlessness, they sent to Delphi to ask for a release from the evils
which were upon them; and the Pythian prophetess bade them pay such
penalty to the Athenians as the Athenians themselves should appoint.
The Pelasgians came accordingly to Athens and professed that they were
willing to pay the penalty for all the wrong which they had done: and
the Athenians laid a couch in the fairest possible manner in the City
Hall, and having set by it a table covered with all good things, they
bade the Pelasgians deliver up to them their land in that condition.
Then the Pelasgians answered and said: "When with a North Wind in one
single day a ship shall accomplish the voyage from your land to ours,
then we will deliver it up," feeling assured that it was impossible
for this to happen, since Attica lies far away to the South of Lemnos.
140. Such were the events which happened then: and very many years
later, after the Chersonese which is by the Hellespont had come to be
under the Athenians, Miltiades the son of Kimon, when the Etesian
Winds blew steadily, accomplished the voyage in a ship from Elaius in
the Chersonese to Lemnos, and proclaimed to the Pelasgians that they
should depart out of the island, reminding them of the oracle, which
the Pelasgians had never expected would be accomplished for them. The
men of Hephaistia accordingly obeyed; but those of Myrina, not
admitting that the Chersonese was Attica, suffered a siege, until at
last these also submitted. Thus it was that the Athenians and
Miltiades took possession of Lemnos.
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END OF BOOK VI
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