The history of Herodotus - Volume 2 by Herodotus (best ereader for pc .txt) 📕

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. -----

NOTES TO BOOK VI

1. {proboulous}.

2. See i. 148.

3. {epi keras}.

4. {diekploon poieumenos tesi neusi di alleleon}.

5. {tou Dareiou}: a conjecture based upon Valla's translation. The
MSS. have {ton Dareion}.

6. {prophasios epilabomenoi}.

6a. {en stele anagraphenai patrothen}.

7. "were very roughly handled."

8. {epibateuontas}.

8a. {nuktos te gar}: so Stein for {nuktos te}.

9. {kat akres}, lit. "from the top downwards," i.e. town and citadel both.

10. See ch. 77.

11. See i. 92 and v. 36.

11a. {Kalen akten}.

12. Possibly the reading should be {Inuka}, "Inyx."

13. {ton en te naumakhie}: perhaps we should read {ten en te
naumakhin}, "which took place in the sea-fight."

14. {en Koiloisi kaleomenoisi}.

15. {grammata didaskomenoisi}.

16. {limainouses}: a conjectural reading for {deimainouses}.

17. Lit. "and it became in fact the work of the cavalry."

18. {esagenouon}.

19. Or (according to some good MSS.) "Thelymbria."

20. Cp. iii. 120.

21. {stadioi}: the distances here mentioned are equal to a little more
than four and a little less than fifty miles respectively.

22. {en gnome gegonos}.

23. {pituos tropon}: the old name of the town was Pityussa.

24. That is to say, Kimon was his half-brother, and Stesagoras and the
younger Miltiades his nephews.

25. See ch. 103.

26. {delade}.

27. {eleluthee}, but the meaning must be this, and it is explained by
the clause, {trito men gar etei k.t.l.}

28. {stadia}: see v. 52, note 40.

29. See iii. 80.