[[188]]
CHAPTER XI
THE LION'S WHELP
There are in European history perhaps a dozen born heroes whom posterity
will never reduce to common pro- portions. They turn the soberest heads in
their own generation, infecting the most prosaic observers with poetry; and
when the incorruptible evidence of monument and archive is wanting, they are
put beyond the reach of criticism. We must submit to be dazzled as their
contemporaries were; only let us realize that we are dazzled, and not take the
romantic creatures for more solid stuff than they are, or ever have been.
When Socrates, at Agathon's banquet, has finished his encomium of Eros with the
innermost revelation of Beauty, a sudden knocking is heard at the gate of the
courtyard, a noise of revellers, and a flute-girl's voice. A moment later,
drunken, and crowned with a thick wreath of ivy and violets, Alcibiades stands
in the doorway like an apparition. Agathon's company were already flushed with
wine; but the sight of Alcibiades was a more potent intoxication. The value of
their evidence before the court of ffistory will lie just in the witness they
bear to the most important fact about Alcibiades--the fact that no one coiild
resist him. The spell of physical beauty was a thing that made the wisest of
that company feel like a fawn trembling in the clutches of a lion. (note 1)
Another of them, Aristophanes, handles his Pheidippides tenderly in the
Clouds. We must be content with the portrait left us from the days when
two neighbours could not meet in the streets of Athens
[1. Socrates in Plato, Charm. 166 D.]
[[189]]
without passing the news of Alcibiades' latest frolic; but we may bear
in mind that they were not bent on collecting the sort of evidence we like to
use in our judicious estimates of character.Plutarch's life of
Alcibiades is a vivid and harmonious composition, because Plutarch saw the
personality with an artist's intuition of its total effect, and knew that a
good anecdote is more illuminating than a volume of criticism. His principal
authorities for the early part of his hero's career were Plato and Thucydides.
That Plato, who idealized the whole world of things, idealized the persons in
his dialogues, we have always perceived; so we fall back on the historian and
try to patch up a real Alcibiades, by taking the substance (as we call it) of
his narrative for a framework. It may be, however, that the substance is not
sepaiable, in this case either, from the form. Even Thucydides' treatment of
the character, as we shall now try to show, is already dramatic and
`mythical'.
To avoid breaking the thread, we took the Melian episode out of its
chronological order. We must now go back to the early chapters of Book V where
the Second Part of Thucydides' history begins, and follow his narrative of the
incident in which Alcibiades' type is fixed.
The two great enemies of peace had fallen at Amphipolis, and both sides
were weary of the war and disheartened. The Athenians, beaten at Delium and
again in the North, `no longer possessed that confidence in the hope of their
strength which had made them reject the earlier proposals of peace, when good
fortune was with them and they expected to triumph. They repented of having
lost the fair opportunity of reconciliation after Pylos'. (note 1) The Spartans
too were disappointed. Their annual invasions had not weakened Athens as they
had hoped; the disaster of Sphacteria was unprecedented in the annals of
Lacedaemon; and the occupation of Pylos and Cythera was a constant
menace,
[1. v. 14 oÈk [[paragraph]]xontew tØn
[[section]]lp[[currency]]da t[[infinity]]w =~mhw pistØn [[paragraph]]ti,
~per oÈ proseddeg.xonto prÒteron tåw spondãw,
dokoËntew t[[ordfeminine]] paroÊs[[dotaccent]]
eÈtux[[currency]]& kayupdeg.rteroi genÆsesyai.]
[[190]]
for at any moment a general revolt of the serfs might spread like a
conflagration. Their kinsmen, captured on the island, were still in durance at
Athens, the earlier negotiations for their recovery having failed, while
Athens, in the flowing tide of success, (note 1) had refused fair terms. But
now the troublers of Greece, Cleon and Brasidas, were lying quiet in Thracian
soil; and their successors in influence --Nikias at Athens, and King
Pleistoanax, lately restored from exile, at Sparta--both made for
peace.Nikias is described for us in terms which are designed to
set his character in pointed contrast to Cleon's. He too bad been favoured by
Fortune, but he had escaped the delusion of Hope. (note 2) More than for any of
his contemporaries, the tide of success (note 3) had flowed steadily for
Nikias; but his only ambition was, `while he was still unscathed and held in
repute, to preserve his good fortune to the end. For the moment he desired to
have rest from toil himself and to give rest to his countrymen, and for the
time to come to leave behind the name of a man who in all his life had never
brought disaster on his city. He thought this end could best be achieved by
taking no risks and trusting himself as little as possible to Fortune; and that
risks were best avoided by peace'. A sober and reverent man, who thanked the
gods for blessing him with success in arms and an unstained reputation; well
fitted to give his name to the peace with which the fiist part of Thucydides'
history concludes; infinitely pathetic, as an unwilling leader of the wild
chase for empire in the western seas.
We need not follow the intricate disputes and diplomatic manoeuvres which
worked up the latent ill-feeling on both sides to the pitch of exasperation. In
the spring of 420 the war-party at Athens came in at the elections. Nikias was
not returned to the office of General; but in his place appears for the first
time another, very different, figure,
[1. v. 15. 2 eÈ ferÒmenoi. [2. oÈ
sunhpatÆyh, Plut. Nic. et Crassi comp. iv.
[3. v. 16. 1
eÈ ferÒmenow.]
[[191]]
whose fortunes were to be strangely and fatally linked with his.
`Foremost among those who desired an immediate renewal of war
was Alcibiades, the son of Cleinias, a man who was still of an age that would
in any other city have been thought youthful, but influential on account of his
illustrious ancestry. He really thought that the Argive alliance was the better
policy, but he took that side, against Sparta, because his pride and ambition
were piqued. The Lacedaemonians had negotiated the peace through Nikias and
Laches, neglecting him on account of his youth and showing no respect for their
old connexion with his family, which his grandfather had renounced, but he had
set his heart on renewing by his own attentions to the captives from
Sphacteria. He thought that on all hands he was being put in the background'.
(note 1)
We noticed in the case of Cleon the care with which Thucydides selects the
occasion for the entrance of a principal character; the present instance shows
an equal skill. Alcibiades' first recorded exploit in public life was a
dishonourable trick played upon an embassy from Sparta. Thucydides chose that
this should be so, for reason which we shall not be long in perceiving. The
story of the episode is treated in considerable detail, so as to fix the
impression; reduced to the barest summary, it was as follows.
By means of a pledge of cooperation, given at a secret interview, Alcibiades
persuaded (note 2) the ambassadors to contradict before the Assembly a
statement they had previously made to the Council; then he turned upon them and
denounced them for playing fast and loose. The people lost all patience with
them, and so Alcibiades won both his points: he threw Athens into the arms of
Argos, and avenged on the Spartans his own wounded pride. He would teach them
not to neglect him as too young to be reckoned with, not to disregard the
overtures he had made them, courting a renewal of his family connexion by
flattering attentions to the prisoners.
[1. v. 43. [2. v. 45 pe[[currency]]yei p[[currency]]stin doÊw.
Plut. Nic. x. i ÉAlkibiãdhw... peri[[infinity]]lyen
aÈtoÁw diÉ épãthw ka< ~rkvn ...w
pãnta sumprãjvn....]
[[192]]
`The trick which deluded the Lacedaemonians also completely deluded
Nikias.' (note 1) Still urging his pathetic formula, (note 2) `Now that your
prosperity is on a firm footing, it is best to preserve your good fortune to
the end,' Nikias got himself sent on a fool's errand to Sparta. His
negotiations miscarried, and immediately, `in a fit of passion,' Athens
concluded the alliance with Argos. (note 3)
`The statecraft of Alcibiades,' writes Plutarch, (note 4) `was treacherous and
fake. The worst charge against him is a malicious trick (épãth)
by which, as Thucydides tells, he deluded the Spartan envoys and put an end to
the peace. Yet this policy, though it plunged Athens again in war, made her
strong and terrible, for Alcibiades secured the alliance with Mantinea and
Argos'.
Strong and terrible and treacherous; the young lion would have his country to
be like himself. `His disposition was full of shifts and inconsistencies. (note 5) There were many violent passions in his nature; but strongest of all was
ambition and the desire to be first, as may be seen in the anecdotes of his
childhood. Once, when he was gripped in a wrestling-match, to save himself from
being thrown, he wrenched the clasped hands of his antagonist up to his mouth
and made as if to bite them through. The other relaxed his grip and cried, "Do
you bite like a woman, Alcibiades?" "No," he answered, "I bite like a lion." '
(note 6)
[1. v. 46 i Nik[[currency]]aw, ka[[currency]]per t<<n
Lakedaimoni~n aÈtvn +/-pathmdeg.nvn ka< aÈtÚw
[[section]]jhpathmdeg.now.... Plutarch, Alc. p. 198 tÚn dcents
Nik[[currency]]an [[paragraph]]kplhjiw e[[perthousand]]xe ka< katÆfeia
t<<n éndr<<n t[[infinity]]w metabol[[infinity]]w,
égnooËnta tØn épãthn ka< tÚn
dÒlon. [2. v. 46 sf[[currency]]si mcentsn går eÔ *st~tvn
t<<n pragmãtvn ...w [[section]]p< ple>ston êriston
e[[perthousand]]nai dias~sasyai tØn eÈprag[[currency]]an.
[3.
v. 46. 5. énaxvrÆsantÒw te aÈtoË ...w
>=kousan ofl ÉAyhna>oi oÈdcentsn [[section]]k t[[infinity]]w
Lakeda[[currency]]monow pepragmdeg.non, eÈyÁw diÉ
Ùrg[[infinity]]w e[[perthousand]]xon, ka< nom[[currency]]zontew
édike>syai... [[section]]poiÆsanto spondãw....
[4.
Plutarch, Alc. et Cor. comp. 2. 233 mãlista dcents
kathgoroËsin aÈtoË kakoÆyeian ka<
épãthn....
[5. Cf. Plutarch, Alc. xxiii, for another aspect
of his versatility: [[Sigma]]n gãr, Àw fasi, m[[currency]]a
deinÒthw aÏth t<<n poll<<n [[section]]n aÈt" ka<
mhxanØ yÆraw ényr~pvn, sunejomoioËsyai ka<
sunomopaye>n to>w [[section]]pithdeÊmasi ka< ta>w dia[[currency]]taiw,
Ùjutdeg.raw, trepomdeg.n[[florin]] tropåw toË
xamaildeg.ontow.
[6. Plut. Alc. ii.]
[[193]]
And as the lion's whelp the doting multitude would hail him. `Though men
of repute,' says Plutarch, (note 1) `regarded with abhorrence and indignant
fear his reckless defiance of all law, as a wildness that savoured of
despotism, the feeling of the people towards him is best described in
Aristophanes' line:They hunger for him, and hate him, and must
have him.Aristophanes touches it still more closely in the
parable:Best not to rear a lion in a city;
But if you rear him, wait upon his moods.
Both quotations are
from the last scene of the Frogs, (note 2) where the couplet about the
lion is put in the mouth of Aeschylus, in reply to a demand for his advice to
Athens about Alcibiades. Coming from Aeschylus, the words must allude--no
Athenian could miss the reference--to the famous simile in the third chorus of
the Agamemnon: (note 3)A young babe Lion, still at
breast,
Was home once by a Herdsman borne,
Housed beneath roof among the rest
And reared there; in his early morn
And first of age, all gentle, mild,
Youth's darling, the delight of Eld;
And ofttimes, like a nursling child,
In arms with happy love was held,
While the weak flesh, demure and bland,
With fawning wooed the fostering hand.
But age grown ripe, his humour showed
The born touch that his parents had;
Thank-offering when his nurture owed,
A banquet, ere the master bade,
[1. Alc. xvi. [2. Ar. Frogs, 1425 ff. The first line
poye> mdeg.n, [[section]]xya[[currency]]rei ddeg., boÊletai dÉ
[[paragraph]]xein is spoken by Dionysus in reply to Euripides' question, how
Athens feels towards Alcibiades, who was now for the second time in exile. The
MSS. preserve two alternative forms of Aeschylus' reply:--AIS. oÈ
xrØ ldeg.ontow skÊmnon [[section]]n pÒlei
prdeg.fein.mãlista mcentsn ldeg.onta mØ Én pÒlei
trdeg.fein,[[partialdiff]]n dÉ [[section]]ktraf[[ordfeminine]] tiw, to>w
trÒpoiw Íphrete>n.
The last two lines are those which appear
in Plutarch loc. cit. (except that Plutarch has
[[section]]ktrdeg.f[[dotaccent]]).
[3. Herrnann (Opusc. ii. 332 cit. Rogers
ad loc.) remarked that these lines were probably adumbrated from the parable in
this chorus.]
[[194]]
With such wild slaughter he prepared,
It sluiced the dwelling foul with gore,
While helpless, all aghast, they stared
Upon that bloody mischief sore
Divine Will there had found him room,
Housed, to be Priest of slaughtering Doom.'
When we find
Aeschylus in the Frogs referring to these stanzas, they seem to read as
an awful prophecy. Treacherous and strong and terrible, the young creature,
whose brilliant beauty and wild ways made him the idol and cynosure of the
gaping citizens, has already given, in his first public exploit, an earnest of
his quality; he turns upon the Spartans, whose friendship he had courted, as a
lion-cub bites the hand it has licked. Such is the impression which Thucydides
has conveyed by his choice of this incident to sound the relevant note in
Alcibiades' variable character. We cannot doubt that the effect is intentional:
Alcibiades comes before us as an incarnation of Apatê. Thus one of a
well-known train of mythical figures treads the invisible stage, and a second
is soon to follow, Hybris, the cruel spirit of madness, which fell on the
Athenian people just before the Sicilian expedition--her entrance we have
marked in the Melian dialogue.
Both figures take us back to the other great expeditions for conquest across
the seas.
The design here reproduced is from the body of an Apulian krater, (note 2) which dates from about the middle or end of the
[1. Aeschylus, Agam. 717, Dr. Headlam's version, Cambridge
Praelections, 1906, p. 120. Dr. Headlam comments: `Here, expressly, Helen'
(symbolized by the young lion) `is the instrument of Ate; and the point is
enforced by a technical device widely practised in the choral lyric.' Referring
to the lines, faidrvpÚw pot< xe>ra sa[[currency]]|nvn te gastrÚw
énãgkaiw, corresponding to [[section]]k yeoË dÉ
flereÊw tiw ÖA|taw dÒmoiw proseyrdeg.fyh, Dr. Headjam
continues: `The stress of the last sentence, which of course would be
accentuated in the singing, falls upon the word ÖAtaw: now in the previous
strophe the word in the corresponding position of emphasis is
sa[[currency]]nvn. Attention is thereby called to a correspondence in idea; the
Lion-cub or Helen is acting like the épãth of ÖAth, which we
remember in the Persae filÒfrvn parasa[[currency]]nei. [2.
Naples Museum, Heydemann, Cat. 3253; Mon. Ined. d Inst. Arch. ix
(1873), Tav. l, li; Annali (1873), p. 22 ff.; Wiener
Vorlegeblätter vii. 6 a; Baumeister, Denkmäler, Taf. vi, Fig.
449, p. 408. My attention was drawn to this vase by Miss Jane E.
Harrison.]
[[195]]
fourth century B.C. The representation falls, as usual, into three
tiers. Midway in the second tier and occupying the centre of the whole
composition, Darius (inscribed) is seated on a splendid throne. Behind him
stands one of his guards with sword drawn ready for execution--ready advisedly,
for the old man in the pointed cap and travelling boots, who stands in front of
the king with uplifted warning finger, has come on a perilous journey. He is
standing on the fatal golden plinth. Aelian tells us that `if any one desired
to give counsel to the Persian King on very secret and dubious matters, he must
do so standing on a plinth of gold; if he was held to have given good advice,
he took the plinth away with him as a reward; but he was scourged all the same,
because he had gainsaid the King' (note 1). We are reminded of the warning of
Artabanus (note 2); the whole scene signifies that to Darius, as to Xerxes,
warning was given, only to be disregarded.The lowest tier
contains a group designed to emphasize the wealth and splendour of the King who
is going to his doom. The treasurer, holding his account-book, is receiving the
tribute. (note 3) One tributary pours his gold out on the table, another brings
three golden cups, three more prostrate themselves in the oriental manner,
abhorred of the Greek.
In the uppermost tier is high Olympus, marked by two golden stars; and here is
played out the abstract, mythical counterpart of the human drama. To the right,
Asia (inscribed) is seated on the altar basis of her national goddess,
Aphrodite Ourania--her who at Athens, as Pausanias (note 4) tells us, was
represented in ancient hern,shape, the `Eldest of the Fates'. In front of Asia,
beckoning her to ruin, is
[1. Aelian, V. H. 12. 62. Attention was first called to this
passage by Prof. Brunn in his discussion of the vase, Sitzungsb. d. Bayer.
Akad. 1881, ii. 107. [2. Herod. vii. 10.
[3. The account-book is
inscribed: Talanta H; and on the table is a row of eight figures which are the
initials of MÊrioi, X[[currency]]lioi, HekatÒn, Ddeg.ka, Pdeg.nte,
ÉObolÒw, ÑHmiobÒlion, TetarthmÒrion.
Böckh, Arch. Zeit. 1887, P. 59.
[4. Paus. i. 19.2 taÊthw
går sx[[infinity]]ma mcentsn tetrãgvnon katå
taÈtå to>w ÑErma>w. tÚ dcents
[[section]]p[[currency]]gramma shma[[currency]]nei tØn
oÈran[[currency]]an ÉAfrod[[currency]]thn t<<n
kaloumdeg.nvn Moir<<n e[[perthousand]]nai presbutãthn.]
[[196]]
Apate (APA[TH]), her own incarnate passion, yet at the same time the
minister of Zeus, who himself sits serene with thunderbolt and sceptre. Dress
and action of Apatê are alike significant. She wears the conventional
costume of an Erinys --short chiton with a beast's skin over it, and
high hunter's boots; she even has snakes in her hair. Her gesture shows that
she is about to perform the ritual act proper to the declaration of war--the
act of throwing a burning torch between the combatants. (note 1) Victory is for
Greece; Nike, standing at the knee of Zeus, points to Hellas, on whom Athena
lays a protecting hand. And since Marathon was fought on the sacred day of
Artemis and Apollo, (note 2) they too are present--Apollo with his Delian swan,
Artemis mounted on her stag. (note 3)The class of vases to which
this krater belongs are the only class which we know to have been
influenced by tragedy; and the arrangement of the design, with its upper and
lower tiers, may recall the description we gave of the Aeschylean drama. (note 4) It illustrates in spatial form the double effect we spoke of--the unseen
supernatural action developed in a parallel series with the human action on the
stage. The link between the two is Apatê, one of those ministering
daemons, `between mortal and immortal,' who are described by Diotima in the
Symposium as `interpreting and conveying, to and fro, to the gods what
comes from men, and
[1. Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 1377 prÚ går
t[[infinity]]w eÍrdeg.sevw t[[infinity]]w sãlpiggow [[section]]n
ta>w mãxaiw ka< to>w monomaxoËsin [[section]]n mdeg.s[[florin]] tiw
lampãda kaiomdeg.nhn [[paragraph]]rripte, shme>on toË
katãrjasyai t[[infinity]]w mãxhw. [2. Plut. de Glor.
Ath. vii. The festival was really in honour of Artemis and Enyalios; the
presence of Apollo is complimentary.
[3. Although scenes of daily life on
vases are innumerable, scenes from legend or `history' are very few in number.
Arkesilas of Cyrene appears, weighing his silphium; Croesus upon his funeral
pyre; Harmodius and Aristogeiton slaying Hipparchus; Sappho, with Eros, or the
Muses, and once with Alcaeus; the Persians, on the Darius vase. To appear on a
vase-painting was equivalent to a sort of pagan canonization. For a complete
list of historical subjects of vase-paintings see H. B. Walters, Hist. of
Anc. Pottery, ii. 149.
[4. This description, by the way, was written
before the writer had seen the design.]
[[197]]
to men what comes from the gods'. (note 1) Porphyry, where he enlarges
on the daemonology of this part of the Symposium, preserves in a
philosophic form some very ancient doctrines of mythology. Speaking of the evil
daemons he says: `All unrestrained lust and hope of wealth and of glory comes
through these, and most of all, delusion.' (note 2) That sentence will
serve as a commentary on the Apulian vase, on the Persians of Aeschylus,
or on the last three books of Herodotus.
For Apatê played her part also in the infatuation of
Xerxes. (note 3) When we know the mythical motives of the Persian legend we can
almost predict the incidents in the seventh Book of Herodotus. We can
confidently predict the types of those incidents: for example, we know
beforehand that the king will be deluded and outwitted on the eve of his
expedition. Turn up the place, and there it is. The Aleuadao of Thessaly, we
are told, sent an invitation with promises of help. (note 4) Xerxes thought
they spoke in the name of their whole people; (note 5) but really the
Thessalians had no part in the intrigues of the Aleuadae. (note 6) The
Pisistratids, again, through the agency of Onomacritus, plied Xerxes with
forged oracles, Suppressing those which foretold disaster to the Persian arms.
`So at last Xerxes gave way and decided to make an expedition against Greece.'
(note 7)
Now, we do not deny that these incidents may be historical, not `fabulous'; but
it is well to realize that Herodotus'
[1. Plato, Symp. 202 pçn tÚ daimÒnion
metajÊ [[section]]sti yeoË ka< ynhtoË... *rmhneËon ka<
diaporymeËon yes>w tå parÉ ényr~pvn ka<
ényr~poiw tå parå ye<<n. [2. Porph. de
Abst. ii. 42 pçsa går ékolas[[currency]]a ka<
ploÊtvn [[section]]lp [3. Aesch. Persae 94 ff.
dolÒmhtin dÉ ÉApãtan yeoË t[[currency]]w
énØr ynatÚw élÊjei;... filÒfrvn
går sa[[currency]]nousa tÚ pr<<ton parãgei
brÒton efiw érkÊstata. [4. Herod. vii. 6.
[5. Id.
vii. 130.
[6. Id. vii. 172.
[7. Herod. vii. 6 fin. Alcibiades similarly
deluded Athens, Plut. Nic. xiii ka[[currency]]toi ldeg.getai pollå
ka< parå t<<n flerdeg.vn [[section]]nantioËsyai prÚw
tØn strate[[currency]]an: éllÉ *tdeg.rouw [[paragraph]]xvn
mãnteiw i ÉAlkibiãdhw [[section]]k dÆ tinvn
log[[currency]]vn proÊfere palai<<n mdeg.ga kldeg.ow t<<n
ÉAyhna[[currency]]vn épÚ Sikel[[currency]]aw
[[paragraph]]sesyai. ka< yeoprÒpoi tinew aÈt" parÉ
ÖAmmvnow éf[[currency]]konto xrhsmÚn kom[[currency]]zontew,
...w lÆcontai Surakous[[currency]]ouw ëpantaw ÉAyhna>oi:
tå dÉ [[section]]nant[[currency]]a foboÊmenoi dusfhme>n
[[paragraph]]krupton.]
[[198]]
motive for putting them in is that they illustrate one regular link in a
chain of mythical ideas. The sequence is so well established that, if the
historical facts had been missing, fabulous imagination would have supplied
their place. In the same way we do not deny that every detail of Alcibiades'
trick upon the Spartan envoys may be historical. But we do point out that
Thucydides has made it specially prominent, partly by treating it at
considerable length, and partly by telling us nothing of any other incident in
Alcibiades' early career; and we seem to have grounds for inferring that, in
doing so, he was in some degree influenced--however unconsciously-- by the same
motives as Herodotus. We have already seen such influence at work in the case
of the Melian incident. There, the disproportion between the military
significance of the events and their `mythical' import is more striking; and
there again, the treatment seems of a piece with the long tale of acts of
unprovoked cruelty and insolence which Herodotus, or those who imagined the
legend, attribute to Xerxes.
When we reach the narrative of the Sicilian expedition in Book VI, we
are not surprised to encounter another incident in which the motive of
Apatê is clear. To that narrative we pass straight from the sentence
which, at the close of Book V, records the massacre at Melos. `They killed all
the adult males whom they caught, and sold their women and children as slaves,
and they colonized the place themselves, sending later five hundred settlers.
And in the course of the same winter the Athenians began to desire to sail
again with a larger armament than that of Laches and Eurymedon to Sicily, to
conquer it if they could. Most of them knew nothing of the great size of the
island and the numbers of its inhabitants, barbarian and Greek; and they did
not know they were undertaking a war not much less arduous than the war with
the Peloponnesians.' (note 1) Then follow five chapters which recite the long
muster-roll of Sicilian states, `the great power against which the Athenians
were bent on making war, with fair professions of a desire to succour their
kinsmen and newly-
[1. See above, p. 49, note.]
[[199]]
acquired allies, though the most genuine account of the matterwas that
they were eager to add the whole island to their empire.' (note 1)They were urgently invited by an embassy from Egesta, a city
which had a petty quarrel with its neighbour, Selinus. Selinus was helped by
Syracuse, and the Egestaeans appealed for succour to their allies at Athens,
promising to provide all the money that was wanted for the war. The assembly
yielded and sent an embassy to flnd out if the temple treasures, of which the
Egestaeans talked so much, existed, and to report on the state of the war with
Selinus. (note 2) The envoys returned in the spring with some citizens of
Egesta who brought sixty talents of uncoined silver, a month's pay for as many
ships which they hoped to obtain from Athens. The assembly was told many `false
and alluring' tales, especially about the treasures at Egesta. (note 3) Their
envoys had been cheated by an ingenious trick: the Egestaeans had shown them
the temple of Aphroffite at Eryx full of bowls and Rsgons and censers, which,
being of silver, made a show out of proportion to their worth, and entertained
the ship's crew everywhere with gold and silver plate borrowed from all the
neighbouring towns, Phoenician and Hellenic. The seamen's eyes were dazzled,
and back at home their tongues ran on the boundless riches they had seen. Thus
they `had been deluded themselves and now persuaded their countrymen'.
(note 4) The trick was not to be discovered till too late; for the present,
Delusion keeps the Athenians' eyes dazzled with the sheen of flaunting,
golden
[1. vi. 6. 1 tosaËta [[paragraph]]ynh ÑEllÆnvn ka<
barbãrvn Sikel[[currency]]an 'kei, ka< [[section]]p< tosÆnde
oÔsan aÈtØn ofl ÉAyhna>oi strateÊein
Àrmhnto, [[section]]fideg.menoi mcentsn t[[ordfeminine]]
élhyestãt[[dotaccent]] profãsei t[[infinity]]w
pãshw êrjai, bohye>n dcents ëma eÈprep<<w
boulÒmenoi to>w *aut<<n juggendeg.si ka< to>w prosgegenhmdeg.noiw
jummãxoiw, mãlista dcents aÈtoÁw
[[section]]j~rmhsan ÉEgesta[[currency]]vn prdeg.sbeiw... With the turn
of the sentence cf. iv. 21. 2 (Cleon's intervention before Sphacteria, above,
p. 113),... toË dcents pldeg.onow >>rdeg.gonto, mãlista
dcents aÈtoÁw Én[[infinity]]ge Kldeg.vn.... [2. vi.
6.
[3. vi. 8. 2 ka< ofl ÉAyhna>oi [[section]]kklhs[[currency]]an
poiÆsantew ka< ékoÊsantew t<<n te
ÉEgesta[[currency]]vn ka< t<<n sfetdeg.rvn prdeg.sbevn tã
te êlla [[section]]pagvgå ka< oÈk élhy[[infinity]]
ka< per< t<<n xrhmãtvn ...w e[[daggerdbl]]h *to>ma [[paragraph]]n
te to>w pollå ka< [[section]]n t" koin", [[section]]chf[[currency]]santo
naËw *jÆkonta pdeg.mpein....
[4. vi. 46 aÈto[[currency]]
te épathydeg.ntew ka< toÁw êllouw
pe[[currency]]santew.]
[[200]]
Wealth. They voted that sixty ships should sail under the command of
Alcibiades, Nikias, and Samachus.
`How else,' says Peitho-Clytemnestra, `how else pitch the toils of Harm
to a height beyond o'erleaping?...I wreathed around him like a
fishing-net,
Swatbing in a blind maze,--deadly wealth of robe!' (note 1)
Had
Aphrodite, in her precinct at Eryx, a chapel for her attendant spirit,
Persuasion?
[1. Aesch. Agam. 1381, Dr. Headlam's version (Cambridge
Praelections, 1906, p. 135)êpeiron émf[[currency]]blhstron,
Àsper fixyÊvn,peristix[[currency]]zv, ploËton e.matow
kakÒn.
Schol. ad loc. tÚ dcents Ïcow kre>sson
[[section]]kphdÆmatow toËto shma[[currency]]nein boÊletai, ~ti
i filik<<w ÍperxÒmenÒw tina ka<
épat[[infinity]]sai boulÒmenow efiw êfukton fragmÚn
[[section]]mpldeg.ki aÈtÚn t[[infinity]]w
ÉApãthw.]