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φήμη: the well-known (cf. ch. 35. 2; ix. 100, 101) omen, contained in the words πάλιν χώρεε.

τὸ ἄδυτον τῆς θεοῦ: presumably the shrine of Athene Polias in the Erechtheum (viii. 41. 2, 51. 2 n.); but there was also on the Acropolis, before the Persian war, the old Hecatompedon discovered by Dörpfeld (M. A. I. xi. 1886, p. 337), between the sites of the Parthenon and Erechtheum (Frazer, Paus. Appendix, Bk. I). Dörpfeld further holds that this temple was rebuilt after the Persian war and existed at least as a treasury in the days of H., but this seems improbable (cf. D'Ooge, The Acropolis, p. 41 f., 369-97). If neither this temple nor the Erechtheum, which was rebuilt late in the Peloponnesian war, were restored when H. was writing his vagueness in referring to ‘the temple’ is more natural.

ἱερείη. The Eteobutadae supplied the priestess of Athena Polias, and the priest of Erechtheus (Aesch. Choeph. 572).

τὰς θύρας ... ἀμεῖψαι, ‘pass the folding doors,’ as often in Tragedy; cf. Soph. Phil. 1262. With this attempt of Cleomenes we may compare his conduct at Argos, vi. 81, 82.

Δωριεῦσι: probably for all non-Ionians, perhaps for all but the priests. Cf. Caes. B. C. iii. 105 ‘in occultis ac reconditis templi, quo praeter sacerdotes adire fas non est, quae Graeci ἄδυτα appellant’ (of Pergamum).

Ἀχαιός: as a Heracleid (vii. 204; viii. 131). For a discussion of the race of the Spartan kings cf. vi. 53 n. Cleomenes' reply gains point when we remember that his half-brother was Dorieus (ch. 41).

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