[239b]
deeming it their duty to fight in the cause of freedom alike with Greeks on behalf of Greeks and with barbarians on behalf of the whole of Greece. The story of how they repulsed Eumolpus1 and the Amazons,2 and still earlier invaders, when they marched upon our country, and how they defended the Argives against the Cadmeians3 and the Heracleidae against the Argives,4 is a story which our time is too short to relate as it deserves, and already their valor has been adequately celebrated in song by poets who have made it known throughout the world;
1 Eumolpus, a Tracian bard and chieftain, son of Poseidon, said to have aided the Eleusinians in invading Attica.
2 The Amazons, a race of female warriors in Pontus, said to have attacked Athens and been driven back to Asia by the hero Theseus.
3 i.e. in the war of “the Seven against Thebes” (of which city Cadmus was the founder).
4 The Athenians aided “the sons of Heracles” against Eurystheus, King of Tiryns in Argolis.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.
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