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126.
This interval was spent in sending embassies
to Athens charged with complaints, in order to obtain as good a pretext for
war as possible, in the event of her paying no attention to them.
[2]
The first Lacedaemonian embassy was to order the Athenians to drive out the
curse of the goddess; the history of which is as follows.
[3]
In former generations there was an Athenian of the name of Cylon, a victor
at the Olympic games, of good birth and powerful position, who had married a
daughter of Theagenes, a Megarian, at that time tyrant of Megara.
[4]
Now this Cylon was inquiring at Delphi; when he was told by the god to seize the Acropolis of Athens on the grand
festival of Zeus.
[5]
Accordingly, procuring a force from Theagenes and persuading his friends to
join him, when the Olympic festival in Peloponnese came, he seized the
Acropolis, with the intention of making himself tyrant, thinking that this
was the grand festival of Zeus, and also an occasion appropriate for a
victor at the Olympic games.
[6]
Whether the grand festival that was meant was in Attica or elsewhere was a
question which he never thought of, and which the oracle did not offer to
solve.
For the Athenians also have a festival which is called the grand festival
of Zeus Meilichios or Gracious, viz. the Diasia.
It is celebrated outside the city, and the whole people sacrifice not real
victims but a number of bloodless offerings peculiar to the country.
However, fancying he had chosen the right time, he made the attempt.
[7]
As soon as the Athenians perceived it, they flocked in, one and all, from
the country, and sat down, and laid siege to the citadel.
[8]
But as time went on, weary of the labour of blockade, most of them
departed; the responsibility of keeping guard being left to the nine archons, with
plenary powers to arrange everything according to their good judgment.
It must be known that at that time most political functions were discharged
by the nine archons.
[9]
Meanwhile Cylon and his besieged companions were distressed for want of
food and water.
[10]
Accordingly Cylon and his brother made their escape; but the rest being hard pressed, and some even dying of famine, seated
themselves as suppliants at the altar in the Acropolis.
[11]
The Athenians who were charged with the duty of keeping guard, when they
saw them at the point of death in the temple, raised them up on the
understanding that no harm should be done to them, led them out and slew
them.
Some who as they passed by took refuge at the altars of the awful goddesses
were despatched on the spot.
From this deed the men who killed them were called accursed and guilty
against the goddess, they and their descendants.
[12]
Accordingly these cursed ones were driven out by the Athenians, driven out
again by Cleomenes of Lacedaemon and an Athenian faction; the living were driven out, and the bones of the dead were taken up; thus they were cast out.
For all that, they came back afterwards, and their descendants are still in
the city.
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910.
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References (81 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(19):
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus, 1-150
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus, 216-462
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 276
- W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, 3.39-60
- W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, 5.70
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2, 2.8
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3, 3.28
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 6, 6.62
- E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 7, 7.2
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.10
- T. G. Tucker, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 8, 8.84
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER CXI
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER CXVIII
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 4, CHAPTER XXVI
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.26
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.37
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.61
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.64
- C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5, 5.71
- Cross-references to this page
(19):
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE CASES
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, THE VERB: VOICES
- Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, PARTICLES
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.4.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.pos=2.1
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), ARCHON
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), ASY´LUM
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), DIA´SIA
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), NAUCRA´RIA
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), OLY´MPIA
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), ORA´CULUM
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), SACRIFICIUM
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), TYRANNUS
- William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, Chapter II
- William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb, Chapter IV
- Smith's Bio, Cylon
- Smith's Bio, Meili'chius
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(3):
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Thuc. 2.13
- Plutarch, Pericles, Plut. Per. 33
- Plutarch, Solon, Plut. Sol. 12
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(40):
- LSJ, Δι_άσια
- LSJ, ἁγνός
- LSJ, ἄγος
- LSJ, ἄρχων
- LSJ, ἀλιτ-ήριος
- LSJ, ἀναιρέω
- LSJ, ἀποθνήσκω
- LSJ, αὐτο-κράτωρ
- LSJ, βοηθ-έω
- LSJ, ἔγ-κλημα
- LSJ, ἐκδιδράσκω
- LSJ, ἐλαύνω
- LSJ, ἐνα^γ-ής
- LSJ, ἐπί
- LSJ, ἐπιγίγνομαι
- LSJ, ἐπιτρέπ-ω
- LSJ, εἰσα^κούω
- LSJ, φλαῦρος
- LSJ, γα^μέω
- LSJ, γένος
- LSJ, ἱερεῖον
- LSJ, καθίζω
- LSJ, καταλαμβάνω
- LSJ, μειλίχ-ιος
- LSJ, μετά
- LSJ, νι_κάω
- LSJ, ὅ τι
- LSJ, πάροδος
- LSJ, παν-δημεί
- LSJ, πι^έζω
- LSJ, πολύς
- LSJ, πρεσβ-εύω
- LSJ, προσεδρ-εία
- LSJ, προσήκω
- LSJ, θύω
- LSJ, θῦμα
- LSJ, σεμνός
- LSJ, τρύχω
- LSJ, ὡς
- LSJ, χράω
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