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H. is Elizabethan in his impartial spelling. Cf. Μαλέων here with Μαλέην of iv. 179. 2. Thyrea was the northern part of Cynuria, which certainly once belonged to Argos (viii. 73. 3 n.).

ἑσπέρην. The east coast of Laconia does lie west of Argolis; but H. ignores the fact that it also lies south (for his weakness in orientation cf. vii. 176. 3 n.; ix. 14.

αἱ λοιπαί. Several small islands lie off Cythera (Strabo, 363); hence there is no need to see an echo of the well-known line, Il. ii. 108.


For the combat of picked warriors cf. ix. 26. 3 and the legend of the Horatii (Liv. i. 25). An historical instance is the conflict on the North Inch of Perth in 1396, so well described in Scott's ‘Fair Maid of Perth’. The Spartan three hundred may be the Hippeis (67. 5 n.), but this is very doubtful.


Pausanias (x. 9. 12) says the Argives dedicated an offering at Delphi for the victory; but his narrative is inconsistent (Frazer, P. v. 265, 637).


κατακειράμενοι. The story is suspicious, as it looks like an attempt to explain a difference of custom between kindred peoples; the Greeks originally all wore long hair (κάρη κομόωντες Ἀχαιοί), and the conservative Spartans may have retained the custom, which died out elsewhere merely from motives of convenience. Certainly in fifth-century Athens κομᾶν was a sign of Laconizing (Arist. Av. 1281-2).

The custom of cutting the hair as a sign of grief (ii. 36. 1; Il. 23. 141), and of wearing it long as a sign of pride (cf. Absalom), is a well-authenticated one. Cutting the hair and the flesh for mourning (for the combination cf. iv. 71. 2) was forbidden to the Jews (Deut. xiv. 1). The hair was regarded as the symbol of the man; so a priest's tonsure is a sign of dedication. For the whole subject of hair cf. Tylor, P. C. ii. 400 f.; Robertson-Smith, Rel. Sem. p. 323; and Hastings' D. B., s. v. ‘Hair’.


Pausanias (ii. 20. 7) makes Othryades killed by an Argive. Chrysermus, a Corinthian writer of unknown date, said that he, left on the field seriously wounded, set up a trophy with an inscription in his own blood (F. H. G. iv. 361); this is a mere embellishment on H.'s narrative.

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