III. THE WOMEN OF CHIOS1
The reason which led the Chians to appropriate
Leuconia as a settlement was as follows : One of the
men who appear to have been prominent in Chios was
getting married, and, as the bride was being conducted
to his home in a chariot, the king, Hippoclus, a close
friend of the bridegroom, being there with the rest
amid the drinking and merry-making, jumped up
into the chariot, not with intent to do anything
insulting, but merely following the common custom
and indulging in facetiousness. Whereupon the friends
of the bridegroom killed him.
Signs of divine anger were soon disclosed to the
Chians, and the god of the oracle bade them slay the
slayers of Hippoclus, but they said that they all had
slain Hippoclus. So the god bade them all leave the
city, if they were all involved in the crime. And thus
the guilty, both those who had taken a hand in the
murder and those who had in any way assented to it,
[p. 487]
being not few in number nor without strength, the
Chians sent away to settle in Leuconia, which they
had earlier wrested from the Coroneans and taken
possession of with the co-operation of the Erythraeans.
Later, however, they became involved in war with
the Erythraeans,
2 the most powerful of the lonians;
and when these marched against Leuconia, they
were not able to hold out, and agreed to evacuate
the town under truce, each man to have one cloak
and one inner garment and nothing else. The
women, however, called them cowards if they purposed to lay down their arms and go forth naked
through the midst of the enemy. But when the men
said that they had given their oath, the women
bade them not to leave their arms behind, but to say,
by way of answer to the enemy, that the spear serves
as a cloak, and the shield as a shirt, to a man of
spirit. The Chians took this advice, and when they
used bold words towards the Erythraeans and displayed their weapons, the Erythraeans were frightened at their boldness, and no one approached them
nor hindered them, but all were well pleased at their
departure. So the Chians, having been taught
courage by their women, were saved in this way.
A deed which does not in the least fall short of this
one in bravery was performed by the women of
Chios many years later at the time when Philip,
3
son of Demetrius, was besieging their city, and had
made a barbarous and insolent proclamation bidding
the slaves to desert to him, their reward to be freedom and marriage with their owners, meaning
thereby that he was intending to unite them with
the wives of their masters. But the women, suddenly
possessed of fierce and savage spirit, in company with
[p. 489]
their slaves, who were themselves equally indignant
and supported the women by their presence, hastened to mount the walls, both bringing stones and
missiles, and exhorting and importuning the fighting men until, finally, by their vigorous defence and
the wounds inflicted on the enemy by their missiles,
they repulsed Philip. And not a single slave deserted
to him.
