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125.
The Alcmeonidae had been men of renown at Athens even in the old days, and from the time of Alcmeon1 and then Megacles their renown increased.
[2]
When the Lydians from Sardis came from Croesus to the Delphic oracle, Alcmeon son of Megacles worked with them and zealously aided them; when Croesus heard from the Lydians who visited the oracle of Alcmeon's benefits to him, he summoned Alcmeon to Sardis, and there made him a gift of as much gold as he could carry away at one time on his person.
[3]
Considering the nature of the gift, Alcmeon planned and employed this device: he donned a wide tunic, leaving a deep fold in it, and put on the most spacious boots that he could find, then went into the treasury to which they led him.
[4]
Falling upon a heap of gold-dust, first he packed next to his legs as much gold as his boots would contain; then he filled all the fold of his tunic with gold and strewed the dust among the hair of his head, and took more of it into his mouth; when he came out of the treasury, hardly dragging the weight of his boots, he was like anything rather than a human being, with his mouth crammed full and all his body swollen.
[5]
Croesus burst out laughing at the sight and gave him all the gold he already had and that much more again. Thus the family grew very rich; Alcmeon came to keep four-horse chariots and won with them at Olympia.
1 Alcmeon ‘flourished’ about 590; Croesus' reign was 560-546; it was Megacles son of Alcmeon, and not Alcmeon himself, who was Croesus' contemporary.
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
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- Commentary references to this page
(1):
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 372
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(27):
- LSJ, ἀνείσφορ-θε
- LSJ, βύω
- LSJ, δια-πάσσω
- LSJ, ἔοικα
- LSJ, ἐξογκ-όω
- LSJ, ἐπιτηδ-εύω
- LSJ, εἰσάπαξ
- LSJ, εἰσέρχομαι
- LSJ, εὐρύς
- LSJ, φοιτ-άω
- LSJ, κάρτα^
- LSJ, καί
- LSJ, καταλείπω
- LSJ, κόλπος
- LSJ, κόθορνος
- LSJ, κότορνος
- LSJ, λαμπρός
- LSJ, παρασάττω
- LSJ, πλουτ-έω
- LSJ, πολύς
- LSJ, πρός
- LSJ, προσφέρω
- LSJ, συλλαμβάνω
- LSJ, συμπράκτωρ
- LSJ, σωρός
- LSJ, τεθριππο-τροφέω
- LSJ, ὑποδέω
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