History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0184/01843.txt

Text File | 1992-10-11 | 8KB | 141 lines

$Unique_ID{how01843}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of Herodotus, The
Part VI}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Herodotus}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{athenians
pelasgians
lemnos
attica
women

}
$Date{1909}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of Herodotus, The
Book:        Sixth Book, Entitled Erato
Author:      Herodotus
Date:        1909
Translation: Rawlinson, George

Part VI

     137. Now the way in which Miltiades had made himself master of Lemnos was
the following.  There were certain Pelasgians whom the Athenians once drove
out of Attica; whether they did it justly or unjustly I cannot say, since I
only know what is reported concerning it, which is the following: Hecataeus,
the son of Hegesander, says in his History that it was unjustly.  "The
Athenians," according to him, "had given to the Pelasgi a tract of land at the
foot of Hymettus as payment for the wall with which the Pelasgians had
surrounded their citadel.  This land was barren, and little worth at the time;
but the Pelasgians brought it into good condition; whereupon the Athenians
begrudged them the tract, and desired to recover it.  And so, without any
better excuse, they took arms and drove out the Pelasgians." But the Athenians
maintain that they were justified in what they did.  "The Pelasgians," they
say, "while they lived at the foot of Hymettus, were wont to sally forth from
that region and commit outrages on their children.  For the Athenians used at
that time to send their sons and daughters to draw water at the fountain
called 'the Nine Springs,' inasmuch as neither they nor the other Greeks had
any household slaves in those days; and the maidens, whenever they came, were
used rudely and insolently by the Pelasgians.  Nor were they even content
thus; but at the last they laid a plot, and were caught by the Athenians in
the act of making an attempt upon their city.  Then did the Athenians give a
proof how much better men they were than the Pelasgians; for whereas they
might justly have killed them all, having caught them in the very act of
rebelling, they spared their lives, and only required that they should leave
the country.  Hereupon the Pelasgians quitted Attica, and settled in Lemnos
and other places." Such are the accounts respectively of Hecataeus and the
Athenians.

     138. These same Pelasgians, after they were settled in Lemnos, conceived
the wish to be revenged on the Athenians.  So, as they were well acquainted
with the Athenian festivals, they manned some penteconters, and having laid an
ambush to catch the Athenian women as they kept the festival of Diana at
Brauron, ^1 they succeeded in carrying off a large number, whom they took to
Lemnos and there kept as concubines.  After a while the women bore children,
whom they taught to speak the language of Attica and observe the manners of
the Athenians.  These boys refused to have any commerce with the sons of the
Pelasgian women; and if a Pelasgian boy struck one of their number, they all
made common cause, and joined in avenging their comrade; nay, the Greek boys
even set up a claim to exercise lordship over the others, and succeeded in
gaining the upper hand.  When these things came to the ears of the Pelasgians,
they took counsel together, and, on considering the matter, they grew
frightened, and said one to another, "If these boys even now are resolved to
make common cause against the sons of our lawful wives, and seek to exercise
lordship over them, what may we expect when they grow up to be men?" Then it
seemed good to the Pelasgians to kill all the sons of the Attic women; which
they did accordingly, and at the same time slew likewise their mothers.  From
this deed, and that former crime of the Lemnian women, when they slew their
husbands in the days of Thoas, ^1 it has come to be usual throughout Greece to
call wicked actions by the name of "Lemnian deeds."

[Footnote 1: Brauron, as is sufficiently evident from this place, was one of
the maritime demes of Attica.  The Brauronia was a festival held once in four
years, wherein the Attic girls, between the ages of five and ten, went in
procession, dressed in crocus-coloured garments, to the sanctuary, and there
performed a rite wherein they imitated bears.  No Attic woman was allowed to
marry till she had gone through this ceremony.]

[Footnote 1: The tale went that the Sintian Lemnians, the original inhabitants
of the island, having become disgusted with their wives, on whom Venus had
sent a curse, married Thracian women from the continent. Hereupon their wives
formed a conspiracy, and murdered their fathers and their husbands.  Hypsipyle
alone had compassion on her father Thoas, and concealed him.  Her fraud was
afterwards detected; Thoas was killed, and Hypsipyle sold into slavery.]

     139. When the Pelasgians had thus slain their children and their women,
the earth refused to bring forth its fruits for them, and their wives bore
fewer children, and their flocks and herds increased more slowly than before,
till at last, sore pressed by famine and bereavement, they sent men to Delphi,
and begged the god to tell them how they might obtain deliverance from their
sufferings.  The Pythoness answered, that "they must give the Athenians
whatever satisfaction they might demand." Then the Pelasgians went to Athens
and declared their wish to give the Athenians satisfaction for the wrong which
they had done to them.  So the Athenians had a couch prepared in their
townhall, and adorned it with the fairest coverlets, and set by its side a
table laden with all manner of good things, and then told the Pelasgians they
must deliver up their country to them in a similar condition.  The Pelasgians
answered and said, "When a ship comes with a north wind from your country to
ours in a single day, then will we give it up to you." This they said because
they knew that what they required was impossible, for Attica lies a long way
to the south of Lemnos. ^2

[Footnote 2: Lemnos is nearly 140 miles north of Attica.]

     140. No more passed at that time.  But very many years afterwards, when
the Hellespontian Chersonese had been brought under the power of Athens,
Miltiades, the son of Cimon, sailed, during the prevalence of the Etesian
winds, from Elaeus in the Chersonese to Lemnos, and called on the Pelasgians
to quit their island, reminding them of the prophecy which they had supposed
it impossible to fulfil.  The people of Hephaestia obeyed the call; but they
of Myrina, not acknowledging the Chersonese to be any part of Attica, refused
and were besieged and brought over by force.  Thus was Lemnos gained by the
Athenians and Miltiades.

Added Note By The Editor: The Battle Of Marathon

     The importance of the battle of Marathon can hardly be overestimated. The
success of the Athenians inspired Greece to gird herself to withstand the
later (and greater) invasion of Xerxes.  It is one of those victories upon
which the destinies of nations have hinged.  But, apart from this aspect of
the battle, we do well to remember that the great democracy of Athens was
baptised, if it was not born, on that immortal field.  Rightly did the
Athenians regard Marathon as marking a decisive epoch in her history.  "It was
as if on that day the Gods had said to them: Go on and prosper."

     For further information the student is referred to the histories of
Thirlwall and of Grote.  In Prof. Strachan's edition of the sixth book of
Herodotus, a careful account of the battle is given (Appendix i.; see the
map).  Creasy, in his Decisive Battles of the World, supplies a popular
description.

     What Trafalgar and Waterloo have been to modern Europe, that - and more -
Marathon and Salamis proved to the ancient world.  Whereas in the former case,
the sea-victory preceded the land-victory, in the latter the position is
reversed.  It is a curious coincidence that, in both these world struggles, a
period of just ten years separated the naval and the land battles (B.C. 490
and 480; A.D. 1805, and 1815).