Herodotus

“ Marvellous indeed it is, that weapons of war should of their own motion appear lying outside before the shrine; but the visitation which followed upon that was more wondrous than aught else ever seen. For when the foreigners were near in their coming to the temple of Athene Pronaea, there were they smitten by thunderbolts from heaven, and two peaks brake off from Parnassus and came rushing among them with a mighty noise and overwhelmed many of them; and from the temple of Athene there was heard a shout and a cry of triumph. ”

“ For my own part I will say nothing of the goodwill that I have towards you, for it would not be the first that you have learnt of that; but I entreat you to follow Mardonius’ counsel. Well I see that you will not have power to wage war against Xerxes for ever; did I see such power in you, I had never come to you with such language as this; for the king’s might is greater than human, and his arm is long. If therefore you will not straightway agree with them, when the conditions which they offer you, whereon they are ready to agree, are so great, I fear what may befall you ”

“ Do not, O king, make the Persians a laughing-stock to the Greeks; for if you have suffered harm, it is by no fault of the Persians, nor can you say that we have anywhere done less than brave men should; and if Phoenicians and Egyptians and Cyprians and Cilicians have so done, it is not the Persians who have any part in this disaster. Wherefore since the Persians are nowise to blame, be guided by me; if you are resolved that you will not remain, do you march away homewards with the greater part of your army ”

“ It is not on things of wood that all the issue hangs for us, but on men and horses; and there is not one of these men, who think that they have now won a crowning victory, that will disembark from his ship and essay to withstand you, no, nor anyone from this mainland they that have withstood us have paid the penalty. If then it so please you, let us straightway attack the Peloponnese; or if it please you to wait, that also we can do. Be not cast down for the Greeks have no way of escape from being accountable for their former and their latter deeds, and becoming your slaves. ”

“ But if you make haste to fight at once on sea, I fear lest your fleet take some hurt and thereby harm your army likewise. Moreover, O king, call this to mind—good men’s slaves are wont to be evil and bad men’s slaves good; and you, who are the best of all men, have evil slaves, that pass for your allies, men of Egypt and Cyprus and Cilicia and Pamphylia, in whom is no usefulness. ”

“ Themistocles then being returned to his ship, Mnesiphilus, an Athenian, asked him what was the issue of their counsels. Learning from him that their plan was to sail to the Isthmus and fight in defence of the Peloponnese, “Then,” said Mnesiphilus, “if they put out to sea from Salamis, your ships will have no country left wherefor to fight; for everyone will betake himself to his own city, and neither Eurybiades, nor any other man, will be able to hold them, but the armament will be scattered abroad; and Hellas will perish, by unwisdom. ”

“ When Xerxes was aware of the calamity that had befallen him, he feared lest the Greeks (by Ionian counsel or their own devising) might sail to the Hellespont to break his bridges, and he might be cut off in Europe and in peril of his life; and so he planned flight. But that neither the Greeks nor his own men might discover his intent, he essayed to build a mole across to Salamis, and made fast a line of Phoenician barges to be a floating bridge and a wall; and he made preparation for war, as though he would fight at sea again. ”

“ Now he had heard already, that the Peloponnesians desired to sail to the Isthmus. So when Themistocles came out, Aristides said, “Let the rivalry between us be now as it has been before, to see which of us two shall do his country more good. I tell you now, that it is all one for the Peloponnesians to talk much or little about sailing away from hence; for I say from that which my eyes have seen that now even if the Corinthians and Eurybiades himself desire to sail out, they cannot; we are hemmed in on all sides by our enemies. ”

“ Thereupon Themistocles spoke long and bitterly against Adimantus and the Corinthians, giving them plainly to understand that the Athenians had a city and country greater than theirs, as long as they had two hundred ships fully manned; for there were no Greeks that could beat them off.
62. Thus declaring, he passed over to Eurybiades, and spoke more vehemently than before. “If you abide here, by so abiding you will be a right good man; but if you will not, you will overthrow Hellas; for all our strength for war is in our ships. ”

“ If you make no haste to fight at sea, but keep your ships here and abide near the land, or even go forward into the Peloponnese, then, my master, you will easily gain that end wherefor you have come. For the Greeks are not able to hold out against you for a long time, but you will scatter them, and they will flee each to his city; they have no food in this island, as I am informed, nor, if you lead your army into the Peloponnese, is it likely that those of them who have come from thence will abide unmoved; they will have no mind to fight sea-battles for Athens. ”

“ For your part, you have given us full measure of kindness; yet for ourselves, we will make shift to endure as best we may, and not be burdensome to you. But now, seeing that this is so, send your army with all speed; for as we guess, the foreigner will be upon us and invading our country in no long time, but as soon as ever the message comes to him that we will do nothing that he requires of us; wherefore, ere he comes into Attica, now is the time for us to march first into Boeotia.” At this reply of the Athenians the envoys returned back to Sparta. ”

“ This was the way whereby Themistocles made the Greeks to stay where they were: he gave Eurybiades for his share five talents of that money, as though it were of his own that he gave it. Eurybiades being thus won over, none of the rest was of a resisting temper save only Adimantus, son of Ocytus, the Corinthian admiral, who said that he would not remain but sail away from Artemisium; to him said Themistocles, adding an oath thereto: “Nay, you of all men will not desert us; for I will give you a greater gift than the king of the Medes would send you for deserting your allies” ”

“ In that sea-fight the nations that won most renown were the Aeginetans, and next to them the Athenians; among men the most renowned were Polycritus of Aegina and two Athenians, Eumenes of Anagyrus and Aminias of Pallene, he who pursued after Artemisia. Had he known that she was in that ship, he had never been stayed ere he took hers or lost his own; such was the bidding given to the Athenian captain, and there was a prize withal of ten thousand drachmae for whoever should take her alive; for there was great wrath that a woman should come to attack Athens. ”

“ But when the allies withstood this, the Athenians waived their claim, deeming the safety of Hellas of prime moment, and seeing that if they quarrelled over the leadership Hellas must perish; wherein they judged rightly; for civil strife is as much worse than united war as war is worse than peace. ”

“ Without doubt, Demaratus, some great harm will befall the king’s host; for Attica being unpeopled, it is plain hereby that the voice we hear is of heaven’s sending, and comes from Eleusis to the aid of the Athenians and their allies. And if the vision descend upon the Peloponnese, the king himself and his army on land will be endangered; but if it turn towards the ships at Salamis, the king will be in peril of losing his fleet. As for this feast, it is kept by the Athenians every year for the honour of the Mother and the Maid, and whatever Greek will, be he Athenian or other, is then initiated ”

“ Wherefore I say to you,—as it is to a fortunate chance that we owe ourselves and Hellas, and have driven away so mighty a cloud of enemies, let us not pursue after men that flee. For it is not we that have won this victory, but the gods and the heroes, who deemed Asia and Europe too great a realm for one man to rule, and that a wicked man and an impious ”

“ If you engage off the Isthmus you will fight in open waters, where it is least for our advantage, our ships being the heavier and the fewer in number; and moreover you will lose Salamis and Megara and Aegina, even if victory attend us otherwise; and their land army will follow with their fleet, and so you will lead them to the Peloponnese, and imperil all Hellas. But if you do as I counsel you, you will thereby profit as I shall show: firstly, by engaging their many ships with our few in narrow seas, we shall win a great victory, if the war have its rightful issue ”

“ But to Alexander the Athenians thus replied: “We know of ourselves that the power of the Mede is many times greater than ours; there is no need to taunt us with that. Nevertheless in our zeal for freedom we will defend ourselves to the best of our ability. But as touching agreements with the foreigner, do not you essay to persuade us thereto, nor will we consent; and now carry this answer back to Mardonius from the Athenians, that as long as the sun holds the course whereby he now goes, we will make no agreement with Xerxes ”

“ The purpose of their putting out to sea was, that the Greeks might have no liberty even to flee, but should be hemmed in at Salamis and punished for their fighting off Artemisium. And the purpose of their landing Persians on the islet called Psyttalea was this, that as it was here in especial that in the sea fight men and wrecks would be washed ashore (for the island lay in the very path of the battle that was to be) , they might thus save their friends and slay their foes. ”

“ Nevertheless we grieve with you in your afflictions, for that now you have lost two harvests and your substance has been for a long time wasted; in requital wherefor the Lacedaemonians and their allies declare that they will nourish your women and all of your households that are unserviceable for war, so long as this war shall last. But let not Alexander the Macedonian win you with his smooth-tongued praise of Mardonius’ counsel. It is his business to follow that counsel, for as he is a despot so must he be the despot’s fellow-worker; but it is not your business, if you be men rightly minded ”

“ Tell me, you that have made a livelihood out of the wickedest trade on earth! what harm had I or any of my forefathers done to you, to you or yours, that you made me to be no man, but a thing of nought? ”

“ But if again the issue be contrary to Mardonius’ opinion, it is no great misfortune so long as you and all that household of yours be safe; for while you and they of your house are safe, many a time and oft will the Greeks have to fight for their lives. As for Mardonius, if aught ill befall him, it is no matter for that; nor will any victory of the Greeks be a victory in truth, when they have but slain your servant; but as for you, you will be marching home after the burning of Athens, which thing was the whole purpose of your expedition.”
103. Artemisia’s counsel pleased Xerxes ”

“ And if that happen which I expect, you will never have the foreigners upon you at the Isthmus; they will advance no further than Attica, but depart in disorderly fashion; and we shall gain by the saving of Megara and Aegina and Salamis, where it is told us by an oracle that we shall have the upper hand of our enemies. Success comes oftenest to men when they make reasonable designs; but if they do not so, neither will heaven for its part side with human devices. ”

“ It is then but reasonable that Athens is great and prosperous, being blest with serviceable gods; as for us Andrians, we are but blest with a plentiful lack of land, and we have two unserviceable gods who never quit our island but are ever fain to dwell there, even Poverty and Impotence; being possessed of these gods, we of Andros will give no money ”

“ Thus it was with these two; but the great multitude of the ships were shattered at Salamis, some destroyed by the Athenians and some by the Aeginetans. For since the Greeks fought orderly and in array, but the foreigners were by now disordered and did nought of set purpose, it was but reason that they should come to such an end as befel them. Yet on that day they were and approved themselves by far better men than off Euboea; all were zealous, and feared Xerxes, each man thinking that the king’s eye was on him. ”

“ It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed. ”

“ But at the last in their quandary the foreigners found an entrance; for the oracle must needs be fulfilled, and all the mainland of Attica be made subject to the Persians. In front of the acropolis, and behind the gates and the ascent thereto, there was a place where none was on guard and none would have thought that any man would ascend that way; here certain men mounted near the shrine of Cecrops’ daughter Aglaurus, though the way led up a sheer cliff. ”

“ So the rest made sail thither, and the Athenians to their own country. Being there arrived they made a proclamation that every Athenian should save his children and servants as he best could. Thereat most of them sent their households to Troezen, and some to Aegina and Salamis. They made haste to convey all out of harm because they desired to be guided by the oracle, and for another reason, too, which was this: it is said by the Athenians that a great snake lives in their temple, to guard the acropolis; in proof whereof they do ever duly set out a honey-cake as a monthly offering for it ”

“ But as it is well with us for the nonce, let us abide now in Hellas and take thought for ourselves and our households; let us build our houses again and be diligent in sowing, when we have driven the foreigner wholly away; and when the next spring comes let us set sail for the Hellespont and Ionia.” This he said with intent to put somewhat to his credit with the Persian, so that he might have a place of refuge if ever (as might chance) he should suffer aught at the hands of the Athenians ”