THEBOYS' AND GIRLS'HERODOTUS

THE PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX.

THEBOYS' AND GIRLS'HERODOTUSBEINGPARTS OF THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUSEdited for Boys and Girls, with an IntroductionBYJOHN S. WHITE, LL.D.HEAD-MASTER, BERKELEY SCHOOL; EDITOR OF THE BOYS' AND GIRLS' PLUTARCHWITH FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONSNEW YORK & LONDONG. P. PUTNAM'S SONSThe Knickerbocker Press1884COPYRIGHT BYG. P. PUTNAM'S SONS1884

BEING

PARTS OF THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS

Edited for Boys and Girls, with an Introduction

JOHN S. WHITE, LL.D.HEAD-MASTER, BERKELEY SCHOOL; EDITOR OF THE BOYS' AND GIRLS' PLUTARCH

WITH FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK & LONDONG. P. PUTNAM'S SONSThe Knickerbocker Press1884

Imagineyourself in the city of Athens near the close of the year 446B.C.The proud city, after many years of supremacy over the whole of Central Greece, has passed her zenith, and is surely on the decline. She has never recovered from the blow received at Coronea. The year has been one of gloom and foreboding. The coming spring will bring the end of the five years' truce; and an invasion from the Peloponnesus is imminent. But, as the centre of learning, refinement, and the arts, the lustre of her fame is yet undimmed, and men of education throughout the world deem their lives incomplete until they have sought and reached this intellectual Mecca. During this year a stranger from Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor, after many years of travel in Asia, Scythia, Libya, Egypt, and Magna Græcia, has taken up his abode at Athens. He is still a young man, hardly thirty-seven, yet his fame is that of the first and greatest of historians. Dramatists and poets immortal there have been, but never man has written such exquisite prose. Twenty centuries and more shall wear away, and his history will be read in a hundred different tongues, as well as in the beautiful and simple Greek that he wrote. His name will grow into a household word; the school-boy will revel in his delightful tales, and wise men will call him the Father of History! For weeks the people of Athens have listened entranced to the public reading of his great work, and now the Assembly has passed a decree tendering to him the city's thanks, together with a most substantial gift in recognition of his talents—a purse of money equal to twelve thousand American dollars.

Such is the account which Eusebius gives, and others to whom we may fairly accord belief; and it adds no slight tinge of romance to the picture to discover among the listening throng the figure of the boy Thucydides, moved to tears by the recital, who then and there received the impulse that made of him also a great student and writer of history. Herodotus, noticing how intensely his reading had affected the youth, turned to Olorus, the father of Thucydides, who was standing near, and said: "Olorus, thy son's soul yearns after knowledge."

Herodotus was born at Halicarnassus, 484B.C., and died at Thurium in Italy, about the year 425. As in the case of Plutarch, our knowledge of his personal history is very meagre, aside from the little we glean from his own writings. His parents, Lyxes and Rhœo, appear to have been of high rank and consideration in Halicarnassus, and possessed of ample means; and his acquaintance both at home and in Athens was of the best. A lover of poetry and a poet by nature, the whole plan of his work, the tone and character of his thoughts, and a multitude of words and expressions, show him to have been perfectly familiar with the Homeric writings. There is scarcely an author previous to his time with whose works he does not appear to have been thoroughly acquainted. Hecatæus, to be sure, was almost the only writer of prose who had attained any distinction, for prose composition was practically in its infancy; but from him and from several others, too obscure even to be named, he freely quotes, while the poets, Hesiod, Olen, Musæus, Archilochus, the authors of the "Cypria" and the "Epigoni," Alcæus, Sappho, Solon, Æsop, Aristeas, Simonides of Ceos, Phrynichus, Æschylus, and Pindar, are referred to, or quoted, in such a way as to show an intimate acquaintance with their works.

The design of Herodotus was to record the struggles between the Greeks and barbarians, but, in carrying it out, as Wheeler, the English analyst of the writings of Herodotus, has happily expressed it, he is perpetually led to trace the causes of the great events of his history; to recount the origin of that mighty contest betweenliberty and despotism which marked the whole period; to describe the wondrous manners and mysterious religions of nations, and the marvellous geography and fabulous productions of the various countries, as each appeared on the great arena; to tell to an inquisitive and credulous people of cities vast as provinces and splendid as empires; of stupendous walls, temples and pyramids; of dreams, omens, and warnings from the dead; of obscure traditions and their exact accomplishment;—and thus to prepare their minds for the most wonderful story in the annals of men, when all Asia united in one endless array to crush the states of Greece; when armies bridged the seas and navies sailed through mountains; when proud, stubborn-hearted men arose amid anxiety, terror, confusion, and despair, and staked their lives and homes against the overwhelming power of a foreign despot, till Heaven itself sympathized with their struggles, and the winds and waves delivered their country, and opened the way to victory and revenge.

The personal character of Herodotus, reflected from every page that he wrote, renders his vivid story all the more happily suited to the reading and study of boys and girls. He is as honest as the sun; equally impartial to friends and foes; candid in the statement of both sides of a question; and an artist withal in the gift of delineating a character or a people with a few rapid strokes, so bold and masterly that the sketch is placed before you with stereoscopic distinctness. For so early a writer he presents a surprising unity of plan, combined with a variety of detail that is amazing. What if he does crowd and enrich his story with a world of anecdote? What if he feels bound always to paint for you the customs, manners, dress, and peculiarities of a people before he begins their history? This very biographical style is the charm of his pen. Like the flowers of the magnolia-tree, his bright stories and vivid descriptions at times almost overwhelm the root and branch of his narrative; yet, after all, we remember the magnolia more because of its cloud of snowy bloom in the few fleeting days of May than for all its green and shade in the other months.

Herodotus, to be sure, lacks that far-seeing faculty of discerning accurately the real causes of great movements, wars, and migrations of men—a faculty possessed pre-eminently by Thucydides and largely by Xenophon, but he is equally far removed from the coldness of the one and the ostentatious display of the other. He is above all things natural, simple, and direct. "He writes," says Aristotle, "sentences which have a continuous flow, and which end only when the sense is complete."

I have allowed Herodotus, as I did Plutarch, to tell you his story in his own words, as closely as the English idiom can reproduce the spirit and flow of the Greek, calling gratefully to my aid the labors of such students, analysts, and translators of Herodotus as Rawlinson, Dahlmann, Cary, and Wheeler; and I have discarded from the text only what is indelicate to the modern ear, or what the young reader might find tedious, redundant, or irrelevant to the main story. But so small a part comes under this head, that I am sure I can fairly say to you: "This is Herodotus himself." If you read him through and do not like him, who will be the disappointed one? Not you, but I!

New York,June 15, 1884.

HERODOTUS.

Thisis a publication of the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, made in order that the actions of men may not be effaced by time, and that the great and wondrous deeds displayed both by Greeks and barbarians[1]may not be deprived of renown; and, furthermore, that the cause for which they waged war upon each other may be known.

The learned among the Persians assert that the Phœnicians were the original authors of the quarrel; that they migrated from that which is called the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and, having settled in the country which they now inhabit, forthwith applied themselves to distant voyages; and that they exported Egyptian and Assyrian merchandise, touching at other places, and also at Argos. Argos, at that period, surpassed in every respect all those states which are now comprehended under the general appellation of Greece. They say, that on their arrival at Argos, the Phœnicians exposed their merchandise for sale, and that on the fifth or sixth day after their arrival, when they had almost disposed of their cargo, a great number of women came down to the sea-shore, and among them Io the daughter of the king Inachus. While these womenwere standing near the stern of the vessel, and were bargaining for such things as most pleased them, the Phœnicians made an attack upon them. Most of the women escaped, but Io with some others was seized. Then the traders hurried on board and set sail for Egypt. Thus the Persians say that Io went to Egypt, and that this was the beginning of wrongs. After this certain Greeks (for they are unable to tell their name), having touched at Tyre in Phœnicia, carried off the king's daughter Europa. These must have been Cretans. Thus far they say that they had only returned like for like, but that after this the Greeks were guilty of the second provocation; for having sailed down in a vessel of war to Æa, a city of Colchis on the river Phasis, when they had accomplished the more immediate object of their expedition, they carried off the king's daughter Medea; and the king of Colchis, having despatched a herald to Greece, demanded satisfaction and the restitution of the princess; but the Greeks replied, that as they of Asia had not given satisfaction for the stealing of Io, they would not give any to them. In the second generation after this, Alexander, the son of Priam, having heard of these events, was desirous of obtaining a wife from Greece by means of violence, being fully persuaded that he should not have to give satisfaction, since the Greeks had not done so. When, therefore, he had carried off Helen, the Greeks immediately sent messengers to demand her back again and require satisfaction; but when they brought forward these demands they were met with this reply: "You who have not yourselves given satisfaction, nor made it when demanded, now wish others to give it to you." After this the Greeks were greatly to blame, for they levied war against Asia before the Asiatics did upon Europe. Now, to carry off women by violence the Persians think is the act of wicked men; to trouble one's self about avenging them when so carried off is the act of foolish ones; and to pay no regard to them when carried off, of wise men: for it is clear, that if they had not been willing, they could not have been carried off. Accordingly the Persians say, that they of Asia made no account of women that were carried off; but that theGreeks for the sake of a Lacedæmonian woman assembled a mighty fleet, sailed to Asia, and overthrew the empire of Priam. From this event they had always considered the Greeks as their enemies: for the Persians claim Asia, and the barbarous nations that inhabit it, as their own, and consider Europe and the people of Greece as totally distinct.

Such is the Persian account; and to the capture of Troy they ascribe the commencement of their enmity to the Greeks. As relates to Io, the Phœnicians do not agree with this account of the Persians but affirm that she voluntarily sailed away with the traders. I, however, am not going to inquire further as to facts; but having pointed out the person whom I myself know to have been the first guilty of injustice toward the Greeks, I will then proceed with my history, touching as well on the small as the great estates of men: for of those that were formerly powerful many have become weak, and some that were formerly weak became powerful in my time. Knowing, therefore, the precarious nature of human prosperity, I shall commemorate both alike.

Crœsus was a Lydian by birth, son of Alyattes, and sovereign of the nations on this side the river Halys. This river flowing from the south between the Syrians[2]and Paphlagonians, empties itself northward into the Euxine Sea. This Crœsus was the first of the barbarians whom we know of that subjected some of the Greeks to the payment of tribute, and formed alliances with others. He subdued the Ionians and Æolians, and those of the Dorians who had settled in Asia, and formed an alliance with the Lacedæmonians; but before his reign all the Greeks were free.

Thegovernment, which formerly belonged to the Heraclidæ, passed to the family of Crœsus, who were called Mermnadæ. Candaules, whom the Greeks call Myrsilus, was tyrant of Sardis, and a descendant of Alcæus, son of Hercules. For Agron, son of Ninus, grandson of Belus, great-grandson of Alcæus, was the first of the Heraclidæ who became king of Sardis; and Candaules, son of Myrsus, was the last. They who ruled over this country before Agron, were descendants of Lydus, son of Atys, from whom this whole people, anciently called Mæonians, derived the name of Lydians. The Heraclidæ, descended from a female slave of Jardanus and Hercules, having been intrusted with the government by these princes, retained the supreme power in obedience to the declaration of an oracle: they reigned for twenty-two generations, a space of five hundred and five years, the son succeeding to the father to the time of Candaules, son of Myrsus. Candaules was murdered by his favorite, Gyges, who thus obtained the kingdom, and was confirmed in it by the oracle at Delphi. For when the Lydians resented the murder of Candaules, and were up in arms, the partisans of Gyges and the other Lydians came to the following agreement, that if the oracle should pronounce him king of the Lydians, he should reign; if not, he should restore the power to the Heraclidæ. The oracle answered that Gyges should become king. But the Pythian added this, "that the Heraclidæ should be avenged on the fifth descendant of Gyges." Of this prediction neither the Lydians nor their kings took any notice until it was actually accomplished.

Thus the Mermnadæ deprived the Heraclidæ of the supremepower. Gyges sent many offerings to Delphi; indeed most of the silver offerings at Delphi are his; and besides the silver, he gave a vast quantity of gold; among the rest six bowls of gold, which now stand in the treasury of the Corinthians, and are thirty talents in weight; though, to tell the truth, this treasury does not belong to the people of Corinth, but Cypselus son of Eetion. Gyges was the first of the barbarians of whom we know who made offerings at Delphi, except Midas, son of Gordius, the king of Phrygia, who dedicated the royal throne, on which he used to sit and administer justice, a piece of workmanship deserving of admiration. The throne stands in the same place as the bowls of Gyges.

Periander the son of Cypselus was king of Corinth, and the Corinthians say (and the Lesbians confirm their account) that a wonderful prodigy occurred in his life-time. Arion of Methymna, second to none of his time in accompanying the harp, and the first who composed, named, and represented the dithyrambus at Corinth, was carried to Tænarus on the back of a dolphin. Arion, having continued a long time with Periander, made a voyage to Italy and Sicily, acquired great wealth there, and determined to return to Corinth. He set out from Tarentum, and hired a ship of some Corinthians, because he put more confidence in them than in any other nation; but these men, when they were in the open sea, conspired together to throw him overboard and seize his money. Learning of this he offered them his money, and entreated them to spare his life. But he could not prevail on them; the sailors ordered him either to kill himself, that he might be buried ashore, or to leap immediately into the sea. Arion, reduced to this strait, entreated them, since such was their determination, to permit him to stand on the stern of the vessel in his full dress and sing, and he promised when he had sung to make way with himself. The seamen, pleased that they should hear the best singer in the world, retired from the stern to the middle of the vessel. Arion put on all his robes, took his harp in his hands, stood on the rowing benches and went through the Orthian strain;the strain ended, he leaped into the sea as he was, in full dress; the sailors continuing their voyage to Corinth: but a dolphin caught him upon his back, and carried him to Tænarus; so that, having landed, he proceeded to Corinth in his full dress, and upon his arrival there, related all that happened. Periander gave no credit to his relation, put Arion under close confinement, and watched anxiously for the arrival of the seamen. When they appeared, he summoned them and inquired if they could give any account of Arion. They answered that he was safe in Italy, and that they had left him flourishing at Tarentum. At that instant Arion appeared before them just as he was when he leaped into the sea; at which they were so astonished that, being fully convicted, they could no longer deny the fact. These things are reported by the Corinthians and Lesbians; and there is a little bronze statue of Arion at Tænarus, representing a man sitting on a dolphin.

Alyattes the Lydian and father of Crœsus, having waged a long war against the Milesians, died after a reign of fifty-seven years. Once upon recovery from an illness he dedicated at Delphi a large silver bowl, with a saucer of iron inlaid; an object that deserves attention above all the offerings at Delphi. It was made by Glaucus the Chian, who first invented the art of inlaying iron.

At the death of Alyattes, Crœsus, then thirty-five years of age, succeeded to the kingdom. He attacked the Ephesians before any other Greek people. The Ephesians being besieged by him, consecrated their city to Diana, by fastening a rope from the temple to the wall. The distance between the old town, which was then besieged, and the temple, is seven stadia. Crœsus afterward attacked the several cities of the Ionians and Æolians in succession, alleging different pretences against the various states. After he had reduced the Greeks in Asia to the payment of tribute, he formed a design to build ships and attack the Islanders. But when all things were ready for the building of ships, Bias of Priene (or, as others say, Pittacus of Mitylene) arriving at Sardis, put a stop to his ship-building by making this reply, when Crœsusinquired if he had any news from Greece: "O king, the Islanders are enlisting a large body of cavalry, with the intention of making war upon you and Sardis." Crœsus, thinking he had spoken the truth, said: "May the gods put such a thought into the Islanders, as to attack the sons of the Lydians with horse." The other answering said: "Sire, you appear to wish above all things to see the Islanders on horseback upon the continent; and not without reason. But what can you imagine the Islanders more earnestly desire, after having heard of your resolution to build a fleet to attack them, than to catch the Lydians at sea, that they may revenge on you the cause of those Greeks who dwell on the continent, whom you hold in subjection?" Crœsus, much pleased with the conclusion, and convinced, (for he appeared to speak to the purpose,) put a stop to the ship-building, and made an alliance with the Ionians that inhabit the islands.

In course of time, when nearly all the nations that dwell within the river Halys, except the Cilicians and Lycians, were subdued, and Crœsus had added them to the Lydians, all the wise men of that time, as each had opportunity, came from Greece to Sardis, which had then attained to the highest degree of prosperity; and amongst them Solon, an Athenian, who made laws for the Athenians at their request, and absented himself for ten years, sailing away under pretence of seeing the world, that he might not be compelled to abrogate any of the laws he had established: for the Athenians could not do it themselves, since they were bound by solemn oaths to observe for ten years whatever laws Solon should enact for them. On his arrival Solon was hospitably entertained by Crœsus, and on the third or fourth day, by order of the king, the attendants conducted him round the treasury, and showed him all their grand and costly contents. After he had seen and examined every thing sufficiently, Crœsus asked him this question: "My Athenian guest, the great fame as well of your wisdom as of your travels has reached even to us; I am therefore desirous of asking you who is the most happy man you have seen?" He asked this question because he thought himself the most happyof men. But Solon, speaking the truth freely, without any flattery, answered, "Tellus, the Athenian." Crœsus, astonished at his answer, eagerly asked him: "On what account do you deem Tellus the happiest?" He replied: "Tellus, in the first place, lived in a well-governed commonwealth; had sons who were virtuous and good; and he saw children born to them all, and all surviving. In the next place, when he had lived as happily as the condition of human affairs will permit, he ended his life in a most glorious manner. For coming to the assistance of the Athenians in a battle with their neighbors of Eleusis, he put the enemy to flight and died nobly. The Athenians buried him at the public charge in the place where he fell, and honored him greatly."

When Solon had roused the attention of Crœsus by relating many happy circumstances concerning Tellus, Crœsus, expecting at least to obtain the second place, asked, whom he had seen next to him. "Cleobis," said he, "and Biton, natives of Argos, for they possessed a sufficient fortune, and had withal such strength of body, that they were both alike victorious in the public games; and moreover the following story is related of them:—When the Argives were celebrating a festival of Juno, it was necessary that their mother should be drawn to the temple in a chariot; but the oxen did not come from the field in time, the young men therefore put themselves beneath the yoke, and drew the car in which their mother sat; and having conveyed it forty-five stades, they reached the temple. After they had done this in sight of the assembled people, a most happy termination was put to their lives; and in them the Deity clearly showed that it is better for a man to die than to live. For the men of Argos, who stood round, commended the strength of the youths, and the women blessed her as the mother of such sons; but the mother herself, transported with joy both on account of the action and its renown, stood before the image and prayed that the goddess would grant to Cleobis and Biton, her own sons, who had so highly honored her, the greatest blessing man could receive. After this prayer, when they had sacrificed and partaken of the feast, the youths fell asleep in thetemple itself, and never woke more, but met with such a termination of life. Upon this the Argives, in commemoration of their filial affection, caused their statues to be made and dedicated at Delphi."

Thus Solon adjudged the second place of felicity to these youths. Then Crœsus was enraged, and said: "My Athenian friend, is my happiness then so slighted by you as worth nothing, that you do not think me of so much value as private men?" He answered: "Crœsus, do you inquire of me concerning human affairs—of me, who know that the divinity is always jealous, and delights in confusion. For in lapse of time men are constrained to see many things they would not willingly see, and to suffer many things they would not willingly suffer. Now I put the term of man's life at seventy years; these seventy years then give twenty-five thousand two hundred days, without including the intercalary months of the leap years, and if we add that month to every other year, in order that the seasons arriving at the proper time may agree, the intercalary months will be thirty-five more in the seventy years, and the days of these months will be one thousand and fifty. Yet in all this number of twenty-six thousand two hundred and fifty days, that compose these seventy years, one day produces nothing exactly the same as another. Thus, then, O Crœsus, man is altogether the sport of fortune. You appear to me to be master of immense treasures, and king of many nations; but as relates to what you inquire of me, I cannot say, till I hear that you have ended your life happily. For the richest of men is not more happy than he that has a sufficiency for a day, unless good fortune attend him to the grave, so that he ends his life in happiness. Many men who abound in wealth are unhappy; and many who have only a moderate competency are fortunate. He that abounds in wealth, and is yet unhappy, surpasses the other only in two things; but the other surpasses the wealthy and the miserable in many things. The former indeed is better able to gratify desire and to bear the blow of adversity. But the latter surpasses him in this; he is not indeed equally able to bear misfortuneor satisfy desire, but his good fortune wards off these things from him; and he enjoys the full use of his limbs, he is free from disease and misfortune, he is blessed with good children and a fine form, and if, in addition to all these things, he shall end his life well, he is the man you seek and may justly be called happy; but before he die we ought to suspend our judgment, and not pronounce him happy, but fortunate."

When Solon had spoken thus to Crœsus, Crœsus did not confer any favor on him, but holding him in no account, dismissed him as a very ignorant man, because he overlooked present prosperity, and bade men look to the end of every thing.

After the departure of Solon, the indignation of the gods fell heavily upon Crœsus, probably because he thought himself the most happy of all men. A dream soon after visited him while sleeping, which pointed out to him the truth of the misfortunes that were about to befall him in the person of one of his sons. For Crœsus had two sons, of whom one was grievously afflicted, for he was dumb; but the other, whose name was Atys, far surpassed all the young men of his age. Now the dream intimated to Crœsus that he would lose this Atys by a wound inflicted with the point of an iron weapon. When he awoke, and had considered the matter with himself, he relieved Atys from the command of the Lydian troops, and never after sent him out on that business; and causing all spears, lances, and such other weapons as men use in war, to be removed from the men's apartments, he had them laid up in private chambers, that none of them being suspended might fall upon his son. While Crœsus was engaged with the nuptials of his son, a man oppressed by misfortune, and whose hands were polluted, a Phrygian by birth, and of royal family, arrived at Sardis. This man, having come to the palace of Crœsus, sought permission to obtain purification according to the custom of the country. Crœsus purified him, performing the usual ceremony, and then inquired: "Stranger, who art thou, and from what part of Phrygia hast thou come as a suppliant to my hearth? and what man or woman hast thou slain?" The stranger answered: "I am the son of Gordius,and grandson of Midas, and am called Adrastus. I unwittingly slew my own brother, and being banished by my father and deprived of every thing, I have come hither." Then said Crœsus: "You were born of parents who are our friends, and you have come to friends, among whom, if you will stay, you shall want nothing; and by bearing your misfortune as lightly as possible you will be the greatest gainer." So Adrastus took up his abode in the palace of Crœsus.

At this time a boar of enormous size appeared in Mysian Olympus, and rushing down from that mountain, ravaged the fields of the Mysians. The Mysians, though they often went out against him, could not hurt him, but suffered much from him. At last deputies from the Mysians came to Crœsus and said: "O king, a boar of enormous size has appeared in our country, and ravages our fields: though we have often endeavored to take him, we cannot. We therefore earnestly beg, that you will send with us your son and some chosen youths with dogs, that we may drive him from the country." But Crœsus, remembering the warning of his dream, answered: "Make no further mention of my son; I shall not send him with you, because he is lately married, but I will give you chosen Lydians, and the whole hunting train, and will order them to assist you with their best endeavors in driving the monster from your country." The Mysians were content with this, but Atys, who had heard of their request, came in, and earnestly protested: "Father, you used to permit me to signalize myself in the two most noble and becoming exercises of war and hunting; but now you keep me excluded from both, without having observed in me either cowardice or want of spirit. How will men look on me when I go or return from the forum? What kind of a man shall I appear to my fellow-citizens? What to my newly married wife? Either let me then go to this hunt, or convince me that it is better for me to do as you would have me." "My son," said Crœsus, "I act thus, not because I have seen any cowardice, or any thing else unbecoming in you; but a vision in a dream warned me that you would be short-lived, and would die by the point ofan iron weapon. It was on account of this that I hastened your marriage, and now refuse to send you on this expedition; taking care to preserve you, if by any means I can, as long as I live; for you are my only son; the other, who is deprived of his hearing, I consider as lost." The youth answered: "You are not to blame, my father, if after such a dream you take so much care of me; but you say the dream signified that I should die by the point of an iron weapon. What hand, or what pointed iron weapon has a boar, to occasion such fears in you? Had it said I should lose my life by a tusk, you might do as you have, but it said by the point of a weapon; then since we have not to contend against men, let me go." "You have outdone me," replied Crœsus, "in explaining the import of the dream, you shall go to the chase."

Then turning to the Phrygian Adrastus, he exclaimed: "Adrastus, I beg you to be my son's guardian, when he goes to the chase, and take care that no skulking villains show themselves in the way to do him harm. Besides, you ought to go for your own sake, where you may signalize yourself by your exploits; this was the glory of your ancestors, and you are besides in full vigor." Adrastus answered: "On no other account, my lord, would I take part in this enterprise; it is not fitting that one in my unfortunate circumstances should join with his prosperous compeers. But since you urge me, I ought to oblige you. Rest assured, that your son, whom you bid me take care of, shall, as far as his guardian is concerned, return to you uninjured."

Then all went away, well provided with chosen youths and dogs, and, having arrived at Mount Olympus, they sought the wild beast, found him and encircled him around. Among the rest, the stranger, Adrastus, throwing his javelin at the boar, missed him, and struck the son of Crœsus; thus fulfilling the warning of the dream. Upon this, some one ran off to tell Crœsus what had happened, and having arrived at Sardis, gave him an account of the action, and of his son's fate. Crœsus, exceedingly distressed by the death of his son, lamented it the more bitterly, because he fell by the hand of one, whom he himself had purified from blood; and vehementlydeploring his misfortune, he invoked Jove the Expiator, attesting what he had suffered by this stranger. He invoked also the same deity, by the name of the god of hospitality and private friendship: as the god of hospitality, because by receiving a stranger into his house, he had unawares fostered the murderer of his son; as the god of private friendship, because, having sent him as a guardian, he found him his greatest enemy. Soon the Lydians approached, bearing the corpse, and behind it followed the murderer. He, having advanced in front of the body, delivered himself up to Crœsus, stretching out his hands and begging him to kill him upon it; for he ought to live no longer. When Crœsus heard this, though his own affliction was so great, he pitied Adrastus, and said to him: "You have made me full satisfaction by condemning yourself to die. You are not the author of this misfortune, except as far as you were the involuntary agent; but that god, whoever he was, that long since foreshowed what was about to happen." Crœsus buried his son as the dignity of his birth required; but the son of Gordius, when all was silent around, judging himself the most heavily afflicted of all men, killed himself on the tomb.

Some time after, the overthrow of the kingdom of Astyages, son of Cyaxares, by Cyrus, son of Cambyses, and the growing power of the Persians, put an end to the grief of Crœsus; and it entered into his thoughts whether he could by any means check the growing power of the Persians before they became formidable. After he had formed this purpose, he determined to make trial as well of the oracles in Greece as of that in Lydia; and sent different persons to different places, some to Delphi, some to Abæ of Phocis, and some to Dodona.

Back to Index Next