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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



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Plutarch, Themistocles, 13.2
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1. Herodotus, Histories, 1.36, 2.119, 4.62, 4.103, 6.48, 7.12, 7.18, 7.113-7.114, 7.133-7.134, 7.197, 8.77, 8.84, 8.94, 8.96, 9.119 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

1.36. So Adrastus lived in Croesus' house. About this same time a great monster of a boar appeared on the Mysian Olympus, who would come off that mountain and ravage the fields of the Mysians. The Mysians had gone up against him often; but they never did him any harm but were hurt by him themselves. ,At last they sent messengers to Croesus, with this message: “O King, a great monster of a boar has appeared in the land, who is destroying our fields; for all our attempts, we cannot kill him; so now we ask you to send your son and chosen young men and dogs with us, so that we may drive him out of the country.” ,Such was their request, but Croesus remembered the prophecy of his dream and answered them thus: “Do not mention my son again: I will not send him with you. He is newly married, and that is his present concern. But I will send chosen Lydians, and all the huntsmen, and I will tell those who go to be as eager as possible to help you to drive the beast out of the country.” 2.119. Menelaus then went to Egypt and up the river to Memphis ; there, relating the truth of the matter, he met with great hospitality and got back Helen, who had not been harmed, and also all his wealth, besides. ,Yet, although getting this, Menelaus was guilty of injustice toward the Egyptians. For adverse weather detained him when he tried to sail away; after this continued for some time, he carried out something impious, ,taking two native children and sacrificing them. When it became known that he had done this, he fled with his ships straight to Libya, hated and hunted; and where he went from there, the Egyptians could not say. The priests told me that they had learned some of this by inquiry, but that they were sure of what had happened in their own country. 4.62. This is their way of sacrificing to other gods and these are the beasts offered; but their sacrifices to Ares are of this sort. Every district in each of the governments has a structure sacred to Ares; namely, a pile of bundles of sticks three eighths of a mile wide and long, but of a lesser height, on the top of which there is a flattened four-sided surface; three of its sides are sheer, but the fourth can be ascended. ,Every year a hundred and fifty wagon-loads of sticks are heaped upon this; for the storms of winter always make it sink down. On this sacred pile an ancient scimitar of iron is set for each people: their image of Ares. They bring yearly sacrifice of sheep and goats and horses to this scimitar, offering to these symbols even more than they do to the other gods. ,of enemies that they take alive, they sacrifice one man in every hundred, not as they sacrifice sheep and goats, but differently. They pour wine on the men's heads and cut their throats over a bowl; then they carry the blood up on to the pile of sticks and pour it on the scimitar. ,They carry the blood up above, but down below by the sacred pile they cut off all the slain men's right arms and hands and throw these into the air, and depart when they have sacrificed the rest of the victims; the arm lies where it has fallen, and the body apart from it. 4.103. Among these, the Tauri have the following customs: all ship-wrecked men, and any Greeks whom they capture in their sea-raids, they sacrifice to the Virgin goddess as I will describe: after the first rites of sacrifice, they strike the victim on the head with a club; ,according to some, they then place the head on a pole and throw the body off the cliff on which their temple stands; others agree as to the head, but say that the body is buried, not thrown off the cliff. The Tauri themselves say that this deity to whom they sacrifice is Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. ,As for enemies whom they defeat, each cuts his enemy's head off and carries it away to his house, where he places it on a tall pole and stands it high above the dwelling, above the smoke-vent for the most part. These heads, they say, are set up to guard the whole house. The Tauri live by plundering and war. 6.48. Then Darius attempted to learn whether the Greeks intended to wage war against him or to surrender themselves. He sent heralds this way and that throughout Hellas, bidding them demand a gift of earth and water for the king. ,He despatched some to Hellas, and he sent others to his own tributary cities of the coast, commanding that ships of war and transports for horses be built. 7.12. The discussion went that far; then night came, and Xerxes was pricked by the advice of Artabanus. Thinking it over at night, he saw clearly that to send an army against Hellas was not his affair. He made this second resolve and fell asleep; then (so the Persians say) in the night he saw this vision: It seemed to Xerxes that a tall and handsome man stood over him and said, ,“Are you then changing your mind, Persian, and will not lead the expedition against Hellas, although you have proclaimed the mustering of the army? It is not good for you to change your mind, and there will be no one here to pardon you for it; let your course be along the path you resolved upon yesterday.” 7.18. With this threat (so it seemed to Artabanus) the vision was about to burn his eyes with hot irons. He leapt up with a loud cry, then sat by Xerxes and told him the whole story of what he had seen in his dream, and next he said: ,“O King, since I have seen, as much as a man may, how the greater has often been brought low by the lesser, I forbade you to always give rein to your youthful spirit, knowing how evil a thing it is to have many desires, and remembering the end of Cyrus' expedition against the Massagetae and of Cambyses' against the Ethiopians, and I myself marched with Darius against the Scythians. ,Knowing this, I judged that you had only to remain in peace for all men to deem you fortunate. But since there is some divine motivation, and it seems that the gods mark Hellas for destruction, I myself change and correct my judgment. Now declare the gods' message to the Persians, and bid them obey your first command for all due preparation. Do this, so that nothing on your part be lacking to the fulfillment of the gods' commission.” ,After this was said, they were incited by the vision, and when daylight came Xerxes imparted all this to the Persians. Artabanus now openly encouraged that course which he alone had before openly discouraged. 7.113. Marching past the Paeonians, Doberes, and Paeoplae, who dwell beyond and northward of the Pangaean mountains, he kept going westwards, until he came to the river Strymon and the city of Eion; its governor was that Boges, then still alive, whom I mentioned just before this. ,All this region about the Pangaean range is called Phyllis; it stretches westwards to the river Angites, which issues into the Strymon, and southwards to the Strymon itself; at this river the Magi sought good omens by sacrificing white horses. 7.114. After using these enchantments and many others besides on the river, they passed over it at the Nine Ways in Edonian country, by the bridges which they found thrown across the Strymon. When they learned that Nine Ways was the name of the place, they buried alive that number of boys and maidens, children of the local people. ,To bury people alive is a Persian custom; I have learned by inquiry that when Xerxes' wife Amestris reached old age, she buried twice seven sons of notable Persians as an offering on her own behalf to the fabled god beneath the earth. 7.133. To Athens and Sparta Xerxes sent no heralds to demand earth, and this he did for the following reason. When Darius had previously sent men with this same purpose, those who made the request were cast at the one city into the Pit and at the other into a well, and bidden to obtain their earth and water for the king from these locations. ,What calamity befell the Athenians for dealing in this way with the heralds I cannot say, save that their land and their city were laid waste. I think, however, that there was another reason for this, and not the aforesaid. 7.134. Be that as it may, the anger of Talthybius, Agamemnon's herald, fell upon the Lacedaemonians. At Sparta there is a shrine of Talthybius and descendants of Talthybius called Talthybiadae, who have the special privilege of conducting all embassies from Sparta. ,Now there was a long period after the incident I have mentioned above during which the Spartans were unable to obtain good omens from sacrifice. The Lacedaemonians were grieved and dismayed by this and frequently called assemblies, making a proclamation inviting some Lacedaemonian to give his life for Sparta. Then two Spartans of noble birth and great wealth, Sperthias son of Aneristus and Bulis son of Nicolaus, undertook of their own free will to make atonement to Xerxes for Darius' heralds who had been killed at Sparta. ,Thereupon the Spartans sent these men to Media for execution. 7.197. When Xerxes had come to Alus in Achaea, his guides, desiring to inform him of all they knew, told him the story which is related in that country concerning the worship of Laphystian Zeus, namely how Athamas son of Aeolus plotted Phrixus' death with Ino, and further, how the Achaeans by an oracle's bidding compel Phrixus descendants to certain tasks. ,They order the eldest of that family not to enter their town-hall (which the Achaeans call the People's House) and themselves keep watch there. If he should enter, he may not come out, save only to be sacrificed. They say as well that many of those who were to be sacrificed had fled in fear to another country, and that if they returned at a later day and were taken, they were brought into the town-hall. The guides showed Xerxes how the man is sacrificed, namely with fillets covering him all over and a procession to lead him forth. ,It is the descendants of Phrixus' son Cytissorus who are treated in this way, because when the Achaeans by an oracle's bidding made Athamas son of Aeolus a scapegoat for their country and were about to sacrifice him, this Cytissorus came from Aea in Colchis and delivered him, thereby bringing the god's wrath on his own descendants. ,Hearing all this, Xerxes, when he came to the temple grove, refrained from entering it himself and bade all his army do likewise, holding the house and the precinct of Athamas' descendants alike in reverence. 8.77. I cannot say against oracles that they are not true, and I do not wish to try to discredit them when they speak plainly. Look at the following matter: quote type="oracle" l met="dact"When the sacred headland of golden-sworded Artemis and Cynosura by the sea they bridge with ships, /l lAfter sacking shiny Athens in mad hope, /l lDivine Justice will extinguish mighty Greed the son of Insolence /l lLusting terribly, thinking to devour all. /l /quote , quote type="oracle" l met="dact"Bronze will come together with bronze, and Ares /l lWill redden the sea with blood. To Hellas the day of freedom /l lFar-seeing Zeus and august Victory will bring. /l /quote Considering this, I dare to say nothing against Bacis concerning oracles when he speaks so plainly, nor will I consent to it by others. 8.84. Then the Hellenes set sail with all their ships, and as they were putting out to sea the barbarians immediately attacked them. The rest of the Hellenes began to back water and tried to beach their ships, but Ameinias of Pallene, an Athenian, charged and rammed a ship. When his ship became entangled and the crew could not free it, the others came to help Ameinias and joined battle. ,The Athenians say that the fighting at sea began this way, but the Aeginetans say that the ship which had been sent to Aegina after the sons of Aeacus was the one that started it. The story is also told that the phantom of a woman appeared to them, who cried commands loud enough for all the Hellenic fleet to hear, reproaching them first with, “Men possessed, how long will you still be backing water?” 8.94. The Athenians say that when the ships joined battle, the Corinthian general Adeimantus, struck with bewilderment and terror, hoisted his sails and fled away. When the Corinthians saw their flagship fleeing, they departed in the same way, ,but when in their flight they were opposite the sacred precinct of Athena Sciras on Salamis, by divine guidance a boat encountered them. No one appeared to have sent it, and the Corinthians knew nothing about the affairs of the fleet when it approached. They reckon the affair to involve the gods because when the boat came near the ships, the people on the boat said, ,“Adeimantus, you have turned your ships to flight and betrayed the Hellenes, but they are overcoming their enemies to the fulfillment of their prayers for victory.” Adeimantus did not believe them when they said this, so they spoke again, saying that they could be taken as hostages and killed if the Hellenes were not seen to be victorious. ,So he and the others turned their ships around and came to the fleet, but it was all over. The Athenians spread this rumor about them, but the Corinthians do not agree at all, and they consider themselves to have been among the foremost in the battle. The rest of Hellas bears them witness. 8.96. When the battle was broken off, the Hellenes towed to Salamis as many of the wrecks as were still there and kept ready for another battle, supposing that the king could still make use of his surviving ships. ,A west wind had caught many of the wrecks and carried them to the shore in Attica called Colias. Thus not only was all the rest of the oracle fulfilled which Bacis and Musaeus had spoken about this battle, but also what had been said many years before this in an oracle by Lysistratus, an Athenian soothsayer, concerning the wrecks carried to shore there. Its meaning had eluded all the Hellenes: quote type="oracle" l met="dact"The Colian women will cook with oars. /l lBut this was to happen after the king had marched away. /l /quote 9.119. As Oeobazus was making his escape into Thrace, the Apsinthians of that country caught and sacrificed him in their customary manner to Plistorus the god of their land; as for his companions, they did away with them by other means. ,Artayctes and his company had begun their flight later, and were overtaken a little way beyond the Goat's Rivers, where after they had defended themselves a long time, some of them were killed and the rest taken alive. The Greeks bound them and carried them to Sestus, and together with them Artayctes and his son also in bonds.
2. Plato, Minos, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

315c. whereas the Carthaginians perform it as a thing they account holy and legal, and that too when some of them sacrifice even their own sons to Cronos, as I daresay you yourself have heard. And not merely is it foreign peoples who use different laws from ours, but our neighbors in Lycaea and the descendants of Athamas —you know their sacrifices, Greeks though they be. And as to ourselves too, you know, of course, from what you have heard yourself, the kind of laws we formerly used in regard to our dead, when we slaughtered sacred victims before
3. Plutarch, Alexander The Great, 72.2-72.3 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

72.2. Alexander’s grief at this loss knew no bounds. Arrian finds great diversity in the accounts of Alexander’s displays of grief at Hephaestion’s death ( Anab. vii. 14 ). He immediately ordered that the manes and tails of all horses and mules should be shorn in token of mourning and took away the battlements of the cities round about; he also crucified the wretched physician, and put a stop to the sound of flutes and every kind of music in the camp for a long time, until an oracular response from Ammon came bidding him honour Hephaestion as a hero and sacrifice to him. 72.3. Moreover, making war a solace for his grief; he went forth to hunt and track down men, as it were, and overwhelmed the nation of the Cossaeans, slaughtering them all from the youth upwards. This was called an offering to the shade of Hephaestion. Upon a tomb and obsequies for his friend, and upon their embellishments, he purposed to expend ten thousand talents, and wished that the ingenuity and novelty of the construction should surpass the expense. He therefore longed for Stasicrates above all other artists, because in his innovations there was always promise of great magnificence, boldness, and ostentation.
4. Plutarch, Aristides, 9.1-9.2, 11.3 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

5. Plutarch, Dion, 23.3 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

6. Plutarch, Lycurgus, 29.4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

29.4. Apollo answered that the laws which he had established were good, and that the city would continue to be held in highest honour while it kept to the polity of Lycurgus. This oracle Lycurgus wrote down, and sent it to Sparta. But for his own part, he sacrificed again to the god, took affectionate leave of his friends and of his son, and resolved never to release his fellow-citizens from their oath, but of his own accord to put an end to his life where he was. He had reached an age in which life was not yet a burden, and death no longer a terror; when he and his friends, moreover, appeared to be sufficiently prosperous and happy.
7. Plutarch, Pelopidas, 21.3 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

21.3. and, still further, the youths who were sacrificed by Themistocles to Dionysus Carnivorous before the sea fight at Salamis Cf. the Themistocles, xiii. 2 f. for the successes which followed these sacrifices proved them acceptable to the gods. Moreover, when Agesilaüs, who was setting out on an expedition from the same place as Agamemnon did, and against the same enemies, was asked by the goddess for his daughter in sacrifice, and had this vision as he lay asleep at Aulis, he was too tender-hearted to give her, Cf. the Agesilaüs, vi. 4 ff. and thereby brought his expedition to an unsuccessful and inglorious ending.
8. Plutarch, Phocion, 9.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

9. Plutarch, Solon, 9.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

9.1. Others, however, say that the island was not taken in his way, but that Solon first received this oracle from the god at Delphi:— The tutelary heroes of the land where once they lived, with sacred rites Propitiate, whom the Asopian plain now hides in its bosom; There they lie buried with their faces toward the setting sun. Thereupon Solon sailed by night to the island and made sacrifices to the heroes Periphemus and Cychreus.
10. Plutarch, Themistocles, 13.3, 26.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

11. Plutarch, Theseus, 14.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

12. Plutarch, Timoleon, 8.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

8.2. Therefore the Corinthians equipped a sacred trireme besides, and named it after the two goddesses. Furthermore, Timoleon himself journeyed to Delphi and sacrificed to the god, and as he descended into the place of the oracle, he received the following sign.


Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
abderitae Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
achaea Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
achaeans Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
adeimantus of corinth Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 79
amastris of persia Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
apollo of delphi on, determining elements of cult Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
apsinthians Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 79
ares Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78, 79
aristotle Van der Horst, Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (2014) 243
artaüctes of persia Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
athenians, impieties of Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
athenians, sacrifices of humans Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50, 78, 79
athenians, vows of Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 79
bacis, salamis Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
bouphonia Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
corinthians Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 79
cronus, of carthage Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
cychreus, hero of athens Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 79
darius of persia Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
delphic oracle, to athenians Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 79
delphic oracle, wooden wall, Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
dionysus, omestes Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
divination Petropoulou, Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200 (2012) 59
egypt and egyptians Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
euphrantides Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
helen of sparta Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
heralds, sanctity of Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
heroes and heroines, of athens Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 79
heroes and heroines, of sparta Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
honouring the gods, through sacrifices Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
hybris Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
impiety, of human sacrifice Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78, 79
impiety, of maltreating heralds Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
impiety Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
koros Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
magic Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
magoi Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
manteis Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
menelaus of sparta Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
miracles, at salamis Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 79
nike, goddess Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
nomoi Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
omens, sacrificial Petropoulou, Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200 (2012) 59
omens, to greeks Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
omens, to persians Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 79
persians Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
phanias of lesbos Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78, 79
prayers Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
religious correctness, and cannibalism Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
sacrifice, animal, continuity in Petropoulou, Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200 (2012) 59
sacrifice, animal, divination Petropoulou, Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200 (2012) 59
sacrifice, animal, in greek religion v, vi Petropoulou, Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Greek Religion, Judaism, and Christianity, 100 BC to AD 200 (2012) 59
sacrifices, and apollo of delphi Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
sacrifices, before battle Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
sacrifices, by persians Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
sacrifices, human Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50, 78, 79
sacrifices, of humans Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
sacrifices Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
sandauce of persia Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
scythians Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78, 79
sneezing (as omen)' Van der Horst, Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (2014) 243
spartans, impieties of Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
spartans Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
talthybius, hero of sparta Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
themistocles of athens, human sacrifice and Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50, 78, 79
theophrastus, on honouring the gods Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
theophrastus, on sacrifice Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
xenia Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78
xerxes of persia, omens to Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 50
zeus, lykaios Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 75
zeus Mikalson, Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars (2003) 78