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Thucydides, The History Of The Peloponnesian War, 2.17.1

ἐπειδή τε ἀφίκοντο ἐς τὸ ἄστυ, ὀλίγοις μέν τισιν ὑπῆρχον οἰκήσεις καὶ παρὰ φίλων τινὰς ἢ οἰκείων καταφυγή, οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ τά τε ἐρῆμα τῆς πόλεως ᾤκησαν καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ καὶ τὰ ἡρῷα πάντα πλὴν τῆς ἀκροπόλεως καὶ τοῦ Ἐλευσινίου καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο βεβαίως κλῃστὸν ἦν: τό τε Πελαργικὸν καλούμενον τὸ ὑπὸ τὴν ἀκρόπολιν, ὃ καὶ ἐπάρατόν τε ἦν μὴ οἰκεῖν καί τι καὶ Πυθικοῦ μαντείου ἀκροτελεύτιον τοιόνδε διεκώλυε, λέγον ὡς ‘τὸ Πελαργικὸν ἀργὸν ἄμεινον,’ ὅμως ὑπὸ τῆς παραχρῆμα ἀνάγκης ἐξῳκήθη. When they arrived at Athens, though a few had houses of their own to go to, or could find an asylum with friends or relatives, by far the greater number had to take up their dwelling in the parts of the city that were not built over and in the temples and chapels of the heroes, except the Acropolis and the temple of the Eleusinian Demeter and such other places as were always kept closed. The occupation of the plot of ground lying below the citadel called the Pelasgian had been forbidden by a curse; and there was also an ominous fragment of a Pythian oracle which said— Leave the Pelasgian parcel desolate, woe worth the day that men inhabit it!

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

9 results
1. Homer, Iliad, 1.61 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE) 1.61. /if war and pestilence alike are to ravage the Achaeans. But come, let us ask some seer or priest, or some reader of dreams—for a dream too is from Zeus—who might say why Phoebus Apollo is so angry, whether he finds fault with a vow or a hecatomb;
2. Herodotus, Histories, 6.75, 7.140-7.142 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE) 6.75. When the Lacedaemonians learned that Cleomenes was doing this, they took fright and brought him back to Sparta to rule on the same terms as before. Cleomenes had already been not entirely in his right mind, and on his return from exile a mad sickness fell upon him: any Spartan that he happened to meet he would hit in the face with his staff. ,For doing this, and because he was out of his mind, his relatives bound him in the stocks. When he was in the stocks and saw that his guard was left alone, he demanded a dagger; the guard at first refused to give it, but Cleomenes threatened what he would do to him when he was freed, until the guard, who was a helot, was frightened by the threats and gave him the dagger. ,Cleomenes took the weapon and set about slashing himself from his shins upwards; from the shin to the thigh he cut his flesh lengthways, then from the thigh to the hip and the sides, until he reached the belly, and cut it into strips; thus he died, as most of the Greeks say, because he persuaded the Pythian priestess to tell the tale of Demaratus. The Athenians alone say it was because he invaded Eleusis and laid waste the precinct of the gods. The Argives say it was because when Argives had taken refuge after the battle in their temple of Argus he brought them out and cut them down, then paid no heed to the sacred grove and set it on fire. 7.140. The Athenians had sent messages to Delphi asking that an oracle be given them, and when they had performed all due rites at the temple and sat down in the inner hall, the priestess, whose name was Aristonice, gave them this answer: , quote type="oracle" l met="dact"Wretches, why do you linger here? Rather flee from your houses and city, /l lFlee to the ends of the earth from the circle embattled of Athens! /l lThe head will not remain in its place, nor in the body, /l lNor the feet beneath, nor the hands, nor the parts between; /l lBut all is ruined, for fire and the headlong god of war speeding in a Syrian chariot will bring you low. /l /quote , quote type="oracle" l met="dact"Many a fortress too, not yours alone, will he shatter; /l lMany a shrine of the gods will he give to the flame for devouring; /l lSweating for fear they stand, and quaking for dread of the enemy, /l lRunning with gore are their roofs, foreseeing the stress of their sorrow; /l lTherefore I bid you depart from the sanctuary. /l lHave courage to lighten your evil. /l /quote 7.141. When the Athenian messengers heard that, they were very greatly dismayed, and gave themselves up for lost by reason of the evil foretold. Then Timon son of Androbulus, as notable a man as any Delphian, advised them to take boughs of supplication and in the guise of suppliants, approach the oracle a second time. ,The Athenians did exactly this; “Lord,” they said, “regard mercifully these suppliant boughs which we bring to you, and give us some better answer concerning our country. Otherwise we will not depart from your temple, but remain here until we die.” Thereupon the priestess gave them this second oracle: , quote type="oracle" l met="dact"Vainly does Pallas strive to appease great Zeus of Olympus; /l lWords of entreaty are vain, and so too cunning counsels of wisdom. /l lNevertheless I will speak to you again of strength adamantine. /l lAll will be taken and lost that the sacred border of Cecrops /l lHolds in keeping today, and the dales divine of Cithaeron; /l lYet a wood-built wall will by Zeus all-seeing be granted /l lTo the Trito-born, a stronghold for you and your children. /l /quote , quote type="oracle" l met="dact"Await not the host of horse and foot coming from Asia, /l lNor be still, but turn your back and withdraw from the foe. /l lTruly a day will come when you will meet him face to face. /l lDivine Salamis, you will bring death to women's sons /l lWhen the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in. /l /quote 7.142. This answer seemed to be and really was more merciful than the first, and the envoys, writing it down, departed for Athens. When the messengers had left Delphi and laid the oracle before the people, there was much inquiry concerning its meaning, and among the many opinions which were uttered, two contrary ones were especially worthy of note. Some of the elder men said that the gods answer signified that the acropolis should be saved, for in old time the acropolis of Athens had been fenced by a thorn hedge, ,which, by their interpretation, was the wooden wall. But others supposed that the god was referring to their ships, and they were for doing nothing but equipping these. Those who believed their ships to be the wooden wall were disabled by the two last verses of the oracle: quote type="oracle" l met="dact"Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women's sons /l lWhen the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in. /l /quote ,These verses confounded the opinion of those who said that their ships were the wooden wall, for the readers of oracles took the verses to mean that they should offer battle by sea near Salamis and be there overthrown.
3. Plato, Statesman, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) 290e. and if he happens to have forced his way to the throne from some other class, he must enroll himself in the class of priests afterwards; and among the Greeks, too, you would find that in many states the performance of the greatest public sacrifices is a duty imposed upon the highest officials. Yes, among you Athenians this is very plain, for they say the holiest and most national of the ancient sacrifices are performed by the man whom the lot has chosen to be the King. Y. Soc. Yes, certainly.
4. Thucydides, The History of The Peloponnesian War, 2.8.2, 2.21.3, 2.27, 2.54.2-2.54.5, 6.27.3 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) 2.8.2. Everywhere predictions were being recited and oracles being chanted by such persons as collect them, and this not only in the contending cities. 2.21.3. Knots were formed in the streets and engaged in hot discussion; for if the proposed sally was warmly recommended, it was also in some cases opposed. Oracles of the most various import were recited by the collectors, and found eager listeners in one or other of the disputants. Foremost in pressing for the sally were the Acharnians, as constituting no small part of the army of the state, and as it was their land that was being ravaged. In short, the whole city was in a most excited state; Pericles was the object of general indignation; his previous counsels were totally forgotten; he was abused for not leading out the army which he commanded, and was made responsible for the whole of the public suffering. 2.54.2. Among other things which they remembered in their distress was, very naturally, the following verse which the old men said had long ago been uttered: A Dorian war shall come and with it death. 2.54.3. So a dispute arose as to whether dearth and not death had not been the word in the verse; but at the present juncture, it was of course decided in favor of the latter; for the people made their recollection fit in with their sufferings. I fancy, however, that if another Dorian war should ever afterwards come upon us, and a dearth should happen to accompany it, the verse will probably be read accordingly. 2.54.4. The oracle also which had been given to the Lacedaemonians was now remembered by those who knew of it. When the God was asked whether they should go to war, he answered that if they put their might into it, victory would be theirs, and that he would himself be with them. 2.54.5. With this oracle events were supposed to tally. For the plague broke out so soon as the Peloponnesians invaded Attica, and never entering Peloponnese (not at least to an extent worth noticing), committed its worst ravages at Athens, and next to Athens, at the most populous of the other towns. Such was the history of the plague. 6.27.3. The matter was taken up the more seriously, as it was thought to be ominous for the expedition, and part of a conspiracy to bring about a revolution and to upset the democracy.
5. Xenophon, Constitution of The Athenians, 2.9 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
6. Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, 3.3, 57.1 (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
7. Lycurgus, Against Leocrates, 143, 147, 1 (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
8. Epigraphy, Ig I , 395
9. Epigraphy, Ig I , 395

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
achaeans	Rengakos and Tsakmakis, Brill's Companion to Thucydides (2006) 419
archidamos (spartan king)	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 79
aristophanes	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 213
artemis, agrotera	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
artemis, brauronia	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
athena, polias	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
attica	Rengakos and Tsakmakis, Brill's Companion to Thucydides (2006) 419
basile	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
basileus, and pelargikon	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
basileus, lessor of temene	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23, 33
basileus, paredroi of	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
basileus, patrioi thysiai performed by	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 79
boeotian raids on attica	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 79
boule	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
cadastres	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 217
chrêsmologos	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 213
delphi, oracles from	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33, 79
demeter and kore	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
demosion (public treasury)	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
dillery, john	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 213
divination, and authority	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 213
divination, and crisis	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 213
divination, and war	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 213
doric dialect	Rengakos and Tsakmakis, Brill's Companion to Thucydides (2006) 419
encroachment, on public property	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 217
festivals, ἐπίθετοι ἑορταί	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 79
first-fruits (ἀπαρχή), to the eleusinian goddesses	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
herakles, at kynosarges	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
herodotus	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 213
hippodamos of miletos (town planner)	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 217
horoi	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23, 217
houses, leasing of	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
ilissos river	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
kleomenes	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 79
kolakretai	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
lampon (seer), amendment to the first-fruits decree	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
leases, rental	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23, 33, 79
lending	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
leokrates, traitor prosecuted by lykourgos	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 79
lykourgos, active interest in cult	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
lykourgos, contra leocratem	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 79
mania'	Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 213
nea (νέα), πεντηκοστή	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
neleus	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
oracles	Rengakos and Tsakmakis, Brill's Companion to Thucydides (2006) 419
oropos	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
other gods, treasury/treasurers of	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
paralos, planned by hippodamos	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 217
paralos, public areas in	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 217
pelargikon	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
peloponnesian war, evacuation of the attic countryside	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 217
peloponnesian war	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
pericles, in piraeus	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 217
plague	Rengakos and Tsakmakis, Brill's Companion to Thucydides (2006) 419
public, landed property	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 217
quarries	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 33
skotoussa in thessaly	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 217
theseus, temene of	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23
war, destruction of cultivable land	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 79
zeus, olympios	Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land in Ancient Athens (2011) 23