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that are

he said, "Have you anything to say of war,
like an ink-fish? you have a sword, but no heart.”*

Some authors tell us that while Themistocles was speaking these things upon the deck, an owl was seen flying to the right hand of the fleet, which came and sate upon the top of the mast; and this happy omen so far disposed the Greeks to follow his advice, that they presently prepared to fight. Yet when the enemy's fleet was arrived at the port of Phalerum, upon the coast of Attica, and with the number of their ships concealed all the shores about, and when they saw the king himself in person come down with his land army to the sea-side, with all his forces united, then the good reasons of Themistocles were soon forgotten, and the Peloponnesians cast their eyes again towards the Isthmus, and took it very ill if any one spoke against their returning home; they decided to depart that night, and the pilots had order what course to steer. Then Themistocles, in great distress, that the Greeks should retire, and lose the advantage of the narrow seas and strait passage, and slip home every one to his own city, considered with himself, and contrived the stratagem, which was carried out by Sicinnus. This Sicinnus was a Persian captive, but a great lover of Themistocles, and the attendant of his children. Upon this occasion he sent him privately to Xerxes, commanding him to tell the king, that Themistocles, the admiral of the Athenians, having espoused his interest, wished to be the first to inform him, that the Greeks were ready to make their

* The cuttle-fish has a hard mass in the inside, which the Greeks called its sword.

pare

escape, and that he counselled him to hinder their flight, to set upon them while they were in this confusion and at a distance from their land army, and hereby destroy all their forces by sea. Xerxes was very joyful at this message, and received it as from one who wished him all that was good, and immediately issued instructions to the commanders of his ships, that they should set out with two hundred galleys at once, to encompass all the islands and inclose all the straits and passages, that none of the Greeks might escape, and should prethe rest of the fleet for action at leisure. When this was doing, Aristides the son of Lysimachus was the first man that perceived it, and went to the tent of Themistocles, not out of any friendship, for he had been formerly banished by his means, as has been related, but to inform him how they were encompassed by their enemies. Themistocles, knowing the generosity of Aristides, and much struck by his visit at that time, imparted to him all that he had transacted by Sicinnus, and entreated him, that, as he would be more readily believed among the Greeks, he would employ his credit in helping to induce them to stay and fight their enemies in the narrow seas. Aristides applauded Themistocles, and went to the other commanders and captains of the galleys, and encouraged them to engage; yet they did not perfectly assent to him, till a galley of Tenos which deserted from the Persians, of which Panatius was commander, came in, while they were still doubting, and confirmed the news that all the straits and passages were beset; and then their anger as well as their necessity aroused them all to fight.

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As soon as it was day Xerxes placed himself high up, Battle to view his fleet and how it was set in order. Phano

of Sala

mis, B.C. 480.

14

demus
says, he sat upon a promontory above the sanc-
tuary of Hercules, where the coast of Attica is separated
from the island by a narrow channel; but Acestodorus
writes, that it was in the confines of Megara, upon those
hills which are called the Horns, where he sat in a chair
of gold, with many secretaries about him to write down
all that was done in the fight. When Themistocles was
about to sacrifice, close to the admiral's galley, there
were three prisoners brought to him, extremely fine-
looking men, and richly dressed in ornamented clothing
and gold, said to be the children of Artayctes and San-
dauce, sister to Xerxes. As soon as the prophet Eu-
phrantides saw them, and observed that at the same
time the fire blazed out from the offerings with a more
than ordinary flame, and that a man sneezed on the
right, he took Themistocles by the hand, and bid him
consecrate the three young men for sacrifice, and offer
them up with prayers for victory to Bacchus the De-
vourer; so should the Greeks not only save themselves,
but also obtain victory. Themistocles was much dis-
turbed at this strange and terrible prophecy, but the
common people, who in any difficult crisis and great
exigency ever look for relief rather to strange and ex-
travagant, than to reasonable means, calling upon Bac-
chus with one voice, led the captives to the altar, and
compelled the execution of the sacrifice, as the prophet
had commanded. This is recorded by Phanias the Les-
bian, a philosopher well read in history.

The number of the enemy's ships the poet Eschylus

*

gives in his tragedy called the Persians tain knowledge, in the following words

Xerxes, I know did into battle lead

as on his cer

One thousand ships; of more than usual speed
Seven and two hundred. So is it agreed.

The Athenians had a hundred and eighty; in every ship eighteen men fought upon the deck, four of whom were archers, and the rest men-at-arms. As Themistocles had fixed upon the most advantageous place, so with no less sagacity, he chose the best time of fighting. For he would not bring up his galleys to face the Persians, nor begin the fight, till the time of day was come when there regularly blows in a fresh breeze from the open sea, and brings in with it a strong swell into the channel; which was no inconvenience to the Greek ships, which were low-built and little above the water, but did much hurt to the Persians, which had high sterns and lofty decks, and were heavy and cumbrous in their movements, as it presented them broadside to the quick charges of the Greeks, who kept their eyes upon the motions of Themistocles, as their best example, and more particularly because opposed to his ship, Ariamenes, admiral to Xerxes, a brave man, and by far the best and worthiest

* The play was first acted within a very few years after the battle, so that this is the contemporary account, or one of the contemporary accounts. The words are put in the mouth of a Persian who had fled from the battle, and tells Atossa, the mother of Xerxes, of the defeat. Eschylus himself, and his brother Cynægirus, had fought with honour at Marathon; and it is commonly said that Aminias the Decelean, mentioned just below, was also his brother, but for this there is no good authority.

15

of the king's brothers, was seen throwing darts and shooting arrows from his huge galley, as from the walls of a castle. Aminias the Decelean and Sosicles the Pedian, who sailed in the same vessel, upon the ships meeting stem to stem and transfixing each the other with their brazen prows, so that they were fastened together, when Ariamenes attempted to board theirs, ran at him with their pikes, and thrust him into the sea; his body, as it floated amongst other shipwrecks, was known by Artemisia*, and carried to Xerxes.

It is related, that just at this time, in the middle of the fight, a great flame rose into the air above the city of Eleusis, and that sounds and voices were heard through all the Thriasian plain, as far as the sea, sounding like a number of men accompanying and escorting the mystic Iacchus †, and that a cloud seemed to form and rise from the place from whence the sounds came, and passing forward, descended upon the galleys. Others believed that they saw apparitions in the shape of armed men, reaching out their hands from the island of Ægina before the Grecian galleys; and supposed they were the acidæ‡, whom they had invoked to their aid before the battle. The first man that took a ship

* Artemisia was an Asiatic Greek princess, who ruled over Halicarnassus, and served under Xerxes with five galleys, and received great honour at his hands.

†There was annually a great procession, in which the image of the mystic Iacchus or Bacchus, the god of wine, was carried out from the town of Athens, amid a concourse of worshippers, to pay a visit of honour to his mother Demeter (Earth-mother), or Ceres, at Eleusis. See the "Life of Alcibiades," page 166. The battle was fought just about the time for the procession.

The acidæ or descendants of Eacus were the native and