Ἡ λζ΄, ὡς ἀπὸ Θάσου τοῦ Κάδμου ἀδελφοῦ Θάσος ἡ νῆσος ὠνομάσθη· ἐκεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν ὁ ἀδελφός, δοὺς τῷ στρατῷ μοῖραν, ἀπολείπει. καὶ ὡς Κάδμος ὑπὸ τοῦ Φοινίκων βασιλέως, μέγα καὶ αὐτὸς δυνάμενος παρὰ Φοίνιξιν, ἐπὶ τὴν Εὐρώπην σταλείη. οἱ δὲ Φοίνικες τότε μέγα τε, ὡς λόγος, ἴσχυον, καὶ πολλὴν τῆς Ἀσίας καταστρεψάμενοι τὸ βασίλειον ἐν Θήβαις ταῖς Αἰγυπτίαις εἶχον. σταλῆναι δὲ Κάδμον οὐχ ὡς Ἕλληνές φασι κατὰ ζήτησιν Εὐρώπης, ἣν παῖδα Φοίνικος οὖσαν ἥρπασε Ζεὺς ἐν σχήματι ταύρου, ἀλλ᾿ ἀρχὴν μὲν ἰδίαν ἐν Εὐρώπῃ μηχανώμενον πλάττεσθαι ἀδελφῆς ἡρπασμένης ποιεῖσθαι ζήτησιν, ἐξ οὗ καὶ ὁ τῆς Εὐρώπης μῦθος ἦκεν εἰς Ἕλληνας.
37. Cadmus and Thebes
The thirty-seventh: how the island of Thasos was named after Thasus, Cadmus' brother; for there his brother, giving him a share of the force, leaves him. And how Cadmus was sent to Europe by the king of the Phoenicians, being himself very powerful among the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians then, so the story goes, were very strong, and, having overrun much of Asia, had their royal seat in Egyptian Thebes. And Cadmus was sent not, as the Greeks say, in search of Europa, the daughter of Phoenix, whom Zeus carried off in the shape of a bull, but, contriving a rule of his own in Europe, he pretended to make a search for a sister who had been carried off; and from this the story of Europa came to the Greeks.
περιπλέων δὲ τὴν Εὐρώπην τὸν μὲν ἀδελφὸν Θάσον, ὡς εἴρηται, τῇ νήσῳ λείπει, αὐτὸς δ᾿ εἰς Βοιωτίαν πλεύσας ἄνεισι πρὸς τὰς νῦν καλουμένας Θήβας, καὶ σὺν τῇ δυνάμει περιτειχίσας τὸ χωρίον Θήβας ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκείας ἐπωνόμασε πατρίδος. τῶν δὲ Βοιωτῶν εἰς μάχην αὐτοῖς συμπλακέντων ἡττῶνται Φοίνικες, εἶτα κρατοῦσιν ἐνέδραις καὶ προλοχισμοῖς καὶ τῇ ἀήθει τῶν ὅπλων ὄψει· κράνος γὰρ καὶ ἀσπὶς οὔπω τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἔγνωστο. καὶ κρατεῖ Κάδμος τῆς Βοιωτῶν γῆς, καὶ φυγόντων τῶν διασωθέντων ἐπὶ τὰς οἰκείας πόλεις οἰκίζει Φοίνικας ἐν Θήβαις, καὶ τὴν Ἄρεως καὶ Ἀφροδίτης Ἁρμονίαν γαμεῖ. Βοιωτοῖς δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἔκπληξιν τῶν ὅπλων καὶ τῶν προλοχισμῶν καὶ τῆς ἐνέδρας δόξα παρέστη αὐτοῖς ὅπλοις ἀνιέναι τῆς γῆς τοὺς ἄνδρας, καὶ σπαρτοὺς ὡς ἐκ τοῦ χωρίου φύντας αὐτοὺς ἐκάλεσαν. περὶ μὲν Κάδμου καὶ Θηβῶν οἰκίσεως οὗτος ὁ ἀληθὴς λόγος, τὸ δ᾿ ἄλλο μῦθος καὶ γοητεία ἀκοῆς.
Sailing around Europe, he leaves his brother Thasus, as has been said, on the island, and himself, sailing to Boeotia, goes up to what are now called Thebes, and, walling the place around with his force, named Thebes after his own native city. When the Boeotians joined battle with them, the Phoenicians are defeated; then they prevail by ambushes and by lying in wait, and by the unaccustomed sight of their arms; for helmet and shield were not yet known to the Greeks. And Cadmus conquers the land of the Boeotians, and, when the survivors had fled to their own cities, he settles Phoenicians in Thebes, and marries Harmonia, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. And to the Boeotians, from the shock of the arms, the ambushes and the ambuscade, came the impression that the men were rising up armed out of the earth, and they called them Spartoi ("sown men"), as if they had sprung from the soil. This is the true account of Cadmus and the founding of Thebes; the rest is myth and enchantment of the ear.
Ἡ λη΄, ὡς Μιλήσιός τις ἀνήρ, τῆς πατρίδος αὐτῷ ὑπὸ Ἁρπάγου τοῦ Κύρου ἐν κινδύνῳ οὔσης, εἰς τὸ ἐν Σικελίᾳ Ταυρομένιον ἀπαίρει, κἀκεῖ φίλῳ τινὶ τραπεζίτῃ παραθέμενος τὸ χρυσίον οἴκαδ᾿ ἔπλει. εἶτα δεδούλωτο μὲν Μίλητος Κύρῳ, δεινὸν δ᾿ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ὧν ὑφεωρᾶτο ἐπεπόνθει· καὶ ὁ Μιλήσιος ἧκεν εἰς Ταυρομένιον ἀνακομισόμενος τὴν παρακαταθήκην. ὁ δὲ λαβὼν ὁμολογεῖ μὲν λαβεῖν, διετείνετο δ᾿ ἀποδεδωκέναι. ὡς δὲ μετὰ πολλὴν ἔριν καὶ λογομαχίαν ὁ Μιλήσιος εἰς ὅρκον τὸν ἀδικοῦντα προὐκαλεῖτο, ὁ τραπεζίτης μηχανᾶται τοιόνδε. νάρθηκα κοιλάνας καθάπερ αὐλὸν καὶ συντήξας τὴν παραθήκην τῷ νάρθηκι ἐγχεῖ καὶ ἀσφαλίζεται· ἐπὶ δὲ τὸν ὅρκον ἰών, κατέχων ὡς βακτηρίαν προφάσει ποδῶν ἀσθενείας, τῷ νάρθηκι ἐπηρείδετο· μέλλων δ᾿ ὀμνύειν πλησίον ἑστῶτι τῷ Μιλησίῳ, ὡς αὐτίκα πάλιν ἀναληψόμενος, τὸν νάρθηκα ἐπιδίδωσιν.
38. The banker of Tauromenium
The thirty-eighth: how a certain Milesian, when his country was in danger from Harpagus, the general of Cyrus, sails off to Tauromenium in Sicily, and there deposits his gold with a friend of his, a banker, and sails home. Then Miletus was enslaved to Cyrus, but of all that he had feared nothing else dreadful had befallen him; and the Milesian came to Tauromenium to get back the deposit. The banker admitted that he had received it, but insisted that he had returned it. And when, after much quarrelling and wrangling, the Milesian challenged the wrongdoer to an oath, the banker contrives the following. He hollows out a stalk of giant fennel like a pipe, melts the deposit and pours it into the stalk, and makes it secure; and going to the oath, holding it like a walking-stick on the pretext of weakness in his feet, he leaned on the stalk; and when he was about to swear, he hands the stalk to the Milesian, who was standing close by, as if he would take it back in a moment.
ὡς δὲ τὰς χεῖρας ἀνασχὼν κατώμνυτο τὴν παρακαταθήκην ἀποδοῦναι τῷ παραθεμένῳ, περιπαθήσας ὁ Μιλήσιος ῥίπτει τὸν νάρθηκα, ἔρρειν ἅμα ἀνακραγὼν τὴν ἐν ἀνθρώποις πίστιν. καὶ ὁ νάρθηξ ἐρρήγνυτο, καὶ περιφανὲς ἦν πρὸς τὴν ὄψιν τῷ χρυσίῳ τὸ σόφισμα τῆς ψευδορκίας. καὶ ὁ μὲν Μιλήσιος τὸ ἴδιον εἶχεν, ὁ δὲ τραπεζίτης ὑπ᾿ αἰδοῦς καὶ τοῦ κακίζεσθαι πρὸς ἁπάντων βρόχῳ τὸ ζῆν ἑαυτὸν ἐξάγει.
And when, lifting up his hands, he swore that he had returned the deposit to the man who had made it, the Milesian, overcome with feeling, throws down the stalk, crying out at the same time, "To the devil with good faith among men!" And the stalk broke, and the trick of the false oath was plain to see, with the gold in view. So the Milesian had what was his own, while the banker, from shame and from being reviled by everyone, ended his life with a noose.
Ἡ λθ΄, ὡς Μέλανθος γένος μὲν ἦν τῶν Νηλειδῶν, οἳ Πύλου καὶ Μεσσήνης ἀπὸ Ποσειδῶνος ἐβασίλευον. τοῦτον ἀναστήσαντες Ἡρακλεῖδαι πολέμῳ τὴν γῆν ἔσχον· ὁ δὲ κατὰ χρησμοὺς Ἀθήναζε ἀφικνεῖται, καὶ πολίτης γίνεται, καὶ ἦν τῶν τιμωμένων. Ἀθηναίοις δὲ καὶ Βοιωτοῖς πόλεμος ὑπὲρ Οἰνόης συνίστατο, καὶ ἐδόκει ἐν τῇ τῶν βασιλέων μονομαχίᾳ τὴν κρίσιν εἶναι. Θυμοίτης μὲν οὖν βασιλεύων Ἀθηναίων ἐδεδοίκει τὸν ἀγῶνα, καὶ ἐξίστατο τῆς βασιλείας τῷ βουλομένῳ διακινδυνεῦσαι πρὸς Ξάνθον, ὃς ἐβασίλευσε Βοιωτῶν. καὶ Μέλανθος ἐπ᾿ ἄθλῳ τῆς βασιλείας ὑπέρχεται τὸν ἀγῶνα, καὶ προβαίνουσιν αἱ συνθῆκαι. ἐπεὶ δ᾿ εἰς μάχην ἧκον, καθορᾷ ὁ Μέλανθος φάσμα τι τῷ Ξάνθῳ ἄνδρα ἑπόμενον ἀγένειον. ὡς δ᾿ ἀνεβόησε μὴ δίκαια ποιεῖν παρὰ τὰς συνθήκας ἐπαγόμενον βοηθόν, μετεστράφη ὁ Ξάνθος, πρὸς τὸ ἄπιστον τοῦ λόγου ἐκπλαγείς· καὶ αὐτὸν εὐθὺς ὁ Μέλανθος τῷ δόρατι βαλὼν κτείνει, καὶ τήν τε Οἰνόην Ἀθηναίοις καὶ ἑαυτῷ τὴν βασιλείαν ἑνὶ περιεποιήσατο ἀγωνίσματι. τὸ μὲν δὴ τῶν Ἐρεχθειδῶν γένος εἰς τοὺς Μελανθίδας, ὧν ἦν καὶ Κόδρος, ἀπὸ τότε μετέστη· Ἀθηναῖοι δ᾿ ὕστερον Διονύσῳ Μελανθίδῃ κατὰ χρησμὸν ἱερὸν ἱδρυσάμενοι θύουσιν ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος, καὶ τῷ ἀπατορίῳ Διὶ ἱερὰ ἀνάπτοντες, ὅτι αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῆς ἀπάτης ἀγώνισμα ἐγένετο.
39. Melanthus
The thirty-ninth: how Melanthus was by descent one of the Neleidae, who ruled Pylos and Messene, descended from Poseidon. The Heracleidae drove him out and took the land by war; and he, following oracles, comes to Athens, and becomes a citizen, and was among those who were honored. War broke out between the Athenians and the Boeotians over Oenoe, and it was decided that the issue should be settled by single combat between the kings. Thymoetes, then king of the Athenians, feared the contest, and gave up the kingship to whoever was willing to risk the fight against Xanthus, who was king of the Boeotians. And Melanthus takes on the contest as the prize of the kingship, and the agreement goes forward. When they came to the fight, Melanthus sees an apparition accompanying Xanthus, a beardless man. And when he cried out that Xanthus was acting unjustly, against the agreement, in bringing a helper, Xanthus turned around, struck by the incredible claim; and Melanthus at once struck him with his spear and kills him, and won for the Athenians Oenoe, and for himself the kingship, in a single contest. So the line of the Erechtheidae passed to the Melanthidae, to whom Codrus belonged. And the Athenians later, founding by oracle a sanctuary of Dionysus Melanthides, sacrifice every year, and kindle sacrifices to Zeus Apaturius, because the contest came to them out of a deception.
Ἡ μ΄ ἱστορία τὰ περὶ Ἀνδρομέδας ἱστορεῖ ἑτέρως ἢ ὡς ὁ Ἑλλήνων μῦθος. ἀδελφοὺς μὲν γὰρ δύο γενέσθαι Κηφέα καὶ Φινέα, καὶ εἶναι τὴν τοῦ Κηφέως βασιλείαν τότε ἐν τῇ μετονομασθείσῃ μὲν ὕστερον Φοινίκῃ, τηνικαῦτα δ᾿ Ἰόππα ἀπὸ Ἰόππης τῆς ἐπιθαλασσιδίου πόλεως τοὔνομα λαβούσῃ· καὶ ἦν τὰ τῆς ἀρχῆς ὅρια ἀπὸ τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς θαλάσσης μέχρι Ἀράβων τῶν πρὸς τὴν ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσαν ᾠκημένων. εἶναι δὲ τῷ Κηφεῖ καὶ θυγατέρα πάνυ καλὴν Ἀνδρομέδαν, καὶ αὐτὴν μνᾶσθαι Φοίνικά τε καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν Κηφέως Φινέα. Κηφεὺς δὲ μετὰ πολλοὺς τοὺς ἐφ᾿ ἑκατέρῳ λογισμοὺς ἔγνω δοῦναι μὲν Φοίνικι, ἁρπαγῇ δὲ τοῦ μνηστῆρος τὸ αὑτοῦ ἑκούσιον ἀποκρύπτειν· καὶ ἁρπάζεται ἀπό τινος νησῖδος ἐρήμου ἡ Ἀνδρομέδα, ἐν ᾧ εἰώθει ἀπιοῦσα θυσίας τῇ Ἀφροδίτῃ θύειν. Φοίνικος δ᾿ ἁρπάσαντος νηΐ (κῆτος δ᾿ αὕτη ἐκαλεῖτο, ἢ μίμησιν ἔχουσα τοῦ ζῴου ἢ καὶ κατὰ τύχην) ἡ Ἀνδρομέδα, ὡς κατὰ ἄγνοιαν τοῦ πατρὸς ἁρπαζομένη, ἀνωλοφύρατό τε καὶ μετ᾿ οἰμωγῆς τοὺς βοηθήσοντας ἀνεκαλεῖτο. Περσεὺς δ᾿ ὁ Δανάης κατὰ δαίμονα παραπλέων κατίσχει, καὶ πρὸς τὴν πρώτην ὄψιν τῆς κόρης οἴκτῳ καὶ ἔρωτι συσχεθεὶς τό τε πλοῖον, τὸ κῆτος, διαφθείρει καὶ τοὺς ἐμπλέοντας ὑπὸ ἐκπλήξεως μόνον οὐχὶ λιθωθέντας ἀναιρεῖ. καὶ τοῦτο Ἕλλησι τὸ τοῦ μύθου κῆτος καὶ οἱ παγέντες εἰς λίθους ἄνθρωποι τῇ τῆς Γοργόνος κεφαλῇ. ἄγεται δ᾿ οὖν γυναῖκα τὴν Ἀνδρομέδαν, καὶ οἴχεται αὕτη συμπλέουσα εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα τῷ Περσεῖ, καὶ βασιλεύοντος τὸ Ἄργος οἰκεῖται.
40. Andromeda
The fortieth narrative tells the story of Andromeda differently from the Greek myth. There were, it says, two brothers, Cepheus and Phineus, and the kingdom of Cepheus lay then in the country later renamed Phoenice, but at that time called Joppa, after Joppa, the city on the sea. The limits of the realm ran from our sea as far as the Arabs who live by the Red Sea. Cepheus also had a very beautiful daughter, Andromeda, and she was wooed by Phoenix and by Cepheus' brother Phineus. Cepheus, after much weighing of the case for each, decided to give her to Phoenix, but to hide his own consent behind the suitor's carrying her off; and Andromeda is carried off from a small deserted island where she was accustomed, when she went there, to sacrifice to Aphrodite. Phoenix carried her off in a ship (it was called Cetus, "sea-monster", either because it was made in the likeness of the creature or by chance), and Andromeda, as one carried off without her father's knowledge, lamented and called aloud, with wailing, for those who would come to help. Perseus, son of Danae, sailing by as heaven would have it, puts in, and at his first sight of the girl, gripped by pity and love, destroys the ship—the "monster"—and kills those on board, who were all but turned to stone by shock. And this is what the Greeks have in the myth as the monster, and the people turned to stone by the Gorgon's head. He takes Andromeda as his wife, and she goes off, sailing with Perseus, to Greece, and dwells in Argos, where he is king.
Ἡ μα΄, ὡς Ἄντανδρον ᾤκησαν Πελασγοί, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς μὲν ἔνιοί φασι, δόντος αὐτοῖς Ἀσκανίου λύτρον ἀνθ᾿ αὑτοῦ, ἐπεὶ ἐνέδρᾳ συνελήφθη ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν, καὶ ἀπολυθέντος· διὸ καὶ Ἄντανδρος, ὅτι ἀντὶ ἑνὸς ἀνδρὸς ἔλαβον πόλιν. ὁ δ᾿ Ἀσκάνιος υἱὸς μὲν ἦν Αἰνείου, μετὰ δὲ Τροίας ἅλωσιν ἐβασίλευσεν Ἴδης. οἱ δὲ φασιν ἐντεῦθεν οἰκῆσαι Πελασγοὺς Ἄντανδρον. Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ Κρεούσης Ἄνιος γίνεται παῖς, τοῦ δὲ Ἄνδρος, ὃς μίαν οἰκήσας τῶν νήσων τὸ ὄνομα λείπει τῇ νήσῳ, κατὰ στάσιν δ᾿ ἐκεῖθεν ἐκπεσών, καὶ χωρίον ἰδὼν ὑπὸ τὴν Ἴδην παραπλήσιον Ἄνδρῳ, πολίζει τὸ χωρίον καὶ Ἄντανδρον πρὸς τὴν ὁμοιότητα ὀνομάζει. τὴν δ᾿ Ἄνδρον ἔρημον οὖσαν λαὸς Πελασγῶν εἰσῳκίσατο.
41. Antandrus and Cyzicus
The forty-first: how Pelasgians settled Antandrus; but, as some say, because Ascanius gave them a ransom in place of himself, when he had been taken by them in an ambush, and was released; hence the name Antandrus, because they got a city in exchange for one man. Ascanius was a son of Aeneas, and after the capture of Troy he ruled Ida. Others say that it was from there that Pelasgians went to live at Antandrus. To Apollo and Creusa is born a son, Anius, and to him Andros, who, having settled one of the islands, left his name to the island, but, driven from there by faction, and seeing a place under Ida very like Andros, founds a city on the spot and names it Antandrus, from the likeness. The people of the Pelasgians moved into Andros, which was deserted.
καὶ ἡ Κύζικος δὲ Πελασγοὺς ἔσχεν οἰκήτορας· καὶ γὰρ Κύζικος ὁ Ἀπόλλωνος, Πελασγῶν τῶν ἐν Θεσσαλίᾳ βασιλεύων, ὑπὸ Αἰολέων μετὰ Πελασγῶν ἐκπεσὼν τὴν χερρόνησον τῆς Ἀσίας πολίζει, δοὺς αὐτῇ καὶ τοὔνομα. καὶ ηὐξήθη ἐκ ταπεινῆς Κυζίκῳ εἰς μέγα ἡ ἀρχή, ἀφ᾿ οὗ Κλείτην τὴν Μέροπος, ὃς τῶν περὶ Ῥυνδακὸν χωρίων ἐβασίλευε, γυναῖκα ἠγάγετο. οἱ δὲ μετὰ Ἰάσονος ἐπὶ τὸ δέρας ἰόντες κατίσχουσι πρὸς τὴν Κύζικον τῇ Ἀργοῖ, καὶ μαθόντες οἱ Πελασγοὶ Θεσσαλίδα τὴν ναῦν, κατὰ μῆνιν τῆς ἐκβολῆς νυκτὸς ἐμάχοντο τῇ Ἀργοῖ. Κύζικον δὲ λῦσαι τὴν μάχην ἐπιστάντα ἀγνοῶν Ἰάσων κτείνει, πεσόντων καὶ ἄλλων Πελασγῶν. καὶ ἡ μὲν Ἀργὼ ἔπλει ἐπὶ Κόλχους· οἱ δὲ τότε μὲν ὑπερηχθέσθησαν ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ βασιλέως τελευτῇ, καὶ τοῖς παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς δυνατοῖς τὰ τῆς πόλεως ἐνεχείρισαν (οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦν παῖς Κυζίκῳ διάδοχος), ὕστερον δὲ ὑπὸ Τυρρηνῶν Κύζικον μετανέστησαν, καὶ Τυρρηνοὶ τὴν χερρόνησον ἔσχον. καὶ τούτους Μιλησίων μοῖρα μάχῃ νικήσαντες αὐτοὶ Κύζικον ᾤκησαν.
Cyzicus also had Pelasgians as its settlers; for Cyzicus, son of Apollo, king of the Pelasgians in Thessaly, driven out by the Aeolians along with Pelasgians, founds a city on the peninsula of Asia, giving it his own name as well. And the rule grew from humble beginnings to greatness under Cyzicus; after which he married Cleite, the daughter of Merops, who ruled the places around Rhyndacus. Those who were going with Jason for the fleece put in at Cyzicus in the Argo, and the Pelasgians, learning that the ship was Thessalian, fought the Argo by night, in anger over their expulsion. Jason, not knowing him, kills Cyzicus when he came up to stop the battle, and others of the Pelasgians fell as well. The Argo sailed on toward Colchis; the Pelasgians were then deeply grieved over the king's death and entrusted the city's affairs to the men of power among them (for Cyzicus had no child to succeed him), and later, driven out by Tyrrhenians, they left Cyzicus, and the Tyrrhenians held the peninsula. And a division of the Milesians, defeating these in battle, themselves settled Cyzicus.
Ἡ μβ΄, ὡς Γέλων ὁ Σικελιώτης τυραννίδι ἐπιθέσθαι διανοούμενος Ἱμεραίων ἐθεράπευε τὸν δῆμον, καὶ κατὰ τῶν δυνατῶν ὑπερεμάχει, καὶ αὐτὸν ἠγάπα τὸ πλῆθος, καὶ φυλακὴν τοῦ σώματος αἰτοῦντι ὡρμᾶτο διδόναι. Στησίχορος δ᾿ ὁ Ἱμεραῖος ποιητὴς ὑποτοπήσας ἐπιχειρεῖν αὐτὸν τυραννίδι, στὰς αἶνον ἔλεξεν εἰς τὸ πλῆθος, εἰκόνα τοῦ μέλλοντος πάθους. ἵππος, φησί, νεμόμενος ἐφοίτα πιόμενος ἐπὶ κρήνην, ἔλαφος δὲ τὸ πεδίον διαθέουσα τήν τε πόαν κατέστειβε καὶ τὸ νᾶμα ἐτάραττε. καὶ ὁ ἵππος ποθῶν τὴν ἀδικήσασαν τιμωρήσασθαι, τάχει δὲ ποδῶν λειπόμενος, ἄνδρα κυνηγέτην βοηθὸν ἐκάλει· ὁ δέ, εἰ χαλινὸν δέξοιτο καὶ ἀναβάτην, ῥᾷστα ἀμύνειν αὐτῷ ὑπισχνεῖτο. καὶ ἐγίνετο οὕτως, καὶ ἡ μὲν ἔλαφος ἀκοντίοις ἔκειτο βληθεῖσα, ὁ δ᾿ ἵππος ᾔσθετο δεδουλωμένος τῷ κυνηγέτῃ. τοῦτ᾿, ἔφη, δέδοικα καὶ αὐτός, ὦ Ἱμεραῖοι, μὴ νῦν δῆμος ὄντες τῶν ἐχθρῶν μὲν διὰ Γέλωνος περιγένησθε, αὐτοὶ δ᾿ ὕστερον Γέλωνι δουλεύσητε· φιλεῖν γὰρ ἅπασαν τὴν δύναμιν τῷ λαβόντι ἐπὶ τὸν δόντα εἶναι, ὅταν ὥσπερ δοῦναι αὐτὴν μηκέτι ἐκ τοῦ ὁμοίου κομίσασθαι ἔχῃ.
42. Gelon and Stesichorus
The forty-second: how Gelon of Sicily, intending to set upon a tyranny, courted the people of Himera and championed them against the powerful, and the multitude loved him, and when he asked for a bodyguard they were ready to give it. But Stesichorus, the Himeran poet, suspecting that he was attempting a tyranny, stood up and told the crowd a fable, an image of what was to come. "A horse," he said, "was feeding and used to go to a spring to drink; a deer, running across the plain, trampled the grass and muddied the water. And the horse, eager to punish the offender, but inferior in speed of foot, called a hunter to help him; and he promised that, if the horse would take a bridle and a rider, he would easily avenge him. So it was done: the deer lay struck by javelins, and the horse found that he was enslaved to the hunter. This," he said, "I too fear, men of Himera: that you, who are now a people of your own, may get the better of your enemies through Gelon, and yourselves later be slaves to Gelon. For all power is wont, in the hands of the one who has received it, to turn against the one who gave it, once he can no longer, having as it were given it away, take it back on equal terms."
Ἡ μγ΄, οἱ τῆς Αἴτνης τοῦ πυρὸς κρατῆρες ἀνέβλυσάν ποτε ποταμοῦ δίκην φλόγα κατὰ τῆς χώρας, καὶ Καταναίοις (πόλις δ᾿ Ἑλλὰς ἐν Σικελίᾳ ἡ Κατάνη) ἔδοξε παντελὴς ἔσεσθαι φθορὰ τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ταύτης φεύγοντες ὡς εἶχον τάχους οἱ μὲν χρυσὸν οἱ δὲ ἄργυρον ἔφερον, οἱ δὲ ὅ τι ἂν τις βούλοιτο ἐπικούρημα τῆς φυγῆς. Ἀναπίας δὲ καὶ Ἀμφίνομος ἀντὶ πάντων τοὺς γονεῖς γηραιοὺς ὄντας ἐπὶ τοὺς ὤμους ἀναθέμενοι ἔφευγον. καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἄλλους ἡ φλὸξ ἐπικαταλαβοῦσα ἔφθειρεν, αὐτοὺς δὲ περιεσχίσθη τὸ πῦρ. καὶ ὥσπερ νῆσος ἐν τῇ φλογὶ πᾶς ὁ περὶ αὐτοὺς χῶρος ἐγένετο. διὰ ταῦτα οἱ Σικελιῶται τόν τε χῶρον ἐκεῖνον εὐσεβῶν χώραν ἐκάλεσαν, καὶ λιθίνας εἰκόνας ἐν αὐτῷ τῶν ἀνδρῶν μνημεῖα θείων τε ἅμα καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων ἔργων ἀνέθεσαν.
43. The pious sons of Catana
The forty-third: the craters of Aetna's fire once poured out a flame, like a river, over the country; and to the people of Catana (Catana is a Greek city in Sicily) it seemed that the destruction of the city would be total; and, fleeing from it as fast as they could, some carried gold, some silver, others whatever anyone might want as a help in flight. But Anapias and Amphinomus, instead of everything, put their aged parents on their shoulders and fled. And the others the flame overtook and destroyed, but around these two the fire split, and the whole space around them became like an island in the flame. For this the Sicilians called that place the Land of the Pious, and set up stone statues of the men in it, as memorials of deeds at once divine and human.
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