Herodotus · Histories Ἱστορίαι

Herodotus, Histories 6.73–75: The madness and death of Cleomenes

Cleomenes and Leotychides take ten leading Eginetans, including Crios, and deposit them with the Athenians. Fearing the Spartans, Cleomenes rouses the Arcadians and tries to make them swear by the water of Styx at Nonacris. The Lacedemonians bring him back, and he goes mad and dies by cutting himself with a knife handed over by a warder who was one of the Helots, and the Hellenes, the Athenians and the Argives give different causes.

Sections 6.73–75 · 600 words · click a number to copy its link

ταῦτα μὲν δὴ ἐγένετο χρόνῳ ὕστερον· τότε δὲ ὡς τῷ Κλεομένεϊ ὡδώθη τὸ ἐς τὸν Δημάρητον πρῆγμα, αὐτίκα παραλαβὼν Λευτυχίδεα ἤιε ἐπὶ τοὺς Αἰγινήτας, δεινόν τινά σφι ἔγκοτον διὰ τὸν προπηλακισμὸν ἔχων.

οὕτω δὴ οὔτε οἱ Αἰγινῆται, ἀμφοτέρων τῶν βασιλέων ἡκόντων ἐπʼ αὐτούς, ἐδικαίευν ἔτι ἀντιβαίνειν, ἐκεῖνοί τε ἐπιλεξάμενοι ἄνδρας δέκα Αἰγινητέων τοὺς πλείστου ἀξίους καὶ πλούτῳ καὶ γένει· ἦγον καὶ ἄλλους καὶ δὴ καὶ Κριόν τε τὸν Πολυκρίτου καὶ Κάσαυβον τὸν Ἀριστοκράτεος, οἵ περ εἶχον μέγιστον κράτος· ἀγαγόντες δὲ σφέας ἐς γῆν τὴν Ἀττικὴν παραθήκην παρατίθενται ἐς τοὺς ἐχθίστους Αἰγινήτῃσι Ἀθηναίους.

These things happened later; but at this time, when Cleomenes had brought to a successful issue the affair which concerned Demaratos, forthwith he took with him Leotychides and went against the Eginetans, being very greatly enraged with them because of their insults towards him. So the Eginetans on their part, since both the kings had come against them, thought fit no longer to resist; and the Spartans selected ten men who were the most considerable among the Eginetans both by wealth and by birth, and took them away as prisoners, and among others also Crios the son of Polycritos and Casambos the son of Aristocrates, who had the greatest power among them; and having taken these away to the land of Attica, they deposited them as a charge with the Athenians, who were the bitterest enemies of the Eginetans.

μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα Κλεομένεα ἐπάιστον γενόμενον κακοτεχνήσαντα ἐς Δημάρητον δεῖμα ἔλαβε Σπαρτιητέων, καὶ ὑπεξέσχε ἐς Θεσσαλίην. ἐνθεῦτεν δὲ ἀπικόμενος ἐς τὴν Ἀρκαδίην νεώτερα ἔπρησσε πρήγματα, συνιστὰς τοὺς Ἀρκάδας ἐπὶ τῆ Σπάρτῃ, ἄλλους τε ὅρκους προσάγων σφι ἦ μὲν ἕψεσθαι σφέας αὐτῷ τῇ ἂν ἐξηγέηται, καὶ δὴ καὶ ἐς Νώνακριν πόλιν πρόθυμος ἦν τῶν Ἀρκάδων τοὺς προεστεῶτας ἀγινέων ἐξορκοῦν τὸ Στυγὸς ὕδωρ.

ἐν δὲ ταύτῃ τῇ πόλι λέγεται εἶναι ὑπὸ τῶν Ἀρκάδων τὸ Στυγὸς ὕδωρ, καὶ δὴ καὶ ἔστι τοιόνδε τι· ὕδωρ ὀλίγον φαινόμενον ἐκ πέτρης στάζει ἐς ἄγκος, τὸ δὲ ἄγκος αἱμασιῆς τις περιθέει κύκλος. ἡ δὲ Νώνακρις, ἐν τῇ ἡ πηγὴ αὕτη τυγχάνει ἐοῦσα, πόλις ἐστὶ τῆς Ἀρκαδίης πρὸς Φενεῷ.

After this Cleomenes, since it had become known that he had devised evil against Demaratos, was seized by fear of the Spartans and retired to Thessaly. Thence he came to Arcadia, and began to make mischief and to combine the Arcadians against Sparta; and besides other oaths with which he caused them to swear that they would assuredly follow him whithersoever he should lead them, he was very desirous also to bring the chiefs of the Arcadians to the city of Nonacris and cause them to swear by the water of Styx; for near this city it is said by the Arcadians that there is the water of Styx, and there is in fact something of this kind: a small stream of water is seen to trickle down from a rock into a hollow ravine, and round the ravine runs a wall of rough stones. Now Nonacris, where it happens that this spring is situated, is a city of Arcadia near Pheneos.

μαθόντες δὲ Κλεομένεα Λακεδαιμόνιοι ταῦτα πρήσσοντα, κατῆγον αὐτὸν δείσαντες ἐπὶ τοῖσι αὐτοῖσι ἐς Σπάρτην τοῖσι καὶ πρότερον ἦρχε. κατελθόντα δὲ αὐτὸν αὐτίκα ὑπέλαβε μανίη νοῦσος, ἐόντα καὶ πρότερον ὑπομαργότερον· ὅκως γὰρ τεῷ ἐντύχοι Σπαρτιητέων, ἐνέχραυε ἐς τὸ πρόσωπον τὸ σκῆπτρον.

ποιέοντα δὲ αὐτὸν ταῦτα καὶ παραφρονήσαντα ἔδησαν οἱ προσήκοντες ἐν ξύλω· ὁ δὲ δεθεὶς τὸν φύλακον μουνωθέντα ἰδὼν τῶν ἄλλων αἰτέει μάχαιραν· οὐ βουλομένου δὲ τὰ πρῶτα τοῦ φυλάκου διδόναι ἀπείλεε τά μιν αὖτις ποιήσει, ἐς ὁ δείσας τὰς ἀπειλὰς ὁ φύλακος (ἦν γὰρ τῶν τις εἱλωτέων) διδοῖ οἱ μάχαιραν.

Κλεομένης δὲ παραλαβὼν τὸν σίδηρον ἄρχετο ἐκ τῶν κνημέων ἑωυτὸν λωβώμενος· ἐπιτάμνων γὰρ κατὰ μῆκος τὰς σάρκας προέβαινε ἐκ τῶν κνημέων ἐς τοὺς μηρούς, ἐκ δὲ τῶν μηρῶν ἔς τε τὰ ἰσχία καὶ τὰς λαπάρας, ἐς ὃ ἐς τὴν γαστέρα ἀπίκετο, καὶ ταύτην καταχορδεύων ἀπέθανε τρόπῳ τοιούτῳ, ὡς μὲν οἱ πολλοὶ λέγουσι Ἐλλήνων, ὅτι τὴν Πυθίην ἀνέγνωσε τὰ περὶ Δημαρήτου λέγειν γενόμενα, ὡς δὲ Ἀθηναῖοι μοῦνοι λέγουσι, διότι ἐς Ἐλευσῖνα ἐσβαλὼν ἔκειρε τὸ τέμενος τῶν θεῶν, ὡς δὲ Ἀργεῖοι, ὅτι ἐξ ἱροῦ αὐτῶν τοῦ Ἄργου Ἀργείων τοὺς καταφυγόντας ἐκ τῆς μάχης καταγινέων κατέκοπτε καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ ἄλσος ἐν ἀλογίῃ ἔχων ἐνέπρησε.

The Lacedemonians, hearing that Cleomenes was acting thus, were afraid, and proceeded to bring him back to Sparta to rule on the same terms as before: but when he had come back, forthwith a disease of madness seized him (who had been even before this somewhat insane ), and whenever he met any of the Spartans, he dashed his staff against the man’s face. And as he continued to do this and had gone quite out of his senses, his kinsmen bound him in stocks. Then being so bound, and seeing his warder left alone by the rest, he asked him for a knife; and the warder not being at first willing to give it, he threatened him with that which he would do to him afterwards if he did not; until at last the warder fearing the threats, for he was one of the Helots, gave him a knife. Then Cleomenes, when he had received the steel, began to maltreat himself from the legs upwards: for he went on cutting his flesh lengthways from the legs to the thighs and from the thighs to the loins and flanks, until at last he came to the belly; and cutting this into strips he died in that manner. And this happened, as most of the Hellenes report, because he persuaded the Pythian prophetess to advise that which was done about Demaratos; but as the Athenians alone report, it was because when he invaded Eleusis he laid waste the sacred enclosure of the goddesses; and according to the report of the Argives, because from their sanctuary dedicated to Argos he caused to come down those of the Argives who had fled for refuge from the battle and slew them, and also set fire to the grove itself, holding it in no regard.

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English translation by G. C. Macaulay (1890). Original text: A. D. Godley (ed.), Herodotus, Loeb Classical Library, 4 vols, London: Heinemann; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920-1925 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library, Greek text); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.