οἱ δὲ πελέκεις Περικλύτου τοῦ Εὐθυμάχου Τενεδίου ἀνδρὸς ἐπὶ λόγῳ ἀνάθημά εἰσιν ἀρχαίῳ. Κύκνον παῖδα εἶναι Ποσειδῶνος καὶ βασιλεύειν φασὶν ἐν Κολώναις· αἱ δὲ ᾠκοῦντο ἐν γῇ τῇ Τρῳάδι αἱ Κολῶναι κατὰ νῆσον κείμεναι Λεύκοφρυν.
ἔχοντος δὲ θυγατέρα ὄνομα Ἡμιθέαν τοῦ Κύκνου καὶ υἱὸν καλούμενον Τέννην ἐκ Προκλείας—ἣ Κλυτίου μὲν ἦν θυγάτηρ, ἀδελφὴ δὲ Καλήτορος, ὃν Ὅμηρος ἐν Ἰλιάδι ἀποθανεῖν φησιν ὑπὸ Αἴαντος, ὅτε ὑπὸ τὴν Πρωτεσιλάου ναῦν ἔφερεν ὁ Καλήτωρ τὸ πῦρ—ταύτης οὖν προαποθανούσης ἡ ἐπεισελθοῦσα Φιλονόμη ἡ Κραγάσου —διήμαρτε γὰρ ἐρασθεῖσα τοῦ Τέννου—ψεύδεται πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα ὡς αὐτὴ μὲν οὐκ ἐθέλουσα, τὸν δὲ αὑτῇ Τέννην συγγενέσθαι θελήσαντα· καὶ ὁ Κύκνος πείθεται τῇ ἀπάτῃ, καὶ ἐς λάρνακα ἐνθέμενος ὁμοῦ τῇ ἀδελφῇ Τέννην ἐς θάλασσαν σφᾶς ἀφίησι.
σώζονταί τε δὴ πρὸς τὴν νῆσον οἱ παῖδες τὴν Λεύκοφρυν καὶ ὄνομα ἡ νῆσος τὸ νῦν ἔσχεν ἀπὸ τοῦ Τέννου. Κύκνος δὲ—οὐ γὰρ τὸν πάντα ἔμελλε χρόνον ἀγνοήσειν ἀπατώμενος—ἔπλει παρὰ τὸν υἱὸν ἄγνοιάν τε ὁμολογήσων τὴν αὑτοῦ καὶ παραιτησόμενος τὸ ἁμάρτημα· προσορμισαμένου δὲ τῇ νήσῳ καὶ ἐξάψαντος ἀπὸ τῆς νεὼς πρός τινα ἢ πέτραν ἢ δένδρον τοὺς κάλους, Τέννης πελέκει σφᾶς ἀπέκοψεν ὑπὸ τοῦ θυμοῦ.
ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἐς τοὺς ἀρνουμένους στερεῶς λέγεσθαι καθέστηκεν ὡς ὁ δεῖνα ὅστις δὴ Τενεδίῳ πελέκει τόδε τι ἀποκόψειεν. Τέννην μὲν ὑπὸ Ἀχιλλέως ἀποθανεῖν ἀμύνοντα τῇ οἰκείᾳ φασὶν Ἕλληνες· Τενέδιοι δὲ ἀνὰ χρόνον ὑπὸ ἀσθενείας προσεχώρησαν τοῖς Ἀλεξάνδρειαν ἐν τῇ ἠπείρῳ τῇ Τρῳάδι ἔχουσιν.
Ἕλληνες δὲ οἱ ἐναντία βασιλέως πολεμήσαντες ἀνέθεσαν μὲν Δία ἐς Ὀλυμπίαν χαλκοῦν, ἀνέθεσαν δὲ καὶ ἐς Δελφοὺς Ἀπόλλωνα ἀπὸ ἔργων τῶν ἐν ταῖς ναυσὶν ἐπί τε Ἀρτεμισίῳ καὶ ἐν Σαλαμῖνι. λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὡς Θεμιστοκλῆς ἀφίκοιτο ἐς Δελφοὺς λαφύρων τῶν Μηδικῶν κομίζων τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι· ἐρωτήσαντα δὲ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀναθημάτων εἰ ἐντὸς ἀναθήσει τοῦ ναοῦ, ἐκέλευεν αὐτὸν ἡ Πυθία τὰ παράπαν ἀποφέρειν ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ. καὶ ἔχει οὕτω τὰ ἐς τοῦ τοῦ χρησμοῦ· μή μοι Περσῆος σκύλων περικαλλέα κόσμον / νηῷ ἐγκαταθῇς· οἶκόνδʼ ἀπόπεμπε τάχιστα. /
θαῦμα οὖν ἐποιούμεθα εἰ ἀπηξίωσεν ἐκείνου μόνου μὴ προσέσθαι τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν Μήδων. καὶ οἱ μὲν ἀπώσασθαι ἂν τὸν θεὸν καὶ ἅπαντα ὁμοίως ἡγοῦντο ὅσα ἀπὸ τοῦ Πέρσου, εἰ ὥσπερ ὁ Θεμιστοκλῆς καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι πρότερον ἢ ἀναθεῖναι σφᾶς ἐπήροντο τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα· οἱ δὲ εἰδότα τὸν θεὸν ὅτι ἱκέτης τοῦ Πέρσου γενήσοιτο ὁ Θεμιστοκλῆς, ἐπὶ τούτῳ τὰ δῶρα ἔφασαν οὐκ ἐθελῆσαι λαβεῖν, ἵνα μὴ ἀναθέντι τὸ ἔχθος ἄπαυστον ποιήσῃ τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ Μήδου. στρατείαν δὲ τὴν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα τοῦ βαρβάρου ἔστιν εὑρεῖν προρρηθεῖσαν μὲν ἐν τοῖς Βάκιδος χρησμοῖς, πρότερον δʼ ἔτι Εὔκλῳ τὰ ἐς αὐτὴν πεποιημένα ἐστίν.
Δελφῶν δὲ ἀνάθημά ἐστιν αὐτῶν πλησίον τοῦ βωμοῦ τοῦ μεγάλου λύκος χαλκοῦς. λέγουσι δὲ τῶν τοῦ θεοῦ χρημάτων συλήσαντα ἄνθρωπον, τὸν μὲν ὁμοῦ τῷ χρυσίῳ κατακρύψαντα ἔχειν αὑτὸν ἔνθα τοῦ Παρνασσοῦ μάλιστα ἦν συνεχὲς ὑπὸ ἀγρίων δένδρων, λύκον δὲ ἐπιθέσθαι οἱ καθεύδοντι, καὶ ἀποθανεῖν τε ὑπὸ τοῦ λύκου τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ ὡς ἐς τὴν πόλιν ὁσημέραι φοιτῶν ὠρύετο ὁ λύκος· ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐκ ἄνευ θεοῦ παραγίνεσθαί σφισιν ὑπελάμβανον, οὕτως ἐπακολουθοῦσι τῷ θηρίῳ, καὶ ἀνευρίσκουσί τε τὸ ἱερὸν χρυσίον καὶ ἀνέθεσαν λύκον τῷ θεῷ χαλκοῦν.
The axes are an offering of Periclytus, son of Euthymachus, a native of Tenedos, and refer to an old legend.
They say that Cycnus was a son of Poseidon, and reigned in Colonae, which was a town in the Troad opposite the island of Leucophrys. Cycnus had a daughter named Hemithea, and a son called Tennes by Proclea, who was a daughter of Clytius, and sister of Caletor. Homer, in the Iliad, says that this Caletor was killed by Ajax in the act of setting fire to the ship of Protesilaus. But Proclea died before her husband ; and his second wife Phylonome, daughter of Cragasus, fell in love with Tennes, and being foiled, she told her husband falsely that Tennes had made love to her against her will. Cycnus believed the lying tale, put Tennes and his sister in a chest, and flung them into the sea. The brother and sister reached the island of Leucophrys safely, and the island got its present name from Tennes. But Cycnus, who was not to be hoodwinked for ever, sailed to find his son, intending to confess his mistake, and ask forgiveness for his error. However, when he had put into the island and had fastened the cables from his ship to a rock or tree, Tennes in a rage cut the cables with an axe. Hence the proverb applied to people who deny anything stoutly : ‘So and so has cut such and such a thing with an axe of Tenedos.’ The Greeks say that Tennes was slain by Achilles in the act of defending his native land; and in course of time the Tenedians were constrained by their weakness to attach themselves to Alexandria, the city on the mainland of the Troad.
The Greeks who fought against the king dedicated not only a bronze Zeus at Olympia, but also an Apollo at Delphi, from the spoils of the sea-fights at Artemisium and Salamis. It is said, moreover, that Themistocles came to Delphi bringing some of the spoils of the Medes to Apollo. But when he inquired whether he should dedicate them inside the temple, the Pythian priestess bade him take them out of the sanctuary altogether. The passage in question of the oracle is as follows :— The beauteous splendour of the Persian’s spoils do not Deposit in my temple ; send them away home with all speed. I was amazed that Themistocles should have been the only person at whose hands the god refused to accept the spoils of the Medes. Some think that the god would similarly have rejected all spoils taken from the Persians, if only, like Themistocles, every one before dedicating had inquired the pleasure of the god. Others say that the god, knowing that Themistocles would yet throw himself on the protection of the Persians, refused to accept the gifts, lest by suffering Themistocles to dedicate them he should render the resentment of the Medes against Themistocles implacable. The expedition of the barbarians against Greece may be found foretold in the oracles of Bacis ; and still earlier are the verses of Euclus about it. 4. There is an offering dedicated by the Delphians themselves near the great altar: it consists of a bronze wolf. They say that a man stole some of the god’s treasures, and hid himself and the gold in the thickest part of the forest on Mount Parnassus ; but that while he slept a wolf fell upon him and killed him, and then went daily to the city and howled. So thinking that the hand of God was in it they followed the beast; and thus they found the sacred gold, and dedicated a bronze wolf to the god.
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