Λακεδαιμονίους δὲ ἐλύπει μὲν καὶ τὸ γεγονὸς πταῖσμα, τεθνεώτων ἐν τῇ μάχῃ πολλῶν τε καὶ ἀξίων λόγου, παρίστατο δὲ καὶ ἐς τὴν πᾶσαν ἐλπίδα τοῦ πολέμου σφίσιν ἀθύμως ἔχειν· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο θεωροὺς ἀποστέλλουσιν ἐς Δελφούς. τούτοις ἐλθοῦσιν ἡ Πυθία χρᾷ τάδε· οὔ σε μάχης μόνον ἔργʼ ἐφέπειν χερὶ Φοῖβος ἄνωγεν, / ἀλλʼ ἀπάτῃ μὲν ἔχει γαῖαν Μεσσηνίδα λαός, / ταῖς δʼ αὐταῖς τέχναισιν ἁλώσεται αἷσπερ ὑπῆρξεν. /
πρὸς ταῦτα τοῖς βασιλεῦσι καὶ τοῖς ἐφόροις τέχνας μὲν προθυμουμένοις οὐκ ἐγίνετο ἀνευρεῖν· οἱ δὲ Ὀδυσσέως τῶν ἔργων ἀπομιμούμενοι τὸ ἐπὶ Ἰλίῳ πέμπουσιν ἄνδρας ἑκατὸν ἐς Ἰθώμην συνήσοντας ἃ μηχανῶνται, λόγῳ δὲ αὐτομόλους· ἦν δὲ καὶ φυγὴ τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ κατεγνωσμένη. τούτους ἥκοντας ἀπέπεμπεν αὐτίκα Ἀριστόδημος, Λακεδαιμονίων φήσας τὰ ἀδικήματα καινὰ εἶναι, τὰ δὲ σοφίσματα ἀρχαῖα.
ἁμαρτόντες δὲ οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι τοῦ ἐγχειρήματος δεύτερα ἐπειρῶντο τῶν Μεσσηνίων διαλῦσαι τὸ συμμαχικόν· ἀντειπόντων δὲ τῶν Ἀρκάδων —παρὰ γὰρ τούτους πρότερον ἀφίκοντο οἱ πρέσβεις —οὕτω τὴν ἐπʼ Ἄργος ἐπέσχον πορείαν. Ἀριστόδημος δὲ πυνθανόμενος τὰ πρασσόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων πέμπει καὶ αὐτὸς ἐρησομένους τὸν θεόν, ἡ δὲ Πυθία σφίσιν ἔχρησε·
κῦδός σοι πολέμοιο διδοῖ θεός· ἀλλʼ ἀπάταισι / φράζεο μὴ Σπάρτης δόλιος λόχος ἐχθρὸς ἀνέλθῃ / κρείσσων· ἦ γὰρ Ἄρης κείνων εὐήρεα τεύχη / καί τὸ χορῶν στεφάνωμα πικροὺς οἰκήτορας ἕξει, / τῶν δύο συντυχίαις κρυπτὸν λόχον ἐξαναδύντων. / οὐ πρόσθεν δὲ τέλος τόδʼ ἐπόψεται ἱερὸν ἦμαρ, / πρὶν τὰ παραλλάξαντα φύσιν τὸ χρεὼν ἀφίκηται. / τότε μὲν δὴ Ἀριστόδημος καὶ οἱ μάντεις ἀπείρως εἶχον συμβαλέσθαι τὸ εἰρημένον· ἔτεσι δὲ ὕστερον οὐ πολλοῖς ἀναφαίνειν τε καὶ ἐς τέλος ἄξειν ἔμελλεν ὁ θεός.
ἕτερα δὲ ἐν τῷ τότε τοῖς Μεσσηνίοις συνέβαινε τοιαῦτα. Λυκίσκου μετοικοῦντος ἐν Σπάρτῃ τὴν θυγατέρα ἐπέλαβεν ἀποθανεῖν, ἣν ἅμα ἀγόμενος ἔφυγεν ἐκ Μεσσήνης. πολλάκις δὲ αὐτὸν φοιτῶντα ἐπὶ τὸ μνῆμα τῆς παιδὸς λοχήσαντες ἱππεῖς τῶν Ἀρκάδων αἱροῦσιν· ἀναχθεὶς δὲ ἐς τὴν Ἰθώμην καὶ ἐς ἐκκλησίαν καταστὰς ἀπελογεῖτο ὡς οὐ προδιδοὺς τὴν πατρίδα ἀποχωρήσαι, πειθόμενος δὲ τοῖς ῥηθεῖσιν ὑπὸ τοῦ μάντεως ἐς τὴν παῖδα ὡς οὖσαν οὐ γνησίαν.
ταῦτα ἀπολογούμενος οὐ πρότερον ἔδοξεν ἀληθῆ λέγειν πρὶν ἢ παρῆλθεν ἐς τὸ θέατρον ἡ τὴν ἱερωσύνην τότε τῆς Ἥρας ἔχουσα. αὕτη δὲ τεκεῖν τε τὴν παῖδα ὡμολόγει καὶ τῇ Λυκίσκου γυναικὶ ὑποβαλέσθαι δοῦναι· “νῦν δὲ” ἔφη “τό τε ἀπόρρητον ἐκφαίνουσα ἥκω καὶ παύσουσα ἐμαυτὴν ἱερωμένην.” ταῦτα δὲ ἔλεγεν, ὅτι ἦν ἐν τῇ Μεσσήνῃ καθεστηκός, ἢν γυναικὸς ἱερωμένης ἢ καὶ ἀνδρὸς προαποθάνῃ τις τῶν παίδων, ἐς ἄλλον τὴν ἱερωσύνην μεταχωρεῖν. νομίζοντες οὖν τὴν γυναῖκα ἀληθῆ λέγειν, τῇ θεῷ τε εἵλοντο ἱερατευσομένην ἀντʼ ἐκείνης καὶ Λυκίσκον συγγνωστὰ ἔφασαν εἰργάσθαι.
μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ἐδόκει σφίσι—καὶ γὰρ εἰκοστὸν ἔτος ἐπῄει τῷ πολέμῳ—πέμπειν αὖθις ἐς Δελφοὺς ἐρησομένους ὑπὲρ νίκης. ἐρομένοις δὲ ἔχρησεν ἡ Πυθία· τοῖς τρίποδας περὶ βωμὸν Ἰθωμάτᾳ Διὶ πρώτοις / στήσασιν δεκάδων ἀριθμὸν δὶς πέντε δίδωσι / σὺν κύδει πολέμου γαῖαν Μεσσηνίδα δαίμων. / Ζεὺς γὰρ ἔνευσʼ οὕτως. ἀπάτη δέ σε πρόσθε τίθησιν / ἥ τʼ ὀπίσω τίσις ἐστί, καὶ ἔνθεον ἐξαπατῴης. / ἕρδʼ ὅππῃ τὸ χρεών· ἄτη δʼ ἄλλοισι πρὸ ἄλλων. /
ταῦτʼ ἀκούσαντες γεγονέναι τε ἡγοῦντο ὑπὲρ αὑτῶν τὴν μαντείαν καὶ σφίσι διδόναι τὸ τοῦ πολέμου κράτος· οὐ γὰρ αὐτῶν γε ἐχόντων ἐντὸς τείχους τοῦ Ἰθωμάτα τὸ ἱερὸν Λακεδαιμονίους προτέρους ἀναθέντας φθήσεσθαι. καὶ οἱ μὲν ξυλίνους κατασκευάσεσθαι τρίποδας ἔμελλον, οὐ γάρ σφισι περιῆν χρήματα ὡς χαλκοῦς ποιήσασθαι· τῶν δέ τις Δελφῶν τὸν χρησμὸν ἐξήγγειλεν ἐς Σπάρτην. πυθομένοις δὲ ἐν κοινῷ μὲν οὐδέν σφισιν ἐξεγένετο ἀνευρεῖν σοφόν, Οἴβαλος δὲ
τὰ μὲν ἄλλα οὐ τῶν ἐπιφανῶν, γνώμην δὲ ὡς ἐδήλωσεν ἀγαθός, ποιησάμενος ὡς ἔτυχε πηλοῦ τρίποδας ἑκατόν, τούτους τε ἀποκεκρυμμένους ἐν πήρᾳ καὶ δίκτυα ἅμα αὐτοῖς ἔφερεν ὡς ἀνὴρ θηρευτής. ἅτε δὲ ὢν ἀγνὼς καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων τοῖς πολλοῖς, ῥᾷον Μεσσηνίους ἐλάνθανεν· ἀναμίξας δὲ αὑτὸν ἀνδράσιν ἀγροίκοις ἐσῆλθέ τε μετʼ αὐτῶν ἐς τὴν Ἰθώμην καὶ ὡς νὺξ τάχιστα ἐπελάμβανεν ἀναθεὶς τοὺς τρίποδας τῷ θεῷ τούτους δὴ τοὺς πηλίνους αὖθις ἐς Σπάρτην ἀπαγγελῶν Λακεδαιμονίοις ᾤχετο.
Μεσσηνίους δέ, ὡς εἶδον, ἐτάραξε μὲν μεγάλως, καὶ εἴκαζον—ὥσπερ ἦν—παρὰ Λακεδαιμονίων εἶναι· παρεμυθεῖτο δὲ ὅμως αὐτοὺς ὁ Ἀριστόδημος λέγων ἄλλα τε ἃ ἐν τοῖς παροῦσιν εἰκὸς ἦν καὶ τοὺς ξυλίνους τρίποδας—ἐπεποίηντο γὰρ ἤδη —περὶ τοῦ Ἰθωμάτα τὸν βωμὸν ἔστησε. συνέβη δὲ καὶ Ὀφιονέα τὸν μάντιν τοῦτον, τὸν ἐκ γενετῆς τυφλόν, ἀναβλέψαι παραλόγως δὴ μάλιστα ἀνθρώπων· ἐπέλαβε γὰρ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἄλγημα αὐτὸν ἰσχυρόν, καὶ ἀνέβλεψεν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ.
Smarting under a defeat which had cost them so many precious lives, the Lacedaemonians began to despair of the issue of the war. Therefore they sent sacred envoys to Delphi, to whom the Pythian priestess gave the following oracle :— Phoebus bids thee not to fight with the sword only. By guile a people holds the Messenian land, And they will be caught by the very devices which they were the first to use. The kings and the ephors laid their heads together, but, with all the will in the world to devise devices, they could think of nothing better than to copy the Trojan trick of Ulysses. So they sent a hundred men to Ithome. These men pretended to be deserters, and a public sentence of banishment was pronounced on them, but really they were in the plot. No sooner, however, had they come than they were sent to the right-about by Aristodemus, who observed that, though the iniquities of the Lacedaemonians were novel, their stratagems were stale.
Foiled in this attempt, the Lacedaemonians next endeavoured to break up the Messenian confederacy. The envoys went first to Arcadia, but as their overtures were rejected there, they spared themselves the journey to Argos.
Being informed of the Lacedaemonian intrigues, Aristodemus in his turn sent envoys to inquire of the god. The Pythian priestess made them answer :— God gives thee glory in war; but beware lest by deceit The treacherous, hateful ambush of Sparta should ascend The well-built walls ; for their war god is the mightier. And the strong coronal of towers shall have cruel inhabitants, When the two shall have started up together from their hidden ambush. But the sacred day shall not behold this consummation Before destiny overtake the things which changed their nature. At the time Aristodemus and the soothsayers were at a loss to guess the meaning ; but not many years were to pass before the god unfolded and accomplished the oracle.
Another thing that befell the Messenians at this time was as follows. While Lyciscus dwelt as a stranger at Sparta, the daughter died whom he had taken with him on his flight from Messene. Going often to visit her tomb, he was waylaid and captured by some Arcadian horsemen, and being carried to Ithome and brought before the national assembly, he maintained in his defence that in retiring from Messenia he had not deserted his country, but only yielded credence to the assertion of the soothsayer that the girl was not his true-born daughter. This defence was not believed till the woman who then held the priesthood of Hera presented herself in the theatre. This woman confessed that she was the mother of the girl, and had given it to the wife of Lyciscus to palm off as her own. ‘But now,’ said she, ‘I am come to reveal the secret and to lay down the priesthood.’ This she said, because it was the custom in Messenia that if the child of a priestess or priest died before her or him the priesthood should pass to another. The people believed the woman; so they chose a priestess in her stead, and admitted that the conduct of Lyciscus had been excusable.
After that, the twentieth year of the war now drawing on, they resolved to send again to Delphi to inquire about victory. To the inquiry of the envoys the Pythian priestess answered :-— To those who first set up about the altar to Zeus of Ithome Twice five times ten tripods, fortune gives The Messenian land with glory in war. For thus Zeus willed. Deceit advanced thee, But there is retribution hereafter, and thou canst not deceive God. Do as fate directs. But ruin falls on some before others. When they heard this, they deemed that the oracle was in their favour, and gave them the victory in the war; for so long as they had the sanctuary of the god of Ithome within their walls, they fancied that the Lacedaemonians could not anticipate them in […] up tripods. They intended to make tripods of wood; for they had not money enough left to make them of bronze. 6. But one of the Delphians reported the oracle to Sparta. On receiving the information the Spartans called a council, but could hit on no plan. However Oebalus, a man of no mark, but a shrewd fellow, as his conduct proved, made a hundred tripods of clay, the first material that came to hand, and hiding them in a bag, he shouldered the bag and some nets as well, as if he were a huntsman. Being unknown to most even of his countrymen, it was the easier for him to pass undetected among the Messenians. He joined some peasants, and in their company entered Ithome; and as soon as night fell he set up these clay tripods to the god, and then returned to Sparta to tell the Lacedaemonians. The sight of the tripods threw the Messenians into great consternation, and they guessed rightly that they came from the Lacedaemonians. However, Aristodemus comforted them as best he could in the circumstances, and as the wooden tripods were already made, he set them up round the altar of the god of Ithome.
It happened, too, that Ophioneus, the seer who had been blind from his birth, received his sight in a most marvellous way: he was seized with a violent headache, and after it his eyes were opened.
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