But after the battle the affairs of the Messenians began to get serious.
They were exhausted by the expenditure of
money devoted to the garrisoning of the towns, and their slaves were deserting
to the Lacedaemonians. They were visited also
by disease, which caused alarm, as resembling plague, although it did not
attack all. In these circumstances they resolved to
desert all their numerous towns inland and to settle on Mount Ithome. [2]
A small town existed here, which they say Homer
mentions in the Catalogue.
To this town they withdrew, extending the old circuit to form a sufficient
protection for them all. The place was strong in other
respects, for Ithome falls short of none of the mountains within the Isthmus
in height and at this point was most difficult to
climb. [3] They also resolved to send an envoy to Delphi, and despatched
Tisis the son of Alcis, a man of the highest
reputation, considered to be fully versed in divination. While he
was returning from Delphi men from the Lacedaemonian
garrison at Ampheia laid an ambush for him. Though trapped, he did not
submit to be made a prisoner, but stood his ground
to resist in spite of the wounds he received, until a voice was heard
from an unseen quarter, “Let the bearer of the oracle go
free.” [4] Tisis, reaching Ithome with all speed, delivered the oracle
to the king, and soon afterwards died of his wounds.
Euphaes assembled the Messenians and made known the oracle:
Ye shall sacrifice a pure maiden to the gods below, appointed by lot of
the blood of the sons of Aepytus, and
slay her by night. But if that ye cannot do, offer a maiden from another
house, if the father gives her freely
for the slaughter.
[5] When the god declared this, all the maidens of the house of
the Aepytidae forthwith cast lots, and the lot fell on the
daughter of Lyciscus. But Epebolus the seer forbade them to offer
her, for she was not the daughter of Lyciscus, but the
woman who was married to Lyciscus being unable to bear a child had palmed
off the girl as hers. While Epebolus was making
this declaration, Lyciscus took the girl away and deserted to Sparta. [6]
The Messenians were in despair when they saw that
Lyciscus had fled; thereupon Aristodemus, a son of the house of the Aepytidae,
of higher standing than Lyciscus both in
reputation and in war, freely offered his daughter for the sacrifice. But
human affairs and human purpose above all are
obscured by fate, just as the mud of a river hides a pebble; for
when Aristodemus was striving his utmost to save Messene,
fate set this obstacle in his path. [7] A Messenian, whose name is not
recorded, was in love with the daughter of'
Aristodemus, and was already about to make her his wife. He at first disputed
the rights of Aristodemus over the girl for
Aristodemus, since he had betrothed her to himself had no further rights
over the girl, but he to whom she was betrothed had
greater rights than the father. Next, when he saw that this was of no avail,
he had recourse to a shameless plea, that the girl
was with child by him. [8] At last he drove Aristodemus to such a fury
of passion that he killed his daughter; then cutting her
open he showed that she was not pregnant. Epebolus, who was present, ordered
another man to come forward and offer his
daughter, for the daughter of Aristodemus was of no avail to them dead;
for the father had murdered her, not offered her to the
gods whom the Pythia ordained. [9] When the seer said this, the multitude
of the Messenians rushed on the girl's lover to kill
him, since he had fixed the guilt of bloodshed on Aristodemus to no purpose,
and had made their hopes of safety doubtful.
But as he was a close friend of Euphaes, Euphaes persuaded the Messenians
that the oracle was fulfilled by the death of the
girl and that the deed done by Aristodemus sufficed for them. [10]
When he said this, all the members of the house of the
Aepytidae said that he spoke truth, for each was eager to be rid of the
terror threatening his daughter. The people took the
advice of' the king and broke up the assembly and thereupon turned to sacrifices
to the gods and feasting.
.......Euphaes, having no children, left his kingdom to the man chosen
by the people. Cleonnis and Damis came forward to
dispute it with Aristodemus, as they were considered superior to him in
war and all else. Antander had been killed by the
enemy, risking his life for Euphaes in the battle. The views of both
the seers, Epebolus and Ophioneus, were identical, that
they should not give the honors of Aepytus and his descendants to a man
who was accursed and polluted by the murder of his
daughter. Nevertheless Aristodemus was chosen and became king. [6] This
Ophioneus, the Messenian seer, was blind from
birth and practised the following method of divination. By learning
the facts relevant to each case, both private and public, he
thus foretold the future. This then was the way he practised his art. Aristodemus,
becoming king, constantly was ready to
show all reasonable favour to the people, and held all the nobles in honor,
especially Cleonnis and Damis. He maintained good
relations with the allies, sending gifts to the Arcadian leaders and to
Argos and Sicyon. [7] They carried on the war during his
reign by means of constant forays with small parties, and made incursions
into one another's country at harvest time, the
Messenians being supported by the Arcadians in their raids into Laconia.
The Argives did not think fit to declare their hatred
for the Lacedaemonians beforehand, but prepared to take part in the contest
when it came.
The Lacedaemonians were distressed by the reverse that had befallen
them. Their losses in the battle were great and
included important men, and they were inclined to despair of all hope in
the war. For this reason they sent envoys to Delphi,
who received the following reply from the Pythia:
Phoebus bids thee pursue not only the task of war with the hand, but by
guile a people holds the Messenian
land, and by the same arts as they first employed shall the people fall.
[2] At this the kings and ephors were eager to invent stratagems, but failed.
They imitated that deed of Odysseus at Troy, and
sent a hundred men to Ithome to observe what the enemy were planning, but
pretending to be deserters. A sentence of
banishment had been openly pronounced on them. On their arrival Aristodemus
at once sent them away, saying that the crimes
of the Lacedaemonians were new, but their tricks old. [3] Failing in their
attempt, the Lacedaemonians next attempted to break
up the Messenian alliance. But when repulsed by the Arcadians, to whom
their ambassadors came first, they put off going to
Argos. Aristodemus, hearing of the Lacedaemonian intrigues, also sent
men to enquire of the god. And the Pythia
replied to them:
[4] The god gives thee glory in war, but beware lest by guile the hated
company of Sparta scale the well-built
walls, for mightier is their god of war. And harsh shall be the
dwellers in the circle of the dancing ground,
when the two have started forth by one chance from the hidden ambush. Yet
the holy day shall not behold
this ending until their doom o'ertake those which have changed their nature.
At the time Aristodemus and the seers were at a loss to interpret the
saying, but in a few years the god was like
to reveal it and bring it to fulfillment.
[5] Other things befell the Messenians at that time: while Lyciscus was
living abroad in Sparta, death overtook the daughter
whom he carried with him on his flight from Messene. As he often visited
her tomb, Arcadian horsemen lay in wait and
captured him. When carried to Ithome and brought into the assembly he urged
that he had not departed a traitor to his country,
but because he believed the words of the seer that the girl was
not his own. [6] His defence did not win credence until the
woman who was then holding the priesthood of Hera came into the
theater. She confessed that she was the mother of the girl
and had given her to Lyciscus' wife to pass off as her own. “And now,”
she said, “revealing the secret, I have come to lay
down my office.” She said this because it was an established custom in
Messene that, if a child of a man or woman holding a
priesthood died before its parent, the office should pass to another. Accepting
the truth of her statement, they chose another
woman to take her place as priestess of the goddess, and said that
Lyciscus' deed was pardonable.
[7] After this, as the twentieth year of the war was approaching, they
resolved to send again to Delphi to ask concerning
victory. The Pythia made answer to their question:
To those who first around the altar set up tripods ten times ten to
Zeus of Ithome, heaven grants glory in war
and the Messenian land. For thus hath Zeus ordained. Deceit raised thee
up and punishment follows after, nor
would'st thou deceive the god. Act as fate wills, destruction comes on
this man before that.
[8] Hearing this they thought that the oracle was in their favour and granted
them victory; for as they themselves possessed the
sanctuary of Zeus of Ithome within the walls, the Lacedaemonians could
not forestall them in making the dedication. They set
about making tripods of wood, as they had not money enough to make them
of bronze. But one of the Delphians reported the
oracle to Sparta. When they heard it, no plan occurred to them in public,
[9] but Oebalus, a man of no repute in general, but
evidently shrewd, made a hundred tripods, as best he might, of clay, and
hiding them in a bag, carried nets with them like a
hunter. As he was unknown even to most of the Lacedaemonians, he would
more easily escape detection by the Messenians.
Joining some countrymen, he entered Ithome with them, and as soon as night
fell, dedicated these tripods of clay to the god,
and returned to Sparta to tell the Lacedaemonians. [10] The Messenians,
when they saw them, were greatly disturbed,
thinking, rightly enough, that they were from the Lacedaemonians. Nevertheless
Aristodemus encouraged them, saying what
the occasion demanded, and setting up the wooden tripods, which had already
been made, round the altar of the god of
Ithome. It happened also that Ophioneus, the seer who had been blind
from birth, received his sight in the
most remarkable way. He was seized with a violent pain in the head, and
thereupon received his sight.
........Next, as fate was already inclining towards the conquest of
the Messenians, the god revealed to them the future.
For the armed statue of Artemis, which was all of bronze, let its shield
fall. And as Aristodemus was about to
sacrifice the victims to Zeus of Ithome, the rams of their own accord leapt
towards the altar, and dashing their
horns violently against it were killed by the force of the blow. A third
portent befell them. The dogs assembled
together and howled every night, and at last fled together to the camp
of the Lacedaemonians.
[2] Aristodemus was alarmed by this and by the following dream which
came to him.
He thought that he was about to go forth armed to battle and the victims'
entrails were lying before him on a table, when
his daughter appeared, wearing a black robe and showing her breast and
belly cut open; when she appeared she flung down
what was on the table, stripped him of his arms, and instead set a golden
crown on his head and put a white robe about him.
[3] Aristodemus, who was already in despair, thought the dream foretold
the end of life for him, because the Messenians used
to carry out their chiefs for burial wearing a crown and dressed in white
garments. Then he received news that Ophioneus the
seer could no longer see but had suddenly become blind, as he was at first.
Then they understood the oracle, that by the two
starting forth from the ambush and again meeting their doom the Pythia
meant the eyes of Ophioneus. [4] Then Aristodemus,
reckoning up his private sorrows, that to no purpose he had become the
slayer of his daughter, and seeing that no hope of
safety remained for his country, slew himself upon the tomb of his child.
He had done all that human calculation could do to
save the Messenians, but fortune brought to naught both his achievements
and his plans. He had reigned six years and a few
months when he died.