The Greek fleet, after it had left Artemisium came by the Athenians' entreaty to land at Salamis; the reason why the Athenians entreated them to put in there being, that they themselves might convey their children and women safe out of Attica, and moreover take counsel as to what they should do. For inasmuch as the present turn of affairs had disappointed their judgment they were now to hold a council; they had thought to find the whole Peloponnesian force awaiting the foreigners' attack in Boeotia, but now of that they found no whit, but learnt contrariwise that the Peloponnesians were fortifying the Isthmus, and letting all else go, as deeming the defence of the Peloponnese to be of greatest moment. Learning this, they therefore entreated the fleet to put in at Salamis. So the rest made sail thither, and the Athenians to their own country. Being there arrived they made a proclamation that every Athenian should save his children and servants as best he could. Thereat most of them sent their households to Troezen, and some to Aegina and Salamis. They made haste to convey all out of harm because they desired to be guided by the oracle, and for another reason, too, which was this: it is said by the Athenians that a great snake lives in their temple, to guard the acropolis; in proof whereof they do ever duly set out a honey-cake as a monthly offering for it; this cake had ever before been consumed, but was now left untouched. When the priestess made that known, the Athenians were the readier to leave their city, deeming their goddess, too, to have deserted the acropolis. When they had conveyed all away, they returned to the fleet. When the Greeks from Artemisium had put in at Salamis, the rest of their fleet also heard of it and gathered in from Troezen, the port of which, Pogon, had been named for their place of mustering; and the ships that mustered there were more by far than had fought at Artemisium, and came from more cities. Their admiral-in‑chief was the same as at Artemisium, Eurybiades son of Euryclides, a Spartan, yet not of the royal blood; but it was the Athenians who furnished by far the most and the sea‑worthiest ships.
The Peloponnesians that were with the fleet were, firstly, the Lacedaemonians, with sixteen ships, and the Corinthians with the same number of ships as at Artemisium; the Sicyonians furnished fifteen, the Epidaurians ten, the Troezenians five, the people of Hermione three; all these, except the people of Hermione, were of Dorian and Macedonian stock, and had last come from Erineus and Pindus and the Dryopian region. The people of Hermione are Dryopians, driven by Heracles and the Malians from the country now called Doris. These were the Peloponnesians in the fleet. Of those that came from the mainland outside the Peloponnese, the Athenians furnished more ships than any of the rest, namely, a hundred and eighty, of their own sending; for the Plataeans did not fight beside the Athenians at Salamis, whereof the reason was that when the Greeks sailed from Artemisium, and had arrived off Chalcis, the Plataeans landed on the opposite Boeotian shore and set about conveying their households away. So they were left behind bringing these to safety. The Athenians, while the Pelasgians ruled what is now called Hellas, were Pelasgians, bearing the name of Cranai; in the time of their king Cecrops they came to be called Cecropidae, and when the kingship fell to Erechtheus they changed their name and became Athenians, but when Ion son of Xuthus was made leader of their armies they were called after him Ionians. The Megarians furnished the same complement as at Artemisium; the Ampraciots brought seven ships to the fleet, and the Leucadians (who are of Dorian stock from Corinth) brought three.
Of the islanders, the Aeginetans furnished thirty. They had other ships, too, manned; but they used them to guard their own coasts, and fought at Salamis with the thirty that were most seaworthy. The Aeginetans are Dorians from Epidaurus; their island was formerly called Oenone. After the Aeginetans came the Chalcidians with the twenty, and the erans with the seven which had fought at Artemisium; they are Ionians; and next the Ceans, furnishing the same ships as before; they are of Ionian stock, from Athens. The Naxians furnished four ships; they had been sent by their townsmen to the Persians, like the rest of the islanders; but they paid no heed to the command and joined themselves to the Greeks, being invited thereto by Democritus, a man of note in their town, who was then captain of a trireme. The Naxians are Ionians, of Athenian lineage. The Styrians furnished the same number as at Artemisium, and the Cythnians one trireme and a fifty-oared bark; both these people are Dryopians. There were also in the fleet men of Seriphos and Siphnos and Melos, these being the only islanders who had not given the foreigner earth and water.
All these aforesaid came to the war from countries nearer than Thesprotia and the river Acheron; for Thesprotia marches with the Ampraciots and Leucadians, who came from the lands farthest distant. Of those that dwell farther off than these, the men of Croton alone came to aid Hellas in its peril, and they with one ship, whereof the captain was Phaÿllus, a victor in the Pythian games. These Crotoniats are of Achaean blood.
All these furnished triremes for the fleet save the Melians and Siphnians and Seriphians, who brought fifty-oared barks, the Melians (who are of Lacedaemonian stock) two, and the Siphnians and Seriphians (who are Ionians of Athenian lineage) one each. The whole number of the ships, besides the fifty-oared barks, was three hundred and seventy-eight. ...... Nathless the Greeks had used every device possible to prevent the foreigners from breaking in upon them by land. For as soon as the Peloponnesians heard that Leonidas' men at Thermopylae were dead, they hasted together from their cities and encamped on the Isthmus, their general being the brother of Leonidas, Cleombrotus son of Anaxandrides. Being there encamped they broke up the Scironian road, and thereafter built a wall across the Isthmus, having resolved in council so to do. As there were many tens of thousands there and all men wrought, the work was brought to accomplishment; for they carried stones to it and bricks and logs and crates full of sand, and they that mustered there never rested from their work by night or by day. Those Greeks that mustered all their people at the Isthmus were the Lacedaemonians and all the Arcadians, the Eleans, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians, Phliasians, Troezenians, and men of Hermione. These were they who mustered there, and were moved by great fear for Hellas in her peril; but the rest of the Peloponnesians cared nothing; and the Olympian and Carnean festivals were now past.
So the Greeks on the Isthmus had such labour to cope withal, seeing that now all they had was at stake, and they had no hope of winning renown with their ships; but they that were at Salamis, although they heard of the work, were affrighted, and their dread was less for themselves than for the Peloponnese. For a while there was but murmuring between man and man, and wonder at Eurybiades' unwisdom, but at the last came an open outbreak; and an assembly was held, where there was much speaking of the same matters as before, some saying that they must sail away to the Peloponnese and face danger for that country, rather than abide and fight for a land won from them by the spear; but the Athenians and Aeginetans and Megarians pleading that they should remain and defend themselves where they were. Then Themistocles, when the Peloponnesians were outvoting him, when privily out of the assembly, and sent to the Median fleet a man in a boat, charged with a message that he must deliver. This man's name was Sicinnus, and he was of Themistocles' household and attendant on his children; at a later day, when the Thespians were receiving men to be their citizens, Themistocles made him a Thespian, and a wealthy man withal. He now came in a boat and spoke thus to the foreigners' admirals: "I am sent by the admiral of the Athenians without the knowledge of the other Greeks (he being a friend to the king's cause and desiring that you rather than the Greeks should have the mastery) to tell you that the Greeks have lost heart and are planning flight, and that now is the hour for you to achieve an incomparable feat of arms, if you suffer them not to escape. For there is no union in their counsels, nor will they withstand you any more, and you will see them battling against each other, your friends against your foes." With that declaration he departed away. The Persians put faith in the message; and first they landed many of their men on the islet Psyttalea, which lies between Salamis and the mainland; then, at midnight, they advanced their western wing towards Salamis for encirclement, and they too put out to sea that were stationed off Ceos and Cynosura; and they held all the passage with their ships as far as Munychia. The purpose of their putting out to sea was, that the Greeks might have no liberty even to flee, but should be hemmed in at Salamis and punished for their fighting off Artemisium. And the purpose of their landing Persians on the islet called Psyttalea was this, that as it was here in especial that in the sea fight men and wrecks would be washed ashore (for the island lay in the very path of the battle that was to be), they might thus save their friends and slay their foes. All this they did in silence, lest their enemies should know of it. So they made these preparations in the night, taking no rest.
.....The Greeks, believing at last the tale of the Tenians, made ready for battle. It was now earliest dawn, and they called the fighting men to an assembly, wherein Themistocles made an harangue in which he excelled all others; the tenor of his words was to array all the good in man's nature and estate against the evil; and having exhorted them to choose the better, he made an end of speaking and bade them embark. Even as they so did, came the trireme from Aegina which had been sent away for the Sons of Aeacus. With that the Greeks stood out to sea in full force, and as they stood out the foreigners straightway fell upon them. The rest of the Greeks began to back water and beach their ships; but Aminias of Pallene, an Athenian, pushed out to the front and charged a ship; which being entangled with his, and the two not able to be parted, the others did now come to Aminias' aid and joined battle. This is the Athenian story of the beginning of the fight; but the Aeginetans say that the ship which began it was that one which had been sent away to Aegina for the Sons of Aeacus. This story also is told, that they saw the vision of a woman, who p83 cried commands loud enough for all the Greek fleet to hear, uttering first this reproach, "Sirs, what madness is this? how long will you still be backing water?"
The Phoenicians (for they had the western wing, towards Eleusis) were arrayed opposite to the Athenians, and to the Lacedaemonians the Ionians, on the eastern wing, nearest to Piraeus. Yet but few of them fought slackly, as Themistocles had bidden them, and the more part did not so. Many names I could record of ships' captains that took Greek ships; but I will speak of none save Theomestor son of Androdamas and Phylacus son of Histiaeus, Samians both; and I make mention of these alone, because Theomestor was for this feat of arms made by the Persians despot of Samos, and Phylacus was recorded among the king's benefactors and given much land. These benefactors of the king are called in the Persian language, orosangae. Thus it was with these two; but the great multitude of the ships were shattered at Salamis, some destroyed by the Athenians and some by the Aeginetans. For since the Greeks fought orderly and in array, but the foreigners were by now disordered and did nought of set purpose, it was but reason that they should come to such an end as befel them. Yet on that day they were and approved themselves by far better men than off Euboea; all were zealous, and feared Xerxes, each man thinking that the king's eye was on him.
Now as touching some of the others I cannot with exactness say how they fought severally, foreigners or Greeks; but what befel Artemisia made her to be esteemed by the king even more than before. The king's side being now in dire confusion, Artemisia's ship was at this time being pursued by a ship of Attica; and she could not escape, for other friendly ships were in her way, and it chanced that she was the nearest to the enemy; wherefore she resolved that she would do that which afterwards tended to her advantage, and as she fled pursued by the Athenian she charged a friendly ship that bore men of Calyndus and the king himself of that place, Damasithymus. It may be that she had had some quarrel with him while they were still at the Hellespont, but if her deed was done of set purpose, or if the Calyndian met her by crossing her path at haphazard, I cannot say. But having charged and sunk the ship, she had the good luck to work for herself a double advantage. For when the Attic captain saw her charge a ship of foreigners, he supposed that Artemisia's ship was Greek or a deserter from the foreigners fighting for the Greeks, and he turned aside to deal with others. By this happy chance it came about that she escaped and avoided destruction; and moreover the upshot was that the very harm which she had done won her great favour in Xerxes' eyes. For the king (it is said) saw her charge the ship as he viewed the battle, and one of the bystanders said, "Sire, see you Artemisia, how well she fights, and how she has sunk an enemy ship?" Xerxes then asking if it were truly Artemisia that had done the deed, they affirmed it, knowing well the ensign of his ship; and they supposed that the ship she had sunk was an enemy; for the luckiest chance of all which had (as I have said) befallen her was, that not one from the Calyndian ship was saved alive to be her accuser. Hearing what they told him, Xerxes is reported to have said "My men have become women, and my women men"; such, they say, were his words.
......In that sea‑fight the nations that won most renown were the Aeginetans, and next to them the Athenians; among men the most renowned were Polycritus of Aegina and two Athenians, Eumenes of Anagyrus and Aminias of Pallene, he who pursued after Artemisia. Had he known that she was in that ship, he had never been stayed ere he took hers or lost his own; such was the bidding given to the Athenian captain, and there was a prize withal of ten thousand drachmae for whoever should take her alive; for there was great wrath that a woman should come to attack Athens. She, then, escaped as I have already said; and the rest also whose ships were undestroyed were at Phalerum. As for the Corinthian admiral Adimantus, the Athenians say that at the very moment when the ships joined battle he was struck with terror and panic, and hoisting his sails fled away; and when the Corinthians saw their admiral's ship fleeing they were off and away likewise. But when (so the story goes) they came in their flight near that part of Salamis where is the temple of Athene Sciras, there by heaven's providence a boat met them which none was known to have sent, nor had the Corinthians, ere it drew nigh to them, known aught of the doings of the fleet; and this is how they infer heaven's hand in the matter: when the boat came nigh the ships, those that were in it cried, "Adimantus, you have turned back with your ships in flight, and betrayed the Greeks; but even now they are winning the day as fully as they ever prayed that they might vanquish their enemies." Thus they spoke, and when Adimantus would not believe they said further that they were ready to be taken for hostages and slain if the Greeks were not victorious for all to see. Thereupon Adimantus and the rest did turn their ships about and came to the fleet when all was now over and done. Thus the Athenians report of the Corinthians; but the Corinthians deny it, and hold that they were among the foremost in the battle; and all Hellas bears them witness likewise.
But Aristides son of Lysimachus, that Athenian of whose great meritI have lately made mention, did in this rout at Salamis as I will show: taking many of the Athenian men-at‑arms who stood arrayed on the shores of Salamis, he carried them across to p95 the island Psyttalea, and they slaughtered all the Persians who were on that islet. The sea‑fight being broken off, the Greeks towed to Salamis all the wrecks that were still afloat in those waters, and held themselves ready for another battle, thinking that the king would yet again use his ships that were left. But many of the wrecks were caught by a west wind and carried to the strand in Attica called Colias; so that not only was the rest of the prophecy fulfilled which had been uttered by Bacis and Musaeus concerning that sea‑fight, but also that which had been prophesied many years ago by an Athenian oracle-monger named Lysistratus, about the wrecks that were here cast ashore (the import of which prophecy no Greek had noted).
Πηγή : http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Herodotus/8B*.html
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