Herodotus - The Histories.pdf

The Histories–Book Eight V 81
place to which the wrecks were drifted, the prediction
of Lysistratus, an Athenian soothsayer,
uttered many years before these events, and quite
forgotten at the time by all the Greeks, was fully
accomplished. The words were-
Then shall the sight of the oars fill Colian dames
with amazement. Now this must have happened
as soon as the king was departed.
Xerxes, when he saw the extent of his loss, began
to be afraid lest the Greeks might be counselled by
the Ionians, or without their advice might determine
to sail straight to the Hellespont and break
down the bridges there; in which case he would
be blocked up in Europe, and run great risk of
perishing. He therefore made up his mind to fly;
but, as he wished to hide his purpose alike from
the Greeks and from his own people, he set to
work to carry a mound across the channel to
Salamis, and at the same time began fastening a
number of Phoenician merchant ships together, to
serve at once for a bridge and a wall. He likewise
made many warlike preparations, as if he were