herodotus

prophetess spoke thus in hexameter measure:"But the number of sand I know,[41] and the measure of drops in the ocean;The dumb man I understand, and I hear the speech of the speechless:And there hath come to my soul the smell of a strong-shelled tortoiseBoiling in caldron of bronze, and the flesh of a lamb mingled with it;Under it bronze is laid, it hath bronze as a clothing upon it."48. When the Pythian prophetess had uttered this oracle, the Lydianscaused the prophecy to be written down, and went away at once toSardis. And when the rest also who had been sent round were therearrived with the answers of the Oracles, then Crœsus unfolded thewritings one by one and looked upon them: and at first none of thempleased him, but when he heard that from Delphi, forthwith he didworship to the god and accepted the answer,[42] judging that theOracle at Delphi was the only true one, because it had found out whathe himself had done. For when he had sent to the several Oracles hismessengers to consult the gods, keeping well in mind the appointed dayhe contrived the following device,--he thought of something which itwould be impossible to discover or to conceive of, and cutting up atortoise and a lamb he boiled them together himself in a caldron ofbronze, laying a cover of bronze over them. 49. This then was theanswer given to Crœsus from Delphi; and as regards the answer ofAmphiaraos, I cannot tell what he replied to the Lydians after theyhad done the things customary in his temple,[43] for there is norecord of this any more than of the others, except only that Crœsusthought that he also[44] possessed a true Oracle.50. After this with great sacrifices he endeavoured to win the favourof the god at Delphi: for of all the animals that are fit forsacrifice he offered three thousand of each kind, and he heaped upcouches overlaid with gold and overlaid with silver, and cups of gold,and robes of purple, and tunics, making of them a great pyre, and thishe burnt up, hoping by these means the more to win over the god to theside of the Lydians: and he proclaimed to all the Lydians that everyone of them should make sacrifice with that which each man had. Andwhen he had finished the sacrifice, he melted down a vast quantity ofgold, and of it he wrought half-plinths[45] making them six palms[46]in length and three in breadth, and in height one palm; and theirnumber was one hundred and seventeen. Of these four were of puregold[47] weighing two talents and a half[48] each, and others of goldalloyed with silver[49] weighing two talents. And he caused to be madealso an image of a lion of pure gold weighing ten talents; which lion,when the temple of Delphi was being burnt down, fell from off thehalf-plinths, for upon these it was set,[50] and is placed now in thetreasury of the Corinthians, weighing six talents and a half, for