herodotus

went on cutting his flesh lengthways from the legs to the thighs andfrom the thighs to the loins and flanks, until at last he came to thebelly; and cutting this into strips he died in that manner. And thishappened, as most of the Hellenes report, because he persuaded thePythian prophetess to advise that which was done about Demaratos; butas the Athenians alone report, it was because when he invaded Eleusishe laid waste the sacred enclosure of the goddesses;[65] and accordingto the report of the Argives, because from their sanctuary dedicatedto Argos he caused to come down those of the Argives who had fled forrefuge from the battle and slew them, and also set fire to the groveitself, holding it in no regard. 76. For when Cleomenes was consultingthe Oracle at Delphi, the answer was given him that he should conquerArgos; so he led the Spartans and came to the river Erasinos, which issaid to flow from the Stymphalian lake; for this lake, they say,running out into a viewless chasm, appears again above ground in theland of Argos; and from thence onwards this water is called by theArgives Erasinos: having come, I say, to this river, Cleomenes didsacrifice to it; and since the sacrifices were not at all favourablefor him to cross over, he said that he admired the Erasinos for notbetraying the men of its country, but the Argives should not even soescape. After this he retired back from thence and led his army downto Thyrea; and having done sacrifice to the Sea by slaying a bull, hebrought them in ships to the land of Tiryns and Nauplia. 77. Beinginformed of this, the Argives came to the rescue towards the sea; andwhen they had got near Tiryns and were at the place which is calledHesipeia,[66] they encamped opposite to the Lacedemonians leaving novery wide space between the armies. There the Argives were not afraidof the open fighting, but only lest they should be conquered by craft;for to this they thought referred the oracle which the Pythianprophetess gave in common to these and to the Milesians,[67] saying asfollows:"But when the female at length shall conquer the male in the battle,Conquer and drive him forth, and glory shall gain among Argives,Then many wives of the Argives shall tear both cheeks in their mourning;So that a man shall say some time, of the men that came after,'Quelled by the spear it perished, the three-coiled terrible serpent,'The conjunction of all these things caused fear to the Argives, andwith a view to this they resolved to make use of the enemy's herald;and having so resolved they proceeded to do as follows:--whenever theSpartan herald proclaimed anything to the Lacedemonians, the Argivesalso did that same thing. 78. So Cleomenes, perceiving that theArgives were doing whatever the herald of the Lacedemoniansproclaimed, passed the word to the Lacedemonians that when the heraldshould proclaim that they were to get breakfast, then they should take