herodotus

ut I desire to recollect and do all that is just; for if I receivedit, I desire to restore it honestly; and if on the other hand I didnot receive it at all, I will act towards you in accordance with thecustoms of the Hellenes:[76] therefore I defer the settling of thematter with you for three months from now.' (c) The Milesiansaccordingly went away grieved, for they supposed that they had beenrobbed of the money; but Glaucos set forth to Delphi to consult theOracle: and when he inquired of the Oracle whether he should rob themof the money by an oath, the Pythian prophetess rebuked him with theselines:"'Glaucos, thou, Epikydes' son, yea, this for the moment,This, to conquer their word by an oath and to rob, is more gainful.Swear, since the lot of death waits also for him who swears truly.But know thou that Oath has a son, one nameless and handless and footless,Yet without feet he pursues, without hands he seizes, and whollyHe shall destroy the race and the house of the man who offendeth.But for the man who swears truly his race is the better hereafter.'Having heard this Glaucos entreated that the god would pardon him forthat which he had said, but the prophetess said that to make trial ofthe god and to do the deed were things equivalent. (d) Glaucos then,having sent for the Milesians, gave back to them the money: but thereason for which, O Athenians, I set forth to relate to you thisstory, shall now be told. At the present time there is no descendantof Glaucos existing, nor any hearth which is esteemed to be that ofGlaucos, but he has been utterly destroyed and rooted up out ofSparta. Thus it is good not even to entertain a thought about adeposit other than that of restoring it, when they who made it ask forit again."87. When Leotychides had thus spoken, since not even so were theAthenians willing to listen to him, he departed back; and theEginetans, before paying the penalty for their former wrongs whereinthey did outrage to the Athenians to please the Thebans,[77] acted asfollows:--complaining of the conduct of the Athenians and thinkingthat they were being wronged, they made preparations to avengethemselves upon the Athenians; and since the Athenians werecelebrating a four-yearly festival[78] at Sunion, they lay in wait forthe sacred ship which was sent to it and took it, the vessel beingfull of men who were the first among the Athenians; and having takenit they laid the men in bonds. 88. The Athenians after they hadsuffered this wrong from the Eginetans no longer delayed to contriveall things possible to their hurt. And there was[79] in Egina a man ofrepute, one Nicodromos the son of Cnithos:[80] this man had cause ofcomplaint against the Eginetans for having before this driven him