herodotus

Keep thou thy spear[135] within bounds, and sit well-guarded behind it:Guard well the head, and the head shall preserve the limbs and the body."Thus, they say, the Pythian prophetess had replied to them beforethis; and afterwards when the messengers of the Hellenes came, as Isaid, to Argos, they entered the Council-chamber and spoke that whichhad been enjoined to them; and to that which was said the Councilreplied that the Argives were ready to do as they were requested, oncondition that they got peace made with the Lacedemonians for thirtyyears and that they had half the leadership of the whole confederacy:and yet by strict right (they said) the whole leadership fell to theirshare, but nevertheless it was sufficient for them to have half. 149.Thus they report that the Council made answer, although the oracleforbade them to make the alliance with the Hellenes; and they wereanxious, they say, that a truce from hostilities for thirty yearsshould be made, although they feared the oracle, in order, as theyallege, that their sons might grow to manhood in these years; whereasif a truce did not exist, they had fear that, supposing anotherdisaster should come upon them in fighting against the Persian inaddition to that which had befallen them already, they might be forall future time subject to the Lacedemonians. To that which was spokenby the Council those of the envoys who were of Sparta replied, that asto the truce they would refer the matter to their publicassembly,[136] but as to the leadership they had themselves beencommissioned to make reply, and did in fact say this, namely that theyhad two kings, while the Argives had one; and it was not possible toremove either of the two who were of Sparta from the leadership, butthere was nothing to prevent the Argive king from having an equal votewith each of their two. Then, say the Argives, they could not endurethe grasping selfishness of the Spartans, but chose to be ruled by theBarbarians rather than to yield at all to the Lacedemonians; and theygave notice to the envoys to depart out of the territory of theArgives before sunset, or, if not, they would be dealt with asenemies.150. The Argives themselves report so much about these matters: butthere is another story reported in Hellas to the effect that Xerxessent a herald to Argos before he set forth to make an expeditionagainst Hellas, and this herald, they say, when he had come, spoke asfollows: "Men of Argos, king Xerxes says to you these things:--We holdthat Perses, from whom we are descended, was the son of Perseus, theson of Danae, and was born of the daughter of Kepheus, Andromeda; andaccording to this it would seem that we are descended from you. It isnot fitting then that we should go forth on an expedition againstthose from whom we trace our descent, nor that ye should setyourselves in opposition to us by rendering assistance to others; but