HERODOTUS

BOOK VIII. 134-136way of divination, even as at Olympia), and moreoverbribed one that was no Theban but a strangerto lie down to sleep in the shrine of Araphiaraus.No Theban may seek a prophecy there for;Amphiaraus bade them by an oracle to choosewhich of the two they would and forgo the other,and take him either for their prophet or for their ally ;and they chose that he should be their ally wherefore;no Theban may lay him down to sleep in that place.135. But at this time there happened, as theThebans say, a thing at which I marvel greatly. Itwould seem that this man Mys of Europus came inhis wanderings among the places of divination tothe precinct of Ptoan Apollo. This templeis calledPtoum, 1 and belongs to the Thebans ; it liesby ahill, above the lake Copai's, very near to the townAcraephia. When the man called Mys entered intothis temple, three men of the town following himthat were chosen on the state's behalf to writedown the oracles that should be given, straightwaythe diviner prophesied in a foreign tongue. TheThebans that followed him stood astonied to hear astrange language instead of Greek, and knew notwhat this present matter might be but ;Mys ofEuropus snatched from them the tablet that theycarried and wrote on it that which was spoken bythe prophet, saying that the words of the oraclewere Carian ;and having written all down he wentaway back to Thessaly.136. Mardonius read whatever was said in theoracles ;and presently he sent a messenger to Athens,1 Called after Ptous, son of Athamas, according toApollodorus. The story of Athamas, and his plot with Inotheir stepmother against his children's lives, was localised inBoeotia as well as Achaea, cp. vii. 197. 139