HERODOTUS

BOOK VIII. 20-22they shown that they feared an enemy's coming ;whereby they were the cause of their own destruction;for Bacis' oracle concerning this matter runsthus :" Whenso a strange-tongued man on the wavescasts yoke of papyrus,Then let bleating goats from coasts Euboean bebanished."To these verses the Euboeans gave no heed ;butin the evils then present and soon to come theycould not but heed their dire calamity.21. While the Greeks were doing as I have said,there came to them the watcher from Trachis. Forthere was a watcher at Artemisium, one Polyas, anative of Anticyra, who was charged (and had arowing boat standing ready therefor), if the fleetshould be at grips, to declare it to the men atThermopylae and in like manner, if illany should;befall the land army, Abronichus son of Lysicles,an Athenian, was with Leonidas, ready for his partto bring the news in a thirty-oared bark to theGreeks at Artemisium. So this Abronichus cameand declared to them the fate of Leonidas and hisarmy which when the Greeks learnt, they no;longer delayed their departure, but went their waysin their appointed order, the Corinthians first, andlast of all the Athenians.22. But Themistocles picked out the seaworthiestAthenian ships and went about to the places ofdrinking water, where he engraved on the rockswriting which the lonians read on the next daywhen they came to Artemisium. This was whatthe writing said " : Men of Ionia, you do wrongly21