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Lichas was one of this body when, partly by good luck, partly by his
own wisdom, he discovered the burial-place. Intercourse between the
two States existing just at this time, he went to Tegea, and,
happening to enter into the workshop of a smith, he saw him forging
some iron. As he stood marvelling at what he beheld, he was observed
by the smith who, leaving off his work, went up to him and said,
"Certainly, then, you Spartan stranger, you would have been
wonderfully surprised if you had seen what I have, since you make a
marvel even of the working in iron. I wanted to make myself a well in
this room, and began to dig it, when what think you? I came upon a
coffin seven cubits long. I had never believed that men were taller in
the olden times than they are now, so I opened the coffin. The body
inside was of the same length: I measured it, and filled up the hole
again."
Such was the man's account of what he had seen. The other, on
turning the matter over in his mind, conjectured that this was the body
of Orestes, of which the oracle had spoken. He guessed so, because
he observed that the smithy had two bellows, which he understood to be
the two winds, and the hammer and anvil would do for the stroke and the
counterstroke, and the iron that was being wrought for the evil lying
upon evil. This he imagined might be so because iron had been
discovered to the hurt of man. Full of these conjectures, he sped
back to Sparta and laid the whole matter before his countrymen. Soon
after, by a concerted plan, they brought a charge against him, and
began a prosecution. Lichas betook himself to Tegea, and on his
arrival acquainted the smith with his misfortune, and proposed to rent
his room of him. The smith refused for some time; but at last Lichas
persuaded him, and took up his abode in it. Then he opened the
grave, and collecting the bones, returned with them to Sparta. From
henceforth, whenever the Spartans and the Tegeans made trial of each
other's skill in arms, the Spartans always had greatly the
advantage; and by the time to which we are now come they were masters
of most of the Peloponnese.
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