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Throughout the whole of this early contest with the Tegeans, the
Lacedaemonians met with nothing but defeats; but in the time of
Croesus, under the kings Anaxandrides and Aristo, fortune had
turned in their favour, in the manner which I will now relate.
Having been worsted in every engagement by their enemy, they sent to
Delphi, and inquired of the oracle what god they must propitiate to
prevail in the war against the Tegeans. The answer of the Pythoness
was that before they could prevail, they must remove to Sparta the
bones of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon. Unable to discover his
burial-place, they sent a second time, and asked the god where the
body of the hero had been laid. The following was the answer they received:
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Level and smooth is the plain where Arcadian Tegea standeth;
There two winds are ever, by strong necessity, blowing,
Counter-stroke answers stroke, and evil lies upon evil.
There all-teeming Earth doth harbour the son of Atrides;
Bring thou him to thy city, and then be Tegea's master.
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After this reply, the Lacedaemonians were no nearer discovering the
burial-place than before, though they continued to search for it
diligently; until at last a man named Lichas, one of the Spartans
called Agathoergi, found it. The Agathoergi are citizens who have
just served their time among the knights. The five eldest of the
knights go out every year, and are bound during the year after their
discharge to go wherever the State sends them, and actively employ
themselves in its service.
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