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The Corinthians likewise right willingly lent a helping hand towards
the expedition against Samos; for a generation earlier, about the
time of the seizure of the wine-bowl, they too had suffered insult at
the hands of the Samians. It happened that Periander, son of
Cypselus, had taken three hundred boys, children of the chief nobles
among the Corcyraeans, and sent them to Alyattes for eunuchs; the
men who had them in charge touched at Samos on their way to Sardis;
whereupon the Samians, having found out what was to become of the boys
when they reached that city, first prompted them to take sanctuary at
the temple of Diana; and after this, when the Corinthians, as they
were forbidden to tear the suppliants from the holy place, sought to
cut off from them all supplies of food, invented a festival in their
behalf, which they celebrate to this day with the selfsame rites.
Each evening, as night closed in, during the whole time that the boys
continued there, choirs of youths and virgins were placed about the
temple, carrying in their hands cakes made of sesame and honey, in
order that the Corcyraean boys might snatch the cakes, and so get
enough to live upon.
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