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The following is a tale which was told by Dicaeus, the son of
Theocydes, an Athenian, who was at this time an exile, and had
gained a good report among the Medes. He declared that after the army
of Xerxes had, in the absence of the Athenians, wasted Attica, he
chanced to be with Demaratus the Lacedaemonian in the Thriasian
plain, and that while there, he saw a cloud of dust advancing from
Eleusis, such as a host of thirty thousand men might raise. As he
and his companion were wondering who the men, from whom the dust
arose, could possibly be, a sound of voices reached his ear, and he
thought that he recognised the mystic hymn to Bacchus. Now Demaratus
was unacquainted with the rites of Eleusis, and so he inquired of
Dicaeus what the voices were saying. Dicaeus made answer - "O
Demaratus! beyond a doubt some mighty calamity is about to befall the
king's army! For it is manifest, inasmuch as Attica is deserted by
its inhabitants, that the sound which we have heard is an unearthly
one, and is now upon its way from Eleusis to aid the Athenians and
their confederates. If it descends upon the Peloponnese, danger will
threaten the king himself and his land army - if it moves towards the
ships at Salamis, 'twill go hard but the king's fleet there suffers
destruction. Every year the Athenians celebrate this feast to the
Mother and the Daughter; and all who wish, whether they be
Athenians or any other Greeks, are initiated. The sound thou
hearest is the Bacchic song, which is wont to be sung at that
festival." "Hush now," rejoined the other; "and see thou tell no
man of this matter. For if thy words be brought to the king's ear,
thou wilt assuredly lose thy head because of them; neither I nor any
man living can then save thee. Hold thy peace therefore. The gods
will see to the king's army." Thus Demaratus counselled him; and
they looked, and saw the dust, from which the sound arose, become a
cloud, and the cloud rise up into the air and sail away to Salamis,
making for the station of the Grecian fleet. Then they knew that it
was the fleet of Xerxes which would suffer destruction. Such was the
tale told by Dicaeus the son of Theocydes; and he appealed for its
truth to Demaratus and other eye-witnesses.
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