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Now there was at Athens a man who had lately made his way into the
first rank of citizens: his true name was Themistocles; but he was
known more generally as the son of Neocles. This man came forward and
said that the interpreters had not explained the oracle altogether
aright - "for if," he argued, "the clause in question had really
respected the Athenians, it would not have been expressed so mildly;
the phrase used would have been 'Luckless Salamis,' rather than
'Holy Salamis,' had those to whom the island belonged been about to
perish in its neighbourhood. Rightly taken, the response of the god
threatened the enemy, much more than the Athenians." He therefore
counselled his countrymen to make ready to fight on board their ships,
since they were the wooden wall in which the god told them to trust.
When Themistocles had thus cleared the matter, the Athenians
embraced his view, preferring it to that of the interpreters. The
advice of these last had been against engaging in a sea-fight; "all
the Athenians could do," they said, "was, without lifting a hand
in their defence, to quit Attica, and make a settlement in some other country."
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