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All that day the preparations for the passage continued; and on the
morrow they burnt all kinds of spices upon the bridges, and strewed the
way with myrtle boughs, while they waited anxiously for the sun, which
they hoped to see as he rose. And now the sun appeared; and Xerxes
took a golden goblet and poured from it a libation into the sea,
praying the while with his face turned to the sun "that no misfortune
might befall him such as to hinder his conquest of Europe, until he
had penetrated to its uttermost boundaries." After he had prayed, he
cast the golden cup into the Hellespont, and with it a golden bowl,
and a Persian sword of the kind which they call acinaces. I cannot
say for certain whether it was as an offering to the sun-god that he
threw these things into the deep, or whether he had repented of having
scourged the Hellespont, and thought by his gifts to make amends to
the sea for what he had done.
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