|
Thus far all the Greeks agree in their accounts of this business;
what follows is related upon the testimony of the Parians only.
Miltiades had come to his wit's end, when one of the prisoners, a
woman named Timo, who was by birth a Parian, and had held the office
of under-priestess in the temple of the infernal goddesses, came and
conferred with him. This woman, they say, being introduced into the
presence of Miltiades, advised him, if he set great store by the
capture of the place, to do something which she could suggest to him.
When therefore she had told him what it was she meant, he betook
himself to the hill which lies in front of the city, and there leapt
the fence enclosing the precinct of Ceres Thesmophorus, since he was
not able to open the door. After leaping into the place he went
straight to the sanctuary, intending to do something within it -
either to remove some of the holy things which it was not lawful to
stir, or to perform some act or other, I cannot say what - and had
just reached the door, when suddenly a feeling of horror came upon
him, and he returned back the way he had come; but in jumping down
from the outer wall, he strained his thigh, or, as some say, struck
the ground with his knee.
|
|