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The Argives and the Eginetans both agree in giving this account; and
the Athenians themselves acknowledge that but one of their men returned
alive to Attica. According to the Argives, he escaped from the
battle in which the rest of the Athenian troops were destroyed by
them. According to the Athenians, it was the god who destroyed their
troops; and even this one man did not escape, for he perished in the
following manner. When he came back to Athens, bringing word of the
calamity, the wives of those who had been sent out on the expedition
took it sorely to heart that he alone should have survived the slaughter
of all the rest; - they therefore crowded round the man, and struck
him with the brooches by which their dresses were fastened each, as she
struck, asking him where he had left her husband. And the man died in
this way. The Athenians thought the deed of the women more horrible
even than the fate of the troops; as however they did not know how else
to punish them, they changed their dress and compelled them to wear the
costume of the Ionians. Till this time the Athenian women had worn a
Dorian dress, shaped nearly like that which prevails at Corinth.
Henceforth they were made to wear the linen tunic, which does not
require brooches.
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