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Thus did Solon admonish Croesus by the example of Tellus,
enumerating the manifold particulars of his happiness. When he had
ended, Croesus inquired a second time, who after Tellus seemed to
him the happiest, expecting that at any rate, he would be given the
second place. "Cleobis and Bito," Solon answered; "they were of
Argive race; their fortune was enough for their wants, and they were
besides endowed with so much bodily strength that they had both gained
prizes at the Games. Also this tale is told of them: There was a
great festival in honour of the goddess Juno at Argos, to which their
mother must needs be taken in a car. Now the oxen did not come home
from the field in time: so the youths, fearful of being too late, put
the yoke on their own necks, and themselves drew the car in which their
mother rode. Five and forty furlongs did they draw her, and stopped
before the temple. This deed of theirs was witnessed by the whole
assembly of worshippers, and then their life closed in the best
possible way. Herein, too, God showed forth most evidently, how
much better a thing for man death is than life. For the Argive men,
who stood around the car, extolled the vast strength of the youths;
and the Argive women extolled the mother who was blessed with such a
pair of sons; and the mother herself, overjoyed at the deed and at the
praises it had won, standing straight before the image, besought the
goddess to bestow on Cleobis and Bito, the sons who had so mightily
honoured her, the highest blessing to which mortals can attain. Her
prayer ended, they offered sacrifice and partook of the holy banquet,
after which the two youths fell asleep in the temple. They never woke
more, but so passed from the earth. The Argives, looking on them as
among the best of men, caused statues of them to be made, which they
gave to the shrine at Delphi."
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