|
There fell in this battle of Marathon, on the side of the
barbarians, about six thousand and four hundred men; on that of the
Athenians, one hundred and ninety-two. Such was the number of the
slain on the one side and the other. A strange prodigy likewise
happened at this fight. Epizelus, the son of Cuphagoras, an
Athenian, was in the thick of the fray, and behaving himself as a
brave man should, when suddenly he was stricken with blindness,
without blow of sword or dart; and this blindness continued thenceforth
during the whole of his after life. The following is the account which
he himself, as I have heard, gave of the matter: he said that a
gigantic warrior, with a huge beard, which shaded all his shield,
stood over against him; but the ghostly semblance passed him by, and
slew the man at his side. Such, as I understand, was the tale which
Epizelus told.
|
|