Homeric Hymn to Demeter

59. He said this and led the Persians at a run across the Asopos river in the tracks of the Hellenes, supposing them to be fleeing. He went after the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans alone, since because of the hills he did not see the Athenians making their way to the plain. When the remaining commanders of the barbarian companies saw the Persians setting out to pursue the Hellenes, they all immediately raised their standards and pursued as fast as each could, marshalled in no order or line. They advanced on the Hellenes in a confused uproar and expected to ravage them.

60. When the cavalry attacked, the Spartan commander Pausanias sent a messenger on horseback to the Athenians saying, “Men of Athens, while a great struggle is offered whether Hellas be free or enslaved, we Lacedaemonians and you Athenians are betrayed by our allies who ran away last night. I am resolved that what we must now do is fight in the way that will best defend each other. If the cavalry had first rushed against you, we and the Tegeans, who are with us and did not betray Hellas, would have had to come to your aid. But now, since all the cavalry has attacked us, you are right to come to the defense of the part that is most pressed. If something has befallen to make it impossible for you to come help, grant us the favor of sending us your archers. We know that since you have been by far the most zealous in this present war, you will also comply with this request.”

61. When the Athenians heard this, they started to march out to bring all the help they could, but the Hellenes who had taken the king’s side and were drawn up against them attacked them on their march. They could no longer bring help, since the enemy pressed and harassed them, so the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans were left to fight alone. The Lacedaemonians were 50,000 in number, including the light-armed men, the Tegeans, who never separated from the Lacedaemonians, 3,000. They offered sacrifice, since they were about to give battle to Mardonios and the army with him, but the sacrifices were not favorable. Meanwhile many of them fell and many more were wounded, for the Persians had made a barricade of their shields and were constantly shooting an immense number of arrows at them. As the Spartans were pressed and the sacrifices did not turn out, Pausanias looked towards the sacred precinct of Hera at Plataea and invoked the goddess, praying that they in no way be cheated of their hope.

62. While he was still praying, the Tegeans moved out in front and attacked the barbarians, and as soon as Pausanias’ prayer was finished the sacrifices became favorable to the Lacedaemonians. When at last this had happened, they too advanced on the Persians, and the Persians threw down their bows to meet them. The battle took place first near the shields, and after they fell there was violent fighting for a long time right at the sacred precinct of Demeter. Finally there was hand-to-hand combat, for the barbarians had grabbed hold of the spears and snapped them off. The Persians were not inferior in courage and strength, but they were without armor and were also ignorant of tactics and unequal to their opponents in sophia. They jumped forward one at a time or joined together in groups of ten or more or fewer, and fell upon the Spartans only to be killed.

63. Wherever Mardonios happened to be, fighting from a white horse with 1,000 picked troops, the aristoi of the Persians, around him, there they pressed the enemy hardest. For as long as Mardonios was alive, they held out in their defense and laid low many of the Lacedaemonians. But when Mardonios was killed and the force marshalled around him, which was the strongest part of the army, also fell, the others fled and gave way before the Lacedaemonians. What caused them the most harm was that their clothing had no armor; they were naked as they fought against armored men.

64. There dikê for the murder of Leonidas was fulfilled by Mardonios for the Spartans according to the oracle, and the finest victory we know of was won by Pausanias son of Kleombrotos son of Anaxandrides. The names of his earlier ancestors have been told in the case of Leonidas, since they were the same for both. Mardonios was killed by Arimnestos, an important man in Sparta, who long after the Median war with 300 men gave battle in Stenykleros in time of war to all the Messenians and was killed along with the 300.

65. Back at Plataea, when the Persians were routed by the Lacedaemonians, they fled in disorder to their camp and to the wooden wall they had built in Theban territory. I marvel that although they fought near the grove of Demeter, not a single Persian was seen to enter the sacred precinct or die there, and most of them fell near the sacred precinct in unconsecrated ground. It is my opinion—if one ought to hold opinions about divine affairs—that the goddess herself did not let them in because they had burned the temple in Eleusis.

66. This is what the battle was like so far. Artabazos son of Pharnaces had from the very beginning disliked that Mardonios was left behind by the king, and now his advice not to offer battle had gotten nowhere, though he had strongly counselled against it. Since he was displeased by all the things Mardonios had done, he himself did this: He had no small force with him, about 40,000 men. When the battle took place, since he well knew what the outcome of the fight would be, Artabazos led the troops under his generalship out in battle array after commanding them all to go together wherever he led them when they saw him hurrying. He gave this command as if he were leading the army to battle, but as they advanced up the road he saw the Persians fleeing, so he no longer led his men in the same formation, but he ran by the quickest route in flight neither to the wooden wall nor to Thebes, but to Phokis, wanting to reach the Hellespont as quickly as possible.

67. So they fled in this way. Although all the other Hellenes on the king’s side fought as kakoi on purpose, the Boeotians fought the Athenians for a long time. The Medizing Thebans had great zeal for the battle and did not fight as kakoi on purpose, so that 300 of them, the leading men and aristoi, fell there at the hands of the Athenians. But they too were routed and fled to Thebes, though not in the same way as the Persians and the whole crowd of the other allies who fled without any fight to the finish or any achievement at all.

68. That they all fled before even coming to grips with the enemy because they saw the Persians doing so proves to me that all the fortunes of the barbarians depended on the Persians. In this way they all fled, except the cavalry, including that of the Boeotians, which benefitted those in flight by keeping close to the enemy and keeping their fleeing philoi out of reach of the Hellenes, who in victory pursued and slaughtered Xerxes’ men.

69. During this rout a message was carried to the other Hellenes marshalled near the sacred precinct of Hera and absent from the fight that there had been a battle and Pausanias’ men had won. When they heard this, without drawing themselves into formation, those with the Corinthians made their way through the foothills at the base of the mountain along the road that bears straight for the sacred precinct of Demeter, and those with the Megarians and Phleiasians travelled through the plain along the smoothest of the routes. When the Megarians and Phleiasians came near the enemy, the Theban cavalry, whose commander was Asopodoros son of Timandros, saw them hurrying in disorder and rode their horses at them. They fell upon them and mowed down 600 of them, and riding in pursuit swept them back to Kithairon.

70. These died with no account taken of them. When the Persians and the rest of the throng fled to the wooden wall, they were able to mount the towers before the Lacedaemonians got there, and once on top they strengthened the wall as best they could. Then the Lacedaemonians approached and a fierce fight for the wall began. As long as the Athenians were absent, they defended themselves and got the better of the Lacedaemonians, who did not know how to assault a wall, but when the Athenians arrived the battle for the wall turned more violent and lasted a long time. Finally by their achievement [aretê] and perseverance the Athenians mounted the wall and breached it, and the Hellenes poured in. The first to get inside the wall were the Tegeans, and it was they who plundered the tent of Mardonios, taking from it among other things the horses’ manger, all of bronze and worth seeing. The Tegeans dedicated the manger of Mardonios in the temple of Athena Alea, but all the rest of what they took they brought to the same place as the other Hellenes. Once the wall had fallen, the barbarians no longer kept to their ranks, nor did anyone think of resistance as they wandered in distress, since there were myriads of panicked men trapped in a small space. The Hellenes were able to make such a slaughter that out of 300,000 men, minus the 40,000 which Artabazos fled with, not 3,000 survived. In all, there died in the battle 91 Lacedaemonians from Sparta, 17 Tegeans, and 52 Athenians.

71. Those who were aristoi among the barbarians were the Persian infantry and the cavalry of the Sakai, and of individual men it was said to be Mardonios. Among the Hellenes, the Tegeans and Athenians were agathoi, but it was the Lacedaemonians who excelled in achievement [aretê]. Since they all prevailed over those they fought against, I infer [sêmainô] this only by the fact that the Lacedaemonians attacked and defeated the strongest part of the enemy. In our opinion the man who was by far aristos was Aristodemos, who was in disgrace and without timê because he was the only one to return safe from Thermopylae. After him the Spartans Posidonios and Philokyon and Amompharetos were aristoi. Yet when there was talk of who was aristos, the Spartans present decided that Aristodemos had performed great deeds raging in battle and leaving his post because he clearly wished to die due to the guilt he had, but Posidonios had been agathos not wishing to die, and in that was the more agathos man. They may have said this out of envy, but except for Aristodemos all those whom I mentioned who died in the battle were held in timê. Because Aristodemos wished to die for the aforementioned reason, he was not given timê.

72. These were the most famous at Plataea. Kallikrates died outside the battle. He had come to the camp and was the handsomest man of all the Hellenes of that time, not only of the Lacedaemonians but also of all the other Hellenes. When Pausanias was sacrificing, he was wounded in the side by an arrow as he sat in his place. While the others fought, he was carried out and died a hard death, saying to Arimnestos the Plataean that what bothered him was not that he died for Hellas, but that he had not used his hand in battle and that he had performed no deed worthy of his zeal to perform it.

73. Among the Athenians, Sophanes son of Eutykhides from the deme of Dekelea is said to have been of high repute. The Athenians say that the Dekeleans once performed a deed useful for all time: when in the old days the Tyndaridai invaded the land of Attica to bring back Helen and were laying waste to the demes, not knowing where Helen had been hidden, they say that the Dekeleans, or, as some say, Dekelos himself, because he was impatient at the hubris of Theseus and feared for the entire Athenian country, told them the whole story and guided them to Aphidnai, which Titakos, an original inhabitant, betrayed to the Tyndaridai. Ever since that deed the Dekeleans have enjoyed tax-free status and the front seats at Sparta, and this is still in effect: in the war that arose many years later between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians, when the Lacedaemonians plundered the rest of Attica they left Dekelea alone.

74. Sophanes, who then was aristos among the Athenians, was from that deme. Two stories are told about him. One says that he carried an iron anchor fastened by a bronze chain to the belt of his breastplate, and when he came near the enemy in his approach he would let it down, so that when the enemy fell upon him they would not be able to move him from his position. When the enemy were routed, he would weigh anchor and set off in pursuit. That is one story, but another is told at variance with the one previously narrated: on his shield, which he was always swaying round and round, he carried an anchor as the insignia [sêma], and not an iron one fastened from his breastplate.

75. Sophanes performed another splendid deed: when the Athenians were besieging Aigina, he challenged and killed Eurybates the Argive, a winner in the pentathlon. But much later it befell Sophanes, an agathos man, while he was an Athenian general with Leagros son of Glaukon, to be killed by the Edonians as he fought for the gold mines in Datos.

76. As soon as the barbarians had been mowed down by the Hellenes at Plataea, a woman came to them deserting from the enemy, the concubine of Pharandates son of Teaspis, a Persian. When she learned that the Persians had been destroyed and the Hellenes were victorious, she adorned herself along with her servants with many gold ornaments and the finest apparel she had, got down from her carriage, and went to the Lacedaemonians while they were still engaged in the slaughter. She saw Pausanias managing all that business, and since she already knew his name and country from having often heard of it, she recognized him as Pausanias, grasped his knees, and said, “King of Sparta, save me, your suppliant, from captive servitude. You have done me service so far by destroying these men who have no regard for daimones or gods. I am Koan in genos, daughter of Hegetorides son of Antagoras. The Persian took me from Kos by force and made me his wife.” He answered, “Woman, have no fear, both as my suppliant and if you are telling the truth and really are the daughter of Hegetorides of Kos, for he is my chief xenos among the inhabitants of those lands.” So he spoke, and he put her in the care of the ephors who were present, then later sent her to Aigina, where she wanted to go.

77. Right after the woman’s arrival the Mantineans got there, when it was all over. When they found they had come too late for the battle, they lamented greatly and declared that they deserved to be punished. Hearing that the Medes with Artabazos were in flight, they wanted to pursue them to Thessaly, but the Lacedaemonians advised against pursuing those in flight. They returned to their own country and banished the leaders of the army from the land. After the Mantineans came the Eleians, and the Eleians went away lamenting just like the Mantineans. When they got back home, they too exiled their leaders. That is what happened with the Mantineans and the Eleians.

78. In the camp of the Aiginetans at Plataea was Lampon son of Pytheas, a leading man among the Aiginetans. He rushed to Pausanias with a most unholy plan, and arriving there in haste said, “Son of Kleombrotos, you have accomplished a feat of extraordinary greatness and beauty, and a god has permitted you to deliver Hellas and lay up a store of kleos the greatest of all the Hellenes we know of. But do what remains to be done, and you will have an even greater reputation, and any barbarian will hereafter beware of initiating sinful deeds against the Hellenes. When Leonidas was killed at Thermopylae, Mardonios and Xerxes cut off his head and stuck it on a pole. If you pay them back in kind, you will be praised first by all the Spartans, then by all the other Hellenes. By impaling Mardonios you will take vengeance on your uncle Leonidas.” He said this expecting to gratify Pausanias, but he answered as follows:

79. “Aiginetan xenos, I am grateful for your good will and foresight, but you have missed the mark of good counsel. You exalted me on high, and my country and my deed, then you cast me down to nothingness by advising me to maltreat a corpse, saying I will have a better reputation if I do this. But it is more fitting for barbarians to do this than Hellenes, and we are indignant even when they do it. For this reason I would not please the Aiginetans or any others who find delight in these things. It is enough for me to please the Spartans by performing righteous deeds, and also by righteous speech. As for Leonidas, whom you bade me avenge, I declare he has been greatly avenged: with the countless psukhai of these men he and all the others who met their end at Thermopylae are given timê. Do not approach me again with such a plan nor give me counsel, and be grateful that you are unharmed.”

80. Lampon heard that answer and departed. Pausanias issued a proclamation that no one was to touch the spoils, and commanded the helots to bring together all the goods. They scattered through the camp and found tents adorned with gold and silver, gilded and silver-plated couches, and golden bowls and cups and other drinking vessels. They found sacks on the wagons and saw cauldrons of gold and silver in them. They stripped the bracelets and necklaces and golden daggers from the corpses as they lay, but they took no account of the many-colored clothing. The helots stole much of this and sold it to the Aiginetans, but they also showed as much of it as they could not hide. This was the beginning of great wealth for the Aiginetans, since they bought the gold from the helots as if it were bronze.

81. They collected the goods and set aside a tenth part for the god at Delphi. From this tithe they dedicated the golden tripod which stands on the bronze three-headed snake very close to the altar. They set aside another tithe for the god in Olympus, and from it dedicated the bronze Zeus of 10 cubits, and another to the god at the Isthmus, and from it was made the bronze Poseidon of 7 cubits. They set these aside, then divided the rest. Each took what he merited from the Persian concubines and gold and silver and other goods and beasts of burden. No one tells how much was set aside and granted to the aristoi among those at Plataea, but I suppose they did receive gifts. Ten of everything was set aside and granted to Pausanias: women, horses, talents of silver, camels, and likewise all the other goods.

82. This is also said to have happened: Xerxes in his flight from Hellas left behind all his furnishings for Mardonios. When Pausanias saw Mardonios’ establishment adorned with gold and silver and embroidered hangings, he ordered the bakers and cooks to prepare dinner in the same way as for Mardonios. When they had done as they were ordered, Pausanias looked at the gold and silver couches richly covered and the gold and silver tables and the magnificent preparation for dinner and was astounded at the good things set before him. For a joke he ordered his own servants to prepare a Laconian dinner, and when that meal was made there was a big difference between them. Pausanias laughed and summoned the Hellenic generals, and when they assembled Pausanias pointed to the preparation of each dinner and said, “Men of Hellas, I have brought you together because I wish to show you the folly of the Mede, who with this way of life came to rob us who live in poverty.” It is said that Pausanias spoke thus to the Hellenic generals.

83. Long after this many of the Plataeans found chests of gold and silver and other goods. The following things also came to light at a later time: The Plataeans had collected the bones into one place, and when the corpses had become bare of flesh, a skull was discovered that had no suture and was all of one bone, and a jawbone came to light with the upper jaw all of a single piece, both the incisors and molars all from a single bone. There also appeared the bones of a man five cubits tall.

84. On the next day Mardonios’ corpse disappeared. What man did it I cannot exactly say, but I have heard that many men of all nations have buried Mardonios, and I know that many have received great gifts from Artontes, Mardonios’ son, for that deed. But which of these was the one who made off with Mardonios’ corpse and buried it, I am unable to learn with certainty. Rumor has it that Dionysophanes, an Ephesian, buried Mardonios. In such a way he was buried.

85. After the Hellenes at Plataea had divided the spoils, they each buried their own men separately. The Lacedaemonians made three tombs, and there they buried their irenes,¹⁷⁷ among whom were Posidonios and Amompharetos and Philokyon and Kallikrates. So in one of the tombs were the irenes, in the other the rest of the Spartans, and in the third the helots. Thus they made their burials, and the Tegeans buried theirs all together in a separate place. The Athenians also buried theirs together, and the Megarians and Phleiasians buried those killed by the cavalry. The tombs of all of these were full, but I have learned that each of the others whose tombs are seen at Plataea, ashamed of their absence from the battle, heaped up empty mounds for the sake of future generations. There is one there called the tomb of the Aiginetans, and I hear that Kleades son of Autodikos, a Plataean and their proxenos,¹⁷⁸ erected it at the request of the Aiginetans ten years after the fact.

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