Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/232

 200 HISTORY OF GREECE. Grecian independence, deserves to be specified. 1 At the tit of the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, the Grecian fleet was assem- bled at Chalcis and Artemision in Eubcea, awaiting the approach of the Persian force, so overwhelming in its numbers as well by sea as on land. The Persian fleet had reached the coast of Mag- nesia and the south-eastern corner of Thessaly without any ma- terial damage, when the Athenians were instructed by an oracle u to invoke the aid of their son-in-law." Understanding the ad- vice to point to Boreas, they supplicated his aid and that of Orei- thyia, most earnestly, as well by prayer as by sacrifice, 2 and the event corresponded to their wishes. A furious north-easterly wind immediately arose, and continued for three days to afflict the Per- sian fleet as it lay on an unprotected coast : the number of ships driven ashore, both vessels of war and of provision, was immense, and the injury done to the armament was never thoroughly re- paired. Such was the powerful succor which the Athenians de- rived, at a time of their utmost need, from their son-in-law Boreas ; and their gratitude was shown by consecrating to him a new tem- ple on the banks of the Ilissus. The three remaining daughters of Erechtheus he had six in alp were in Athenian legend yet more venerated than their sisters, on account of having voluntarily devoted themselves to death for the safety of their country. Eumolpus of Eleusis was the son of Poseidon and the eponymous hero of the sacred gens called the Eumolpids, in whom the principal functions, appertain- ing to the mysterious rites of Demeter at Eleusis, were vested by hereditary privilege : he made war upon Erechtheus and the 1 Herodot. vii. 189. Ot 6' uv 'A&Tjvatoi ai uXXov xpil aTr lp' lov > T ^ v yafiflpbv tmtcovpov Kateoaa&ai. Bop^f 6e, Karii rbv 'EAA^vwv "koyov lx ei yvvalna 'Arrtx^v, 'Qpef&viijv TTJV 'Epf$^0f. Kara dff rb KfjSof TOVTO, ol 'Adrjvaloi, avupaTifao/tevoi ofa rbv Bop^v -yafj(3pbv elvat, etc. as the names of two of them. The sacrifice of Pandora, in the Iambi of Hipponax (Hipponact. Fragm. xxi. Welck. ap. Athen. ix. p. 3"Q), seems tc allude to this daughter of Erechtheus.
 * Suidas and Photius, v. Hupdevoi : Protogeneia and Pandora are given