Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/124

 106 HISTORY OF GREECE. The daughter of Megakles, according to agreement, quickly became the wife of Peisistratus, but she bore him no children ; and it became known that her husband, having already adult sons by a former marriage, and considering that the Kylonian cur^e rested upon all the Alkmaeonid family, did not intend that she should become a mother. 1 Megakles was so incensed at this behavior, that he not only renounced his alliance with Peisis tratus, but even made his peace with the third party, the adhe- rents of Lykurgus, and assumed so menacing an attitude, that the despot was obliged to evacuate Attica. He retired to Ere- tria in Eubrea, where he remained no less than ten years ; but a considerable portion of that time was employed in making prep- arations for a forcible return, and he seems to have exercised, even while in exile, a degree of influence much exceeding that Istrus (one of the Atthido-graphers of the third century B.C.) and Anti- kles published books respecting the personal manifestations or epiphanies of the gods, 'ATroA^uvof eTTiQavelai : see Istri Fragment. 33-3 7, ed. Didot. If Peisistratus and Megakles had never quarrelled, their joint stratagem might have continued to pass for a genuine epiphany, and might have been included as such in the work of Istrus. I will add, that the real pres- ence of the gods, at the festivals celebrated in their honor, was an idea con- tinually brought before the minds of the Greeks. The Athenians fully believed the epiphany of the god Pan to Pheidip pides the courier, on his march to Sparta, a little before the battle of Mara- thon (Herodot. vi, 105, aai TO.VTO. 'A&qvaioi iriaTevaavTSf dvai a?.7/dea), and even Herodotus himself does not controvert it, though he relaxes the posi- tive character of history so far as to add " as Pheidippides himself saul and recounted publicly to the Athenians." His informants in this case were doubtless sincere believers ; whereas, in the case of Phye, the story was told to him at first as a fabrication. At Gela in Sicily, seemingly not long before this restoration of Peisis- tratus, Telines (ancestor of the despot Gelon) had brought back some exiles to Gela, " without any armed force, but merely through the sacred ceremonies and appurtenances of the subterranean goddesses," ex u *' ovdcfurjv uvSp&v 6vva.fi.Lv, uMi 1 ipu. TOVTCUV rCjv $fuv TOVTOIGI 6' uv Tziav- vcf luv, KaTqyaye (Herodot. vii, 153). Herodotus does not tell us the de- tails which he had heard of the manner in which this restoration at Gela was brought about ; but his general language intimates, that they wer remarkable details, and they might have illustrated the story of Phye Athene. 1 Uerodot. i 61. Peisistratus ifiix&q oi ov Kara vouov.