Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/104

 80 HISTORY OF GREECE. entire fleet sought safety in flight. The Athenian trireme es- caped to the mouth of the Peneius, where the crew abandoned her, and repaired by land to Athens, leaving the vessel to the enemy : the other two ships were overtaken and captured afloat, — not without a vigorous resistance on the part of the ^ginetan, one of whose hoplites, Pythes, fought with desperate bravery, and fell covered with wounds. So much did the Persian war- riors admire him, that they took infinite pains to preserve his life, and treated him with the most signal manifestations both of kindness and respect, while they dealt with his comrades as slaves. On board the Troezenian vessel, which was the first to be cap- tured, they found a soldier named Leon, of imposing stature ; this man was immediately taken to the ship's head and slain, as a presaging omen in the approaching contest : perhaps, observes the historian, his name may have contributed to determine his fate.i The ten Persian ships advanced no farther than the dan- gerous rock Myrmex, between Skiathos and the mainland, which had been made known to them by a Greek navigator of Skyros, and on which they erected a pillar to serve as warning for the coming fleet. Still, so intense was the alarm which their pres- ence — communicated by fire-signals^ from Skiathos, and strength- ened by the capture of the three look-out ships — inspired to the fleet at Artemisium, that they actually abandoned their station, believing that the entire fleet of the enemy was at hand.3 They sailed up the Euboean strait to Chalkis, as the narrowest and most defensible passage ; leaving scouts on the high lands to watch the enemy's advance. Probably this sudden retreat was forced upon the generals by the panic of their troops, similar to that which king Leonidas, more powerful than Eurybiades and Themistokles, had found means to arrest at Thermopylae. It ruined for the time the ^ Herodot. vii, 180. ruxa d' av tl kqX tov bvoiiaTo^ ETravpoiTO. Respecting the influence of a name and its etymology, in this case iin- happy for the possessor, compare Herodot. ix, 91 : and Tacit. Ilist. iv, 53. - For the employment of fire-signals, compare Liyy, xxviiL, 5 ; and th« opening of the Agamemnon of ^schylus, and the same play. v. 270. 300 . also Thucvdides, iii, 22-80. ' Herodot. yii, 181, 182, 183.