Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/156

 132 HISTORY OF GREECE. fleet, however, had been on shipboard all night, in making that movement which had brought them into their actual position: while the Greek seamen now began without previous fatigue, fresh from the animated harangues of Themistokles and the other leaders : moreover, just as they were getting on board, they were joined by the triremes which had been sent to JEgina to bring to their aid iEakus, with the other ^akid heroes. Hon- ored with this precious heroic aid, which tended so much to raise the spirits of the Greeks, the -^ginetan trireme now anived just in time to take her post in the line, having eluded pursuit from the intervening enemy.' The Greeks rowed forward from the shore to attack with the usual psean, or war-shout, which was confidently returned by the Persians; and the latter were the most forward of the two to begin the fight : for the Greek seamen, on gradually nearing the enemy, became at first disposed to hesitate, — and even backed water for a space, so that some of them touched ground on their own shore : until the retrograde movement Avas arrested by a supernatural feminine figure hovering over them, who exclaimed with a voice that rang through the whole fleet, — " Ye worthies, how much fai'ther are ye going to back water ? " The very cir- culation of this fable attests the dubious courage of the Greeks at the commencement of the battle.2 The brave Athenian cap- ' Herodot. viii, 83; Plutarch (Themistokles, c. 13; Ai-isteicles, c. 9; Pe- lopidas, c. 21). Plutarch tells a story out of Phanias respecting an incident in the moment before the action.which it is pleasing to find sufficient ground for rejecting. Themistokles, with the prophet Euphrantides, was offering sacrifice bv the side of the admiral's galley, when three beautiful youths, nephews of Xerxes, were brought in prisoners. As the fire was just then blazing brilliantly, and sneezing was heard from the right, the prophet en- joined Themistokles to offer these three prisoners as a propitiatoiy offering to Dionysus Omestes : which the clamor of the bystanders compelled him to do against his will. This is what Plutarch states in his life of Themis tokles ; in his life of Aristeides, he affinns that these yoiiths were brought prisoners from Psyttaleia, when Aristeides attacked it at the herjinning of the action. Now Aristeides did not attack Psyttaleia until the naval combat was nearly ever, so that no prisoners can have been brought from thence al the commencement of the action : there could thercfoi-e liave been no Per Bian prisoners to sacrifice, and the story may be dismissed as a fiction.
 * Herodot. viii, 84. ipaveloav <5e 6caKE?.Evaaa^ai, <j?re kqI uTrav uKoma