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Rh stories attest the athletic renown of his house. His son Dorieus, a famous athlete, was captured by the Athenians in a sea-fight. Greek morality did not forbid the massacring of prisoners of war, and fortunate was the captive who could escape by payment of a ransom. But the Athenians, though embittered by a long series of disasters, instantly, and without exacting a ransom, set the distinguished captive at liberty.

We are informed also, by numerous ancient authors, that a female member of this family, a daughter apparently of Diagoras himself, named Pherenicè, ventured to transgress a law which forbade the presence of women at Olympia, through anxiety to witness the performance of her son in the lists. The boy was successful, but his mother was detected. Such an offence, according to law, should have been punished with death—the offender to be hurled headlong from a neighbouring height. But the culprit pleaded the exceptional athletic position of her family, and the plea was allowed to prevail. Permission was even added—a permission granted to no woman before or since—that Pherenicè should be admitted to witness any future Olympic festival.

Allusion has already been made to the exordium of this Ode:—

As some wealthy lord in greeting of his daughter's spouse should lift

In his hand a brimming beaker, where the grape's bright juices foam,