Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XX.

But in the 11th year of the siege it was fated that Eira should fall, and that the Messenians should be dispersed, and the god accomplished what had been oracularly foretold to Aristomenes and Theoclus. For when they went to Delphi after the disaster at the Great Trench, and enquired as to their safety, the Pythian Priestess replied as follows,

“When he-goat drinks of Neda’s winding stream,

I cease to guard Messene. Her end is near.”

Now the Neda rises in Mount Lycæus: and the river flows through Arcadia and into Messenia again, and divides the maritime parts of Messenia and Elis. And now they were afraid of their he-goats drinking of the Neda: but the god had quite a different meaning which I will unfold. The wild fig tree, which some of the Greeks call Olynthe, is called by the Messenians Tragus (that is He-Goat). At this time there was a wild fig tree on the banks of the river Neda which did not grow upright, but bent into the stream and touched the water with its topmost boughs. And the seer Theoclus having noticed it conjectured that by the he-goat drinking of the Neda the Pythian Priestess meant this wild fig, and that therefore the fate of Messene was imminent. And he preserved silence on the matter to everyone else, but he took Aristomenes to this fig tree, and pointed out to him that their period of safety had passed. And Aristomenes was convinced by him that it was as he said, and that that there was no room for delay, and he adopted the following contrivance under the present conjuncture. The Messenians had some sacred records, which if lost would ruin Messene and keep her under for ever, but which if preserved would, according to the oracular utterances of Lycus the son of Pandion, give the Messenians a chance one day to recover their country, and Aristomenes knowing these oracular utterances conveyed away by night these arcana: and going to the most unfrequented part of Mount Ithome buried them there, and prayed to Zeus of Ithome and to the gods who had hitherto befriended the Messenians to be witnesses of this deposit, and not to allow the Lacedæmonians to rob them of their only hope of returning home again one day. And after this trouble came to the Messenians, as earlier still it did to the Trojans, from adultery. They occupied the mountainous district all round Eira as far as the Neda, and some lived outside the gates. And no other deserter came to them from Laconia, but a herdsman, a slave of Emperamus who was a man of some note at Sparta. This herdsman lived not far from the Neda. There he saw the wife of one of the Messenians who lived outside the walls coming to draw water: and he got enamoured of her, and ventured to talk with her, and overcame her chastity by gifts. And from that time forward this herdsman watched when her husband went upon garrison duty. Now the Messenians had to go on guard by turns in the citadel: it was here that they were chiefly afraid of the enemy getting into the place. And whenever the husband mounted guard, this herdsman used to go and visit his wife. And on one occasion he and others had to mount guard at night, and it chanced to be a very wet night. And the Messenians left their guard. For the quantity of rain pouring down almost forced them in, as they had no battlements or turrets in their improvised fortifications, and at the same time they did not expect that the Lacedæmonians would attack them in a night so wild and dark. And Aristomenes had been wounded a few days previously in rescuing a Cephallenian merchant and his goods, (he was a friend of his and used to introduce into Eira all necessary supplies, but had been captured by the Lacedæmonians and some Apteræan bowmen under Euryalus a Spartan), and therefore could not as usual go his nightly rounds. This was the chief reason why the citadel was abandoned by the guard. And as each of them went off from his post so did the husband of the woman who had this intrigue with the herdsman. And she at this time had the herdsman at her house, but perceiving the return of her husband quickly concealed him, and welcomed her husband rather more than usual, and asked him the reason of his return. And he, ignorant that she was unfaithful to him and had her paramour there, told her the truth, and said that, on account of the violence of the rain, and other circumstances which he mentioned, they had left their posts. And the herdsman overheard, and immediately, when he understood the condition of affairs, deserted the Messenians for the Lacedæmonians. The Lacedæmonian kings were at this time absent from the camp: but Emperamus the master of the herdsman was commander in chief of the forces that were besieging Eira. The herdsman then went to his master, and first begged pardon for his absence from home, and next showed him how they could capture Eira, mentioning all the circumstances which he had heard from the Messenian.