“Along the ridges of the mountain white
Twenty-two summers and winters did they fight.”
The word used for summers in the line just above is a word properly meaning the grass when it is ripe, or a little before hay harvest.
CHAPTER XVIII.
And the Messenians when they were hemmed in at Eira, and debarred the rest of their country, except what was occupied by the people of Pylos near the sea, and the people of Mothone, plundered Laconia and their own country, which they now regarded as enemy’s country. And several joined them in these raids, as chance brought it about, and Aristomenes got together some picked men in number about 300. They harried and carried off from the Lacedæmonians whatever they could, corn and flocks and wine, but furniture and human beings they ransomed for money. So that the Lacedæmonians made a decree, inasmuch as they were farming for the benefit of the people of Eira rather than their own, not to cultivate Messenia and the neighbouring parts of Laconia till after the war. And from that time there was scarcity in Sparta, and with the scarcity came riots, for those who got their money by farming could not bear to see their lands lie fallow, but their vexation was checked by the verses of Tyrtæus. And Aristomenes with his picked men made a sally when the night was considerably advanced, and stole a march upon the enemy by getting to Amyclæ before daybreak, and seized the fort and plundered Amyclæ, and was off again before help could come from Sparta. And he afterwards overran the whole country, till making an attack on more than half the Lacedæmonian army under both their kings, he received several wounds as he defended himself valiantly, and as he was struck on the head by a stone his eyes got dizzy, and the Lacedæmonians rushing at him all together took him alive. Fifty of his men also were captured. These were all condemned by the Lacedæmonians to be thrown into their underground cavern called Ceadas; where they throw in their greatest malefactors. The other Messenians who were thrown in were killed instantaneously: but Aristomenes had some good genius who both now and on all occasions looked after him. Those who exaggerate everything about him say that, when he was thrown into Ceadas, an eagle flew under him and supported him with its wings, so that he reached the bottom safely without a wound or scratch. The god on this occasion must have also shown him some outlet. For when he got to the bottom of the cavern, he sat down and muffling his head in his cloak expected death which he felt certain. But on the third day after he heard a noise, and unveiled his face, and when his eyes got accustomed to the darkness, saw a fox preying on the dead carcases. And reflecting that it must have an outlet somewhere, he waited till the fox came near and when it came near seized hold of it, and in one of his hands, when the fox turned on him, held his cloak that it might bite that and not him. As it ran he ran with it, and was dragged by it along a very difficult path. At last he saw a little hole, just big enough for a fox to pass through, and light glimmered through it. And the fox, directly it was liberated by Aristomenes, betook itself to its hole. And Aristomenes, as the hole was too small to let him through, enlarged it with his hands and got home safe to Eira, having had most remarkable good fortune in respect to his capture, (for his spirit and bravery were such that no one could have expected to take him alive), and stranger still and most plainly not without divine assistance was this getting out safe from Ceadas.
CHAPTER XIX.
And it was almost immediately reported to the Lacedæmonians by deserters that Aristomenes had got home safe: but being considered as incredible as if anyone were to say that a dead man had come to life again, it was only believed in consequence of the following transaction on the part of Aristomenes. The Corinthians sent a force to help the Lacedæmonians to take Eira. Aristomenes, learning from his scouts that they were marching rather carelessly, and that their camps were negligently made up, attacked them by night, and as they were asleep slew most of them, and among others their leaders Hypermenides, and Achladæus, and Lysistratus, and Sidectus. He plundered also the tent of the generals, and the Lacedæmonians soon saw that it was Aristomenes and no other Messenian that had done all this. He sacrificed also to Zeus of Ithome the sacrifice which they call Hecatomphonia. It was of very remote antiquity, and any Messenian who had killed 100 enemies had a right to offer it. And Aristomenes first offered this sacrifice when he fought the battle at Boar’s Memorial, and the slaughter of these Corinthians by night gave him the right to offer this sacrifice a second time. They say also that he offered the sacrifice a third time as the result of various raids. But the Lacedæmonians, as the festival of Hyacinthus was now coming on, made a truce of 40 days with the inhabitants of Eira, and returned home and kept the festival, and some Cretan bowmen, who had been sent for as mercenaries from Lyctus and other towns, made incursions into various parts of Messenia. And as Aristomenes was at some distance from Eira, feeling perfect security as it was truce time, seven of these bowmen lay in wait for him, and took him prisoner, and bound him with the bands of their quivers. And it was evening. And two of them went to Sparta, and announced the capture of Aristomenes to the Lacedæmonians: and the remaining five retired to a farm in Messenia, where a fatherless maiden lived with her mother. The night before this maiden had had a dream. Some wolves (she dreamed) brought a lion to the farm bound and without claws, and she freed the lion from its bonds and got it claws, and then the wolves were torn in pieces by it. And now when the Cretans brought in Aristomenes, the maiden remembered her dream of the previous night, and asked her mother who he was: and when she learnt who he was she took courage, and looked earnestly at him, and understood the meaning of the dream. She therefore poured out wine freely for the Cretans, till drink overpowered them, and then withdrew the sword of the one who was fastest asleep. Then she cut the bonds of Aristomenes, and he took the sword and killed all 5. And Gorgus the son of Aristomenes took the maiden to wife. And thus Aristomenes requited to the damsel her saving of his life, and Gorgus was only 18 when he married her.
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,