Agis and Cleomenes

And finally, after all were cared for, she arrayed herself; let down the robes from about her neck, and suffering no one besides the executioner to come near or look upon her, bravely met her end, and had no need of anyone to array or cover up her body after death. Thus her decorum of spirit attended her in death, and she maintained to the end that watchful care of her body which she had set over it in life.

So, then, Sparta, bringing her women’s tragedy into emulous competition with that of her men, showed the world that in the last extremity Virtue cannot be outraged by Fortune. And a few days afterwards those who were keeping watch upon the body of Cleomenes where it hung, saw a serpent of great size coiling itself about the head and hiding away the face so that no ravening bird of prey could light upon it.