Histories

Herodotus

Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).

I have myself seen Cadmean writing in the temple of Ismenian Apollo at Thebes [23.3333,38.325] (Perseus) Thebes of Boeotia (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Boeotia engraved on certain tripods and for the most part looking like Ionian letters. On one of the tripods there is this inscription:

  1. Amphitryon dedicated me from the spoils of[*](This is reading e(lw/n, Meineke's change for the MSS e)w/n. ) Teleboae.
This would date from about the time of Laius the son of Labdacus, grandson of Polydorus and great-grandson of Cadmus.

A second tripod says, in hexameter verse:

  1. Scaeus the boxer, victorious in the contest,
  2. Gave me to Apollo, the archer god, a lovely offering.
Scaeus the son of Hippocoon, if he is indeed the dedicator and not another of the same name, would have lived at the time of Oedipus son of Laius.

The third tripod says, in hexameter verse again:

  1. Laodamas, while he reigned, dedicated this cauldron
  2. To Apollo, the sure of aim, as a lovely offering.

During the rule of this Laodamas son of Eteocles, the Cadmeans were expelled by the Argives and went away to the Encheleis. The Gephyraeans were left behind but were later compelled by the Boeotians to withdraw to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens. They have certain set forms of worship at Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens in which the rest of the Athenians take no part, particularly the rites and mysteries of Achaean Demeter.

I have told both of the vision of Hipparchus' dream and of the first origin of the Gephyreans, to whom the slayers of Hipparchus belonged. Now I must go further and return to the story which I began to tell, namely how the Athenians were freed from their tyrants.