Pelopidas

and, still further, the youths who were sacrificed by Themistocles to Dionysus Carnivorous before the sea fight at Salamis[*](Cf. the Themistocles, xiii. 2 f. ) for the successes which followed these sacrifices proved them acceptable to the gods. Moreover, when Agesilaüs, who was setting out on an expedition from the same place as Agamemnon did, and against the same enemies, was asked by the goddess for his daughter in sacrifice, and had this vision as he lay asleep at Aulis, he was too tender-hearted to give her,[*](Cf. the Agesilaüs, vi. 4 ff. ) and thereby brought his expedition to an unsuccessful and inglorious ending.

Others, on the contrary, argued against it, declaring that such a lawless and barbarous sacrifice was not acceptable to any one of the superior beings above us, for it was not the fabled typhons and giants who governed the world, but the father of all gods and men; even to believe in the existence of divine beings who take delight in the slaughter and blood of men was perhaps a folly, but if such beings existed, they must be disregarded, as having no power; for only weakness and depravity of soul could produce or harbour such unnatural and cruel desires.