Histories

Herodotus

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

At the same time that he was doing this, another great force was sent against Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya, for the reason that I shall give after I finish the story that I am going to tell now.

The descendants of the crew of the Argo were driven out by the Pelasgians who carried off the Athenian women from +Brauron [24.025,37.9167] (Perseus) Brauron; after being driven out of +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos by them, they sailed away to Sparta [22.416,37.83] (inhabited place), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Lacedaemon, and there camped on Teügetum and kindled a fire.

Seeing it, the Lacedaemonians sent a messenger to inquire who they were and where they came from. They answered the messenger that they were Minyae, descendants of the heroes who had sailed in the Argo and put in at +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos and there begot their race.

Hearing the story of the lineage of the Minyae, the Lacedaemonians sent a second time and asked why they had come into +Laconia [22.583,37] (department), Peloponnese, Greece, Europe Laconia and kindled a fire. They replied that, having been expelled by the Pelasgians, they had come to the land of their fathers, as was most just; and their wish was to live with their fathers' people, sharing in their rights and receiving allotted pieces of land.

The Lacedaemonians were happy to receive the Minyae [*](As descendants of the Argonauts, who were Minyae of +Thessaly [22.25,39.5] (region), Greece, Europe Thessaly, living near the Pagasaean gulf.) on the terms which their guests desired; the chief cause of their consenting was that the Tyndaridae [*](Castor and Polydeuces.) had been in the ship's company of the Argo; so they received the Minyae and gave them land and distributed them among their own tribes. The Minyae immediately married, and gave in marriage to others the women they had brought from +Lemnos [25.25,39.916] (island), Lesvos, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Lemnos.