Histories

The ship of Troizen [23.375,37.5] (Perseus)Troezen, of which Prexinus was captain, was pursued and straightway captured by the foreigners, who brought the best of its fighting men and cut his throat on the ship's prow, thinking that the sacrifice[*](diade/cion has been otherwise translated, as meaning “of good augury”; Stein derives it rather from diade/cesqai, supposing the meaning to be “a sacrifice where the portions of the victim are handed round among the sacrificers.”) of the foremost and fairest of their Greek captives would be auspicious. The name of the sacrificed man was Leon, and it was perhaps his name that he had to thank for it.

The Aeginetan trireme, of which Asonides was captain, did however give them some trouble. On board this ship was Pytheas son of Ischenous, who acted heroically on that day. When his ship had been taken, he would not stop fighting until he had been entirely hacked to mincemeat.