Histories

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.

When he finally did fall, he still had life in him, and the Persian soldiers on the ships took great pains to keep him alive for his valor, tending his wounds with ointments and wrapping him in bandages of linen cloth[*](Commonly used for mummy-wrappings in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt; cp. Hdt. 2.86.).

Upon returning to their own station, they showed him to the whole host, and made much of him and treated him with kindness. The rest of those whom they took in that ship, however, they used as slaves.