|
|
|
Evelthon
|
|
|
|
Herodotus on Elvelthon’s reception of
Pheretima
|
|
525 BC
[Herodotus 4.162.1] Thus matters rested during the
lifetime of this Battus [the king of Cyrene], but when his son Arcesilaus
came to the throne, great disturbance arose about the privileges. For
Arcesilaus, son of Battus the lame and Pheretima, refused to submit to the
arrangements of Demonax the Mantinean, and claimed all the powers of his
forefathers. In the contention which followed Arcesilaus was worsted,
whereupon he fled to Samos, while his mother took refuge at Salamis in the
island of Cyprus. Salamis was at that time ruled by Evelthon, the same who
offered at Delphi the censer which is in the treasury of the Corinthians, a
work deserving of admiration. Of him Pheretima made request that he would
give her an army whereby she and her son might regain Cyrene. But Evelthon,
preferring to give her anything rather than an army, made her various
presents. Pheretima accepted them all, saying, as she took them: "Good
is this too, O king! but better were it to give me the army which I crave
at thy hands." Finding that she repeated these words each time that he
presented her with a gift, Evelthon at last sent her a golden spindle and
distaff, with the wool ready for spinning. Again she uttered the same
speech as before, whereupon Evelthon rejoined-"These are the gifts I
present to women, not armies."
|
|
1600+ men, women and children
still missing
up to 70,000 held hostage in concentration camps
5000+ massacred
thousands raped and tortured
200,000 ethnically cleansed
500+ churches desecrated or destroyed
murders of refugees continue to this day
|