And now the Spartans! A while back, they’d had just a terrible code of laws, total bull, but then Lycurgos (no relation to the Lycurgos who was Peisistratos’s political enemy) visited the Oracle of Delphi and they proclaimed him to … Continue reading →
Once upon a time, Croesus said (Herodotus says), a group of Scythian refugees came to the land of Medes, at the time ruled by Kyaxares son of Phraortes son of Deïokes. Kyaxares initially was a great host to these refugees: … Continue reading →
Croesus’s question for the Oracle of Delphi was actually a two-parter: A) Should Croesus attack the Persians? B) If so, whom should he ally himself with? The Oracles (suddenly they are plural) accepted the gifts and heard Croesus’s questions, delivered … Continue reading →
Adrastos, Atys, and a picked crew of young men with dogs went out boar-hunting. They circled Mount Olympus (which is where the boar was), found the boar, cornered it, and readied to kill. And then, as I’m sure you totally … Continue reading →
And then the gods punished Croesus for his arrogance, says Herodotus, in a rare bit of editorializing. The gods sent him a prophetic dream, in which his son and heir, Atys, was slain with an iron spear-point. Croesus awoke confined … Continue reading →
