Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/295

l-'IHST ACCIDENTAL V JYAC1-: BY Knl./IT.s 279 success ; violent and continuous east winds drove him continually to the westward, until he at length passed the Pillars of Herakles, and found himself, under the providential guidance of the gods, 1 an unexpected visitor among the Phenicians and Iberians of Tar- tessus. What the cargo was which he was transporting to Egypt, we are not told ; but it sold in this yet virgin market for the most exorbitant prices: he and his crew (says Herodotus)' 2 "realized a profit larger than ever fell to the lot of any known Greek ex- cept Sostratus the JEginetan, with whom no one else can com- pete." The magnitude of their profits may be gathered from the votive offering which they erected on their return, in the sacred precinct of Here at Samos, in gratitude for the protection of that goddess during their voyage, a large bronze vase, ornamented with projecting griffins' heads, and supported by three bronze kneeling figures of colossal stature : it cost six talent. , and rep- resented the tithe of their gains. The aggregate of sixty talents 3 (about sixteen thousand pounds, speaking roughly), corresponding to this tithe, was a sum which not many even of the rich men of Athens in her richest time, could boast of possessing. To the lucky accident of this enormous vase and the inscrip- tion doubtless attached to it, which Herodotus saw in the Heraeon at Samos, and to the impression which such miraculous enrich- 1 Herodot. iv, 152. Qeiy 1 Herodot. iv, 152. Td <5e ty-xopiov TOVTO (Tartessus) i/v uKtjpaTov TOVTOV rdv xpovov wore anovoarfiaavTef OVTOI oiriau ftfyLora 6f) 'ETi'/.r/vuv ITUVTUV, TUV Ji/j.tf urptKeuf ISfiev, K tyopriuv fKepdrjaav, fiera ye "Zuarparov rbv Aaodu/iavrof, Alyivyrriv ' rovry yup ova ola re epical uhhov. Allusions to the prodigious wealth of Tartessus in Anakreon, Fragm. 8, cJ. Bergk : Stephan. Byz. Taprriaaof ; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieget. 332, TapTijaadf, i/v Kal 6 'Ava/cpewv <j>r;ai iravevdaifiova ; Himerius ap. Photium, Cod. 243, p. 599, Taprtjuaov [3iov, 'ApaZdeias Kepag, TTUV oaov ev6ai/j.oviaf 3 These talents cannot have been Attic talents ; for the Attic talent first arose from the debasement of the Athenian money-standard by Solon, which did not occur until a generation after the voyage of Kolseus. They may hnve been either Euboic or vEginrcan talents ; probably the former, seeing that the case belongs to the island of Samos. Sixty Euboic talents would bo about equivalent to the sum stated in the text. For the proportion of the v&rions Greek monetary scales, see above, vol. ii, part 2, ch. iv, p 425 and ch H p 227 in the present volume.