Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/212

J'J4 HISTORY OF GREECE. humiliating memorials, to ask whether it was his custom to de ceive his benefactors, and whether he was not ashamed to have encouraged the king of Lydia in an enterprise so disastrous? The god, condescending to justify himself by the lips of the priestess, replied : " Not even a god can escape his destiny Croesus has suffered for the sin of his fifth ancestor (Gyges), who, conspiring with a woman, slew his master and wrongfully seized the sceptre. Apollo employed all his influence with tha Moeroe (Fates) to obtain that this sin might be expiated by the children of Croesus, and not by Croesus himself; but the Moeraa would grant nothing more than a postponement of the judgment for three years. Let Croesus know that Apollo has thus pro- cured for him a reign three years longer than his original des tiny, 1 after having tried in vain to rescue him altogether. More- over, he sent that rain which at the critical moment extinguished the burning pile. Nor has Croesus any right to complain of the prophecy by which he was encouraged to enter on the war ; for when the god told him, that he would subvert a great empire, ii was his duty to have again inquired which empire the god meant j and if he neither understood the meaning, nor chose to ask fa information, he has himself to blame for the result. Besides. Croesus neglected the warning given to him, about the acquisitioi of the Median kingdom by a mule : Cyrus was that mule, SOD of a Median mother of royal breed, by a Persian father, at onc< of different race and of lower position." This triumphant justification extorted even from Croesus him- self a full confession, that the sin lay with him, and not with the god. 2 It certainly illustrates, in a remarkable manner, the theo- logical ideas of the time ; and it shows us how much, in the ramd 1 Herodot. i, 91. Hpo'dvfj.EOfilvov 5e Aoft'eu 6;rwf uv KO.TU Toijg -aldai rotf Kpoiaov jevoiro rd Sapdt'uv irudof, /cat [irj /car' avrbv Kpolcov, OVK olov rt. iyevETO -rcapayayclv Mo/paf oaov 6e kvifiuKav avrai, yvvcraTo, /cat i^apiarra oi Tpla yap erea eTravepaKeTo rrjv ZapcJt'uv uhuffiv. Kat TOVTO E-iriarufPu KpofiTOf, (if VGTfpov rolai Irefft Tovrntffi a/loiif TTJ? Trgirpa>fj.fV7jf. 2 Herodot. i, 91. 'O Je unovaas avviyvu kuvrov elvat TTJV a/zapr^Ja, Kala rov t?eou. Xenophon also, in the Cyropaedia (vii. 2, 16-25), brings Crasus to th lame result of confession and humiliation, though by steps somewhat dif fcrent