60 HISTORY OF GREECE. So terrific a reply had rarely escaped from the lips of the priestess. The envoys were struck to the earth by it, and durst not carry it back to Athens. In their sorrow they were encour- aged yet to hope by an influential Delphian citizen named Timon (we trace here, as elsewhere, the underhand working of these leading Delphians on the priestess), who advised them to pro- vide themselves with the characteristic marks of supplication, and to approach the oracle a second time in that imploring guise : " O lord, we pray thee (they said), have compassion on these boughs of supplication, and deliver to us something more comfortable concerning our country ; else we quit not thy sanc- tuary, but remain here until death." Upon which the priestess replied: "Athene with all her prayers and all her sagacity cannot propitiate Olympian Zeus.' But this assurance I will give you, firm as adamant : when everything else in the land of Kekrops shall be taken, Zeus grants to Athene that the wooden wall alone shall remain unconquered, to defend you and your children. Stand not to await the assailing horse and foot from the continent, but turn your backs and retire : you shall yet live to fight another day. O divine Salamis, thou too shalt destroy the children of women, either at the seed-time or a* the har- vest." 2 This second answer was a sensible mitigation of the first : it left open some hope of escape, though faint, dark, and unintelli- gible, — and the envoys wrote it down to carry back to Athens, not concealing, probably, the terrific sentence which had preceded it. When read to the people, the obscurity of the meaning pro- voked many different interpretations. What was meant by " the wooden wall ? " Some supposed that the acropolis itself, which ' Herodot. vii, 141. Ov SvvaraL Ila/l/laf AV '0?.v/i7rcov k^iXdaaa'&at KiaaojiEvri ■KoWolai ?i6yoL^ Kal fifjTiSL ■TrvKvrj. Compare with this the declaration of Apollo to Croesus of Lydia (i, 91 )
- . . . .Telxoc TpLTOyEvel ^v'Xlvov didot evpvoTra Zeic
Movvov uTvopT&TiTov re/l£i?e£v, to as reKva r' bvijaet,. 'Q -BeIti "Sfalafili, dTroAeZf 6e ai> tekvu yvvaiKuv, etc. (Herodot. vii, 141).
