14 PLUTARCH'S LIVES.
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ling to their ships ; which the people were very unwill-ing to submit to, imagining that it would signify littlenow to gain a victory, and not understanding how therecould be deliverance any longer after they had once for-saken the temples of their gods and exposed the tombs andmonuments of their ancestors to the fury of their enemies.Themistocles, being at a loss, and not able to draw thepeople over to his opinion by any human reason, set hismachines to work, as in a theatre, and employed prodigiesand oracles. The serpent of Minerva, kept in the innerpart of her temple, disappeared ; the priests gave it outto the people that the offerings which were set for itwere found untouched, and declared, by the suggestion ofThemistocles, that the goddess had left the city, and takenher flight before them towards the sea. And he oftenurged them with the oracle which bade them trust towalls of wood, showing them that walls of wood couldsignify nothing else but ships ; and that the island of Sal-amis was termed in it, not miserable or unhappy, but hadthe epithet of divine, for that it should one day be asso-ciated with a great good fortune of the Greeks. At lengthhis opinion prevailed, and he obtained a decree that thecity should be committed to the protection of Minerva," queen of Athens " ; that they who were of age to beararms should embark, and that each should see to sendingaway his children, women, and slaves where he could.This decree being confirmed, most of the Athenians re-moved their parents, wives, and children to Troezen, where Minerva, or Athene, the protecting goddess of the Athenian state, was thepatroness of wisdom, agriculture, the useful arts, and warlike defence. Hertemple was the Parthenon. Oracle : a temple or other sacred place where answers to questions wereobtained from the gods. The word also means the answer given. .,y,,_., Joogle THEMISTOCLES. 15 they were received with eager good-will by the Troeze-nians, who passed a vote that they should be maintainedat the public charge. When the whole city of Athens were going on board, itafforded a spectacle worthy of pity alike and admiration,to see them thus send away their fathers and children be-fore them, and, unmoved with their cries and tears, passover into the island. But that which stirred compassionmost of all was, that many old men, by reason of theirgreat age, were left behind ; and even the tame domestic ani-mals could not be seen without some pity, running aboutthe town and howling, as desirous to be carried along withtheir masters that had kept them. Among the great actions of Themistocles at this crisis,the recall of Aristides was not the least, for, before thewar, he had been ostracized by the party which Themis-tocles headed, and was in banishment ; but now, perceiv-ing that the people regretted his absence, and were fearfulthat he might go over to the Persians to revenge himself,and thereby ruin the affairs of Greece, Themistocles pro-posed a decree that those who were banished for a timemight return again, to give assistance by word and deedto the cause of Greece with the rest of their fellow-citi-zens. Eurybiades, by reason of the greatness of Sparta, wasadmiral of the Greek fleet, but yet was faint-hearted intime of danger, and willing to weigh anchor and set sailfor the isthmus of Corinth, near which the land army layencamped ; which Themistocles resisted ; and this was theoccasion of the well-known words, when Eurybiades, tocheck his impatience, told him that at the Olympic gamesthey that start up before the rest are lashed; "And .,„,_., Joogle
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