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[1]
When the Lydians came, and spoke as they had been instructed, the priestess (it is said) made the following reply. “No one may escape his lot, not even a god. Croesus has paid for the sin of his ancestor of the fifth generation before, who was led by the guile of a woman to kill his master, though he was one of the guard of the Heraclidae, and who took to himself the royal state of that master, to which he had no right.
When the Lydians came, and spoke as they had been instructed, the priestess (it is said) made the following reply. “No one may escape his lot, not even a god. Croesus has paid for the sin of his ancestor of the fifth generation before, who was led by the guile of a woman to kill his master, though he was one of the guard of the Heraclidae, and who took to himself the royal state of that master, to which he had no right.
[2] And it was the wish of
Loxias that the evil lot of
Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus)
Sardis
fall in the lifetime of
Croesus' sons, not in his own; but he could not deflect the Fates.
[3] Yet as far as they gave in, he did accomplish his wish and favor
Croesus: for he delayed the taking of
Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus)
Sardis
for three years. And let
Croesus know this: that although he is now taken, it is by so many years later than the destined hour. And further,
Loxias saved
Croesus from burning.
[4] But as to the oracle that was given to him,
Croesus is wrong to complain concerning it. For
Loxias declared to him that if he led an army against the
Persians, he would destroy a great empire. Therefore he ought, if he had wanted to plan well, to have sent and asked whether the god spoke of
Croesus' or of
Cyrus' empire. But he did not understood what was spoken, or make further inquiry: for which now let him blame himself.
[5] When he asked that last question of the oracle and
Loxias gave him that answer concerning the mule, even that
Croesus did not understand. For that mule was in fact
Cyrus, who was the son of two parents not of the same people, of whom the mother was better and the father inferior:
[6] for she was a
Mede and the daughter of
Astyages king of the
Medes; but he was a
Persian and a subject of the
Medes and although in all respects her inferior he married this lady of his.” This was the answer of the priestess to the
Lydians. They carried it to
Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus)
Sardis
and told
Croesus, and when he heard it, he confessed that the sin was not the god's, but his. And this is the story of
Croesus' rule, and of the first overthrow of
Ionia (region (general)), Europe
Ionia
.
Histories. Herodotus. ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge. 1920-1925.
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