Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 1, 2025
There was a short council held over the morning sacrifice. Megistias, the seer, on inspecting the entrails of the slain victim, declared, as well he might, that their appearance boded disaster. Him Leonidas ordered to retire, but he refused, though he sent home his only son.
The private friendship of Simonides the poet erected also a monument to Megistias, the soothsayer, in which it was said truly to his honour, "That the fate he foresaw he remained to brave;" The Advice of Demaratus to Xerxes. Themistocles. Actions off Artemisium. The Greeks retreat. The Persians invade Delphi, and are repulsed with great Loss.
'The great Megistias' tomb you here may view, Who slew the Medes, fresh from Spercheius fords; Well the wise seer the coming death foreknew, Yet scorn'd he to forsake his Spartan lords'. The names of the 300 were likewise engraven on a pillar at Sparta.
Leonidas would have dismissed the prophetic soothsayer, but Megistias insisted on his right to remain; he contented himself with sending away his only son, who had accompanied the expedition. Even the stern spirit of Leonidas is said to have yielded to the voice of nature; and he ordered two of his relations to return to Sparta to report the state of affairs.
On the little hillock of the last resistance was placed the figure of a stone lion, in memory of Leonidas, so fitly named the lion-like, and Simonides, at his own expense, erected a pillar to his friend, the seer Megistias
Some were for retreating and abandoning a position which it was now impossible to hold. Leonidas bade them depart; but for him and his countrymen it was not honourable to turn their backs on any foe. He sent away the soothsayer, or prophet, Megistias, but he returned, and bade his son go home. The Thespians, to their immortal honour, chose to bide the brunt with Leonidas.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking