Plutarch on the Delay of the Divine Justice · Plutarch
FOOTNOTES:
“The tyrant of the Chersonese Was freedom’s best and bravest friend; That tyrant was Miltiades. O that the present hour might send Another despot of the kind! Such chains as his were sure to bind.” [16:2] Elpinice, whose first husband was Cimon, was his father’s daughter; but they had different mothers. In the earlier ages, for obvious reasons, kindred was reckoned only on the mother’s side, and the intermarriage of the children of the same father and different mothers was legal, and not unusual. We find traces of the lawfulness of such marriages in Hebrew history as late as the time of David. Cimon’s marriage was probably lawful; but public sentiment had then advanced so far as to render such a union discreditable, if not absolutely infamous. It is worthy of remark here that the Greek names for _brother_ and _sister_, ἀδελφός and ἀδελφή, in their derivation and original use denote a relation on the mother’s side alone. [16:3] The stories that have come down to us of the riotous living, recklessness, and debauchery of Themistocles as a young man almost transcend belief. It is related of him that he was once drawn in a carriage through the thronged market-place by four shameless women harnessed like horses. [17:1] Ἀρτεμίσιον, Artemisium. The first naval battle between the Grecian forces and Xerxes was fought off Artemisium. Themistocles commanded the Athenian portion of the fleet, and the splendid victory was ascribed, in great part, to his skill and prowess.
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