The History of Herodotus, volume 1 | Page 6

no account, but the Hellenes on account of a woman of
Lacedemon gathered together a great armament, and then came to Asia and destroyed the
dominion of Priam; and that from this time forward they had always considered the
Hellenic race to be their enemy: for Asia and the Barbarian races which dwell there the
Persians claim as belonging to them; but Europe and the Hellenic race they consider to be
parted off from them.
5. The Persians for their part say that things happened thus; and they conclude that the
beginning of their quarrel with the Hellenes was on account of the taking of Ilion: but as
regards Io the Phenicians do not agree with the Persians in telling the tale thus; for they
deny that they carried her off to Egypt by violent means, and they say on the other hand
that when they were in Argos she was intimate with the master of their ship, and
perceiving that she was with child, she was ashamed to confess it to her parents, and
therefore sailed away with the Phenicians of her own will, for fear of being found out.
These are the tales told by the Persians and the Phenicians severally: and concerning
these things I am not going to say that they happened thus or thus,[4a] but when I have
pointed to the man who first within my own knowledge began to commit wrong against
the Hellenes, I shall go forward further with the story, giving an account of the cities of
men, small as well as great: for those which in old times were great have for the most part
become small, while those that were in my own time great used in former times to be
small: so then, since I know that human prosperity never continues steadfast, I shall make
mention of both indifferently.
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6. Crœsus was Lydian by race, the son of Alyattes and ruler of the nations which dwell
on this side of the river Halys; which river, flowing from the South between the Syrians[5]
and the Paphlagonians, runs out towards the North Wind into that Sea which is called the
Euxine. This Crœsus, first of all the Barbarians of whom we have knowledge, subdued
certain of the Hellenes and forced them to pay tribute, while others he gained over and

made them his friends. Those whom he subdued were the Ionians, the Aiolians, and the
Dorians who dwell in Asia; and those whom he made his friends were the
Lacedemonians. But before the reign of Crœsus all the Hellenes were free; for the
expedition of the Kimmerians, which came upon Ionia before the time of Crœsus, was
not a conquest of the cities but a plundering incursion only.[6] 7. Now the supremacy
which had belonged to the Heracleidai came to the family of Crœsus, called Mermnadai,
in the following manner:--Candaules, whom the Hellenes call Myrsilos, was ruler of
Sardis and a descendant of Alcaios, son of Heracles: for Agron, the son of Ninos, the son
of Belos, the son of Alcaios, was the first of the Heracleidai who became king of Sardis,
and Candaules the son of Myrsos was the last; but those who were kings over this land
before Agrond, were descendants of Lydos the son of Atys, whence this whole nation
was called Lydian, having been before called Meonian. From these the Heracleidai,
descended from Heracles and the slave-girl of Iardanos, obtained the government, being
charged with it by reason of an oracle; and they reigned for two-and-twenty generations
of men, five hundred and five years, handing on the power from father to son, till the time
of Clandaules the son of Myrsos. 8. This Candaules then of whom I speak had become
passionately in love with his own wife; and having become so, he deemed that his wife
was fairer by far than all other women; and thus deeming, to Gyges the son of Daskylos
(for he of all his spearmen was the most pleasing to him), to this Gyges, I say, he used to
impart as well the more weighty of his affairs as also the beauty of his wife, praising it
above measure: and after no long time, since it was destined that evil should happen to
Candaules, he said to Gyges as follows: "Gyges, I think that thou dost not believe me
when I tell thee of the beauty of my wife, for it happens that men's ears are less apt of
belief than their eyes: contrive therefore means by which thou mayest look upon her
naked." But he cried aloud and said: "Master, what word of unwisdom is this which thou
dost utter, bidding me look upon my mistress naked? When a woman puts off her tunic
she puts off her modesty also. Moreover