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οὐ ναυμαχῆσαι. The fact was admitted. The Athenian explanation was that no hostility was intended; the Aeginetan, that they preferred to fight on land.
H. is slow to believe, though not to record, anything which seemed to him to contradict the laws of nature (cf. iii. 116, iv. 25, and especially iv. 42. 4, and in general Introd. § 32). σφι, ‘before them.’ The goddesses were no doubt represented kneeling, and the story is an aetiological myth to explain this (cf. chs. 87, 88; ii. 131). The true explanation (Welcker, Frazer) is that they were goddesses of child-birth. So Latona brought forth Apollo and Artemis kneeling on the soft meadow (Hymn Apollo, 116 f.). In this posture were represented Auge at Tegea (Paus. viii. 48. 7), and the Di Nixi (Festus, pp. 174-7) brought to Rome after the defeat of Antiochus or the sack of Corinth. Marble groups of the kind have been found at Myconus and near Sparta.
ἑτοίμους ... ποιέεσθαι, ‘had procured the help of the Argives’ (i. 11.1), probably as mercenaries (cf. i. 61. 4; vi. 92. 2), though possibly the three Dorian states were leagued against Athens. Epidaurus must have been friendly to Aegina, otherwise it could have stopped the Argives or sent news to Athens. Wilamowitz-Möllendorff (A. ii. 280 f.) has put forward a theory (somewhat discredited, like the sun-myths of comparative mythologists, by its too frequent use) that this war is a reflection into the distant past of incidents which really occurred in the struggles between Athens and Aegina in the period of the Persian wars. Undoubtedly the incidents, the landing of the Athenians, and their defeat by the Argives and Aeginetans, are more appropriate to that time, as is shown by the mention of a trireme (ch. 85); but the feud between Athens and Aegina seems really old, as is shown by the embargo on Attic pottery (ch. 88), and on the Athenian side by Solon's substitution of the Euboic standard for the Aeginetan in coinage, and by his prohibition of the export of corn (Busolt, ii. 307). H. vaguely takes the story back into the far past, when Epidaurus had lately been mistress of Aegina and friend of Athens (ch. 83), when images were still made of wood (ch. 82), and Attic women still wore Dorian dress (ch. 87. 3). This early war between Athens and Aegina may well have occurred (circ. 590-70 B. C.) when Athens, fresh from her victory over Megara, was ready for a yet bolder enterprise. Internal seditions and renewed troubles with Megara (i. 59 n.) may soon have checked these wider ambitions.
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