Herodotus' Skinnisli at Plataca. 301 



included in those desecrated by the Persians. Given an outraged 

 priest arriving within the Greek Hues in tiight from the desecrated 

 shrine of Glaucus at Potnia, to tell by way of prologue to the 

 drama, — or as first act if you will, — the story of the life and death i of 

 the hero whose cult he served and whose worshiji has just been 

 wantonly insulted by the proud Masistius ; follow this with the moral 

 reflections of the chorus : then given a messenger's narrative of the 

 overthrow of the same irreverent chieftain in the battle with the Atheni- 

 ans through the agency of the maddening waters of the God's well, 

 where his steed had unwittingly been watered ; and given iinally the 

 body of the dead chieftain brought in on the Ixxvxltjfia before the 

 avenged priest, a warning both to individuals and to nations against 

 insolence and pride — and we have the theme for a tragedy not 

 only similar in structure to the Persians, with several loosely related 

 acts - almost like little plays within a play, but also pervaded with 

 the moral teaching of the overthrow of vI^qi^ so characteristic of 

 Aeschylus. 



Those who have hitherto associated the Glaiiciis with Plataea 

 have assumed that the drama included the whole of the engage- 

 ment. But it is clear that, if Aeschylus was to treat Plataea on 

 the stage before an Athenian audience, the cavalry battle with 

 Masistius was really the only available phase. Plataea was a two 

 weeks campaign, not a single decisive engagement like Salamis. 

 The final victory, due largely to strategy, went to Sparta's credit 3 

 and offered no theme lor Athenian ears, especially after the extrav- 

 agant clamis of the Spartan general on the tripod. But the 

 clash with Masistius,-^ the first defeat of the land forces of the king 

 in the entire war, in which .300 Athenian volunteers had driven 

 back the pride of the king's cavalry, was in Athenian eyes a match 

 for, if not superior to the heroic stand of Leonidas and his 300 

 Spartans at Thermopylae, the most dramatic event of the war. This 

 victory seems to have aroused so much local pride at Athens as 

 to have been commemorated there both in picture ° and in poetry, ^ 



1 Here would be the place for Fragment 89 if it refers to the moment 

 when the infuriated mares seized the body of their prostrate master G-laucus. 



2 von Wilamowitz-Moellendorfi\ Die Perser des Aischylos (Hermes 82 : 882). 



3 Tliis Aeschylus with his broad pan-Hellenic view-point frankly 

 admitted (Persians v. 817). 



* ' Now that Xerxes was gone why was not a victory over Masistius 

 nearly as great as one over Mardonius". 

 ^ Macan^ note to ix, 22. 11. 

 « Bergk, P. L. G-. VoL 3 (3ded.): p. 1154 (No. 107); p. 1172 (No. 143). 



