296 H. B. Wright, 



to allow it to pass practically unchallenged into the works of those 

 two watchful Herodotean higher critics, Ephorus and Plutarch ? 



Busolt suggests 1 that Lampon, who was one of the leaders in the 

 party which founded Thurii, may have been son of the Olympiodorus 

 son of Lampon who led the Athenians to the rescue of the Megari- 

 ans during this skirmish and that " the relationship of Herodotus 

 to Lampon as a member of the colonizing party might well explain 

 the circumstantial exactness with which the skirmish at the outposts 

 is told " — in other words that Herodotus' source was an oral one. 

 To this theory, however, several objections may be raised — 



(a) Granted that Lampon who founded Thurii was the son of 

 Olympiodorus the Athenian Cavalry leader, and that Herodotus 

 discussed the battle with him, it is improbable that the story thus 

 orally transmitted would have preserved its restrained and 

 simple character either in the telling by Lampon who would have 

 received . it at second-hand from his father ; or in the recasting 

 by Herodotus, with whom a story which redounds to the glory of 

 Athens seldom loses when he is allowed free rein. 



(b) Granted that Lampon who founded Thurii was the son of 

 Olympiodorus who led the charge, there is no evidence that Hero- 

 dotus, although one ol the colonizing j^arty was on intimate terms 

 with him. 2 



(c) But finally there is absolutely no proof, as Hauvette asserts,^ that 

 Lampon who founded Thurii was the son of Oh'mpiodorus who led 

 the charge. It has been assumed rightly enough that if Olym- 

 piodorus had had a son he would probably have been called Lampon 

 after his grandfather; but this is very far from saying that he did 

 have a son, and that he was called Lampon. In no one of the 

 dozen or more places where Lampon founder of Thurii is mentioned 

 in extant literature, is his father's name given. "^ That Lampon was 

 a common name is clear from the fact that in the remaining chapters 

 of the ninth book of Herodotus it is used on two other occasions 

 of men who seem to have had no connection with the individual 

 under discussion or with each other. ^ 



1 G-riech. Geschichte ii, (2d ed.), p. 727, note 2. 



2 See Macan's note on Hdt. ix, 21. 16. 



* Hauvette, Herodote, p. 458, note 1. 



* D/ttenberger, Sylloge i, no. 13 ; Thuc. v, 19. 2-4 ; Arist. Birds .521, 

 988; Diod. xii, 10: 3, 4; Meineke, Com. Frag, li, Pt. i, pp. 43, 51; Plut. 

 Per. vi ; Plut. Mor. 812 D ; Scliol. Arist. Clouds 332 ; Birds 521 ; Peace 

 1084 ; Suidas, QovQiofxavTeig. 



^ Lampon tlie Aeginetan (ix, 78—9) ; Lampon the Samian (ix, 90). 



