Herodotus' Skirmish at Plataea. 297 



While no one of these objections completely overthrows Busolt's 

 theor\', the three taken together render it at least not proven and 

 make it possible for the investigator to entertain another conjecture 

 which does not contain a greater degree of improbabilit}^ 



Recent Herodotean criticism, detecting a probable disguised 

 source reference in the narrative, is inclined to assign to Herodotus 

 a literar}', rather than an oral source for his account of the skirmish. ^ 

 This source must have been well enough known to render unsafe 

 for Herodotus any extravagant embellishment or transformation of his 

 material, and also to forestall changes at a later date by Ephorus 

 and Plutarch. Macan 2 suggests Dionysius of Miletus ; but, because 

 of the utter absence of evidence, this theory cannot be established 

 or refuted. An accidental reading of the stor}' of the cavalry charge 

 in Herodotus in connection with the accounts of Salamis and 

 Psyttalia in the Persians of Aeschylus first led to the conjecture 

 that we might find Herodotus' source for the former in a lost play 

 of Aeschylus. In simplicity and directness, in power of vivid 

 narration, in absence of personal names and of anecdotal addenda 

 the spirit of the two narratives was strikingly similar. 



It cannot be denied that the episode of Masistius, as related by 

 Herodotus has several marked epic-dramatic elements — more even 

 than we should strictly require in a historical drama. There is first 

 of all the great central figure of Masistius — " whom the Greeks 

 call Makistios"3 — gorgeously attired with golden cuirass and purple 

 cloak, as impenetrabty armed as a Homeric chieftain. Forward he 

 rides, a figure pre-eminent for stature and beauty, mounted on a 

 Nesaian steed, whose bridle is gold and who is in all other respects 

 splendidly caparisoned. Then we have the epic-dramatic taunt to 

 the woman-hearted Greeks, and the despairing but poetic appeal 

 of the sore-pressed Megarians to the Athenians. Soon after the 

 heroic response of the 300 Athenian volunteers — whose number is 

 a striking echo of Thermopylae — there follows the dramatic over- 

 throw of the proud chieftain, a victim of the horse and armor in 

 which he trusted. Finally mid the tragic lament of the Persian 

 host, whose cries of grief are heard throughout all Boeotia, we view 

 the removal by the Greeks of the body of Masistius on a wagon 



1 " It is generally admitted tliat ' the Hellenes ' who had, according to 

 Herodotus, turned the name of Masistios into Makistios were writers." 

 Macan. Hdt. Bks. vii— ix, Vol. i, Pt. i, p. Ixxv. 



2 Ibid. 



^ Perhaps " the giant " ; cf. Macan, note to ix, 20. 3. 



