Herodoins' Skinuish at Plataca. 299 



to the rekindling on Greek altars, after the defeat of Mardonius at 

 Plataea, of the sacred fire which had been polluted by the 

 barbarians i. Regarding- the Glaitcus which came after the Persians 

 and before the Prometheus there still exists the widest difference 

 of opinion. 



Did the Glaitcus deal with any phase of Plataea ? There is much 

 to favor this view. Granted that the rest of the tetralogy has the 

 common theme of the struggle of Greece with Asia ; that only part 

 of the oracle of Phineus is fulfilled in the Persians; that in the 

 Persians itself, which immediately precedes the Glaucus, there is 

 a direct foreshadowing reference to Plataea - ; and that the satyr- 

 pla}', which follows, portrays an event which occurred immediately 

 after Plataea, and it would seem indeed strange if the Glaucus 

 was not in some way connected with the battle itself. And although 

 Salamis, the theme of the Persians, was the great Athenian triumph 

 of the Second Persian War, it must be remembered that the poet 

 could not neglect to present some aspect of Plataea, the final and 

 decisive conflict — even if it were but to serve as a foil to Salamis 

 — if he pretended to give an artisticall}' complete presentation of 

 the struggle between Europe and Asia. 



Internal evidence from the extant fragments-^ supports the view 

 that the drama was concerned with a battle. If so the most natural 

 inference would be Plataea. Fragment 37 — " The contest does not 

 wait for those who are left behind" — applies as well to a battle as 

 to a chariot-race. Fragment 38—" Chariot was piled upon chariot, 

 corpse upon corpse, horse upon horse '" — which is altogether too 

 wholesale to possibly refer to the single death of Glaucus by his 

 mares, and which cannot refer to Himera,-^ is entirely applicable 

 to Plataea ; for both Aeschylus •'' and Herodotus *> state that chariots 

 were included in the cavalry of Xerxes. Mardonius retained all 

 this arm of the service when Xerxes retreated and all the horse 

 was sent into the skirmish. Fragment 40 — '• Ominous lamentations " 

 fits excellently 7 ; but it is when we examnie Fragment 39 — "They 



1 Plutarch emphasizes this event {An'stides xx, 4—6). One of the 

 officials at the altar of Zeus at Plataea bore the title of " live-bringer " 

 (C. I. G. G. S. Vol. i, Ko. 1667). 



2 Persmns w. 816-22. 



3 Wcxklciii^ Aescliyli Fabulae Vol. i, Auct. (1893) pp. 492-4. 



* The Carthaginians had no cavalry or chariots in the battle (Diod. 

 xi, 20. 2). 



° Persians v.v. 45. 46. 



« vii, 86 + viii, 113 -fix. 20. ' Hdt. ix, 24. 



