31
Or is the statement of the historians true? They relate that there was a certain young man, brilliant in military achievements and valuable in other wTays, whose name was Talasius: and when the Romans were carrying off the daughters of the Sabines who had come to see the games, a maiden of particularly beautiful appearance was being carried off for him by some plebeian retainers of his. To protect their enterprise and to prevent anyone from approaching and trying to wrest the maiden from them, they shouted continually that she was being brought as a wife for Talasius (Talasio). Since, therefore, everyone honoured Talasius, they followed along and provided escort, joining in the good wishes and acclamations. Wherefore since Talasius’s marriage was happy, they became accustomed to invoke Talasius in other marriages also, even as the Greeks invoke Hymen.
32
Why is it that in the month of May at the time of the full moon they throw into the river from the Pons Sublicius figures of men, calling the images thrown Argives? Cf. 285 a, infra, and Ovid, Fasti, v. 621 ff.; Varro, De Lingua Latina, v. 45; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, i. 38. 2-3. Plutarch means the Argei, the origin and meaning of which is a mystery (see V. Rose’s edition, pp. 98 ff.).
32
Is it because in ancient days the barbarians who lived in these parts used to destroy thus the Greeks whom they captured? But Hercules, who was much admired by them, put an end to their murder of strangers and taught them to throw figures into the river, in imitation of their superstitious custom. The men of old used to call all Greeks alike Argives: unless it be, indeed, since the Arcadians regarded the Argives also as their enemies because of their immediate proximity, that, when Evander and his menWho were Arcadians; Cf. Virgil, Aeneid, viii. 52-151. fled from Greece and settled here, they continued to preserve their ancient feud and enmity.
