Book 7
24.12
This was the type of earthquake, they say, that on the occasion referred to levelled Helice to the ground, and that it was accompanied by another disaster in the season of winter. The sea flooded a great part of the land, and covered up the whole of Helice all round. Moreover, the tide was so deep in the grove of Poseidon that only the tops of the trees remained visible. What with the sudden earthquake, and the invasion of the sea that accompanied it, the tidal wave swallowed up Helice and every man in it.
24.13
A similar fate, though different in type,Perhaps we should delete the commas at κατέλαβεν and ἰδέαν, take ἕτερον to mean “a second,” and construe τὴν ἰδέαν with τοιοῦτο; “another, similar in type.” came upon a city on Mount Sipylus, so that it vanished into a chasm. The mountain split, water welled up from the fissure, and the chasm became a lake called Saloe. The ruins of the city were to be seen in the lake, until the water of the torrent hid them from view. The ruins of Helice too are visible, but not so plainly now as they were once, because they are corroded by the salt water.
25.1
The disaster that befell Helice is but one of the many proofs that the wrath of the God of Suppliants is inexorable. The god at Dodona too manifestly advises us to respect suppliants. For about the time of Apheidas the Athenians received from Zeus of Dodona the following verses:—Consider the Areopagus, and the smoking altarsOf the Eumenides, where the Lacedaemonians are to be thy suppliants,When hard-pressed in war. Kill them not with the sword,And wrong not suppliants. For suppliants are sacred and holy.
