98
Here is another story, gentlemen. Again I shall be speaking of our ancestors, since it is only right that you should hear of the deeds in which they took a pride and give them your approval. The tradition is that Eumolpus, the son of Poseidon and Chione, came with the Thracians to claim this country during the reign of Erechtheus who was married to Praxithea, the daughter of Cephisus.Eumolpus, legendary ancestor of the Eumolpides of Eleusis, was credited with the founding of the Mysteries. The passage of Euripides quoted in Lyc. 1.100 is the earliest extant source for the tradition that he was a Thracian. According to Apollodorus, Eleusis, being at war with Athens, called in Eumolpus, whereupon the Athenian king Erechtheus consulted the god and learned that he must sacrifice one daughter in order to obtain a victory. He therefore offered up his youngest, the others committing suicide in sympathy, and so was enabled to kill Eumolpus in battle (Apollod. 3.15.4).
99
As a large army was about to invade their country, he went to Delphi and asked the god by what means he could assure a victory over the enemy. The god’s answer to him was that if he sacrificed his daughter before the two sides engaged he would defeat the enemy and, submitting to the god, he did this and drove the invaders from the country.