Greece -- History -- To 146 B.C.; History, Ancient
129. Then when the appointed day came for the marriage banquet and for
Cleisthenes himself to declare whom he selected from the whole number,
Cleisthenes sacrificed a hundred oxen and feasted both the wooers
themselves and all the people of Sikyon; and when the dinner was over,
the wooers began to vie with one another both in music and in speeches
for the entertainment of the company; 113 and as the drinking went
forward and Hippocleides was very much holding the attention of the
others, 114 he bade the flute-player play for him a dance-measure;
and when the flute-player did so, he danced: and it so befell that he
pleased himself in his dancing, but Cleisthenes looked on at the whole
matter with suspicion. Then Hippocleides after a certain time bade one
bring in a table; and when the table came in, first he danced upon it
Laconian figures, and then also Attic, and thirdly he planted his head
upon the table and gesticulated with his legs. Cleisthenes meanwhile,
when he was dancing the first and the second time, though he abhorred
the thought that Hippocleides should now become his son-in-law, because
of his dancing and his shamelessness, yet restrained himself, not
desiring to break out in anger against him; but when he saw that he thus
gesticulated with his legs, he was no longer able to restrain himself,
but said: "Thou hast danced away thy marriage however, 115 son of
Tisander!" and Hippocleides answered and said: "Hippocleides cares not!"
130. and hence comes this saying. Then Cleisthenes caused silence to
be made, and spoke to the company as follows: "Men who are wooers of my
daughter, I commend you all, and if it were possible I would gratify
you all, neither selecting one of you to be preferred, nor rejecting the
remainder. Since however it is not possible, as I am deliberating about
one maiden only, to act so as to please all, therefore to those of you
who are rejected from this marriage I give as a gift a talent of silver
to each one for the worthy estimation ye had of me, in that ye desired
to marry from my house, and for the time of absence from your homes;
and to the son of Alcmaion, Megacles, I offer my daughter Agariste in
betrothal according to the customs of the Athenians." Thereupon Megacles
said that he accepted the betrothal, and so the marriage was determined
by Cleisthenes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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