Were they scourged, then, for stealing? Not at all, but simply for being caught; and Xenophon is right in remarking, that, in all human arts, they who unskilfully perform what they undertake are punished, and so should a bungling thief.[876] The passage immediately following is mutilated or inextricably corrupt,[877] but, from an attentive examination, it would appear that the boys detected on these occasions were selected to be flogged[878] during the festival of Artemis Orthia, or Orthosia, whose altar was thus annually smeared with human blood. This impartial superstition extended its empire over all ranks and conditions of men, servile or free, from the beggar to the prince; for here, we are told, Helots had sometimes the honour to be scourged in company perhaps with a scion of the Eurypontid or Agid kings. At Alea, in Arcadia, women, by the command of an oracle, were subjected to the same discipline. “Here,” says Pausanias,[879] “during the festival of Dionysos women, by command of an oracle, were flogged like the youth of Sparta at the altar of Artemis Orthia.” Footnote 876: De Rep. Lac. ii. 8. Footnote 877: Schneid. in Xen. de Rep. Lac. ii. 9. Footnote 878: Sometimes to death.—Plut. Inst. Lac. § 39. Vit. Aristid. § 17. Pausan. iii. 16. 6. Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. Hypot. iii. 24. p. 153. c. Spanheim ad Callim. in Dian. 174. The Scholiast on Pindar derives this name of Artemis from Mount Orthion or Orthosion in Arcadia.—Olymp. iii. 54. Cf. Lycoph. 1330. with the Schol. of Tzetzes. Schol. Plat. de Legg. p. 224. Ruhnk. Footnote 879: Arcad. viii. 23. 1. Meurs. (Græc. Fer. p. 256,) understands _sese flagellabant_.