REPETITIONS, SECOND SERIES
Themistocles
And they secretly brought his remains to Attica
Thucydides
He, who glorified his land like no other, he, who knew deep
inside that each freedom resulted in another new slavery worse
than the first,
he, with the great plans, the most successful achiever, now
suspicious to all, misunderstood by all, chased by Athenians and
Lacedaemonians too, he couldn’t find refuge not even in Corfu
(who considered him their benefactor). Thus, having no other
recourse, he went and seek his safety at his enemies’ land (and
he knew that this was what the others waited: “here is the proof
of his guilt; what else do we need? His treason is obvious for all
to see”
And, he, stooped there on the side, with the baby of Admetus
in his arms, he fell at his feet so his enemy would take pity
on him.
Then, in the land of Artaxerxes — what bitter welcoming for him,
what speeches and what promises — and gifts and honors from
the barbarians:
Magnesia would be his bread, Lampsacus his wine and Myounta
his appetiser;
but he postponed, he asked for more time with excuses: firstly
to learn Persian, to be able to talk directly to the king with no
third people in between, without translator and the unavoidable
mistakes;
he had in mind to tell all to him, the what, the when, he won’t
hide anything — the secret defence lines, the weak points —
until, finally,
the night of the “important meeting” and while Artaxerxes was
waiting for him anxiously,
wearing his official attire, he got dressed in his Hellenic cloths
which he had brought from his homeland,
by then totally worn out, and he neared serenely to the multi-
engraved table and wrote a short note: “transfer my bones
somewhere to Attica without informing the Athenians” Then
he gulped all the contents of the glass.
There they found him
the same night in his humble cloths, motionless, serene at last.
The Persians mourned him in a big way. His great monument
is still standing in the Agora of Magnesia. As far as the other
is concerned, I mean his short note, we never learned if
his bones ever reached Attica.
Manolis Aligizakis 