Polymnia   

that that way was the most secure. No sooner therefore had he formed
this wish than he acted accordingly. Embarking, as was his wont on all
such occasions, aboard a Sidonian vessel, he gave the signal to the
rest of the fleet to get under weigh, and quitting his land army,
set sail and proceeded to the Peneus. Here the view of the mouth
caused him to wonder greatly; and sending for his guides, he asked
them whether it were possible to turn the course of the stream, and
make it reach the sea at any other point.
Now there is a tradition that Thessaly was in ancient times a
lake, shut in on every side by huge hills. Ossa and Pelion- ranges
which join at the foot- do in fact inclose it upon the east, while
Olympus forms a barrier upon the north, Pindus upon the west, and
Othrys towards the south. The tract contained within these
mountains, which is a deep basin, is called Thessaly. Many rivers pour
their waters into it; but five of them are of more note than the rest,
namely, the Peneus, the Apidanus, the Onochonus, the Enipeus, and
the Pamisus. These streams flow down from the mountains which surround
Thessaly, and, meeting in the plain, mingle their waters together, and
discharge themselves into the sea by a single outlet, which is a gorge
of extreme narrowness. After the junction all the other names
disappear, and the river is known as the Peneus. It is said that of
old the gorge which allows the waters an outlet did not exist;
accordingly the rivers, which were then as well as the Lake Boebeis,
without names but flowed with as much water as at present, made
Thessaly a sea. The Thessalians tell us that the gorge through which
the water escapes was caused by Neptune; and this: is likely enough;
at least any man who believes that Neptune causes earthquakes, and
that chasms so produced are his handiwork, would say, upon seeing this
rent, that Neptune did it. For it plainly appeared to me that the
hills had been torn asunder by an earthquake.
When Xerxes therefore asked the guides if there were any other
outlet by which the waters could reach the sea, they, being men well
acquainted with the nature of their country, made answer:-
"O king! there is no other passage by which this stream can
empty itself into the sea save that which thine eye beholds. For
Thessaly is girt about with a circlet of hills."
Xerxes is said to have observed upon this-
"Wise men truly are they of Thessaly, and good reason had they
to change their minds in time and consult for their own safety. For,
to pass by others matters, they must have felt that they lived in a
country which may easily be brought under and subdued. Nothing more is
needed than to turn the river upon their lands by an
embankment.which should fill up the gorge and force the stream from
its present channel, and lo! all Thessaly, except the mountains, would
at once be laid under water."
The king aimed in this speech at the sons of Aleuas, who were
Thessalians, and had been the first of all the Greeks to make
submission to him. He thought that they had made their friendly offers
in the name of the whole people. So Xerxes, when he had viewed the
place, and made the above speech, went back to Therma.
The stay of Xerxes in Pieria lasted for several days, during which
a third part of his army was employed in cutting down the woods on the
Macedonian mountain-range to give his forces free passage into
Perrhaebia. At this time the heralds who had been sent into Greece
to require earth for the king returned to the camp, some of them
empty-handed, others with earth and water.
Among the number of those from whom earth and water were brought
were the Thessalians, Dolopians, Enianians, Perrhaebians, Locrians,
Magnetians, Malians, Achaeans of Phthiotis, Thebans, and Boeotians
generally, except those of Plataea and Thespiae. These are the nations
against whom the Greeks that had taken up arms to resist the
barbarians swore the oath, which ran thus- "From all those of Greek
blood who delivered themselves up to the Persians without necessity,
when their affairs were in good condition, we will take a tithe of