Polymnia   

made their request, acted as follows. They despatched messengers in
the name of their state to Delphi, and asked the god, whether it would
make for their welfare if they should lend succour to Greece. "Fools!"
replied the Pythoness, "do ye not still complain of the woes which the
assisting of Menelaus cost you at the hands of angry Minos? How
wroth was he, when, in spite of their having lent you no aid towards
avenging his death at Camicus, you helped them to avenge the
carrying off by a barbarian of a woman from Sparta!" When this
answer was brought from Delphi to the Cretans, they thought no more of
assisting the Greeks.
Minos, according to tradition, went to Sicania, or Sicily, as it
is now called, in search of Daedalus, and there perished by a
violent death. After a while the Cretans, warned by some god or other,
made a great expedition into Sicania, all except the Polichnites and
the Praesians, and besieged Camicus (which in my time belonged to
Agrigentum) by the space of five years. At last, however, failing in
their efforts to take the place, and unable to carry on the siege
any longer from the pressure of hunger, they departed and went their
way. Voyaging homewards they had reached Iapygia, when a furious storm
arose and threw them upon the coast. All their vessels were broken
in pieces; and so, as they saw no means of returning to Crete, they
founded the town of Hyria, where they took up their abode, changing
their name from Cretans to Messapian Iapygians, and at the same time
becoming inhabitants of the mainland instead of islanders. From
Hyria they afterwards founded those other towns which the Tarentines
at a much later period endeavoured to take, but could not, being
defeated signally. Indeed so dreadful a slaughter of Greeks never
happened at any other time, so far as my knowledge extends: nor was it
only the Tarentines who suffered; but the men of Rhegium too, who
had been forced to go to the aid of the Tarentines by Micythus the son
of Choerus, lost here three thousand of their citizens; while the
number of the Tarentines who fell was beyond all count. This
Micythus had been a household slave of Anaxilaus, and was by him
left in charge of Rhegium: he is the same man who was afterwards
forced to leave Rhegium, when he settled at Tegea in Arcadia, from
which place he made his many offerings of statues to the shrine at
Olympia.
This account of the Rhegians and the Tarentines is a digression
from the story which I was relating. To return- the Praesians say that
men of various nations now flocked to Crete, which was stript of its
inhabitants; but none came in such numbers as the Grecians. Three
generations after the death of Minos the Trojan war took place; and
the Cretans were not the least distinguished among the helpers of
Menelaus. But on this account, when they came back from Troy, famine
and pestilence fell upon them, and destroyed both the men and the
cattle. Crete was a second time stript of its inhabitants, a remnant
only being left; who form, together with fresh settlers, the third
"Cretan" people by whom the island has been inhabited. These were
the events of which the Pythoness now reminded the men of Crete; and
thereby she prevented them from giving the Greeks aid, though they
wished to have gone to their assistance.
The Thessalians did not embrace the cause of the Medes until
they were forced to do so; for they gave plain proof that the
intrigues of the Aleuadae were not at all to their liking. No sooner
did they hear that the Persian was about to cross over into Europe
than they despatched envoys to the Greeks who were met to consult
together at the Isthmus, whither all the states which were well
inclined to the Grecian cause had sent their delegates. These envoys
on their arrival thus addressed their countrymen:-
"Men of Greece, it behoves you to guard the pass of Olympus; for
thus will Thessaly be placed in safety, as well as the rest of Greece.
We for our parts are quite ready to take our share in this work; but
you must likewise send us a strong force: otherwise we give you fair
warning that we shall make terms with the Persians. For we ought not