Polymnia   

and precipitous hill, impossible to climb, which runs up into the
chain of Oeta; while to the east the road is shut in by the sea and by
marshes. In this place are the warm springs, which the natives call
"The Cauldrons"; and above them stands an altar sacred to Hercules.
A wall had once been carried across the opening; and in this there had
of old times been a gateway. These works were made by the Phocians,
through fear of the Thessalians, at the time when the latter came from
Thesprotia to establish themselves in the land of Aeolis, which they
still occupy. As the Thessalians strove to reduce Phocis, the Phocians
raised the wall to protect themselves, and likewise turned the hot
springs upon the pass, that so the ground might be broken up by
watercourses, using thus all possible means to hinder the
Thessalians from invading their country. The old wall had been built
in very remote times; and the greater part of it had gone to decay
through age. Now however the Greeks resolved to repair its breaches,
and here make their stand against the barbarian. At this point there
is a village very nigh the road, Alpeni by name, from which the Greeks
reckoned on getting corn for their troops.
These places, therefore, seemed to the Greeks fit for their
purpose. Weighing well all that was likely to happen, and
considering that in this region the barbarians could make no use of
their vast numbers, nor of their cavalry, they resolved to await
here the invader of Greece. And when news reached them of the Persians
being in Pieria, straightway they broke up from the Isthmus, and
proceeded, some on foot to Thermopylae, others by sea to Artemisium.
The Greeks now made all speed to reach the two stations; and about
the same time- the Delphians, alarmed both for themselves and for
their country, consulted the god, and received for answer a command to
"pray to the winds, for the winds would do Greece good service." So
when this answer was given them, forthwith the Delphians sent word
of the prophecy to those Greeks who were zealous for freedom, and,
cheering them thereby amid the fears which they entertained with
respect to the barbarian, earned their everlasting gratitude. This
done, they raised an altar to the winds at Thyia (where Thyia, the
daughter of Cephissus, from whom the region takes its name, has a
precinct), and worshipped them with sacrifices. And even to the
present day the Delphians sacrifice to the winds, because of this
oracle.
The fleet of Xerxes now departed from Therma; and ten of the
swiftest sailing ships ventured to stretch across direct for Sciathus,
at which place there were upon the look-out three vessels belonging to
the Greeks, one a ship of Troezen, another of Egina, and the third
from Athens. These vessels no sooner saw from a distance the
barbarians approaching than they all hurriedly took to flight.
The barbarians at once pursued, and the Troezenian ship, which was
commanded by Prexinus, fell into their hands. Hereupon the Persians
took the handsomest of the men-at-arms, and drew him to the prow of
the vessel, where they sacrificed him; for they thought the man a good
omen to their cause, seeing that he was at once so beautiful, and
likewise the first captive they had made. The man who was slain in
this way was called Leo; and it may be that the name he bore helped
him to his fate in some measure.
The Eginetan trireme, under its captain, Asonides, gave the
Persians no little trouble, one of the men-at-arms, Pythes, the son of
Ischenous, distinguishing himself beyond all the others who fought
that day. After the ship was taken this man continued to resist, and
did not cease fighting till he fell quite covered with wounds. The
Persians who served as men-at-arms in the squadron, finding that he
was not dead, but still breathed, and being very anxious to save his
life, since he had behaved so valiantly, dressed his wounds with
myrrh, and bound them up with bandages of cotton. Then, when they were
returned to their own station, they displayed their prisoner
admiringly to the whole host, and behaved towards him with much
kindness; but all the rest of the ship's crew were treated merely as