Polymnia   

the vessels cast ashore. The storm lasted three days. At length the
Magians, by offering victims to the Winds, and charming them with
the help of conjurers, while at the same time they sacrificed to
Thetis and the Nereids, succeeded in laying the storm four days
after it first began; or perhaps it ceased of itself. The reason of
their offering sacrifice to Thetis was this: they were told by the
Ionians that here was the place whence Peleus carried her off, and
that the whole promontory was sacred to her and to her sister Nereids.
So the storm lulled upon the fourth day.
The scouts left by the Greeks about the highlands of Euboea
hastened down from their stations on the day following that whereon
the storm began, and acquainted their countrymen with all that had
befallen the Persian fleet. These no sooner heard what had happened
than straightway they returned thanks to Neptune the Saviour, and
poured libations in his honour; after which they hastened back with
all speed to Artemisium, expecting to find a very few ships left to
oppose them, and arriving there for the second time, took up their
station on that strip of coast: nor from that day to the present
have they ceased to address Neptune by the name then given him, of
"Saviour."
The barbarians, when the wind lulled and the sea grew smooth, drew
their ships down to the water, and proceeded to coast along the
mainland. Having then rounded the extreme point of Magnesia, they
sailed straight into the bay that runs up to Pagasae. There is a place
in this bay, belonging to Magnesia, where Hercules is said to have
been put ashore to fetch water by Jason and his companions; who then
deserted him and went on their way to Aea in Colchis, on board the
ship Argo, in quest of the golden fleece. From the circumstance that
they intended, after watering their vessel at this place, to quit
the shore and launch forth into the deep, it received the name of
Aphetae. Here then it was that the fleet of Xerxes came to an anchor.
Fifteen ships, which had lagged greatly behind the rest, happening
to catch sight of the Greek fleet at Artemisium, mistook it for
their own, and sailing down into the midst of it, fell into the
hands of the enemy. The commander of this squadron was Sandoces, the
son of Thamasius, governor of Cyme, in Aeolis. He was of the number of
the royal judges, and had been crucified by Darius some time before,
on the charge of taking a bribe to determine a cause wrongly; but
while he yet hung on the cross, Darius bethought him that the good
deeds of Sandoces towards the king's house were more numerous than his
evil deeds; and so, confessing that he had acted with more haste
than wisdom, he ordered him to be taken down and set at large. Thus
Sandoces escaped destruction at the hands of Darius, and was alive
at this time; but he was not fated to come off so cheaply from his
second peril; for as soon as the Greeks saw the ships making towards
them, they guessed their mistake, and putting to sea, took them
without difficulty.
Aridolis, tyrant of Alabanda in Caria, was on board one of the
ships, and was made prisoner; as also was the Paphian general,
Penthylus, the son of Domonous, who was on board another. This
person had brought with him twelve ships from Paphos, and, after
losing eleven in the storm off Sepias, was taken in the remaining
one as he sailed towards Artemisium. The Greeks, after questioning
their prisoners as much as they wished concerning the forces of
Xerxes, sent them away in chains to the Isthmus of Corinth.
The sea force of the barbarians, with the exception of the fifteen
ships commanded (as I said) by Sandoces, came safe to Aphetae.
Xerxes meanwhile, with the land army, had proceeded through Thessaly
and Achaea, and three days earlier, had entered the territory of the
Malians. In Thessaly, he matched his own horses against the
Thessalian, which he heard were the best in Greece, but the Greek
coursers were left far behind in the race. All the rivers in this
region had water enough to supply his army, except only the Onochonus;
but in Achaea, the largest of the streams, the Apidanus, barely held