Page:Herodotus (Swayne).djvu/121

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE TYRANTS OF GREECE.
111

conversations with each. Although gymnastics were very important, he seemed to have laid most stress on their qualities as diners-out. The man who at the end of the year seemed, in the opinion of all, to have the best chance, was Hippocleides, who indeed was connected with the royal Cypselids of Corinth, as well as an Athenian of the highest fashion. When the great day arrived for the suitors to know their fate, Cleisthenes sacrificed a hundred oxen, and gave a public feast, to which he invited not only the foreign suitors, but all his own people. After the feast there was one more trial in music and in rhetoric,—probably to see how the suitors could carry their wine. As the cup went round, Hippocleides, abashing the rest of the party by his assurance, called to the flute-player to strike up a dance. Then he danced, in a manner which gave perfect satisfaction to himself, though Cleisthenes began to look grave. Next he ordered a table to be brought in, mounted on it, and rehearsed certain Laconian and Attic figures. To crown all, he stood on his head and kicked his legs in the air. This last performance, which Hippocleides might perhaps have learnt /in his youth from the street-boys of the Piraeus, was too much for Cleisthenes, who had long contained himself with difficulty. "Son of Tisander, thou hast danced away thy marriage," he exclaimed, in fierce disgust. The other quietly answered, "Hippocleides does not care!" from which "Hippocleides don't care" became a proverbial expression. Then, as Herodotus tells us, Cleisthenes rose and spoke to this effect:—

"Gentlemen, suitors of my daughter,—I am well pleased with you all—so well pleased that, if it were possible, I would make you all my sons-in-law. But as I