at the army was by this time at
the tomb of Orestes in its march against the strangers[22] (by
strangers they meant the Persians). To this Aristeides answered that
it was a sorry jest to have deceived their friends instead of their
enemies. These particulars are related by Idomeneus, but in the decree
of Aristeides for sending ambassadors it is not his name, but those of
Kimon, Xanthippus, and Myronides that are mentioned.

XI. He was elected general with unlimited powers, and proceeded to
Plataea with eight thousand Athenians. Here he was met by Pausanias,
the commander-in-chief of the Greek forces, with the Spartan
contingent, and the rest of the Greek troops joined them there. The
Persian army was encamped along the course of the river Asopus. On
account of its enormous size it was not contained in a fortified camp,
but a quadrangular wall was constructed round the baggage and most
valuable material. Each side of this square was ten furlongs in
length.

Tisamenus of Elis, the prophet, now told Pausanias and all the Greeks
that they would win the victory if they stood on the defensive and did
not attack. Aristeides sent to Delphi, and received a response from
the oracle, that the Athenians would conquer if they prayed to Zeus,
to Hera of Kithaeron, and to Pan and the nymphs Sphragitides, and if
they sacrificed to the heroes Androkrates, Leukon, Peisander,
Damokrates, Hypsion, Aktaion, and Polyidus, and if they would fight in
their own territory, in the plain of Demeter of Eleusis and her
daughter.

This oracle greatly disturbed Aristeides. The heroes to whom he was
bidden to sacrifice are the original founders of the city of Plataea,
and the cave of the nymphs called Sphragitides, is on one of the peaks
of Kithaeron, looking towards the point where the sun sets in summer.
It is said that there was formerly an oracle there, and that many of
the people became possessed, and were called "nympholeptae." But as to
the plain of the Eleusinian Demeter, and the promise of victory to the
Athenians if they fought in their own country, this meant no less than
to recall them to Attica and forbid their taking any further part in
the war. Whilst Aristeides was thus perplexed, Arimnestus, the general
of the Plataeans, saw a vision in his sleep. In his dreams he thought
that Zeus the Preserver appeared and enquired of him what the Greeks
had decided to do, and that he answered, "Lord, to-morrow we shall
lead away the army to Eleu