“But the number of sand I know,45 and the measure of drops in the ocean;
The dumb man I understand, and I hear the speech of the speechless:
And there hath come to my soul the smell of a strong-shelled tortoise
Boiling in cauldron of bronze, and the flesh of a lamb mingled with it;
Under it bronze is laid, it hath bronze as a clothing upon it.”
48. When the Pythian prophetess had uttered this oracle, the Lydians caused the prophecy to be written down, and went away at once to Sardis. And when the rest also who had been sent round were there arrived with the answers of the Oracles, then Croesus unfolded the writings one by one and looked upon them: and at first none of them pleased him, but when he heard that from Delphi, forthwith he did worship to the god and accepted the answer,46 judging that the Oracle at Delphi was the only true one, because it had found out what he himself had done. For when he had sent to the several Oracles his messengers to consult the gods, keeping well in mind the appointed day he contrived the following device—he thought of something which it would be impossible to discover or to conceive of, and cutting up a tortoise and a lamb he boiled them together himself in a cauldron of bronze, laying a cover of bronze over them. 49. This then was the answer given to Croesus from Delphi; and as regards the answer of Amphiaraos, I cannot tell what he replied to the Lydians after they had done the things customary in his temple,47 for there is no record of this any more than of the others, except only that Croesus thought that he also48 possessed a true Oracle.
50. After this with great sacrifices he endeavoured to win the favour of the god at Delphi: for of all the animals that are fit for sacrifice he offered three thousand of each kind, and he heaped up couches overlaid with gold and overlaid with silver, and cups of gold, and robes of purple, and tunics, making of them a great pyre, and this he burnt up, hoping by these means the more to win over the god to the side of the Lydians: and he proclaimed to all the Lydians that every one of them should make sacrifice with that which each man had. And when he had finished the sacrifice, he melted down a vast quantity of gold, and of it he wrought half-plinths49 making them six palms50 in length and three in breadth, and in height one palm; and their number was one hundred and seventeen. Of these four were of pure gold51 weighing two talents and a half52 each, and others of gold alloyed with silver53 weighing two talents. And he caused to be made also an image of a lion of pure gold weighing ten talents; which lion, when the temple of Delphi was being burnt down, fell from off the half-plinths, for upon these it was set,54 and is placed now in the treasury of the Corinthians, weighing six talents and a half, for three talents and a half were melted away from it. 51. So Croesus having finished all these things sent them to Delphi, and with them these besides:—two mixing bowls of great size, one of gold and the other of silver, of which the golden bowl was placed on the right hand as one enters the temple, and the silver on the left, but the places of these also were changed after the temple was burnt down, and the golden bowl is now placed in the treasury of the people of Clazomenai, weighing eight and a half talents and twelve pounds over,55 while the silver one is placed in the corner of the vestibule56 and holds six hundred amphoras57 (being filled with wine by the Delphians on the feast of the Theophania): this the people of Delphi say is the work of Theodoros the Samian,58 and, as I think, rightly, for it is evident to me that the workmanship is of no common kind: moreover Croesus sent four silver wine-jars, which stand in the treasury of the Corinthians, and two vessels for lustral water,59 one of gold and the other of silver, of which the gold one is inscribed “from the Lacedaemonians,” who say that it is their offering: therein however they do not speak rightly; for this also is from Croesus, but one of the Delphians wrote the inscription upon it, desiring to gratify the Lacedaemonians; and his name I know but will not make mention of it. The boy through whose hand the water flows is from the Lacedaemonians, but neither of the vessels for lustral water. And many other votive offerings Croesus sent with these, not specially distinguished, among which are certain castings
