SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

54
Saga-Book of the Viking Society
sport and dance on the sea shore until the enemy had
disembarked and the vessel was in their power. This being
done as he directed, the Megarians were lured on by what they
saw, beached their vessel, and leapt out to attack women, as
they supposed, vying with one another in speed. The result
was that not a man of them escaped, but all were slain, and the
Athenians at once set sail and took possession of the island.ts
Not surprisingly, this story found its way into Polyaenus's
Stratagems of WarY As his telling is much the
same as Plutarch's it is unnecessary to quote it here.
Instead I quote his account of a similar ruse from the
same work.l"
Phaebiades, prefect of the tower, conceived a passion for the
wife of Eparninondas, who informed her husband of the
advances he had made to her. Epaminondas directed her to
dissemble with her lover, and to invite him to supper, desiring
him at the same time to bring some friends with him, to whom
she promised to introduce ladies as easy and complying as
herself. According to engagement Phaebiades and his
company came and found everything agreeable to their wishes.
Having supped and drunk freely, the ladies desired leave to
retire, in order to attend an evening sacrifice, and promised to
return. The request was complied with, and the porters were
ordered again to introduce them. These accordingly left the
company, and gave their dress to some beardless youths;
whom, one of the women attending back to the porters, they,
after conversation with her, introduced to the company. The
young men, according to their instructions, immediately
dispatched both Phaebiades and his cornpanions.J"
Latin literature appears to afford less satisfactory
analogues to the Turgesius tale than Greek literature.
10 Plutarch's Life of Solon, VIII, as translated by Perrin, op, cit.
11 I, 20.
18 II, 3. Quotations from Polyaenus are from the translation by
R. Shepherd (1793), a more recent version not being available to me.
19 I have altered certain archaisms of phrase and punctuation in the
translation quoted. (Cf. Polyaenus, VIII, 64, for a similar ruse ascribed to the
Carians.) Pausanias, Description of Greece IV, 4, 3, tells of a stratagem
involving beardless youths dressed as girls that failed. Cf. Gesta Romanorum,
CLVI. The interesting question of how the Greek stories quoted are related
is beyond the scope of the present article. Although such ideas can arise
independently, it would seem reasonable to allow for some degree of
interaction in this instance. Cf. Macan, Herodotus, the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth
Books, 162 fl. Disguising men as women to enter an enemy stronghold is
known in Celtic and Scandinavian tradition: see Stith Thompson's Motif­
Index of Folk-Literature, K 2357.8, with reference to Tom Peete Cross's
Motif-Index of Early Irish Literature; and Inger M. Boberg's Motif-Index of
Early Icelandic Literature. The latter alludes to several instances in Saxo
Grammaticus. Motifs K.1321 fl. involve disguise as women for purposes of
seduction.