Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1.1882-1883)

26o

THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS.

the others with punishment; but the latter made their escape to
Attica, and then by night set sail for Asia.1

The story which the Athenians told of Adeimantus, the Corinthian
commander, that he took fright at the first approach of the Persians
and sailed away from the battle, soon followed by the whole Corin-
thian fleet,2 involves an interesting point of topography. Herodotus,
who evidently heard the story at Athens half a century later, when
Athens and Corinth were in bitter enmity, and who says expressly
that it was denied by the Corinthians and by the rest of Greece,
repeats the tale, that when the fugitive Corinthians were passing the
temple of Athena Sciras on the shore of Salamis, they were met by a
mysterious boat, believed to be directed by superhuman power, from
which they were warned not to continue their flight, since the Greeks
were victorious in the battle. Upon this they turned about and came
into the Greek camp after the victory was assured. This ancient
temple of Athena, said to be a Phoenician foundation,3 has generally
been placed, after Leake, on the northwest point of Salamis, although
others have preferred a site near the Homeric town of Salamis on the
south of the island. The former site is open to the objection that
the retreating Corinthians would have been likely to meet the Persian
squadron sent to guard the passage between Salamis and Megara;
the latter assumes that the Corinthians retreated by the straits of
Salamis, where at the beginning of the battle they would have met
the main Persian fleet. Dr. Lolling has recently made it highly
probable that the temple of Athena and the hill called H/apaSiov
were at the northeast point of Salamis near Cape 'Apd-rj, just at the
entrance of the bay of Eleusis.4 If this is the correct site, the above-
mentioned difficulties disappear; for Adeimantus would not have
encountered any Persian ships before reaching the bay of Eleusis.
The whole story was doubtless a late fabrication of the enemies of
Corinth, a city which claimed to have been among the first in valor
at Salamis.3

1 Diod. XI. 19. 2 Herod. VIII. 94.

3 See Wachsmuth, Stadt Athen, pp. 440-442.

4 Mittheilungen d. deutsch. archaeol. Inst, in Athen, I. pp. 127-138.
0 Herod. VIII. 94 (end).