Herodotus, Histories 1.59.2 · 1.59.2

The man who reads the sign is Chilōn ho Lakedaimonios, Chilon the Spartan, elsewhere counted among the Seven Sages of Greece, and Herodotus is careful to establish his authority as a witness before giving his advice: he paratychōn, "happened to be there," and theēsamenos, "having watched," the portent himself. The advice itself comes in a tidy two-step list, prōta men, "first," and deutera, "second," the structure of a man used to being obeyed and economical with his words.

What Chilon actually recommends is startling in its severity: do not marry a teknopoion, "child-bearing," wife at all, or if one is already married, send her away, ekpempein. And if a son already exists, apeipasthai, "disown him." The verb for disowning shares its root with a herald's public renunciation; Chilon is telling Hippocrates to cut off his own bloodline in public, rather than risk whatever the boiling cauldrons meant for a child not yet born. Herodotus's readers already know the end of this story before Hippocrates does: a son named Peisistratus is coming, whether his father heeds the warning or not.

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