Herodotus, Histories 1.59.5 · 1.59.5

Herodotus marks the deception with one word, exapatētheis, "deceived," placed right next to ho dēmos, "the people," so that the city's whole decision sits inside that single participle. The men it hands over get a name invented for the occasion: not doryphoroi, "spear-bearers," the normal word for a king's or tyrant's guard, but korynēphoroi, "club-bearers," a word that appears to exist only for this moment. Herodotus explains the coinage immediately: xylōn korynas echontes, "having clubs of wood," the plainest, least military weapon imaginable next to a spear.

The distinction matters because a man with a spear-guard looks like a king already, while a man trailed by club-carrying escorts can still pass for someone merely protected. The vote the Athenians think they are casting is for a wounded general's safety; the guard they actually create is the instrument of a coup, and Herodotus lets the gap between the name they gave it and the name he uses, doryphoroi withheld, korynēphoroi supplied, do the work of showing exactly how they were fooled.

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