The Melians standing in need of a larger country constituted
Nymphaeus, a handsome man and marvellously comely, the commander for
the transplanting of the colony. The oracle enjoined them to continue
sailing till they cast away their ships, and there to pitch their
colony. It happened that, when they arrived at Caria and went ashore,
their ships were broken to pieces by a storm. Some of the Carians which
dwelt at Cryassus, whether commiserating their distressed condition or
dreading their resolution, invited them to dwell in their neighborhood,
and bestowed upon them a part of their country; but then observing
their marvellous increase in a little time, they conspired to cut them
off by treachery, and provided a feast and great entertainment for that
end and purpose. But it came to pass that a certain virgin in Caria,
whose name was Caphene, fell in love with Nymphaeus. While these things
were in agitation, she could not endure to connive at the destruction
of her beloved Nymphaeus, and therefore acquainted him privately with
the conspiracy of the citizens against him. When the Cryassians came
to invite them, Nymphaeus made this answer: It is not the custom of
the Greeks to go to a feast without their wives. The Carians hearing
this requested them also to bring their wives; and so explaining the
whole transaction to the Melians, he charged the men to go without
armor in plain apparel, but that every one of the women should carry
a dagger stuck in her bosom, and that each should take her place by
her husband. About the middle of supper, their signal token was given
to the Carians; the point of time also the Grecians were sensible of.
Accordingly the women laid open their bosoms, and the men laid hold
of the daggers, and sheathing them in the barbarians, slew them all
together. And possessing themselves of the country, they overthrew that
city, and built another, which they called New Cryassus. Moreover,
Caphene being married to Nymphaeus received due honor and grateful
acknowledgments becoming her good services. Here the taciturnity and
courage of women is worthy of admiration, that none of them among so
many did so much as unwittingly, by reason of fear, betray their trust.