The Eunuch's Revenge
Book VIII, 104-106 [Translated by A.D. Godley, in Herodotus , vol. 4, Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1969, pp. 103-107) 104. With these sons he [Xerxes] sent Hermotimus as guardian; most honoured by Xerxes of all his eunuchs. The people of Pedasa dwell above Halicarnassus. This happens among these people: when aught untoward is about to befall within a certain time all those that dwell about their city, the priestess of Athene then grows a great beard. This had already happened to them twice. 105. Hermotimus, who came from this place Pedasa, had achieved a fuller vengeance for wrong done to him than had any man within my knowledge. Being taken captive by enemies and exposed for sale, he was bought by one Panionius of Chios, a man that had set himself to earn a livelihood out of most wicked practices; he would procure beautiful boys and castrate and take them to Sardis and Ephesus, where he sold them for a great price; for the foreigners value eunuchs more than perfect [ enorchiôn , literally ...