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Verrall (Cl. R. xvii. 99-101) has ingeniously argued that this speech is a transcript from an inscription, explaining a picture or bas-relief dedicated by the lady and representing her as a suppliant before the ‘king’, with Persian corpses (one named Φαρανδάτης Τεάσπιος) on the ground, and two maids on the one side balancing two ephors on the other. The inscription would run βασιλεῦ Σπάρτης, λῦσαί μ᾽ ἱκέτιν δοριλήπτου | (αἰχμαλώτου δουλοσύνης. σὺ γὰρ εἰς τόδ᾽ ὄνησας τούσδ᾽ ἀπολέσσας, | τοὺς οὔθ᾽ ἡρώων (δαιμόνων), οὐ θεῶν ὄπιν οὔτιν᾽ ἔχοντας. | Κῴη δ᾽ εἰμὶ γένος, θυγάτηρ Ἡγητορίδαο Ἀνταγόραο: βίῃ δὲ λαβὼν Κῷ μ᾽ εἶχεν Πέρσης. H. has but substituted the generic δαιμόνων for ἡρώων (cf. viii. 109. 3 n.) and disguised the verse by writing αἰχμαλώτου for δοριλήπτου, though even so the expression remains poetical; cf. viii. 114. 2 n. H.'s interest in this lady of Cos may be explained by the close connexion between Cos and Halicarnassus (vii. 163 n.); both were under Artemisia (vii. 99).

βασιλεῦ. Pausanias, though only regent (ch. 10), might well be addressed as king (cf. vii. 161 n.). For Pausanias cf. v. 32 n.

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