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πέμψαντες δέ. Hdt. seems to assume that this mission and inquiry followed at once, and at the same time. But a more or less considerable interval is involved (a) in the military situation, which would make such offerings an absurdity, while Mardonios was still about; (b) in the implicit assumption that various states had made separate offerings; (c) in the time necessary for the designing and execution of such dedications. In this ‘common inquiry by the Hellenes’ we may fairly see the hand of the Amphiktyous, at the date of the attempted revival and development of the League, the rehabilitation of Delphi, and the reaction against Athens and the Delian movement; cp. 7. 228 supra.
τὰ ἀριστήια τῆς ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ναυμαχίης, ‘the prize of valour for the sea-fight at Salamis.’ The Aiginetans themselves had obtained the first prize in the battle (c. 93 supra); and this passage has generally been taken to mean that the god made a special demand upon the Aiginetans, as the ἀριστεύσαντες. Stein more subtly interprets the god as claiming for himself the award, and conjectures that the Aiginetans had been favoured in the fight with a propitious sign, such as befell Lysander at Aigospotami (Plutarch Lysandr. 12), viz. an apparition of the Dioskuroi, and of Apollon Delphinios. a special patron of the Aiginetans—the three being represented by the stars on the Aiginetan offering. This explanation is acceptable, and is endorsed by Busolt ii.2 716. 3. It was a compliment to the Aiginetans, and a set-back to Athens: it was also a direct claim, advanced by Delphi, to a credit for the victory at Salamis. Perhaps the Aiginetans had already offered the mast with two stars (at the yard-arm's ends) (the Dioscuroi), and had only to add a third, and larger star, above, to represent the sun-god.
γωνίης: sc. τοῦ προνηίου 1. 51. The Krater of Kroisos must be the silver one, for the gold one was in the Treasury of Klazomenai; ib. This little chapter looks very like an addition of the second hand; cp. Introduction, § 9.
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