"
And again Hermes says:
"I will not fall. I will not for my pains
Let Teukrus fatten on informers' gains."
Though really the informers brought no decided evidence forward for any
important charge, one of them, when asked how he recognised the faces of
the statue-breakers, answered that he saw them by the light of the moon:
a signal falsehood, because it was done on the night of the new moon.
This answer made the more thoughtful citizens unwilling to press the
charge, but had no effect whatever on the people, who were as eager as
ever, and continued to cast into prison any man who might be informed
against.
XXI. One of those who was imprisoned was the orator Andokides, whom
Hellanikus, the historian, reckons as a descendant of Odysseus
(Ulysses). Andokides was thought to be a man of aristocratic and
antipopular sentiments, and what made him particularly suspected of
having taken part in the statue-breaking, was that the large statue of
Hermes, near his house, the gift of the tribe Aegeis, was one of the
very few which remained unbroken. Wherefore even at the present day it
is called the Hermes of Andokides, and everyone speaks of it by that
name in spite of the inscription on it.
It happened that Andokides, while in custody, formed an acquaintance and
friendship for one of the other persons who were imprisoned on the same
charge, a man of the name of Timaeus, of inferior birth and position to
himself, but much cleverer and more courageous.
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