This miraculous ending delighted the poets and inspired many fine
lines, but history could with difficulty accommodate itself to such a
materialistic intervention of a divine being, and sought a less
fabulous solution. The legend which appeared most probable to the worthy
Herodotus did not even admit that the Lydian king took his own life;
it was Cyrus who condemned him, either with a view of devoting the
first-fruits of his victory to the immortals, or to test whether the
immortals would save the rival whose piety had been so frequently held
up to his admiration. The edges of the pyre had already taken light,
when the Lydian king sighed and thrice repeated the name of Solon. It
was a tardy recollection of a conversation in which the Athenian sage
had stated, without being believed, that none can be accounted truly
happy while they still live. Cyrus, applying it to himself, was seized
with remorse or pity, and commanded the bystanders to quench the fire,
but their efforts were in vain. Thereupon Croesus implored the pity of
Apollo, and suddenly the sky, which up till then had been serene and
clear, became overcast; thick clouds collected, and rain fell so
heavily that the burning pile was at once extinguished.*

* The story told by Nicolas of Damascus comes down probably
from Xanthus of Lydia, but with many additions borrowed
directly from Herodotus and rhetorical developments by the
author himself. Most other writers who tell the story depend
for their information, either directly or indirectly, on
Herodotus: in later times it was supposed that the Lydian
king was preserved from the flames by the use of some
talisman such as the Ephesian letters.

Well treated by his conqueror, the Lydian king is said to have become