before the image and prayed the goddess to deliver the child from her
unshapeliness. And once as the nurse was going away out of the temple,
it is said that a woman appeared to her, and having appeared asked her
what she was bearing in her arms; and she told her that she was
bearing a child; upon which the other bade her show the child to her,
but she refused, for it had been forbidden to her by the parents to
show it to any one: but the woman continued to urge her by all means
to show it to her. So then perceiving that the woman earnestly desired
to see it, the nurse showed her the child. Then the woman stroking the
head of the child said that she should be the fairest of all the women
in Sparta; and from that day her aspect was changed. Afterwards when
she came to the age for marriage, she was married to Agetos the son of
Alkeides, this friend of Ariston of whom we spoke. 62. Now Ariston it
seems was ever stung by the desire of this woman, and accordingly he
contrived as follows:--he made an engagement himself with his comrade,
whose wife this woman was, that he would give him as a gift one thing
of his own possessions, whatsoever he should choose, and he bade his
comrade make return to him in similar fashion. He therefore, fearing
nothing for his wife, because he saw that Ariston also had a wife,
agreed to this; and on these terms they imposed oaths on one another.
After this Ariston on his part gave that which Agetos had chosen from
the treasures of Ariston, whatever the thing was; and he himself,
seeking to obtain from him the like return, endeavoured then to take
away the wife of his comrade from him: and he said that he consented
to give anything else except this one thing only, but at length being
compelled by the oath and by the treacherous deception,[46] he allowed
her to be taken away from him. 63. Thus had Ariston brought into his
house the third wife, having dismissed the second: and this wife, not
having fulfilled the ten months[47] but in a shorter period of time,
bore him that Demaratos of whom we were speaking; and one of his