The Oracle at Delphi no Longer Given in Verse (16)

There is one thing that you omit to mention, said one of the guides, that Croesus had a golden statue made of the woman who baked his bread, and dedicated it here.

Yes, said Theon, only he did it not in mockery of the holy shrine, but because he found an honourable and righteous cause for so doing.[*] For it is said that Alyattes, the father of Croesus, married a second wife, and was rearing a second group of children. So the woman, in a plot against Croesus, gave poison to the baker and bade her knead it into the bread and serve it to Croesus. But the baker secretly told Croesus and served the bread to the stepmother’s children; in return for this action Croesus, when he became king, as it were in the sight of the god as a witness, requited the favour done by the woman and also conferred a benefit upon the god. Wherefore, he continued, it is right and proper, if there is any similar votive offering from States, to honour and respect it, as, for example, that of the Opuntians. For, when the despots of the Phocians melted up many of the votive offerings made of gold or silver,[*] and minted coins and put them into circulation among the various States, the Opuntians, collecting what money they could find, sent back here a water-jar for the god, and consecrated it to him. For my part, I commend also the inhabitants of Myrina and of Apollonia for sending to this place fruits of the harvest fashioned of gold; and still more the inhabitants of Eretria and Magnesia who presented the god with the first-fruits of their people, in the belief that he is the giver of crops, the god of their fathers, the author of their being, and the friend of man. And I blame the Megarians because they are almost the only people who erected here a statue of the god with spear in hand to commemorate the battle in which they defeated and drove out the Athenians, who were in possession of their city in the period following the Persian Wars. Later, however, they dedicated to the god a golden plectrum,[*] calling attention, apparently, to Scythinus,[*] who says regarding the lyre,

Which the son of Zeus,

Fair Apollo, who embraces origin and end in one,

Sets in tune, and for his plectrum has the bright rays of the sun.