Let me take an illustration. There is a story that in Sicily ,—the tale, though half a legend, will, for the younger ones among
 you, be well worth the hearing,—a stream of fire burst forth from Etna . This stream, so the story goes, flowing over the
 countryside, drew near a certain city of the Sicilians. Most men, thinking of their own
 safety, took to flight; but one of the youths, seeing that his father, now advanced in
 years, could not escape and was being overtaken by the fire, lifted him up and carried
 him. Hindered no doubt by the additional weight of his burden, he too was overtaken. And now
 let us observe the mercy shown by God towards good men. For we are told that the fire
 spread round that spot in a ring and only those two men were saved, so that the place is
 still called the Place of the Pious, while those who had fled in haste, leaving their
 parents to their fate, were all consumed. You too, therefore, following that divine example, should punish with one accord this man
 who spared no pains to show himself in all respects the greatest criminal, depriving the
 gods of their traditional cults, abandoning his parents to the enemy and denying the dead
 their dues. Here is another story, gentlemen. Again I shall be
 speaking of our ancestors, since it is only right that you should hear of the deeds in
 which they took a pride and give them your approval. The tradition is that Eumolpus, the
 son of Poseidon and Chione, came with the Thracians to claim this country during the reign
 of Erechtheus who was married to Praxithea, the daughter of Cephisus. Eumolpus, legendary ancestor of the Eumolpides of Eleusis , was credited with the founding of the
 Mysteries. The passage of Euripides quoted in Lyc. 1.100 is
 the earliest extant source for the tradition that he was a Thracian. According to
 Apollodorus, Eleusis , being at war with
 Athens , called in Eumolpus, whereupon the
 Athenian king Erechtheus consulted the god and learned that he must sacrifice one
 daughter in order to obtain a victory. He therefore offered up his youngest, the others
 committing suicide in sympathy, and so was enabled to kill Eumolpus in battle ( Apollod. 3.15.4 ). 
 As a large army was about to invade their country, he went to Delphi and asked the god by what means he could assure
 a victory over the enemy. The god’s answer to him was that if he sacrificed his daughter
 before the two sides engaged he would defeat the enemy and, submitting to the god, he did
 this and drove the invaders from the country.