34
Comminius Super of Laurentem begat a son Comminius from the nymph Egeria and took a second wife Gidica, who thus became a stepmother. She fell in love with her stepson and, failing to obtain her desire, put an end to her life with a halter, leaving behind her a lying letter. Comminius read the accusations, believed the invidious charge, and called upon Neptune, who placed a bull in the youth’s path as he was riding in a chariot; and the young man’s horses ran away with him and killed him. So Dositheüs in the third book of his Italian History.
35
When a Plague had overspread Sparta, the god gave an oracle that it would cease if they sacrificed a noble maiden each year. Once when Helen had been chosen by lot and had been led forward adorned for the sacrifice, an eagle swooped down, snatched up the sword, carried it to the herds of cattle, and let it fall on a heifer; wherefore the Spartans refrained from the slaying of maidens. Cf. Lydus, De Mensibus, 147 (p. 165 Wünsch); Tzetzes, Scholia on Lycophron, ii. 63 and 92 ed. Scheer. For human victims at Sparta cf. Porphyry, De Abstinentia, ii. 55. So Aristodemus in his Third Collection of Fables.
