[29]
The
Leontidae had heard the stories related of the daughters of Leo, how they
offered themselves to the citizens as a sacrifice for their country's sake.
When, therefore, such courage was displayed by those women, they looked upon it
as a heinous thing if they, being men, should have proved to possess less of
manhood. The Acamantidae did not fail to recall the epics in which Homer says
that Acamas sailed for Troy for the sake of his mother Aethra.1 Now, since he
braved every danger for the sake of saving his own mother, how were these men
not bound to face every danger for the sake of saving their parents one and all
at home?
1 Aethra is mentioned in Hom. Il. 3.144, but the rest of the story is not Homeric. This Acamas is unknown to Homer, though he mentions two other individuals of the same name. It was later myths that told of the rescue of Aethra after the fall of Troy by her two grandsons, not sons, Acamas and Demophon.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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