Aristomenes in History
According to Pliny, Aristomenes’ heart was discovered to have hair on it, which was a physiological manifestation of his great strength and valor. For Pulter in Aristomenes (Emblem 45)110, the decision to exclude such a detail from Aristomenes’ story makes sense, as it would have distracted from the reason she refers to his “courageous heart,” which is to encourage her readers to be bold and retain hope.
It is reported of some men, that they have hearts all hairy, and those are held to be exceeding strong and valorous. Such was Aristomenes the Messenian, who slew with his own hands (in three sundry battles) 300 Lacedaemonians. Himself, being sore wounded and taken prisoner, saved his own life once, and made an escape out of the cave of a stone quarry (where he was kept as in a prison), for he got forth by narrow Fox-holes under the ground. Being caught a second time, whiles his keepers were fast asleep, he rolled himself to the fire, bound as he was, and so without regard of his own body burnt in sunder the bonds wherewith he was tied. And at the third taking, the Lacedaemonians caused his breast to be cut and opened, because they would see what kind of Heart he had. And there they found it all overgrown with hair.
Many of the plot details and some of the diction in Pulter’s poem echo Sir Walter Raleigh’s retelling of Aristomenes’ story in The History of the World (1617), which was written during Raleigh’s own imprisonment under James I. Pulter may have read Raleigh’s work, or perhaps both she and Raleigh read the ancient Greek geographer, Pausanias, who expands on Aristomenes’ flight.
In performing these and other services, thrice Aristomenes was taken prisoner; yet still he escaped. One escape of his deserves to be remembered, as a thing very strange and marvelous. He had with too much courage adventured to set upon both the Kings of Sparta; and being in that fight wounded, and felled to the ground, was taken up senseless, and carried away prisoner, with fifty of his Companions. There was a deep natural cave into which the Spartans used to cast head-long, such as were condemned to die for the greatest offences. To this punishment were Aristomenes and his companions adjudged. All the rest of these poor men died with their falls; Aristomenes (howsoever it came to passe) took no harm. Yet was it harm enough to be imprisoned in a deep dungeon, among dead carcasses, where he was like to perish through hunger and stench. But after a while he perceived by some small glimmering of light (which perhaps came in at the top) a fox that was gnawing upon a dead body. Hereupon he bethought himself that this beast must needs know some way to enter the place and get out. For which cause he made shift to lay hold upon it, and catching it by the tail with one hand, saved himself from biting with the other hand, by thrusting his coat into the mouth of it. So letting it creep whither it would, he followed, holding it as his guide, until the way was too strait for him; and then dismissed it. The fox being loose ran through an hole, at which came in a little light; and there did Aristomenes delve so long with his nails, that at last he clawed out his passage. When some fugitives of Messene brought word to Sparta, that Aristomenes was returned home, their tale sounded alike, as if they had said, that a dead man was revived. But when the Corinthian forces, that came to help the Lacedaemonians in the siege of Era, were cut in pieces, their Captains slain, and their Camp taken; then was it easily believed, that Aristomenes was alive indeed.
The Greek historian Pausanias (second century CE) chronicled the heroic deeds of Aristomenes in his History of Greece. In his account of Aristomenes’ escape, Pausanias suggests that the hero’s survival was aided by divine intervention, a notion that may have resonated with Pulter in Emblem 45. By the mid-seventeenth century. Pausanias’ work had been published in several languages, including Greek, Latin, and Italian. Below is an excerpt from a modern English translation of Pausanias’ account.
[Aristomenes] was struck on the head by a stone, his eyes got dizzy, and the Lacedaemonians rushing at him all together took him alive. Fifty of his men also were captured. These were all condemned by the Lacedaemonians to be thrown into their underground cavern called Caedas: where they throw in their greatest malefactors. The other Messenians who were thrown in were killed instantaneously: but Aristomenes had some good genius who both now and on all occasions looked after him. Those who exaggerate everything about him say that, when he was thrown into Caedas, an eagle flew under him and supported him with its wings, so that he reached the bottom safely without a wound or scratch. The god on this occasion must have also shown him some outlet. For when he got to the bottom of the cavern, he sat down and muffling his head in his cloak expected death which he felt certain. But on the third day after he heard a noise, and unveiled his face, and when his eyes got accustomed to the darkness, saw a fox preying on the dead carcases [sic]. And reflecting that it must have an outlet somewhere, he waited till the fox came near and when it came near seized hold of it, and in one of his hands, when the fox turned on him, held his cloak that it might bite that and not him. As it ran he ran with it, and was dragged by it along a very difficult path. At last he saw a little hole, just big enough for a fox to pass through, and light glimmered through it. And the fox, directly it was liberated by Aristomenes, betook itself to its hole. And Aristomenes, as the hole was too small to let him through, enlarged it with his hands and got home safe to Eira, having had most remarkable good fortune in respect to his capture, (for his spirit and bravery were such that no one could have expected to take him alive), and stranger still and most plainly not without divine assistance was this getting out safe from Ceadas.