Tripod is that the Argives offered a tripod as a prize of virtue to the wisest of the Greeks ; Aristodemus of Sparta was adjudged the winner but retired in favour of Chilon. Aristodemus is mentioned by Alcaeus thus ® : Surely no witless word was this of the Spartan, I deem, “Wealth is the worth of a man; and poverty void of esteem.” Some relate that a vessel with its freight was sent by Periander to Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, and that, when it was wrecked in Coan waters, the tripod was afterwards found by certain fishermen. However, Phanodicus declares it to have been found in Athenian waters and thence brought to Athens. An assembly was held and it was sent to Bias ; for what reason shall be explained in the life of Bias. There is yet another version, that it was the work of Hephaestus presented by the god to Pelops on his marriage. ‘Thence it passed to Menelaus and was carried off by Paris along with Helen and was thrown by her into the Coan sea, for she said it would be a cause of strife. In process of time certain people of Lebedus, having purchased a catch of fish thereabouts, obtained possession of the tripod, and, quarrelling with the fishermen about it, put in to Cos, and, when they could not settle the dispute, reported the fact to Miletus, their mother - city. The Milesians, when their embassies were disregarded, made war upon Cos; many fell on both sides, and an oracle pronounced that the tripod who is accused of having plagiarized from The Tripod: