The [Amphictyons] chose this man as advisor for their war on the Kirrhaians.[1] They asked the [sc. Delphic] oracle about victory, and the Pythia[2] replied: 'you will not take and throw down the tower of this city until on my precinct shall dash the wave of blue-eyed Amphitrite, roaring over the wine-dark sea.' So Solon persuaded them to consecrate the territory of Kirrha to the god -- in order, of course, that the sea would become Apollo's neighbour. And Solon invented another trick to deploy against the Kirrhaians: for the water of the river [Pleistos] ran along a channel into the city, and he diverted it elsewhere. And they held out against the besiegers by drinking from wells and also rain-water. But he threw hellebore roots into the river, and when he reckoned that the water contained enough of the drug he turned it back again into the channel -- and the Kirrhaians freely took their fill of the water. And the [Kirrhaians], those on the wall, deserted the garrison because of their diarrhoea, but the Amphictyons captured the garrison and the city.[3]