The Power of Solon in the Greek World

Solon and his cousin Pysistratus defeated the Magarians in 595 BC. The popular count is that they sailed to Cape Colius near Faluron where they found all the women of Athens performing a customary sacrifice to Demeter. Solon had ordered the women to withdraw, and instead replaced them with young men who were beardless and dressed as women. They concealed daggers underneath their garments,. When the Magarians disembarked and approached them, the young men pulled out their daggers and hacked them all to death. This made Solon very famous and powerful, not only in Athens, but the Greek world. His popularity was only further increased when he argued that the Greeks must