Sestos

Never did Leander swim with more courage and vigor toward the tower of Sestos; yet for Meïamoun no Hero was waiting, ready to pour vials of perfume upon his head to dissipate the briny odors of the sea and banish the sharp kisses of the storm.

That struggle was not terminated by the battle of Mycale and the capture of Sestos in 479 B.C.

Hero, the beautiful priestess of Aphrodite at Sestos, was seen by Leander, a youth of Abydos, at the celebration of the festival of Aphrodite and Adonis.

Byron, the celebrated English bard, attempted Leander’s feat of swimming across the Hellespont, and, on his return from that dangerous venture, wrote the following lines, which are so familiar to all English-speaking people:— “The winds are high on Helle’s wave, As on that night of stormy water When Love, who sent, forgot to save The young, the beautiful, the brave, The lonely hope of Sestos’ daughter.

Sparta had only Sestos and Abydos of all that she had won by the battle of Aegospotami.