Pytheus

, a Lydian in the age of Xerxes, famous for his riches. He kindly entertained the monarch and all his army, when he was marching on his expedition against Greece, and offered him to defray the expenses of the whole war. Xerxes thanked him with much gratitude, and promised to give him whatever he should require. Pytheus asked him to dismi his son from the expedition; upon which the monarch ordered the young man to be cut in two, and one half of the body to be placed on the right hand of the way, and the other on the left, that his army might march between them. Plutarch , de Mulierum Virtutes .— Hero dot us.