"The mud of Athens shall consume all steel and gold."
Omen of the Delphoi oracle*
* Sources mention that the Spartans received said reply from the famous oracle when they sent envoys there to ask about the outcome of the Peloponnesian war in 431 BC. Initially, the Spartans interpeted it as a very favourable message, surmising that either a large natural catastrophe such as an earthquake would hit the city, one that would destroy both its forces and wealth, thus rendering them unable to put up resistance. Later on, when the plague hit Athens, the tombs opened in the winter mud in which many of the city's hoplites were buried, the pro-war faction in Sparta was quick to present this as the confirmation of the omen. However, the infamous duplicitous nature was a fact in this case as well; when Cleon, considered by many of his opponents as coming from the "mud and grass" of Athens, mocking the station and profession of his father, gained control of Athenian politics and forcing a more aggressive prosecution of the war, the "mud of Athens" managed to inflict a series of devastating defeats on the Spartans and their allies, despite the costs incurred: starting with Demosthenes campaigns that eliminated Corinthian presence in Akarnania and Leukada, the capture of Pylos and the successful operations that resulted in the capture of Megara and the neutralisation of Boeotia, all of which resulted in Sparta seeking peace from Athens in 423 BC. At the end, despite the economic burden ("the gold"), Cleon and his allies (the "mud"), had beaten the Spartan power embodied in its armies ("the steel") and forced its rival to give way.
