Best friends in Sicily

"Damon and Pythias grew up in Sicily,"

   "and they will always be friends."

One day when the two of them were visiting the city of Syracuse Pythias said some things against the king of Syracuse, and the tyrant got very angry. The king had Pythias arrested and was going to kill Pythias!

        Damon trusts Pythias

Pythias said, "Couldn't I just go home and tell my family what happened and get ready before I am killed." Then Damon said, "I will stay with you while Pythias goes home and says goodbye to his family. If he doesn't come back you can kill me instead," The king couldn't believe anyone would trust their friend so much. He thought this was dumb. But he agreed to let Pythias go. Pythias was opposed to be back in a month.

   If Pythias wasn't back by the end of the              month he would kill Damon instead.

If you were Damon, would you sacrifice yourself for your friend to go see their family and say goodbye before they are about to die? Would you trust your friend to come back and save you?

       Pirates attack Pythias!

Then Pythias finally home, said goodbye to his family, and left to come back to the city and be killed. He wouldn’t leave Damon to be killed! But on the way back, his ship was attacked by pirates. Pythias tried to explain to the pirates that it was really important for him to get to Sicily, but they just threw him overboard. Pythias swam to shore, but then he didn’t have any money or a horse or any way of getting back to Damon.

He was so worried that Damon would be killed! He started to run as fast as he could towards the king’s palace.

Pythias was attacked by pirates! And he had to run all the way to the king's palace to save Damon. What would you do if you were in that situation?