The Argives were having a festival for Hera, and their mother had to be taken to the shrine in a wagon, but the oxen were not back from the fields in time to pull it. With time running out, the young men put themselves under the yoke and themselves hauled the wagon, with their mother riding in it, for five miles, until they brought her all the way to the sanctuary. Everyone who had gathered there for the festival watched them perform this feat; and then the god granted the young men the best possible departure from this life, showing clearly that it is better for a human being to be dead than to be alive.
The Argive men crowded around them and showered praises on their strength, while the Argive women commended their mother for being blessed with such good sons. Their mother was simply elated by her sons’ feat and by all the praise. She stood before the statue of the goddess and said a prayer for Cleobis and Biton: that since they had shown her such great honor, let the goddess grant to them the best thing a human being could have. After the prayer, they all sacrificed and had their feast. Then the young men fell asleep in that very sanctuary and never awoke again; this was the end of their lives. The Argives made statues of them and dedicated them at Delphi to commemorate that they had proven themselves to be the best of men.