The Tenedians punished adulterers by cutting off their heads with an axe. Aristotle wrote about the social and political structure of Tenedos. He found it notable a large part of the populace worked in occupations related to ferries, possibly hundreds in a population of thousands. Pausanias noted some common proverbs in Greek originated from customs of the Tenedians. "He is a man of Tenedos" was used to allude to a person of unquestionable integrity, and "to cut with the Tenedian axe" was a full and final 'no'. Lykophron, writing in the second century BC, referred to the deity Melikertes as the "baby-slayer". Xenophon described the Spartans' sacking the place in 389 BC, but being beaten back by an Athenian fleet when trying again two years later.