Library Herodotus Histories, Books I–II

Part 2

44 (return) [ {kai touton}, i.e. Amphiaraos: many Editors retain the readings of the Aldine edition, {kai touto}, "that in this too he had found a true Oracle."]

45 (return) [ {emiplinthia}, the plinth being supposed to be square.]

46 (return) [ {exapalaiota}, the palm being about three inches, cp. ii. 149.]

47 (return) [ {apephthou khrusou}, "refined gold."]

48 (return) [ {triton emitalanton}: the MSS. have {tria emitalanta}, which has been corrected partly on the authority of Valla's translation.]

49 (return) [ "white gold."]

50 (return) [ Arranged evidently in stages, of which the highest consisted of the 4 half-plinths of pure gold, the second of 15 half-plinths, the third of 35, the fourth of 63, making 117 in all: see Stein's note.]

51 (return) [ {elkon stathmon einaton emitalanton kai eti duodeka mneas}. The {mnea} (mina) is 15.2 oz., and 60 of them go to a talent.]

52 (return) [ {epi tou proneiou tes gonies}, cp. viii. 122: the use of {epi} seems to suggest some kind of raised corner-stone upon which the offerings stood.]

53 (return) [ The {amphoreus} is about 9 gallons.]

54 (return) [ Cp. iii. 41.]

55 (return) [ {perirranteria}.]

56 (return) [ {kheumata}, which some translate "jugs" or "bowls."]

57 (return) [ {umin}, as if both Oracles were being addressed together.]

58 (return) [ i.e. Delphi.]

59 (return) [ {enephoreeto}, "he filled himself with it."]

60 (return) [ {Krestona}: Niebuhr would read {Krotona} (Croton or Cortona in Etruria), partly on the authority of Dionysius: see Stein's note. Two of the best MSS. are defective in this part of the book.]

61 (return) [ See ii. 51 and vi. 137.]

62 (return) [ {auxetai es plethos ton ethneon pollon}: "has increased to a multitude of its races, which are many." Stein and Abicht both venture to adopt the conjecture {Pelasgon} for {pollon}, "Pelasgians especially being added to them, and also many other Barbarian nations."]

6201 (return) [ {pros de on emoige dokeei}: the MSS. have {emoi te}. Some Editors read {os de on} (Stein {prosthe de on}) for {pros de on}. This whole passage is probably in some way corrupt, but it can hardly be successfully emended.]

63 (return) [ i.e. as it is of the Hellenic race before it parted from the Pelasgian and ceased to be Barbarian.]

64 (return) [ {katekhomenon te kai diespasmenon... upo Peisistratou}. Peisistratos was in part at least the cause of the divisions.]

65 (return) [ {paralon}.]

66 (return) [ {uperakrion}.]

67 (return) [ {toutous}: some read by conjecture {triekosious}, "three hundred," the number which he actually had according to Polyænus, i. 21.]

68 (return) [ {doruphoroi}, the usual word for a body-guard.]

69 (return) [ {perielaunomenos de te stasi}: Stein says "harassed by attacks of his own party," but the passage to which he refers in ch. 61, {katallasseto ten ekhthren toisi stasiotesi}, may be referred to in the quarrel made with his party by Megacles when he joined Peisistratos.]

70 (return) [ More literally, "since from ancient time the Hellenic race had been marked off from the Barbarians as being more skilful and more freed from foolish simplicity, (and) since at that time among the Athenians, who are accounted the first of the Hellenes in ability, these men devised a trick as follows."]

71 (return) [ The cubit is reckoned as 24 finger-breadths, i.e. about 18 inches.]

72 (return) [ So Rawlinson.]

73 (return) [ See v. 70.]

74 (return) [ {dia endekatou eteos}. Not quite the same as {dia evdeka eteon} ("after an interval of eleven years"); rather "in the eleventh year" (i.e. "after an interval of ten years").]

75 (return) [ {thein pompe khreomenos}.]

76 (return) [ For {'Akarnan} it has been suggested to read {'Akharneus}, because this man is referred to as an Athenian by various writers. However Acarnanians were celebrated for prophetic power, and he might be called an Athenian as resident with Peisistratos at Athens.]

77 (return) [ Or "for that part of the land from which the temple could be seen," but cp. Thuc. iii. 104. In either case the meaning is the same.]

7701 (return) [ {enomotias kai triekadas kai sussitia}. The {enomotia} was the primary division of the Spartan army: of the {triekas} nothing is known for certain.]

78 (return) [ {kibdelo}, properly "counterfeit": cp. ch. 75.]

79 (return) [ {skhoino diametresamenoi}: whether actually, for the purpose of distributing the work among them, or because the rope which fastened them together lay on the ground like a measuring-tape, is left uncertain.]

80 (return) [ Cp. ix. 70.]

81 (return) [ {epitarrothos}. Elsewhere (that is in Homer) the word always means "helper," and Stein translates it so here, "thou shalt be protector and patron of Tegea" (in the place of Orestes). Mr. Woods explains it by the parallel of such phrases as {Danaoisi makhes epitarrothoi}, to mean "thou shalt be a helper (of the Lacedemonians) in the matter of Tegea," but this perhaps would be a form of address too personal to the envoy, who is usually addressed in the second person, but only as representative of those who sent him. The conjectural reading {epitarrothon exeis}, "thou shalt have him as a helper against Tegea," is tempting.]

82 (return) [ {agathoergon}.]

83 (return) [ This was to enable him the better to gain his ends at Tegea.]

84 (return) [ Cp. ch. 51, note.]

85 (return) [ See ch. 6.]

86 (return) [ {euzono andri}: cp. ch. 104 and ii. 34. The word {euzonos} is used of light-armed troops; Hesychius says, {euzonos, me ekhon phortion}.]

English translation by George Rawlinson. Public domain. Digital text via Project Gutenberg.