The history of Herodotus - Volume 2, Herodotus [book recommendations txt] 📗

on pleiston}: if this reading is right, {siton} must be
understood, and some MSS. read {allon} for {alla} in the sentence
above. Stein in his latest edition reads {siton} instead of
{pleiston}.

28. Lit. "the name of which happens to be Catarractes."

29. i.e. 4,000,000.

30. The {stater dareikos} was of nearly pure gold (cp. iv. 166),
weighing about 124 grains.

30a. {stele}, i.e. a square block of stone.

31. {athanato andri}, taken by some to mean one of the body of
"Immortals."

32. {akte pakhea}: some inferior MSS. read {akte trakhea}, and hence
some Editors have {akte trekhea}, "a rugged foreland."

33. {dolero}: some Editors read {tholero}, "turbid," by conjecture.

34. The meaning is much disputed. I understand Herodotus to state that
though the vessels lay of course in the direction of the stream
from the Hellespont, that is presenting their prows (or sterns) to
the stream, yet this did not mean that they pointed straight
towards the Propontis and Euxine; for the stream after passing
Sestos runs almost from North to South with even a slight tendency
to the East (hence {eurou} a few lines further on), so that ships
lying in the stream would point in a line cutting at right angles
that of the longer axis (from East to West) of the Pontus and
Propontis. This is the meaning of {epikarsios} elsewhere in
Herodotus (i. 180 and iv. 101), and it would be rash to assign to
it any other meaning here. It is true however that the expression
{pros esperes} is used loosely below for the side toward the
Egean. For {anakokheue} a subject must probably be supplied from
the clause {pentekonterous-sunthentes}, "that it (i.e. the
combination of ships) might support etc.," and {ton tonon ton
oplon} may either mean as below "the stretched ropes," or "the
tension of the ropes," which would be relieved by the support: the
latter meaning seems to me preferable.

Mr. Whitelaw suggests to me that {epikarsios} ({epi kar}) may mean
rather "head-foremost," which seems to be its meaning in Homer
(Odyss. ix. 70), and from which might be obtained the idea of
intersection, one line running straight up against another, which
it has in other passages. In that case it would here mean "heading
towards the Pontus."

35. {tas men pros tou Pontou tes eteres}. Most commentators would
supply {gephures} with {tes eteres}, but evidently both bridges
must have been anchored on both sides.

36. {eurou}: Stein adopts the conjecture {zephurou}.

37. {ton pentekonteron kai triereon trikhou}: the MSS. give {ton
pentekonteron kai trikhou}, "between the fifty-oared galleys in as
many as three places," but it is strange that the fifty-oared
galleys should be mentioned alone, and there seems no need of
{kai} with {trikhou}. Stein reads {ton pentekonteron kai triereon}
(omitting {trikhou} altogether), and this may be right.

38. i.e. in proportion to the quantity: there was of course a greater
weight altogether of the papyrus rope.

39. {autis epezeugnuon}.

40. {ekleipsin}: cp. {eklipon} above.

41. Or, according to some MSS., "Nisaian."

42. i.e. not downwards.

43. {tina autou sukhnon omilon}.

44. {to Priamou Pergamon}.

45. {en Abudo mese}: some inferior authorities (followed by most
Editors) omit {mese}: but the district seems to be spoken of, as
just above.

46. {proexedre lothou leukou}: some kind of portico or /loggia/ seems
to be meant.

47. {daimonie andoon}.

48. {ena auton}.

49. {to proso aiei kleptomenos}: "stealing thy advance continually,"
i.e. "advancing insensibly further." Some take {kleptomenos} as
passive, "insensibly lured on further."

50. {neoteron ti poiesein}.

51. Or, according to some MSS., "the Persian land."

52. Lit. "the name of which happens to be Agora."

53. i.e. 1,700,000.

54. {sunnaxantes}: a conjectural emendation very generally adopted of
{sunaxantes} or {sunapsantes}.

55. {apageas}, i.e. not stiffly standing up; the opposite to
{pepeguias} (ch. 64).

56. {lepidos siderees opsin ikhthueideos}: many Editors suppose that
some words have dropped out. The {kithon} spoken of may have been
a coat of armour, but elsewhere the body armour {thorex} is
clearly distinguished from the {kithon}, see ix. 22.

57. {gerra}: cp. ix. 61 and 102.

58. Cp. i. 7.

59. {mitrephoroi esan}: the {mitre} was perhaps a kind of turban.

60. {tesi Aiguptiesi}, apparently {makhairesi} is meant to be
supplied: cp. ch. 91.

61. {eklethesan}, "were called" from the first.

62. These words are by some Editors thought to be an interpolation.
The Chaldeans in fact had become a caste of priests, cp. i. 181.

63. {kurbasias}: supposed to be the same as the /tiara/ (cp. v. 49),
but in this case stiff and upright.

64. i.e. Areians, cp. iii. 93.

65. {sisurnas}: cp. iv. 109.

66. {akinakas}.

67. {sisurnophoroi}.

68. {zeiras}.

69. {toxa palintona}.

70. {spathes}, which perhaps means the stem of the leaf.

71. {gupso}, "white chalk."

72. {milto}, "red ochre."

73. Some words have apparently been lost containing the name of the
nation to which the following description applies. It is suggested
that this might be either the Chalybians or the Pisidians.

74. {lukioergeas}, an emendation from Athenæus of {lukoergeas} (or
{lukergeas}), which might perhaps mean "for wolf-hunting."

75. {anastpastous}: cp. iii. 93.

76. Some Editors place this clause before the words: "and Smerdomenes
the son of Otanes," for we do not hear of Otanes or Smerdomenes
elsewhere as brother and nephew of Dareios. On the other hand
Mardonios was son of the /sister/ of Dareios.

77. {tukhe}, "hits."

78. {keletas}, "single horses."

79. This name is apparently placed here wrongly. It has been proposed
to read {Kaspeiroi} or {Paktues}.

80. {ippeue}: the greater number of MSS. have {ippeuei} here as at the
beginning of ch. 84, to which this is a reference back, but with a
difference of meaning. There the author seemed to begin with the
intention of giving a full list of the cavalry force of the
Persian Empire, and then confined his account to those actually
present on this occasion, whereas here the word in combination
with {mouna} refers only to those just enumerated.

81. i.e. 80,000.

82. {Suroisi}, see note on ii. 104.

83. {tukous}, which appears to mean ordinarily a tool for stone-
cutting.

84. {mitresi}, perhaps "turbans."

85. {kithonas}: there is some probability in the suggestion of
{kitarias} here, for we should expect mention of a head-covering,
and the word {kitaris} (which is explained to mean the same as
{tiara}), is quoted by Pollux as occurring in Herodotus.

86. {kithonas}.

87. {drepana}, "reaping-hooks," cp. v. 112.

88. See i. 171.

89. {Pelasgoi Aigialees}.

90. {kerkouroi}.

91. {makra}: some MSS. and editions have {smikra}, "small."

92. Or "Mapen."

93. Or "Seldomos."

94. {metopedon}.

95. {me oentes arthmioi}. This is generally taken to mean, "unless
they were of one mind together"; but that would very much weaken
the force of the remark, and {arthmios} elsewhere is the opposite
of {polemios}, cp. vi. 83 and ix. 9, 37. Xerxes professes enmity
only against those who had refused to give the tokens of
submission.

96. {men mounoisi}: these words are omitted in some good MSS., and
{mounoisi} has perhaps been introduced from the preceding
sentence. The thing referred to in {touto} is the power of
fighting in single combat with many at once, which Demaratos is
supposed to have claimed for the whole community of the Spartans.

97. {stergein malista}.

98. {oudamoi ko}.

99. Or, "Strauos."

100. Or, "Compsatos."

101. {tas epeirotidas polis}: it is not clear why these are thus
distinguished. Stein suggests {Thasion tas epeirotidas polis}, cp.
ch. 118; and if that be the true reading {ion} is probably a
remnant of {Thasion} after {khoras}.

102. Or, "Pistiros."

103. {oi propheteountes}, i.e. those who interpret the utterances of
the Oracle, cp. viii. 36.

104. {promantis}.

105. {kai ouden poikiloteron}, an expression of which the meaning is
not quite clear; perhaps "and the oracles are not at all more
obscure," cp. Eur. Phœn. 470 and Hel. 711 (quoted by Bähr).

106. "Ennea Hodoi."

107. Cp. iii. 84.

108. The "royal cubit" is about 20 inches; the {daktulos}, "finger's
breadth," is rather less than ¾ inch.

109. Or, "Cape Canastraion."

110. Or "Echeidoros": so it is usually called, but not by any MS.
here, and by a few only in ch. 127.

111. {pro mesogaian tamnon tes odou}: cp. iv. 12 and ix. 89.

112. Cp. ch. 6 and 174: but it does not appear that the Aleuadai, of
whom Xerxes is here speaking, ever thought of resistance, and
perhaps {gnosimakheontes} means, "when they submitted without
resistance."

113. Some MSS. have {Ainienes} for {Enienes}.

114. {dekateusai}: there is sufficient authority for this rendering of
{dekateuein}, and it seems better here than to understand the word
to refer only to a "tithing" of goods.

115. {es to barathron}, the place of execution at Athens.

116. "undesirable thing."

117. {ouk ex isou}: i.e. it is one-sided, because the speaker has had
experience of only one of the alternatives.

118. Cp. ch. 143 (end), and viii. 62.

119. {teikheon kithones}, a poetical expression, quoted perhaps from
some oracle; and if so, {kithon} may here have the Epic sense of a
"coat of mail," equivalent to {thorex} in i. 181: see ch. 61, note
56.

120. {to megaron}.

121. The