Histories by Herodotus
English translation: G. C. Macaulay
(pub. Macmillan, London and NY) [1890]

Volume 1 - BOOK I.
The First Book Of The Histories, Called Clio - Herodotus



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Notes To Book I


1 (return)
[ {'Erodotou 'Alikarnesseos istories apodexis ede, os k.t.l.} The meaning of the word {istorie} passes gradually from "research" or "inquiry" to "narrative," "history"; cp. vii. 96. Aristotle in quoting these words writes {Thouriou} for {'Alikarnesseos} ("Herodotus of Thurii"), and we know from Plutarch that this reading existed in his time as a variation.]

2 (return)
[ Probably {erga} may here mean enduring monuments like the pyramids and the works at Samos, cp. i. 93, ii. 35, etc.; in that case {ta te alla} refers back to {ta genomena}, though the verb {epolemesan} derives its subject from the mention of Hellenes and Barbarians in the preceding clause.]

3 (return)
[ Many Editors have "with the Phenicians," on the authority of some inferior MSS. and of the Aldine edition.]

4 (return)
[ {arpages}.]

401 (return)
[ "thus or in some other particular way."]

5 (return)
[ {Surion}, see ch. 72. Herodotus perhaps meant to distinguish {Surioi} from {Suroi}, and to use the first name for the Cappadokians and the second for the people of Palestine, cp. ii. 104; but they are naturally confused in the MSS.]

6 (return)
[ {ex epidromes arpage}.]

7 (return)
[ {tes anoigomenes thures}, "the door that is opened."]

8 (return)
[ Or "because she was ashamed."]

9 (return)
[ {phoitan}.]

10 (return)
[ {upeisdus}: Stein adopts the conjecture {upekdus}, "slipping out of his hiding-place."]

11 (return)
[ This last sentence is by many regarded as an interpolation. The line referred to is {Ou moi ta Gugeo tou polukhrosou melei}.]

12 (return)
[ See v. 92.]

13 (return)
[ i.e. like other kings of Lydia who came after him.]

14 (return)
[ {Kolophonos to astu}, as opposed apparently to the acropolis, cp. viii. 51.]

15 (return)
[ See ch. 73.]

16 (return)
[ {o kai esballon tenikauta es ten Milesien ten stratien}: an allusion apparently to the invasions of the Milesian land at harvest time, which are described above. All the operations mentioned in the last chapter have been loosely described to Alyattes, and a correction is here added to inform the reader that they belong equally to his father. It will hardly mend matters much if we take {o Audos} in ch. 17 to include both father and son.]

17 (return)
[ {didaxanta}.]

18 (return)
[ This name is applied by Herodotus to the southern part of the peninsula only.]

19 (return)
[ Tarentum.]

20 (return)
[ {en toisi edolioisi}: properly "benches," but probably here the raised deck at the stern.]

21 (return)
[ {ou mega}: many of the MSS. have {mega}.]

22 (return)
[ {stadioi}: furlongs of about 606 English feet.]

23 (return)
[ {to epilogo}.]

24 (return)
[ This list of nations is by some suspected as an interpolation; see Stein's note on the passage.]

25 (return)
[ {sophistai}: cp. ii. 49, and iv. 95.]

26 (return)
[ {etheto}.]

27 (return)
[ {olbiotaton}.]

28 (return)
[ {stadious}.]

29 (return)
[ {romen}: many of the MSS. have {gnomen}, "good disposition."]

30 (return)
[ i.e. their mother: but some understand it to mean the goddess.]

31 (return)
[ {en telei touto eskhonto}.]

32 (return)
[ {anolbioi}.]

33 (return)
[ {eutukhees}.]

34 (return)
[ {aperos}: the MSS. have {apeiros}.]

35 (return)
[ {aikhme sideree blethenta}.]

36 (return)
[ "in the house of Croesus."]

37 (return)
[ {'Epistion}.]

38 (return)
[ {'Etaireion}.]

39 (return)
[ {suggrapsamenous}, i.e. have it written down by the {propsetes} (see vii. 111 and viii. 37), who interpreted and put into regular verse the inspired utterances of the prophetess {promantis}.]

40 (return)
[ {es to megaron}.]

41 (return)
[ {oida d' ego}: oracles often have a word of connection such as {de} or {alla} at the beginning (cp. ch. 55, 174, etc.), which may indicate that they are part of a larger connected utterance.]

42 (return)
[ Cp. vii. 178 and ix. 91 ("I accept the omen.")]

43 (return)
[ See viii. 134.]

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}.]

87 (return)
[ {orgen ouk akros}: this is the reading of all the best MSS., and it is sufficiently supported by the parallel of v. 124, {psukhen ouk akros}. Most Editors however have adopted the reading {orgen akros}, as equivalent to {akrakholos}, "quick-tempered."]

88 (return)
[ It has been suggested by some that this clause is not genuine. It should not, however, be taken to refer to the battle which was interrupted by the eclipse, for (1) that did not occur in the period here spoken of; (2) the next clause is introduced by {de} (which can hardly here stand for {gar}); (3) when the eclipse occurred the fighting ceased, therefore it was no more a {nuktomakhin} than any other battle which is interrupted by darkness coming on.]

89 (return)
[ See ch. 188. Nabunita was his true name.]

90 (return)
[ See ch. 107 ff.]

91 (return)
[ Not "somewhere near the city of Sinope," for it must have been at a considerable distance and probably far inland. Sinope itself is at least fifty miles to the west of the Halys. I take it to mean that Pteria was nearly due south of Sinope, i.e. that the nearest road from Pteria to the sea led to Sinope. Pteria no doubt was the name of a region as well as of a city.]

92 (return)
[ {anastatous epoiese}.]

93 (return)
[ This is the son of the man mentioned in ch. 74.]

94 (return)
[ {us en autou xeinikos}. Stein translates "so much of it as was mercenary," but it may be doubted if this is possible. Mr. Woods, "which army of his was a foreign one."]

95 (return)
[ {Metros Dindumenes}, i.e. Kybele: the mountain is Dindymos in Phrygia.]

96 (return)
[ i.e. the whole strip of territory to the West of the peninsula of Argolis, which includes Thyrea and extends southwards to Malea: "westwards as far as Malea" would be absurd.]

97 (return)
[ {outos}: a conjectural emendation of {autos}.]

98 (return)
[ {autos}: some MSS. read {o autos}, "this same man."]

99 (return)
[ {aneneikamenon}, nearly equivalent to {anastemaxanta} (cp. Hom. Il. xix. 314), {mnesamenos d' adinos aneneikato phonesen te}. Some translate it here, "he recovered himself," cp. ch. 116, {aneneikhtheis}.]

100 (return)
[ {ubristai}.]

101 (return)
[ {proesousi}: a conjectural emendation of {poiesousi}, adopted in most of the modern editions.]

102 (return)
[ {touto oneidisai}: or {touton oneidisai}, "to reproach the god with these things." The best MSS. have {touto}.]

103 (return)
[ {to kai... eipe ta eipe Loxias k.t.l.}: various emendations have been proposed. If any one is to be adopted, the boldest would perhaps be the best, {to de kai... eipe Loxias}.]

104 (return)
[ {oia te kai alle khore}, "such as other lands have."]

105 (return)
[ {stadioi ex kai duo plethra}.]

106 (return)
[ {plethra tria kai deka}.]

107 (return)
[ {Gugaie}.]

108 (return)
[ Or "Tyrrhenia."]

109 (return)
[ Or "Umbrians."]

110 (return)
[ {tes ano 'Asies}, i.e. the parts which are removed from the Mediterranean.]


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