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

Volume 2 - BOOK VII.
The Seventh Book Of The Histories, Called Polymnia - Herodotus







Notes To Book Vii


1 (return)
[ {kai ploia}, for transport of horses and also of provisions: however these words are omitted in some of the best MSS.]

2 (return)
[ {all ei}: this is the reading of the better class of MSS. The rest have {alla}, which with {pressois} could only express a wish for success, and not an exhortation to action.]

3 (return)
[ {outos men oi o logos en timoros}: the words may mean "this manner of discourse was helpful for his purpose."]

4 (return)
[ {khresmologon e kai diatheten khresmon ton Mousaiou}.]

5 (return)
[ {aphanizoiato}, representing the present tense {aphanizontai} in the oracle.]

6 (return)
[ {ton thronon touton}: most MSS. have {ton thronon, touto}.]

7 (return)
[ {epistasthe kou pantes}: the MSS. have {ta epistasthe kou pantes}, which is given by most Editors. In that case {oia erxan} would be an exclamation, "What evils they did to us,... things which ye all know well, I think."]

8 (return)
[ {touton mentoi eineka}: it is hardly possible here to give {mentoi} its usual meaning: Stein in his latest edition reads {touton men toinun}.]

9 (return)
[ {suneneike}: Stein reads {suneneike se}, "supposing that thou art worsted."]

10 (return)
[ {ep andri ge eni}, as opposed to a god.]

11 (return)
[ {akousesthai tina psemi ton k.t.l.}, "each one of those who are left behind."]

12 (return)
[ {kai Kurou}, a conjectural emendation of {tou Kurou}. The text of the MSS. enumerates all these as one continuous line of ascent. It is clear however that the enumeration is in fact of two separate lines, which combine in Teïspes, the line of ascent through the father Dareios being, Dareios, Hystaspes, Arsames, Ariamnes, Teïspes, and through the mother, Atossa, Cyrus, Cambyses, Teïspes.]

13 (return)
[ {kai mala}: perhaps, "even."]

1301 (return)
[ Lit. "nor is he present who will excuse thee."]

14 (return)
[ Lit. "my youth boiled over."]

15 (return)
[ Lit. "words more unseemly than was right."]

16 (return)
[ {all oude tauta esti o pai theia}.]

17 (return)
[ {peplanesthai}.]

18 (return)
[ {autai}: a correction of {autai}.]

19 (return)
[ {se de epiphoitesei}: the better MSS. have {oude epiphoitesei}, which is adopted by Stein.]

20 (return)
[ {pempto de etei anomeno}.]

21 (return)
[ {ton Ionion}.]

22 (return)
[ {kai oud ei eperai pros tautesi prosgenomenai}: some MSS. read {oud eterai pros tautesi genomenai}, which is adopted (with variations) by some Editors. The meaning would be "not all these, nor others which happened in addition to these, were equal to this one."]

23 (return)
[ {ama strateuomenoisi}: {ama} is omitted in some MSS.]

24 (return)
[ {stadion}, and so throughout.]

25 (return)
[ {entos Sanes}: some MSS. read {ektos Sanes}, which is adopted by Stein, who translates "beyond Sane, but on this side of Mount Athos": this however will not suit the case of all the towns mentioned, e.g. Acrothoon, and {ton Athen} just below clearly means the whole peninsula.]

26 (return)
[ {leukolinou}.]

27 (return)
[ {ton de 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 (return)
[ Lit. "the name of which happens to be Catarractes."]

29 (return)
[ i.e. 4,000,000.]

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

3001 (return)
[ {stele}, i.e. a square block of stone.]

31 (return)
[ {athanato andri}, taken by some to mean one of the body of "Immortals."]

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

33 (return)
[ {dolero}: some Editors read {tholero}, "turbid," by conjecture.]

34 (return)
[ 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 (return)
[ {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 (return)
[ {eurou}: Stein adopts the conjecture {zephurou}.]

37 (return)
[ {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 (return)
[ i.e. in proportion to the quantity: there was of course a greater weight altogether of the papyrus rope.]

39 (return)
[ {autis epezeugnuon}.]

40 (return)
[ {ekleipsin}: cp. {eklipon} above.]

41 (return)
[ Or, according to some MSS., "Nisaian."]

42 (return)
[ i.e. not downwards.]

43 (return)
[ {tina autou sukhnon omilon}.]

44 (return)
[ {to Priamou Pergamon}.]

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

46 (return)
[ {proexedre lothou leukou}: some kind of portico or loggia seems to be meant.]

47 (return)
[ {daimonie andoon}.]

48 (return)
[ {ena auton}.]

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

50 (return)
[ {neoteron ti poiesein}.]

51 (return)
[ Or, according to some MSS., "the Persian land."]

52 (return)
[ Lit. "the name of which happens to be Agora."]

53 (return)
[ i.e. 1,700,000.]

54 (return)
[ {sunnaxantes}: a conjectural emendation very generally adopted of {sunaxantes} or {sunapsantes}.]

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

56 (return)
[ {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 (return)
[ {gerra}: cp. ix. 61 and 102.]

58 (return)
[ Cp. i. 7.]

59 (return)
[ {mitrephoroi esan}: the {mitre} was perhaps a kind of turban.]

60 (return)
[ {tesi Aiguptiesi}, apparently {makhairesi} is meant to be supplied: cp. ch. 91.]

61 (return)
[ {eklethesan}, "were called" from the first.]

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

64 (return)
[ i.e. Areians, cp. iii. 93.]

65 (return)
[ {sisurnas}: cp. iv. 109.]

66 (return)
[ {akinakas}.]

67 (return)
[ {sisurnophoroi}.]

68 (return)
[ {zeiras}.]

69 (return)
[ {toxa palintona}.]

70 (return)
[ {spathes}, which perhaps means the stem of the leaf.]

71 (return)
[ {gupso}, "white chalk."]

72 (return)
[ {milto}, "red ochre."]

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

75 (return)
[ {anastpastous}: cp. iii. 93.]

76 (return)
[ 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 (return)
[ {tukhe}, "hits."]

78 (return)
[ {keletas}, "single horses."]

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

80 (return)
[ {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 (return)
[ i.e. 80,000.]

82 (return)
[ {Suroisi}, see note on ii. 104.]

83 (return)
[ {tukous}, which appears to mean ordinarily a tool for stone-cutting.]

84 (return)
[ {mitresi}, perhaps "turbans."]

85 (return)
[ {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 (return)
[ {kithonas}.]

87 (return)
[ {drepana}, "reaping-hooks," cp. v. 112.]

88 (return)
[ See i. 171.]

89 (return)
[ {Pelasgoi Aigialees}.]

90 (return)
[ {kerkouroi}.]

91 (return)
[ {makra}: some MSS. and editions have {smikra}, "small."]

92 (return)
[ Or "Mapen."]

93 (return)
[ Or "Seldomos."]

94 (return)
[ {metopedon}.]

95 (return)
[ {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 (return)
[ {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 (return)
[ {stergein malista}.]

98 (return)
[ {oudamoi ko}.]

99 (return)
[ Or, "Strauos."]

100 (return)
[ Or, "Compsatos."]

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

102 (return)
[ Or, "Pistiros."]

103 (return)
[ {oi propheteountes}, i.e. those who interpret the utterances of the Oracle, cp. viii. 36.]

104 (return)
[ {promantis}.]

105 (return)
[ {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. Phoen. 470 and Hel. 711 (quoted by Bähr).]

106 (return)
[ "Ennea Hodoi."]

107 (return)
[ Cp. iii. 84.]

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

109 (return)
[ Or, "Cape Canastraion."]

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

111 (return)
[ {pro mesogaian tamnon tes odou}: cp. iv. 12 and ix. 89.]

112 (return)
[ 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 (return)
[ Some MSS. have {Ainienes} for {Enienes}.]

114 (return)
[ {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 (return)
[ {es to barathron}, the place of execution at Athens.]

116 (return)
[ "undesirable thing."]

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

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


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