οὗτος μλεν οἱ ὁ λόγος ἧν τιμωρός: the words may mean “this manner of discourse was helpful for his purpose.” ↩
χρησμολόγον τε καὶ διαθέτην χρησμῶν τῶν Μουσαίου. ↩
ἀφανιζοίατο, representing the present tense ἀφανίζονται in the oracle. ↩
τὸν θρόνον τοῦτον: most MSS. have τὸν θρόνον, τοῦτο. ↩
ἐπίστασθέ κου πάντες: the MSS. have τὰ ἐπίστασθέ, which is given by most Editors. In that case οἷα ἔρξαν would be an exclamation, “What evils they did to us, … things which ye all know well, I think.” ↩
τούτων μέντοι εἵνεκα: it is hardly possible here to give μέντοι its usual meaning: Stein in his latest edition reads τούτων μὲν τοίνυν. ↩
συνήνεικε: Stein reads συνήνεικέ σε, “supposing that thou art worsted.” ↩
ἐπ’ ἀνδρί γε ἑνί, as opposed to a god. ↩
ἀκούσεσθαί τινά φημι τῶν κ.τ.λ., “each one of those who are left behind.” ↩
καὶ Κύρου, a conjectural emendation of τοῦ Κύρου. 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 Darius being, Darius, Hystaspes, Arsames, Ariamnes, Teïspes, and through the mother, Atossa, Cyrus, Cambyses, Teïspes. ↩
καὶ μάλα: perhaps, “even.” ↩
Lit. “nor is he present who will excuse thee.” ↩
Lit. “my youth boiled over.” ↩
Lit. “words more unseemly than was right.” ↩
ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ ταῦτά ἐστι ὦ παῖ θεῖα. ↩
πεπλανῆσθαι. ↩
αὗται: a correction of αὐταὶ. ↩
σὲ δὲ ἐπιφοιτήσει: the better MSS. have οὐδὲ ἐπιφοιτήσει, which is adopted by Stein. ↩
πέμπτῳ δὲ ἔτεϊ ἀνομένῳ. ↩
τὸν Ιόνιον. ↩
καὶ οὐδ’ εἰ ἕτεραι πρὸς ταύτῃσι προσγενόμεναι: some MSS. read οὐδ’ ἕτεραι πρὸς ταύτῃσι γενόμεναι, 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.” ↩
ἅμα στρατευιμένοισι: ἅμα is omitted in some MSS. ↩
σταδίων, and so throughout. ↩
ἐντὸς Σάνης: some MSS. read ἐκτὸς Σάνης, 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 τὸν Ἄθων just below clearly means the whole peninsula. ↩
λεθκολίνου. ↩
τὸν δὲ ὦ πλεῖστον: if this reading is right, σῖτον must be understood, and some MSS. read ἄλλον for ἄλλα in the sentence above. Stein in his latest edition reads σίτον instead of πλεῖστον. ↩
Lit. “the name of which happens to be Catarractes.” ↩
I.e. 4,000,000. ↩
The στατὴρ δαρεικὸς was of nearly pure gold (cp. IV. 166), weighing about 124 grains. ↩
στήλη, i.e. a square block of stone. ↩
ἀθανάτῳ ἀνδρί, taken by some to mean one of the body of “Immortals.” ↩
ἀκτὴ παχέα: some inferior MSS. read ἀκτὴ τραχέα, and hence some Editors have ἀκτὴ τρηχέα, “a rugged foreland.” ↩
σολερῷ: some Editors read θολερῷ, “turbid,” by conjecture. ↩
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 εὔρου 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 ἐπικάπσιος 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 πρὸς ἑσπέρης is used loosely below for the side toward the Aegean. For ἀνακωχεύῃ a subject must probably be supplied from the clause πενηκοντέρους—συνθέντες, “that it (i.e. the combination of ships) might support etc.,” and τὸν τόνον τῶν ὅπλων 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 ἐπικάρσιος (ἐπί κάρ) 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
