- Source
- Thucydides. Historiae, Vol 1-2. Jones, Henry Stuart, editor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1910. (1942 printing).
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:2.47.1-2.47.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-22
With the winter funeral completed and the first year of the war ended, the second year begins with another Peloponnesian invasion of Attica, accompanied by the outbreak of an unprecedented plague in Athens.
τοιόσδε μὲν ὁ τάφος ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ χειμῶνι τούτῳ· καὶ διελθόντος αὐτοῦ πρῶτον ἔτος τοῦ πολέμου τοῦδε ἐτελεύτα.
Such was the funeral that took place during this winter; and with its passing, the first year of this war came to an end.
τοῦ δὲ θέρους εὐθὺς ἀρχομένου Πελοποννήσιοι καὶ οἱ ξύμμαχοι τὰ δύο μέρη ὥσπερ καὶ τὸ πρῶτον ἐσέβαλον ἐς τὴν Ἀττικήν (ἡγεῖτο δὲ Ἀρχίδαμος ὁ Ζευξιδάμου Λακεδαιμονίων βασιλεύς), καὶ καθεζόμενοι ἐδῄουν τὴν γῆν.
At the very beginning of summer, the Peloponnesians and their allies, with two-thirds of their forces just as the first time, invaded Attica (Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, was leading them), and settling down, they ravaged the land.
καὶ ὄντων αὐτῶν οὐ πολλάς πω ἡμέρας ἐν τῇ Ἀττικῇ ἡ νόσος πρῶτον ἤρξατο γενέσθαι τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις, λεγόμενον1 μὲν καὶ πρότερον πολλαχόσε ἐγκατασκῆψαι καὶ περὶ Λῆμνον καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις χωρίοις, οὐ μέντοι τοσοῦτός γε λοιμὸς οὐδὲ φθορὰ οὕτως ἀνθρώπων οὐδαμοῦ ἐμνημονεύετο γενέσθαι.
And they had not yet been many days in Attica when the plague first began to appear among the Athenians. It was said indeed to have fallen previously upon many other places, both around Lemnos and in other regions, yet no such great pestilence nor such destruction of human lives was remembered to have occurred anywhere.
οὔτε γὰρ ἰατροὶ ἤρκουν τὸ πρῶτον θεραπεύοντες ἀγνοίᾳ, ἀλλ’ αὐτοὶ μάλιστα ἔθνῃσκον ὅσῳ καὶ μάλιστα2 προσῇσαν, οὔτε ἄλλη ἀνθρωπεία τέχνη οὐδεμία· ὅσα τε πρὸς ἱεροῖς ἱκέτευσαν ἢ μαντείοις καὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις ἐχρήσαντο, πάντα ἀνωφελῆ ἦν, τελευτῶντές3 τε αὐτῶν ἀπέστησαν4 ὑπὸ τοῦ κακοῦ νικώμενοι.
For neither were physicians of any service at first, treating it in ignorance—on the contrary, they themselves died most of all, the more they came into contact with it—nor did any other human art avail. And all the supplications they made at temples, or inquiries they made at oracles and the like, were of no avail, and at last, overcome by the disaster, they abandoned them.
- 2.47.3λεγόμενον
An accusative absolute, or an anacoluthon where the participle is in the neuter accusative singular, although it refers back to the feminine subject "ἡ νόσος". It functions impersonally as "it being said that...".
- 2.47.4ὅσῳ καὶ μάλιστα
The relative dative "ὅσῳ" combined with "μάλιστα" forms a proportional correlative expression meaning "the more... the more...". It highlights the tragic correlation that the more the physicians came into contact with the sick, the more they themselves died.
- 2.47.4τελευτῶντές
The present participle nominative plural of "τελευτάω" (to end), used adverbially to mean "at last" or "in the end".
- 2.47.4αὐτῶν ἀπέστησαν
The second aorist (intransitive) of "ἀφίστημι", meaning "to desist from, abandon," governing the genitive "αὐτῶν". The pronoun refers back to "ὅσα..." (all the supplications and oracles mentioned in the previous clause).