- Source
- Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, editor. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (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:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.135.1
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-31
Describes the Persian readiness to adopt foreign customs, such as Median dress, Egyptian breastplates, and Greek love of boys, as well as their practice of marrying multiple wives and keeping many concubines.
ξεινικὰ δὲ νόμαια Πέρσαι προσίενται ἀνδρῶν μάλιστα.1 καὶ γὰρ δὴ τὴν Μηδικὴν ἐσθῆτα νομίσαντες τῆς ἑωυτῶν2 εἶναι καλλίω φορέουσι, καὶ ἐς τοὺς πολέμους τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους θώρηκας· καὶ εὐπαθείας τε παντοδαπὰς πυνθανόμενοι ἐπιτηδεύουσι, καὶ δὴ καὶ ἀπʼ Ἑλλήνων μαθόντες παισὶ μίσγονται. γαμέουσι δὲ ἕκαστος αὐτῶν3 πολλὰς μὲν κουριδίας γυναῖκας, πολλῷ δʼ ἔτι πλεῦνας παλλακὰς κτῶνται.
The Persians welcome foreign customs more than any other people. Indeed, they wear the Median dress, thinking it to be more beautiful than their own, and in war they use Egyptian breastplates. They also practice all kinds of luxury when they hear of them, and moreover, having learned it from the Greeks, they have intercourse with boys. Each of them marries many wedded wives, and they keep a far greater number of concubines.
- 1.135.1ἀνδρῶν μάλιστα
Meaning "most of all men" or "more than any other people." The genitive ἀνδρῶν functions as a partitive genitive or a genitive of comparison, emphasizing that the Persians adopt foreign customs more readily than any other nation.
- 1.135.1τῆς ἑωυτῶν
Genitive of comparison with the comparative καλλίω (more beautiful). The feminine noun ἐσθῆτος (dress) is omitted, meaning "than their own [dress]."
- 1.135.1γαμέουσι δὲ ἕκαστος αὐτῶν
The singular subject ἕκαστος αὐτῶν is used with the plural verbs γαμέουσι (and κτῶνται). This is a construction of "whole and part" (σχῆμα καθʼ ὅλον καὶ μέρος), where the plural subject ("the Persians") is grammatically in the mind of the writer, and the singular ἕκαστος is added in apposition to distribute the action to each individual.