- 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-grc2:1.195.1-1.195.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-02
This passage describes the clothing of the Babylonians (tunics, cloaks, local shoes, and turbans with perfumes) and their custom of carrying a seal and a staff adorned with various devices such as apples, roses, or eagles.
τὰ μὲν δὴ πλοῖα αὐτοῖσι ἐστὶ τοιαῦτα· ἐσθῆτι δὲ τοιῇδε χρέωνται, κιθῶνι ποδηνεκέι λινέῳ, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦτον ἄλλον εἰρίνεον κιθῶνα ἐπενδύνει1 καὶ χλανίδιον λευκὸν περιβαλλόμενος, ὑποδήματα ἔχων ἐπιχώρια, παραπλήσια τῇσι Βοιωτίῃσι ἐμβάσι. κομῶντες δὲ τὰς κεφαλὰς μίτρῃσι ἀναδέονται, μεμυρισμένοι πᾶν τὸ σῶμα.
Their boats, then, are of such a kind. As for their clothing, they use the following: a linen tunic reaching to the feet, and over this he puts on another tunic of wool, and wraps himself in a small white cloak, having local shoes, very similar to Boeotian slippers. They let their hair grow long and bind their heads with turbans, having their whole body anointed with perfumes.
σφρηγῖδα δὲ ἕκαστος ἔχει καὶ σκῆπτρον χειροποίητον· ἐπʼ ἑκάστῳ δὲ σκήπτρῳ ἔπεστι πεποιημένον2 ἢ μῆλον ἢ ῥόδον ἢ κρίνον ἢ αἰετὸς ἢ ἄλλο τι· ἄνευ γὰρ ἐπισήμου οὔ σφι νόμος ἐστὶ ἔχειν σκῆπτρον.
And each of them has a seal and a hand-carved staff; and on each staff there is made and set either an apple, or a rose, or a lily, or an eagle, or something else. For it is not their custom to have a staff without some device.
- 1.195.1ἐπενδύνει
Although the sentence begins with the plural verb χρέωνται, the subject shifts to an individual Babylonian, hence the third-person singular verb ἐπενδύνει and the singular participles περιβαλλόμενος and ἔχων. The subject then reverts to the plural in κομῶντες, ἀναδέονται, and μεμυρισμένοι. This shifting between plural collective and singular individual is a common stylistic feature in Herodotus.
- 1.195.2πεποιημένον
A perfect passive participle in the neuter singular. It agrees with the first noun in the list, μῆλον (neuter), although other nouns follow (including the masculine αἰετός), or it functions as a generic neuter predicate referring to "something fashioned" in the shape of an apple, rose, etc.