- 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-grc2:1.215.1-1.215.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-03
Describes the clothing, lifestyle, and military equipment of the Massagetae, explaining that they make extensive use of gold and bronze, which are abundant in their land, while completely lacking iron and silver.
Μασσαγέται δὲ ἐσθῆτά τε ὁμοίην τῇ Σκυθικῇ1 φορέουσι καὶ δίαιταν ἔχουσι, ἱππόται δὲ εἰσὶ καὶ ἄνιπποι (ἀμφοτέρων γὰρ μετέχουσι) καὶ τοξόται τε καὶ αἰχμοφόροι, σαγάρις νομίζοντες2 ἔχειν. χρυσῷ δὲ καὶ χαλκῷ τὰ πάντα χρέωνται· ὅσα μὲν γὰρ ἐς αἰχμὰς καὶ ἄρδις καὶ σαγάρις, χαλκῷ τὰ πάντα χρέωνται, ὅσα δὲ περὶ κεφαλὴν καὶ ζωστῆρας καὶ μασχαλιστῆρας, χρυσῷ κοσμέονται.
And the Massagetae wear clothing similar to the Scythian and have a similar lifestyle, and they are both horsemen and foot-soldiers (for they partake of both), and both archers and spear-bearers, being accustomed to have sagareis. They use gold and bronze for everything; for as for spear-heads, arrow-points, and sagareis, they use bronze for all of them, while as for what is around the head, belts, and breast-bands, they are adorned with gold.
ὣς δʼ αὕτως τῶν ἵππων τὰ μὲν περὶ τὰ στέρνα χαλκέους θώρηκας περιβάλλουσι, τὰ δὲ περὶ τοὺς χαλινοὺς καὶ στόμια καὶ φάλαρα χρυσῷ. σιδήρῳ δὲ οὐδʼ ἀργύρῳ χρέωνται οὐδέν· οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδέ3 σφι ἐστὶ ἐν τῇ χωρῇ, ὁ δὲ χρυσὸς καὶ ὁ χαλκὸς ἄπλετος.
And in the same way, as for their horses, they put bronze breastplates around their chests, but the parts around the reins, bits, and cheek-pieces they adorn with gold. They use neither iron nor silver at all; for they do not even have them in their country, while gold and bronze are abundant.
- 1.215.1τῇ Σκυθικῇ
In the phrase ὁμοίην τῇ Σκυθικῇ, the noun ἐσθῆτι (clothing) is omitted after the dative adjective τῇ Σκυθικῇ. This is an instance of compendiary comparison (brachylogy of comparison) meaning 'clothing similar to the Scythian clothing'.
- 1.215.1νομίζοντες
The participle νομίζοντες is used here in the sense of 'being accustomed' rather than 'thinking', and taking the infinitive ἔχειν, it means 'being accustomed to have (sagareis)'.
- 1.215.2οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδέ
An accumulation of strong negatives. The first οὐδέ works with γάρ ('for... not'), while the second οὐδέ emphasizes the following pronoun ('not even'), meaning 'for indeed they do not even have them in their country'.