- 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-grc2:1.57.1-1.57.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-29
Herodotus deduces from the linguistic features of surviving Pelasgians that they originally spoke a non-Greek language, and argues that the Attic people also changed their language upon becoming Hellenes.
ἥντινα δὲ γλῶσσαν ἵεσαν οἱ Πελασγοί, οὐκ ἔχω ἀτρεκέως εἰπεῖν. εἰ δὲ χρεόν ἐστι τεκμαιρόμενον λέγειν τοῖσι νῦν ἔτι ἐοῦσι Πελασγῶν1 τῶν ὑπὲρ Τυρσηνῶν Κρηστῶνα πόλιν οἰκεόντων, οἳ ὅμουροι κοτὲ ἦσαν τοῖσι νῦν Δωριεῦσι καλεομένοισι (οἴκεον δὲ τηνικαῦτα γῆν τὴν νῦν Θεσσαλιῶτιν καλεομένην), καὶ τῶν Πλακίην τε καὶ Σκυλάκην Πελασγῶν οἰκησάντων ἐν Ἑλλησπόντῳ, οἳ σύνοικοι ἐγένοντο Ἀθηναίοισι, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα Πελασγικὰ ἐόντα πολίσματα τὸ οὔνομα μετέβαλε· εἰ τούτοισι τεκμαιρόμενον δεῖ λέγειν, ἦσαν οἱ Πελασγοὶ βάρβαρον γλῶσσαν ἱέντες.2
What language the Pelasgians spoke, I cannot say for certain. But if one must judge by those of the Pelasgians who still exist now, inhabiting the city of Creston above the Tyrrhenians, who were once neighbors to those now called Dorians (and at that time inhabited the land now called Thessaliotis), and by those Pelasgians who settled Placia and Skylake on the Hellespont, who became co-dwellers with the Athenians, and by all the other cities which, being Pelasgian, changed their names—if one must judge by these, the Pelasgians spoke a barbarian tongue.
εἰ τοίνυν ἦν καὶ πᾶν τοιοῦτο τὸ Πελασγικόν, τὸ Ἀττικὸν ἔθνος ἐὸν Πελασγικὸν ἅμα τῇ μεταβολῇ τῇ ἐς Ἕλληνας καὶ τὴν γλῶσσαν μετέμαθε. καὶ γὰρ δὴ οὔτε οἱ Κρηστωνιῆται οὐδαμοῖσι τῶν νῦν σφέας περιοικεόντων εἰσὶ ὁμόγλωσσοι οὔτε οἱ Πλακιηνοί, σφίσι3 δὲ ὁμόγλωσσοι· δηλοῦσί τε ὅτι τὸν ἠνείκαντο γλώσσης χαρακτῆρα μεταβαίνοντες ἐς ταῦτα τὰ χωρία, τοῦτον4 ἔχουσι ἐν φυλακῇ.
If, then, the whole Pelasgian race was such, the Attic nation, being Pelasgian, changed its language at the same time as it was transformed into Hellenes. For indeed, neither the Crestonians speak the same language as any of those who now dwell around them, nor do the Placians, but they speak the same language as each other; and they show that they keep in safe-keeping the character of the language which they brought with them when they migrated to these regions.
- 1.57.1τοῖσι νῦν ἔτι ἐοῦσι Πελασγῶν
The dative participle phrase τοῖσι ... ἐοῦσι acts as the object of τεκμαιρόμενον ("judging by..."). Πελασγῶν is a partitive genitive. Note that the subsequent phrase in 1.57.2, τῶν Πλακίην... οἰκησάντων, which serves the same function of indicating the grounds for judgment, is in the genitive case, resulting in an anacoluthon (lack of grammatical agreement).
- 1.57.2ἦσαν ... ἱέντες
A periphrastic construction combining the imperfect of the verb "to be" (ἦσαν) with the active present participle ἱέντες (from ἵημι), emphasizing an ongoing state or habitual action ("they were speaking").
- 1.57.3σφίσι
The third-person plural reflexive pronoun in the dative case is used here in place of the reciprocal pronoun ἀλλήλοις ("to one another"), meaning "mutually" or "with one another" (between the residents of different towns).
- 1.57.3τὸν ἠνείκαντο γλώσσης χαρακτῆρα ... τοῦτον
The definite article τὸν is used in its Ionic relative pronoun sense. The antecedent χαρακτῆρα is incorporated into the relative clause, and then referred back to by the demonstrative τοῦτον in the main clause. The verb ἠνείκαντο is the Ionic form of the 3rd person plural aorist middle of φέρω.