- 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-grc2:1.65.1-1.65.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-29
Croesus learns that while Athens is under tyranny, Lacedaemon (Sparta) has overcome major difficulties and gained the upper hand against Tegea. Sparta was previously ill-governed, but Lycurgus thoroughly reformed its constitution and military systems, either through the Delphic oracle or by importing laws from Crete.
τοὺς μέν νυν Ἀθηναίους τοιαῦτα τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον ἐπυνθάνετο ὁ Κροῖσος κατέχοντα, τοὺς δὲ Λακεδαιμονίους1 ἐκ κακῶν τε μεγάλων πεφευγότας καὶ ἐόντας ἤδη τῷ πολέμῳ κατυπερτέρους Τεγεητέων. ἐπὶ γὰρ Λέοντος βασιλεύοντος καὶ Ἡγησικλέος ἐν Σπάρτῃ τοὺς ἄλλους πολέμους εὐτυχέοντες οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι πρὸς Τεγεήτας μούνους προσέπταιον.
Now Croesus learned that, as for the Athenians, such things were besetting them at this time, while as for the Lacedaemonians, he learned that they had escaped from great evils and were by now superior to the Tegeans in war. For during the reigns of Leon and Hegesicles in Sparta, though the Lacedaemonians were successful in their other wars, they suffered defeats against the Tegeans alone.
τὸ δὲ ἔτι πρότερον τούτων καί κακονομώτατοι ἦσαν σχεδὸν πάντων Ἑλλήνων κατά τε σφέας αὐτοὺς καὶ ξείνοισι ἀπρόσμικτοι·2 μετέβαλον δὲ ὧδε ἐς εὐνομίην. Λυκούργου τῶν Σπαρτιητέων δοκίμου ἀνδρὸς ἐλθόντος ἐς Δελφοὺς ἐπὶ τὸ χρηστήριον, ὡς ἐσήιε ἐς τὸ μέγαρον, εὐθὺς ἡ Πυθίη λέγει τάδε.
But even prior to this, they had been under the worst laws of almost all the Greeks, both among themselves and being unsociable toward strangers; but they changed to good laws in this way. When Lycurgus, a distinguished man among the Spartans, went to Delphi to consult the oracle, as he entered the inner hall, the Pythia immediately spoke these words:
" ἥκεις ὦ Λυκόοργε ἐμὸν ποτὶ πίονα νηόν Ζηνὶ φίλος καὶ πᾶσιν Ὀλύμπια δώματʼ ἔχουσι. δίζω ἤ σε θεὸν μαντεύσομαι ἢ ἄνθρωπον. ἀλλʼ ἔτι καὶ μᾶλλον θεὸν ἔλπομαι, ὦ Λυκόοργε."
” You have come, Lycurgus, to my rich temple, dear to Zeus and to all who hold Olympian dwellings. I am in doubt whether I shall declare you a god or a human. But yet more, I expect you to be a god, Lycurgus.”
οἳ μὲν δή τινες πρὸς τούτοισι λέγουσι καὶ φράσαι αὐτῷ τὴν Πυθίην τὸν νῦν κατεστεῶτα κόσμον Σπαρτιήτῃσι. ὡς δʼ αὐτοὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι λέγουσι, Λυκοῦργον ἐπιτροπεύσαντα Λεωβώτεω, ἀδελφιδέου μὲν ἑωυτοῦ βασιλεύοντος δὲ Σπαρτιητέων, ἐκ Κρήτης ἀγαγέσθαι ταῦτα.3
Now some say in addition to this that the Pythia also declared to him the order that is now established for the Spartans. But as the Lacedaemonians themselves say, Lycurgus brought these institutions from Crete when he was guardian to Leobotes, his own nephew who was king of the Spartans.
ὡς γὰρ ἐπετρόπευσε τάχιστα, μετέστησε τὰ νόμιμα πάντα, καὶ ἐφύλαξε ταῦτα μὴ παραβαίνειν·4 μετὰ δὲ τὰ ἐς πόλεμον ἔχοντα, ἐνωμοτίας καὶ τριηκάδας καὶ συσσίτια, πρός τε τούτοισι τοὺς ἐφόρους καὶ γέροντας ἔστησε Λυκοῦργος.
For as soon as he became guardian, he changed all the laws and took care that they should not be transgressed; and afterwards, Lycurgus established things pertaining to war—the enomotiai, the triacades, and the syssitia—and in addition to these, the ephors and the elders.
- 1.65.1τοὺς μέν νυν Ἀθηναίους τοιαῦτα τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον ἐπυνθάνετο ὁ Κροῖσος κατέχοντα, τοὺς δὲ Λακεδαιμονίους...
The verb ἐπυνθάνετο ('learned/found out') takes accusative participles (κατέχοντα, πεφευγότας, ἐόντας) agreeing with their respective objects (τοὺς Ἀθηναίους, τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους) to express indirect discourse, rather than using an infinitive construction or a ὅτι/ὡς clause.
- 1.65.2κατά τε σφέας αὐτοὺς καὶ ξείνοισι ἀπρόσμικτοι
The conjunction τε...καί connects asymmetrical grammatical structures: the prepositional phrase κατά σφέας αὐτοὺς ('among themselves') and the dative ξείνοισι ('with strangers') which depends on the adjective ἀπρόσμικτοι ('unsociable').
- 1.65.4Λυκοῦργον ἐπιτροπεύσαντα Λεωβώτεω, ἀδελφιδέου μὲν ἑωυτοῦ βασιλεύοντος δὲ Σπαρτιητέων, ἐκ Κρήτης ἀγαγέσθαι ταῦτα
An accusative-and-infinitive (AcI) construction dependent on λέγουσι, where Λυκοῦργον is the subject and ἀγαγέσθαι is the infinitive. Inside this clause, the aorist participle ἐπιτροπεύσαντα agrees with Λυκοῦργον and governs the genitive object Λεωβώτεω, which in turn is modified by the appositive structures ἀδελφιδέου and βασιλεύοντος.
- 1.65.5ἐφύλαξε ταῦτα μὴ παραβαίνειν
The verb φυλάσσω ('guard, take care') is followed by the negative particle μὴ and an active infinitive (παραβαίνειν), carrying the preventative meaning 'he guarded these things so that they should not be transgressed' (with the indefinite subject of the infinitive understood as 'people' or 'anyone').