- 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-grc2:1.68.1-1.68.6
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-29
Lichas of Sparta solved the riddle of the oracle through a conversation and observation at a smithy in Tegea, discovered the giant bones of Orestes, and brought them back to Sparta, leading to Spartan superiority in the war.
τούτων ὦν τῶν ἀνδρῶν Λίχης ἀνεῦρε ἐν Τεγέῃ καὶ συντυχίῃ χρησάμενος καὶ σοφίῃ. ἐούσης γὰρ τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον ἐπιμιξίης πρὸς τοὺς Τεγεήτας, ἐλθὼν ἐς χαλκήιον ἐθηεῖτο σίδηρον ἐξελαυνόμενον, καὶ ἐν θώματι ἦν ὀρέων1 τὸ ποιεόμενον.
Now Lichas, one of these men, found it in Tegea, employing both fortune and wisdom. For since there was at this time intercourse with the Tegeans, he went to a smithy and watched iron being forged, and he was in wonder as he looked at what was being done.
μαθὼν δέ μιν ὁ χαλκεὺς ἀποθωμάζοντα εἶπε παυσάμενος τοῦ ἔργου ἦ κου ἄν, ὦ ξεῖνε Λάκων εἴ περ εἶδες τό περ ἐγώ, κάρτα ἂν ἐθώμαζες,2 ὅκου νῦν οὕτω τυγχάνεις θῶμα ποιεύμενος τὴν ἐργασίην τοῦ σιδήρου.
And the smith, perceiving that he was wondering, stopped his work and said: “Surely, Laconian stranger, if you had seen what I have seen, you would have wondered exceedingly, since you now find so much wonder in the working of iron.
ἐγὼ γὰρ ἐν τῇδε θέλων τῇ αὐλῇ φρέαρ ποιήσασθαι, ὀρύσσων ἐπέτυχον σορῷ ἑπταπήχεϊ· ὑπὸ δὲ ἀπιστίης μὴ μὲν γενέσθαι3 μηδαμὰ μέζονας ἀνθρώπους τῶν νῦν ἄνοιξα αὐτὴν καὶ εἶδον τὸν νεκρὸν μήκεϊ ἴσον ἐόντα τῇ σορῷ· μετρήσας δὲ συνέχωσα ὀπίσω. ὃ μὲν δή οἱ ἔλεγε τά περ ὀπώπεε, ὁ δὲ ἐννώσας τὰ λεγόμενα συνεβάλλετο τὸν Ὀρέστεα κατὰ τὸ θεοπρόπιον τοῦτον εἶναι, τῇδε συμβαλλόμενος·
For I, wishing to make a well in this courtyard here, in digging came upon a coffin of seven cubits; and because of disbelief that there had ever been men larger than those of the present day, I opened it and saw the corpse being equal in length to the coffin; and having measured it, I heaped the earth over it again.” The smith, indeed, told him what he had seen, and Lichas, reflecting on what was said, conjectured that this was Orestes according to the oracle, conjecturing it in this way:
τοῦ χαλκέος δύο ὁρέων φύσας τοὺς ἀνέμους εὕρισκε ἐόντας, τὸν δὲ ἄκμονα καὶ τὴν σφῦραν τόν τε τύπον καὶ τὸν ἀντίτυπον, τὸν δὲ ἐξελαυνόμενον σίδηρον τὸ πῆμα ἐπὶ πήματι κείμενον, κατὰ τοιόνδε τι εἰκάζων, ὡς ἐπὶ κακῷ ἀνθρώπου σίδηρος ἀνεύρηται.
seeing the two bellows of the smith, he found that they were the “winds,” and the anvil and the hammer were the “stroke and counter-stroke,” and the iron being forged was the “woe lying upon woe,” guessing it by some such reasoning as that iron was discovered for the hurt of man.
συμβαλόμενος δὲ ταῦτα καὶ ἀπελθὼν ἐς Σπάρτην ἔφραζε Λακεδαιμονίοσσι πᾶν τὸ πρῆγμα. οἳ δὲ ἐκ λόγου πλαστοῦ ἐπενείκαντὲς οἱ αἰτίην ἐδίωξαν. ὁ δὲ ἀπικόμενος ἐς Τεγέην καὶ φράζων τὴν ἑωυτοῦ συμφορὴν πρὸς τὸν χαλκέα ἐμισθοῦτο παρʼ οὐκ ἐκδιδόντος4 τὴν αὐλήν·
Having conjectured these things, he went back to Sparta and told the Lacedaemonians the whole matter. And they, having brought a charge against him on a fabricated story, banished him. And he, coming to Tegea and explaining his misfortune to the smith, tried to rent the courtyard from him who would not let it.
χρόνῳ δὲ ὡς ἀνέγνωσε, ἐνοικίσθη, ἀνορύξας δὲ τὸν τάφον καὶ τὰ ὀστέα συλλέξας οἴχετο φέρων ἐς Σπάρτην. καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου τοῦ χρόνου, ὅκως πειρῴατο ἀλλήλων, πολλῷ κατυπέρτεροι τῷ πολέμῳ ἐγίνοντο οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι· ἤδη δέ σφι καὶ ἡ πολλὴ τῆς Πελοποννήσου ἦν κατεστραμμένη.
In time, having persuaded him, he lodged there, and having dug up the grave and gathered the bones, he departed carrying them to Sparta. And from this time, whenever they made trial of each other, the Lacedaemonians became much superior in the war; and already most of the Peloponnese had been subdued by them.
- 1.68.1ἐν θώματι ἦν ὀρέων
Although ἦν ὀρέων might resemble a periphrastic progressive construction consisting of the copula ἦν and the participle ὀρέων (Ionic for ὁράων), here ὀρέων functions as a circumstantial participle modifying the prepositional phrase ἐν θώματι ἦν ('he was in wonder').
- 1.68.2ἦ κου ἄν ... κάρτα ἂν ἐθώμαζες
The modal particle ἄν is repeated twice in the apodosis: once near the beginning of the clause (ἦ κου ἄν) and again before the main verb (κάρτα ἂν ἐθώμαζες). This double ἄν is a common stylistic feature used to emphasize the counterfactual nature of the statement (unreal past).
- 1.68.3ὑπὸ δὲ ἀπιστίης μὴ μὲν γενέσθαι
An appositional infinitive phrase explaining the content of the noun ἀπιστίης (disbelief). In Greek, nouns of doubting or denying are regularly followed by an infinitive with a redundant negative μή. The particle μὲν here is the Ionic form of the emphatic μήν.
- 1.68.5ἐμισθοῦτο παρʼ οὐκ ἐκδιδόντος
The imperfect verb ἐμισθοῦτο is a conative imperfect, indicating an attempted action ('tried to rent' or 'negotiated to rent'). Additionally, although participles normally take the negative μή, οὐκ is used here because οὐκ ἐκδίδωμι forms a single cohesive negative concept meaning 'to refuse to let' or 'not to give up'.
Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25) · Revision history (1, latest 2026-09-22)
- 2026-09-22 AI review — source 1