- 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-grc2:2.121A.1-2.121A.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-07
King Rhampsinitus builds a stone treasury to store his immense wealth, but the builder leaves a secretly removable stone and reveals this secret to his two sons on his deathbed. The sons then break into the treasury and steal the treasure.
πλοῦτον δὲ τούτῳ τῷ βασιλέι γενέσθαι1 ἀργύρου μέγαν, τὸν οὐδένα τῶν ὕστερον ἐπιτραφέντων βασιλέων δύνασθαι ὑπερβαλέσθαι οὐδʼ ἐγγὺς ἐλθεῖν. βουλόμενον δὲ αὐτὸν ἐν ἀσφαλείῃ τὰ χρήματα θησαυρίζειν οἰκοδομέεσθαι οἴκημα λίθινον, τοῦ2 τῶν τοίχων ἕνα ἐς τὸ ἔξω μέρος τῆς οἰκίης ἔχειν. τὸν δὲ ἐργαζόμενον ἐπιβουλεύοντα τάδε μηχανᾶσθαι· τῶν λίθων παρασκευάσασθαι ἕνα ἐξαιρετὸν εἶναι ἐκ τοῦ τοίχου ῥηιδίως καὶ ὑπὸ δύο ἀνδρῶν καὶ ὑπὸ ἑνός.
They said that this king came to have a great wealth of silver, which none of the kings who were born after him could surpass or even come close to. Wishing to store his treasures in safety, he had a stone chamber built, of which one of the walls faced towards the outside of the building. But the builder, having a design in mind, contrived the following scheme: he prepared one of the stones so that it could easily be removed from the wall, either by two men or even by one.
ὡς δὲ ἐπετελέσθη τὸ οἴκημα, τὸν μὲν βασιλέα θησαυρίσαι τὰ χρήματα ἐν αὐτῷ· χρόνου δὲ περιιόντος τὸν οἰκοδόμον περὶ τελευτὴν τοῦ βίου ἐόντα ἀνακαλέσασθαι τοὺς παῖδας (εἶναι γὰρ αὐτῷ δύο), τούτοισι δὲ ἀπηγήσασθαι ὡς ἐκείνων προορῶν,3 ὅκως βίον ἄφθονον ἔχωσι, τεχνάσαιτο οἰκοδομέων τὸν θησαυρὸν τοῦ βασιλέος· σαφέως δὲ αὐτοῖσι πάντα ἐξηγησάμενον τὰ περὶ τὴν ἐξαίρεσιν τοῦ λίθου δοῦναι τὰ μέτρα αὐτοῦ, λέγοντα ὡς ταῦτα διαφυλάσσοντες ταμίαι τῶν βασιλέος χρημάτων ἔσονται.
When the chamber was completed, the king stored his treasures in it. As time went on, the builder, being near the end of his life, called his sons to him (for he had two), and explained to them that, looking out for them so that they might have an abundant livelihood, he had used artifice when building the king’s treasury. Having clearly explained to them everything concerning the removal of the stone, he gave them its measurements, saying that by keeping these safe they would be the stewards of the king’s treasures.
καὶ τὸν μὲν τελευτῆσαι τὸν βίον, τοὺς δὲ παῖδας οὐκ ἐς μακρὴν ἔργου ἔχεσθαι,4 ἐπελθόντας δὲ ἐπὶ τὰ βασιλήια νυκτὸς καὶ τὸν λίθον ἐπὶ τῷ οἰκοδομήματι ἀνευρόντας ῥηιδίως μεταχειρίσασθαι καὶ τῶν χρημάτων πολλὰ ἐξενείκασθαι.
And he indeed ended his life, and his sons did not wait long to set to work; going to the palace by night and finding the stone in the building, they easily handled it and carried away much of the treasure.
- 2.121A.1γενέσθαι
Infinitive in indirect discourse, depending on ἔλεγον (they said) from the previous section. Most main verbs in this chunk (such as δύνασθαι, οἰκοδομέεσθαι, μηχανᾶσθαι) are likewise infinitives to maintain this reported speech context.
- 2.121A.1τοῦ
Genitive of the relative pronoun (Ionic form) referring to the antecedent οἴκημα (chamber). It functions as a partitive genitive with τῶν τοίχων ἕνα (one of the walls), forming the structure "one of the walls of which".
- 2.121A.2ὡς ἐκείνων προορῶν
The particle ὡς with the present participle προορῶν (nominative masculine singular, agreeing with the builder) expresses the subjective intention or motive of the subject. ἐκείνων is the genitive object governed by the verb προοράω (to look out for, provide for), referring to the two sons.
- 2.121A.3ἔργου ἔχεσθαι
The construction of the middle voice ἔχομαι with the genitive ἔργου means "to set to work" or "to engage in." While the active ἔχω means "to hold," the middle voice signifies "to cling to (for oneself)" and thus metaphorically to apply oneself to a task.