- 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-grc2:2.121C.1-2.121C.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-07
The king hung the headless body of the thief to catch grieving accomplices. The thief's mother threatened her surviving son to make him retrieve his brother's body.
ὡς δὲ ἡμέρη ἐγένετο, ἐσελθόντα τὸν βασιλέα ἐς τὸ οἴκημα ἐκπεπλῆχθαι1 ὁρῶντα τὸ σῶμα τοῦ φωρὸς ἐν τῇ πάγῃ ἄνευ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἐόν, τὸ δὲ οἴκημα ἀσινὲς καὶ οὔτε ἔσοδον οὔτε ἔκδυσιν οὐδεμίαν ἔχον. ἀπορεύμενον δέ μιν τάδε ποιῆσαι· τοῦ φωρὸς τὸν νέκυν κατὰ τοῦ τείχεος κατακρεμάσαι, φυλάκους δὲ αὐτοῦ καταστήσαντα ἐντείλασθαί σφι, τὸν ἂν ἴδωνται2 ἀποκλαύσαντα ἢ κατοικτισάμενον, συλλαβόντας ἄγειν πρὸς ἑωυτόν.
When day came, the king, upon entering the chamber, was astonished to see the body of the thief in the trap without its head, while the chamber was undamaged and had no entrance or exit at all. In his perplexity, he did as follows: he hung the body of the thief from the wall, and having stationed guards over it, he commanded them that if they should see anyone weeping or showing pity, they should seize him and bring him before him.
ἀνακρεμαμένου δὲ τοῦ νέκυος τὴν μητέρα δεινῶς φέρειν, λόγους δὲ πρὸς τὸν περιεόντα παῖδα ποιευμένην προστάσσειν αὐτῷ ὅτεῳ τρόπῳ δύναται μηχανᾶσθαι ὅκως τὸ σῶμα τοῦ ἀδελφεοῦ καταλύσας κομιεῖ· εἰ δὲ τούτων ἀμελήσει, διαπειλέειν αὐτὴν ὡς ἐλθοῦσα πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα μηνύσει αὐτὸν ἔχοντα τὰ χρήματα.3
As the body was hung up, the mother took it very hard, and addressing the surviving son, she commanded him to devise some way, by whatever means he could, to take down and bring back his brother’s body. She threatened that if he should neglect this, she would go to the king and report that he had the treasure.
- 2.121C.1ἐκπεπλῆχθαι
As in the preceding chunk, this is an infinitive used in indirect discourse (narrative infinitive) because Herodotus is reporting a story told by others. The subject is the accusative τὸν βασιλέα.
- 2.121C.1τὸν ἂν ἴδωνται
The definite article τὸν functions as a relative pronoun (equivalent to ὅν), and with ἂν and the subjunctive ἴδωνται, it forms a general conditional relative clause ('whomever they might see').
- 2.121C.2μηνύσει αὐτὸν ἔχοντα τὰ χρήματα
Within the ὡς clause of indirect speech, the future indicative μηνύσει (representing the original direct speech 'I will report') is retained instead of being changed to an optative, despite the past context. αὐτὸν ἔχοντα is a supplementary participle equivalent to 'that he has the treasure'.