- 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-grc2:2.121E.1-2.121E.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-07
To capture the thief, the king places his daughter in a room to seize whoever confesses to the crimes. The thief visits her with a dead man's arm hidden under his cloak, confesses his deeds, and escapes by leaving the dead arm in her grasp.
τὸν δὲ βασιλέα, ὡς αὐτῷ ἀπηγγέλθη τοῦ φωρὸς ὁ νέκυς ἐκκεκλεμμένος, δεινὰ ποιέειν·1 πάντως δὲ βουλόμενον εὑρεθῆναι ὅστις κοτὲ εἴη ὁ ταῦτα μηχανώμενος, ποιῆσαί μιν τάδε, ἐμοὶ μὲν οὐ πιστά·
When the king was informed that the body of the thief had been stolen, he was greatly vexed. Desiring by all means to find out who on earth it was that had devised these things, he did the following, which to me is incredible.
τὴν θυγατέρα τὴν ἑωυτοῦ κατίσαι ἐπʼ οἰκήματος, ἐντειλάμενον πάντας τε ὁμοίως προσδέκεσθαι, καὶ πρὶν συγγενέσθαι,2 ἀναγκάζειν λέγειν αὐτῇ ὅ τι δὴ ἐν τῷ βίῳ ἔργασται αὐτῷ σοφώτατον καὶ ἀνοσιώτατον· ὃς δʼ ἂν ἀπηγήσηται τὰ περὶ τὸν φῶρα γεγενημένα, τοῦτον συλλαμβάνειν καὶ μὴ ἀπιέναι ἔξω.
He placed his own daughter in a room, ordering her to receive all alike, and before having intercourse, to compel each to tell her what was the cleverest and the most impious deed he had ever done in his life; and whoever should relate what had happened concerning the thief, she was to seize him and not let him go outside.
ὡς δὲ τὴν παῖδα ποιέειν τὰ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς προσταχθέντα, τὸν φῶρα πυθόμενον τῶν εἵνεκα ταῦτα ἐπρήσσετο, βουληθέντα πολυτροπίῃ τοῦ βασιλέος περιγενέσθαι ποιέειν τάδε·
As the girl did what was commanded by her father, the thief, learning for what purpose this was being done and wishing to surpass the king in cunning, did the following.
νεκροῦ προσφάτου ἀποταμόντα ἐν τῷ ὤμῳ τὴν χεῖρα ἰέναι αὐτὸν ἔχοντα αὐτὴν ὑπὸ τῷ ἱματίῳ. ἐσελθόντα δὲ ὡς τοῦ βασιλέος τὴν θυγατέρα καὶ εἰρωτώμενον τά περ καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι, ἀπηγήσασθαι ὡς ἀνοσιώτατον μὲν εἴη ἐργασμένος ὅτι τοῦ ἀδελφεοῦ ἐν τῷ θησαυρῷ τοῦ βασιλέος ὑπὸ πάγης ἁλόντος ἀποτάμοι3 τὴν κεφαλήν, σοφώτατον δὲ ὅτι τοὺς φυλάκους καταμεθύσας καταλύσειε τοῦ ἀδελφεοῦ κρεμάμενον τὸν νέκυν.
Cutting off the arm of a freshly dead corpse at the shoulder, he went in carrying it under his cloak. Having entered to the king’s daughter and being asked the same questions as the others, he related that the most impious thing he had done was when he cut off his brother’s head when he was caught in a trap in the king’s treasury, and the cleverest was when he made the guards drunk and took down his brother’s hanging body.
τὴν δὲ ὡς ἤκουσε ἅπτεσθαι αὐτοῦ. τὸν δὲ φῶρα ἐν τῷ σκότεϊ προτεῖναι αὐτῇ τοῦ νεκροῦ τὴν χεῖρα· τὴν δὲ ἐπιλαβομένην ἔχειν, νομίζουσαν αὐτοῦ ἐκείνου τῆς χειρὸς ἀντέχεσθαι·4 τὸν δὲ φῶρα προέμενον αὐτῇ οἴχεσθαι διὰ θυρέων φεύγοντα.
When she heard this, she tried to lay hold of him. But the thief in the darkness stretched out the dead man’s hand to her, and she took hold of it and held it, thinking that she was grasping his own hand; but the thief, leaving it in her hands, was gone, escaping through the doors.
- 2.121E.1δεινὰ ποιέειν
Throughout this narrative of King Rhampsinitus, infinitives (such as δεινὰ ποιέειν and ποιῆσαι) are used as main verbs in indirect discourse (accusative with infinitive) to indicate that the story is reported by hearsay. The subject "the king" is also in the accusative (τὸν δὲ βασιλέα).
- 2.121E.2πρὶν συγγενέσθαι
The conjunction πρίν (before) typically takes an infinitive (here the aorist infinitive συγγενέσθαι) when the governing clause is affirmative, meaning "before doing something."
- 2.121E.4εἴη ἐργασμένος ὅτι ... ἀποτάμοι
This is an example of the "optative of indirect discourse" (or oblique optative), where the optative (εἴη, ἀποτάμοι, and subsequently καταλύσειε) is used instead of the indicative in subordinate clauses within indirect discourse introduced by a secondary main verb (ἀπηγήσασθαι).
- 2.121E.5νομίζουσαν αὐτοῦ ἐκείνου τῆς χειρὸς ἀντέχεσθαι
The verb ἀντέχομαι (to cling to, lay hold of) governs the genitive case, which is why τῆς χειρός is in the genitive. It is modified by the genitive demonstrative phrase αὐτοῦ ἐκείνου, emphasizing "his very own."