- 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-grc2:2.143.1-2.143.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Herodotus recounts how the priests of Thebes refuted Hecataeus when he connected his genealogy to a god, by showing generations of wooden statues of high priests, proving that each was a mortal human ('piromis') and not descended from any god or hero.
πρότερον δὲ Ἑκαταίῳ τῷ λογοποιῷ ἐν Θήβῃσι γενεηλογήσαντί τε ἑωυτὸν καὶ ἀναδήσαντι τὴν πατριὴν ἐς ἑκκαιδέκατον θεὸν ἐποίησαν οἱ ἱρέες τοῦ Διὸς οἷόν τι καὶ ἐμοὶ1 οὐ γενεηλογήσαντι ἐμεωυτόν·
Earlier, when Hecataeus the chronicler traced his pedigree and connected his lineage to a god in the sixteenth generation, the priests of Zeus did to him what they also did to me, who did not trace my pedigree.
ἐσαγαγόντες ἐς τὸ μέγαρον ἔσω ἐὸν μέγα ἐξηρίθμεον δεικνύντες κολοσσοὺς ξυλίνους τοσούτους ὅσους περ εἶπον· ἀρχιερεὺς γὰρ ἕκαστος αὐτόθι ἱστᾷ ἐπὶ τῆς ἑωυτοῦ ζόης εἰκόνα ἑωυτοῦ·
Leading me inside the temple, which was large, they counted them up, showing as many wooden colossal statues as I have said; for each high priest there sets up an image of himself during his own lifetime.
ἀριθμέοντες ὦν καὶ δεικνύντες οἱ ἱρέες ἐμοὶ ἀπεδείκνυσαν παῖδα πατρὸς ἑωυτῶν ἕκαστον ἐόντα,2 ἐκ τοῦ ἄγχιστα ἀποθανόντος τῆς εἰκόνος διεξιόντες διὰ πασέων, ἕως οὗ ἀπέδεξαν ἁπάσας αὐτάς.
Counting, then, and showing them, the priests demonstrated to me that each one was the son of his own father, going through them all from the image of the one who had most recently died, until they had shown them all.
Ἑκαταίῳ δὲ γενεηλογήσαντι ἑωυτὸν καὶ ἀναδήσαντι ἐς ἑκκαιδέκατον θεὸν ἀντεγενεηλόγησαν ἐπὶ τῇ ἀριθμήσι, οὐ δεκόμενοι παρʼ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ θεοῦ γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπον·3 ἀντεγενεηλόγησαν δὲ ὧδε, φάμενοι ἕκαστον τῶν κολοσσῶν πίρωμιν ἐκ πιρώμιος γεγονέναι, ἐς ὃ τοὺς πέντε καὶ τεσσεράκοντα καὶ τριηκοσίους ἀπέδεξαν κολοσσούς,καὶ οὔτε ἐς θεὸν οὔτε ἐς ἥρωα ἀνέδησαν αὐτούς. πίρωμις δὲ ἐστὶ κατὰ Ἑλλάδα γλῶσσαν καλὸς κἀγαθός.
But to Hecataeus, who had traced his pedigree and connected it to a god in the sixteenth generation, they opposed another pedigree based on the counting, not accepting from him that a man could be born from a god. And they opposed their pedigree in this way, saying that each of the colossal statues was a ‘piromis’ born from a ‘piromis’, until they had shown three hundred and forty-five colossal statues, and they connected them neither to a god nor to a hero. Now, ‘piromis’ is, in the Greek tongue, ‘noble and good’.
- 2.143.1ἐποίησαν οἱ ἱρέες ... οἷόν τι καὶ ἐμοὶ
The verb ποιέω is used with the dative (Ἑκαταίῳ and ἐμοὶ) in the sense of 'to do something to someone' or 'to treat someone in a certain way'. The phrase οἷόν τι ('such a thing as') serves as the accusative object, functioning correlatively with καὶ ἐμοὶ ('as they also did to me').
- 2.143.3ἀπεδείκνυσαν παῖδα πατρὸς ἑωυτῶν ἕκαστον ἐόντα
The verb ἀποδείκνυμι ('demonstrate', 'prove') takes an accusative subject (ἕκαστον) and a participle (ἐόντα, Ionic for ὄντα) to form the construction 'proved each one to be...'. The phrase παῖδα πατρὸς ἑωυτῶν ('the son of his own father') emphasizes that each priest was of purely human lineage, not divine.
- 2.143.4οὐ δεκόμενοι παρʼ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ θεοῦ γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπον
The participle δεκόμενοι (Ionic for δεχόμενοι, 'accepting') takes the accusative and infinitive clause γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπον ('that a man was born [from a god]') as its object. The phrase παρʼ αὐτοῦ ('from him') reinforces the meaning of refusing to accept his statement or claim.