- 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-grc2:2.172.1-2.172.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
After the fall of Apries, Amasis, a commoner, becomes king. He wins over the Egyptians, who initially despised him, by using the analogy of a golden foot-basin recast into a worshipped divine image.
Ἀπρίεω δὲ ὧδε καταραιρημένου1 ἐβασίλευσε Ἄμασις, νομοῦ μὲν Σαΐτεω ἐών, ἐκ τῆς δὲ ἦν πόλιος,2 οὔνομά οἱ ἐστὶ Σιούφ.
After Apries had been overthrown in this manner, Amasis became king; he was of the district of Sais, and the city from which he came was named Siuph.
τὰ μὲν δὴ πρῶτα κατώνοντο τὸν Ἄμασιν Αἰγύπτιοι καὶ ἐν οὐδεμιῇ μοίρῃ μεγάλῃ ἦγον ἅτε δὴ δημότην τὸ πρὶν ἐόντα καὶ οἰκίης οὐκ ἐπιφανέος· μετὰ δὲ σοφίῃ αὐτοὺς ὁ Ἄμασις, οὐκ ἀγνωμοσύνῃ προσηγάγετο.
At first indeed the Egyptians despised Amasis and held him in no great respect, seeing that he had formerly been a commoner and of an undistinguished house; but afterwards Amasis won them over by wisdom and not by harshness.
ἦν οἱ ἄλλα τε ἀγαθὰ μυρία, ἐν δὲ καὶ ποδανιπτὴρ χρύσεος, ἐν τῷ αὐτός τε ὁ Ἄμασις καὶ οἱ δαιτυμόνες οἱ πάντες τοὺς πόδας ἑκάστοτε ἐναπενίζοντο· τοῦτον κατʼ ὦν κόψας3 ἄγαλμα δαίμονος ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐποιήσατο, καὶ ἵδρυσε τῆς πόλιος ὅκου ἦν ἐπιτηδεότατον· οἱ δὲ Αἰγύπτιοι φοιτέοντες πρὸς τὤγαλμα ἐσέβοντο μεγάλως.
He had among countless other treasures a golden foot-basin, in which Amasis himself and all his guests were accustomed on each occasion to wash their feet. Breaking this up, therefore, he made from it an image of a god, and set it up in the most suitable place of the city; and the Egyptians, frequenting the image, worshipped it greatly.
μαθὼν δὲ ὁ Ἄμασις τὸ ἐκ τῶν ἀστῶν ποιεύμενον, συγκαλέσας Αἰγυπτίους ἐξέφηνε φὰς ἐκ τοῦ ποδανιπτῆρος τὤγαλμα γεγονέναι, ἐς τὸν πρότερον μὲν τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους ἐνεμέειν τε καὶ ἐνουρέειν καὶ πόδας ἐναπονίζεσθαι, τότε δὲ μεγάλως σέβεσθαι.
When Amasis learned of that which was being done by the citizens, he called the Egyptians together and revealed the matter, saying that the image had been made from the foot-basin, into which formerly the Egyptians used to vomit and urinate and wash their feet, but which they now worshipped greatly.
ἤδη ὦν ἔφη λέγων ὁμοίως αὐτὸς τῷ ποδανιπτῆρι πεπρηγέναι· εἰ γὰρ πρότερον εἶναι δημότης,4 ἀλλʼ ἐν τῷ παρεόντι εἶναι αὐτῶν βασιλεύς· καὶ τιμᾶν τε καὶ προμηθέεσθαι ἑωυτοῦ ἐκέλευε.
And so he said, speaking to them, that he himself had now fared similarly to the foot-basin; for even if he had been a commoner before, yet at the present time he was their king; and he commanded them to honor and have regard for him.
- 2.172.1καταραιρημένου
Ionic perfect passive participle, genitive masculine singular, of the verb κατααιρέω (corresponding to Attic καθαιρέω 'to pull down, overthrow'). It corresponds to Attic καθῃρημένου.
- 2.172.1ἐκ τῆς δὲ ἦν πόλιος
Here τῆς acts as a relative pronoun (or relative adjective with the preposition ἐκ). The antecedent πόλιος is attracted into the relative clause, meaning 'and the city from which he came.'
- 2.172.3κατʼ ὦν κόψας
An example of tmesis, where the Ionic particle ὦν (= οὖν) is inserted between the prefix and the verb of the compound κατακόπτω ('to cut up, break up').
- 2.172.5εἰ γὰρ πρότερον εἶναι δημότης
In indirect discourse introduced by ἔφη, the infinitive εἶναι is used in the subordinate clause (the conditional εἰ-clause) instead of an indicative. This is a characteristic construction in Herodotus where subordinate clauses in indirect speech also take the infinitive.