- 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-grc2:2.24.1-2.24.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-03
The author dismisses existing opinions and proposes his own theory, explaining that the summer flooding of the Nile is caused by the sun being driven from its course to southern Libya by winter storms.
εἰ δὲ δεῖ μεμψάμενον γνώμας τὰς προκειμένας αὐτὸν1 περὶ τῶν ἀφανέων γνώμην ἀποδέξασθαι,2 φράσω διʼ ὅ τι μοι δοκέει πληθύνεσθαι ὁ Νεῖλος τοῦ θέρεος· τὴν χειμερινὴν ὥρην ἀπελαυνόμενος ὁ ἥλιος ἐκ τῆς ἀρχαίης διεξόδου ὑπὸ τῶν χειμώνων ἔρχεται τῆς Λιβύης τὰ ἄνω.
But if, after censuring the opinions already presented, I myself must declare an opinion concerning unseen matters, I will explain why it seems to me that the Nile overflows in the summer; in the winter season, the sun, being driven from his former course by the winter storms, comes to the upper parts of Libya.
ὡς μέν νυν ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ δηλῶσαι, πᾶν εἴρηται· τῆς γὰρ ἂν ἀγχοτάτω τε ᾖ χώρης οὗτος ὁ θεὸς καὶ κατὰ ἥντινα, ταύτην3 οἰκὸς διψῆν τε ὑδάτων μάλιστα καὶ τὰ ἐγχώρια ῥεύματα μαραίνεσθαι τῶν ποταμῶν.
To explain it in the briefest possible terms, everything has been said; for it is natural that whatever land this god is nearest to and over which he passes, this land should be most in want of water, and that the local streams of its rivers should be dried up.
- 2.24.1μεμψάμενον ... αὐτόν
The accusative αὐτόν serves as the subject accusative of the infinitive ἀποδέξασθαι governed by the impersonal verb δεῖ, and the participle μεμψάμενον agrees with it in the accusative.
- 2.24.1ἀποδέξασθαι
The Ionic form of ἀποδείξασθαι (aorist middle infinitive of ἀποδείκνυμι), meaning "to declare or set forth one's own opinion."
- 2.24.2τῆς γὰρ ἂν ἀγχοτάτω τε ᾖ χώρης ... ταύτην
The antecedent χώρης is attracted into the relative clause and stands in the genitive case governed by the superlative adverb ἀγχοτάτω ("nearest"). The demonstrative pronoun ταύτην in the main clause acts as the subject accusative of the infinitive διψῆν depending on the impersonal adjective οἰκός (Ionic for εἰκός).