- 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-grc2:2.26.1-2.26.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-04
The author concludes that the sun is the cause of Libya's dryness and continuous summer, and hypothesizes that if the climatic positions of the heavens were reversed, the sun would pass over Europe, making the Ister behave exactly as the Nile does now.
οὕτω τὸν ἥλιον νενόμικα τούτων αἴτιον εἶναι. αἴτιος δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς οὗτος κατὰ γνώμην τὴν ἐμὴν καὶ τὸν ἠέρα ξηρὸν τὸν ταύτῃ εἶναι,1 διακαίων τὴν διέξοδον ἑωυτοῦ· οὕτω τῆς Λιβύης τὰ ἄνω θέρος αἰεὶ κατέχει.
Thus I have concluded that the sun is the cause of these things. And this same sun, in my opinion, is also the cause of the air in that region being dry, by burning up his own passage; thus summer always occupies the upper parts of Libya.
εἰ δὲ ἡ στάσις ἤλλακτο τῶν ὡρέων, καὶ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τῇ μὲν νῦν ὁ βορέης τε καὶ ὁ χειμὼν ἑστᾶσι, ταύτῃ μὲν τοῦ νότου ἦν ἡ στάσις καὶ τῆς μεσαμβρίης, τῇ δὲ ὁ νότος νῦν ἕστηκε, ταύτῃ δὲ ὁ βορέης, εἰ ταῦτα οὕτω εἶχε, ὁ ἥλιος ἂν ἀπελαυνόμενος ἐκ μέσου τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὑπὸ τοῦ χειμῶνος καὶ τοῦ βορέω ἤιε ἂν τὰ ἄνω τῆς Εὐρώπης κατά περ νῦν τῆς Λιβύης2 ἔρχεται, διεξιόντα δʼ ἄν μιν διὰ πάσης Εὐρώπης ἔλπομαι ποιέειν ἂν τὸν Ἴστρον τά περ νῦν ἐργάζεται τὸν Νεῖλον.3
But if the position of the seasons had been changed, and where now the north wind and winter are established in the sky, there the position of the south wind and the midday heat had been, and where the south wind now stands, there the north wind had been—if these things were so, the sun, being driven from the middle of the sky by the winter and the north wind, would go to the upper parts of Europe just as he now goes through Libya. And as he traversed through all Europe, I suppose he would do to the Ister the very things which he now does to the Nile.
- 2.26.1αἴτιος δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς οὗτος κατὰ γνώμην τὴν ἐμὴν καὶ τὸν ἠέρα ξηρὸν τὸν ταύτῃ εἶναι
The infinitive clause τὸν ἠέρα ξηρὸν τὸν ταύτῃ εἶναι (the air in that region being dry) functions in apposition to or as an explanation of the noun αἴτιος (cause). This is a construction where αἴτιος takes an accusative with infinitive to express the cause of a state.
- 2.26.2τῆς Λιβύης
The genitive τῆς Λιβύης is used with the verb of motion ἔρχεται to indicate the path or place through which the movement occurs, a usage of the genitive of place common in the Ionic dialect.
- 2.26.2ἔλπομαι ποιέειν ἂν τὸν Ἴστρον τά περ νῦν ἐργάζεται τὸν Νεῖλον
The verb of expectation ἔλπομαι governs the infinitive with ἂν (ποιέειν ἂν), representing an indirect statement of a conditional apodosis. Both ποιέειν and ἐργάζεται take double accusatives: one for the affected object (τὸν Ἴστρον / τὸν Νεῖλον) and another for the action done (τά περ).