- 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-grc2:2.4.1-2.4.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-03
The priests claim that the Egyptians first discovered the solar year and established the worship of the twelve gods, and state that under the first human king, Min, most of Egypt was a swamp.
ὅσα δὲ ἀνθρωπήια πρήγματα, ὧδε ἔλεγον ὁμολογέοντες σφίσι, πρώτους Αἰγυπτίους ἀνθρώπων ἁπάντων ἐξευρεῖν τὸν ἐνιαυτόν, δυώδεκα μέρεα δασαμένους τῶν ὡρέων ἐς αὐτόν· ταῦτα δὲ ἐξευρεῖν ἐκ τῶν ἀστέρων ἔλεγον· ἄγουσι δὲ τοσῷδε σοφώτερον Ἑλλήνων, ἐμοὶ δοκέειν,1 ὅσῳ Ἕλληνες μὲν διὰ τρίτου ἔτεος2 ἐμβόλιμον ἐπεμβάλλουσι τῶν ὡρέων εἵνεκεν, Αἰγύπτιοι δὲ τριηκοντημέρους ἄγοντες τοὺς δυώδεκα μῆνας ἐπάγουσι ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος πέντε ἡμέρας πάρεξ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ, καί σφι ὁ κύκλος τῶν ὡρέων ἐς τὠυτὸ περιιὼν παραγίνεται.
As for human affairs, they spoke as follows, agreeing with one another: that the Egyptians were the first of all men to discover the year, dividing it into twelve parts of the seasons; and they said they discovered this from the stars. In my opinion, they manage the calendar so much more wisely than the Greeks, in as much as the Greeks insert an intercalary month every third year for the sake of the seasons, whereas the Egyptians, keeping the twelve months at thirty days each, add five days each year outside the number, and so the cycle of their seasons comes round to the same point.
δυώδεκά τε θεῶν ἐπωνυμίας ἔλεγον πρώτους Αἰγυπτίους νομίσαι καὶ Ἕλληνας παρὰ σφέων ἀναλαβεῖν, βωμούς τε καὶ ἀγάλματα καὶ νηοὺς θεοῖσι ἀπονεῖμαι σφέας πρώτους καὶ ζῷα ἐν λίθοισι ἐγγλύψαι. καὶ τούτων μέν νυν τὰ πλέω ἔργῳ ἐδήλουν οὕτω γενόμενα. βασιλεῦσαι δὲ πρῶτον Αἰγύπτου ἄνθρωπον ἔλεγον Μῖνα·
They also said that the Egyptians were the first to establish the names of the twelve gods, and that the Greeks adopted them from them; and that they were the first to assign altars, images, and temples to the gods, and to carve figures of animals on stone. And for the most part of these things, they showed by facts that they had happened so. They said also that the first human to rule over Egypt was Minas.
ἐπὶ τούτου, πλὴν τοῦ Θηβαϊκοῦ νομοῦ, πᾶσαν Αἴγυπτον εἶναι ἕλος, καὶ αὐτῆς εἶναι οὐδὲν ὑπερέχον τῶν νῦν ἔνερθε λίμνης τῆς Μοίριος ἐόντων,3 ἐς τὴν ἀνάπλοος ἀπὸ θαλάσσης ἑπτὰ ἡμερέων ἐστὶ ἀνὰ τὸν ποταμόν.
In his reign, except for the Theban district, all Egypt was a swamp, and nothing of it rose above the water of what is now below Lake Moeris, to which the voyage up from the sea is seven days’ journey along the river.
- 2.4.1ἐμοὶ δοκέειν
An usage of the absolute infinitive, functioning parenthetically to mean 'in my opinion' or 'as it seems to me'.
- 2.4.1διὰ τρίτου ἔτεος
The preposition διά with genitive denotes a time interval. Due to the Greek custom of inclusive counting, 'every third year' practically means 'every other year' (i.e., once in two years).
- 2.4.3τῶν νῦν ἔνερθε λίμνης τῆς Μοίριος ἐόντων
A participle phrase containing a partitive genitive, where the demonstrative pronoun serving as the antecedent is omitted, meaning 'of those things which are now below Lake Moeris'.
Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25) · Revision history (1, latest 2026-09-21)
- 2026-09-21 AI review — translation 1