- 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-grc2:2.61.1-2.61.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-05
The author describes the intense mourning rituals during the festival of Isis in Busiris, and the even more extreme self-mutilation performed by Carians living in Egypt.
ταῦτα μὲν δὴ ταύτῃ ποιέεται, ἐν δὲ Βουσίρι πόλι ὡς ἀνάγουσι τῇ Ἴσι τὴν ὁρτήν, εἴρηται προτερόν μοι· τύπτονται μὲν γὰρ δὴ μετὰ τὴν θυσίην πάντες καὶ πᾶσαι, μυριάδες κάρτα πολλαὶ ἀνθρώπων· τὸν δὲ τύπτονται,1 οὔ μοι ὅσιον ἐστὶ λέγειν.
These things are indeed done in this way, but how they celebrate the festival for Isis in the city of Busiris has been told by me before. For indeed, after the sacrifice, all the men and women, very many myriads of people, beat themselves; but for whom they beat themselves, it is not permitted for me by piety to say.
ὅσοι δὲ Καρῶν εἰσι ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ οἰκέοντες, οὗτοι δὲ τοσούτῳ ἔτι πλέω ποιεῦσι τούτων ὅσῳ2 καὶ τὰ μέτωπα κόπτονται μαχαίρῃσι, καὶ τούτῳ εἰσὶ δῆλοι ὅτι εἰσὶ ξεῖνοι καὶ οὐκ Αἰγύπτιοι.
But all those of the Carians who dwell in Egypt do still more than these, inasmuch as they also cut their foreheads with knives; and by this they make it clear that they are foreigners and not Egyptians.
- 2.61.1τὸν δὲ τύπτονται
The relative pronoun τὸν (masculine singular accusative, where the article functions as a relative pronoun in the Ionic dialect) serves as the direct object of the middle verb τύπτονται ('they beat themselves in mourning for someone'). It refers to the god (Osiris) for whom they mourn, whose name is avoided due to religious taboo.
- 2.61.2τοσούτῳ ἔτι πλέω ποιεῦσι τούτων ὅσῳ
A correlative structure using datives of degree of difference, τοσούτῳ ... ὅσῳ ('by so much... by how much...', meaning 'all the more... inasmuch as...'). The genitive of comparison τούτων ('than these', referring to the Egyptians) depends on the comparative πλέω.