- 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-grc2:2.70.1-2.70.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-05
The author describes the most remarkable Egyptian method of catching crocodiles, using pig's back as bait and a squealing live piglet to lure them.
ἄγραι δὲ σφέων πολλαὶ κατεστᾶσι καὶ παντοῖαι· ἣ δʼ ὦν ἔμοιγε δοκέει ἀξιωτάτη ἀπηγήσιος εἶναι, ταύτην γράφω.1 ἐπεὰν νῶτον ὑὸς δελεάσῃ περὶ ἄγκιστρον, μετιεῖ ἐς μέσον τὸν ποταμόν, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ χείλεος τοῦ ποταμοῦ ἔχων δέλφακα ζωὴν ταύτην τύπτει.
There are many and various ways of catching them; but the one that seems to me most worthy of relation, this I will write. When the hunter has baited a hook with the back of a pig, he lets it go into the middle of the river, while he himself on the bank of the river, having a live piglet, beats it.
ἐπακούσας δὲ τῆς φωνῆς ὁ κροκόδειλος ἵεται κατὰ τὴν φωνήν, ἐντυχὼν δὲ τῷ νώτῳ καταπίνει· οἳ δὲ ἕλκουσι.2 ἐπεὰν δὲ ἐξελκυσθῇ ἐς γῆν, πρῶτον ἁπάντων ὁ θηρευτὴς πηλῷ κατʼ ὦν ἔπλασε3 αὐτοῦ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς· τοῦτο δὲ ποιήσας κάρτα εὐπετέως τὰ λοιπὰ χειροῦται, μὴ ποιήσας δὲ τοῦτο σὺν πόνῳ.
Hearing the squeal, the crocodile rushes in the direction of the sound, and happening upon the pig’s back, swallows it down; and they pull. When it is dragged out onto land, first of all the hunter plasters its eyes with mud; having done this, he masters the rest very easily, but if he does not do this, he does so with difficulty.
- 2.70.1ἣ δʼ ὦν ἔμοιγε δοκέει ἀξιωτάτη ἀπηγήσιος εἶναι, ταύτην γράφω
A syntactic structure where the relative clause led by the relative pronoun ἣ (agreeing with the unexpressed antecedent ἄγρα, 'method of catching') is placed at the beginning of the sentence and anticipated/picked up by the demonstrative pronoun ταύτην (the direct object of γράφω) in the main clause. ἀπηγήσιος is a genitive of respect/reference modifying the adjective ἀξιωτάτη (Ionic genitive singular, corresponding to Attic ἀφηγήσεως).
- 2.70.2οἳ δὲ ἕλκουσι
The article in the plural nominative (οἳ) functions as a demonstrative pronoun with δέ to introduce a new plural subject ('and they', i.e., the hunters).
- 2.70.2κατʼ ὦν ἔπλασε
An example of tmesis where the particle ὦν (the Ionic equivalent of οὖν) is inserted between the prepositional prefix κατά and the verb ἔπλασε (aorist third-person singular of καταπλάσσω, 'to plaster over'). The aorist ἔπλασε is a gnomic/habitual aorist used to describe a customary or regular action in explanatory prose, and is translated in the present tense.