- 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-grc2:2.75.1-2.75.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-05
The author describes visiting a place in Arabia near Buto to see the bones of winged serpents, and recounts the legend of how ibises slaughter these invading serpents, explaining why they are highly revered by the Egyptians.
ἔστι δὲ χῶρος τῆς Ἀραβίης κατὰ Βουτοῦν πόλιν μάλιστά κῃ κείμενος, καὶ ἐς τοῦτο τὸ χωρίον ἦλθον πυνθανόμενος περὶ τῶν πτερωτῶν ὀφίων· ἀπικόμενος δὲ εἶδον ὀστέα ὀφίων καὶ ἀκάνθας πλήθεϊ μὲν ἀδύνατα ἀπηγήσασθαι,1 σωροὶ δὲ ἦσαν ἀκανθέων καὶ μεγάλοι καὶ ὑποδεέστεροι καὶ ἐλάσσονες ἔτι τούτων, πολλοὶ δὲ ἦσαν οὗτοι.
And there is a place in Arabia, situated very near the city of Buto, and I went to this place to inquire about the winged serpents. Having arrived, I saw bones of serpents and spines in quantities impossible to describe, and there were heaps of spines, some large, some smaller, and others still smaller than these, and these heaps were many.
ἔστι δὲ ὁ χῶρος οὗτος, ἐν τῷ αἱ ἄκανθαι κατακεχύαται,2 τοιόσδε τις, ἐσβολὴ ἐξ ὀρέων στεινῶν ἐς πεδίον μέγα, τὸ δὲ πεδίον τοῦτο συνάπτει τῷ Αἰγυπτίῳ πεδίῳ.
This place, where the spines are scattered, is of this sort: a pass from narrow mountains into a great plain, and this plain joins the Egyptian plain.
λόγος δὲ ἐστὶ ἅμα τῷ ἔαρι πτερωτοὺς ὄφις3 ἐκ τῆς Ἀραβίης πέτεσθαι ἐπʼ Αἰγύπτου, τὰς δὲ ἴβις τὰς ὄρνιθας ἀπαντώσας ἐς τὴν ἐσβολὴν ταύτης τῆς χώρης οὐ παριέναι τοὺς ὄφις ἀλλὰ κατακτείνειν.
And there is a story that at the coming of spring, winged serpents fly from Arabia towards Egypt, but the ibises, which are birds, meeting them at the pass into this country, do not let the serpents pass but kill them.
καὶ τὴν ἶβιν διὰ τοῦτο τὸ ἔργον τετιμῆσθαι λέγουσι Ἀράβιοι μεγάλως πρὸς Αἰγυπτίων·4 ὁμολογέουσι δὲ καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι διὰ ταῦτα τιμᾶν τὰς ὄρνιθας ταύτας.
And the Arabs say that because of this deed, the ibis is greatly honored by the Egyptians; and the Egyptians themselves agree that they honor these birds for these reasons.
- 2.75.1ἀδύνατα ἀπηγήσασθαι
The neuter plural adjective ἀδύνατα is used instead of the singular ἀδύνατον in an impersonal construction ("things impossible to describe"). The infinitive ἀπηγήσασθαι is used in a limiting (epexegetical) sense.
- 2.75.2κατακεχύαται
The third-person plural perfect indicative passive of καταχέω, equivalent to the Attic κατακέχυνται. This is an Ionic dialect form where -αται is used instead of -νται after a vowel stem.
- 2.75.3ὄφις
The accusative plural of ὄφις (serpent), equivalent to the Attic ὄφεις or ὄφιας (an Ionic contraction). Here it functions as the subject accusative of the infinitive πέτεσθαι (in the first occurrence) and the direct object of παριέναι and κατακτείνειν (in the second occurrence).
- 2.75.4πρὸς Αἰγυπτίων
The preposition πρός with the genitive expresses the agent ("by the Egyptians") of the passive infinitive τετιμῆσθαι. This corresponds to the standard Attic use of ὑπό with the genitive.