- 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-grc2:2.79.1-2.79.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-05
Describes the Egyptians' strict adherence to ancestral customs, and discusses the origin of the dirge 'Maneros', which is identical to the Greek song of Linus.
πατρίοισι δὲ χρεώμενοι νόμοισι ἄλλον οὐδένα ἐπικτῶνται· τοῖσι1 ἄλλα τε ἐπάξια ἐστὶ νόμιμα, καὶ δὴ καὶ ἄεισμα ἕν ἐστι, Λίνος, ὅσπερ ἔν τε Φοινίκῃ ἀοίδιμος ἐστὶ καὶ ἐν Κύπρῳ καὶ ἄλλῃ, κατὰ μέντοι ἔθνεα οὔνομα ἔχει, συμφέρεται2 δὲ ὡυτὸς εἶναι τὸν οἱ Ἕλληνες Λίνον ὀνομάζοντες ἀείδουσι, ὥστε πολλὰ μὲν καὶ ἄλλα ἀποθωμάζειν με3 τῶν περὶ Αἴγυπτον ἐόντων, ἐν δὲ δὴ καὶ τὸν Λίνον ὁκόθεν ἔλαβον τὸ οὔνομα· φαίνονται δὲ αἰεί κοτε τοῦτον ἀείδοντες.4 ἔστι δὲ Αἰγυπτιστὶ ὁ Λίνος καλεύμενος Μανερῶς.
While keeping to their ancestral laws, they acquire no others in addition. Among them, as there are other customs worthy of admiration, so in particular there is one song, Linus, which is celebrated in song both in Phoenicia and in Cyprus and elsewhere, though indeed it has a different name according to each nation. And it is agreed that this song is the very same that the Greeks sing, calling it Linus; so that, while I wonder at many other things among those concerning Egypt, I wonder especially also at this, from where they got the name of Linus; for they seem to have been always singing this from time immemorial. In Egyptian, Linus is called Maneros.
ἔφασαν δέ μιν5 Αἰγύπτιοι τοῦ πρώτου βασιλεύσαντος Αἰγύπτου παῖδα μουνογενέα γενέσθαι, ἀποθανόντα δὲ αὐτὸν ἄνωρον θρήνοισι τούτοισι ὑπὸ Αἰγυπτίων τιμηθῆναι, καὶ ἀοιδήν τε ταύτην πρώτην καὶ μούνην σφίσι γενέσθαι.
The Egyptians said that he was the only son of the first king of Egypt, and that, having died untimely, he was honored by the Egyptians with these dirges, and that this song was their first and only one.
- 2.79.1τοῖσι
Ionic relative pronoun in the dative plural. The antecedent is the Egyptians, implied from the context. It functions as a dative of possession or reference.
- 2.79.2συμφέρεται
Used impersonally to mean 'it agrees' or 'it coincides', taking the infinitive ὡυτὸς εἶναι (= ὁ αὐτὸς εἶναι, 'to be the very same'), which is followed by the relative clause introduced by τὸν.
- 2.79.2ὥστε... ἀποθωμάζειν με
The conjunction of result ὥστε is followed by the infinitive ἀποθωμάζειν with its subject accusative με. In the latter half, ἐν δὲ δὴ καὶ involves an ellipsis of the verb ἀποθωμάζειν me (meaning 'and especially [I wonder] also about...').
- 2.79.2φαίνονται... ἀείδοντες
The verb φαίνομαι combined with the participle ἀείδοντες expresses that they are clearly or visibly singing, or 'they clearly have been singing' (to be distinguished from φαίνομαι with an infinitive, which means 'to seem to do').
- 2.79.3μιν
The Ionic third-person singular accusative pronoun, equivalent to Attic αὐτόν. It serves as the subject accusative in the indirect discourse (accusative with infinitive construction) depending on ἔφασαν.