- 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-grc2:3.108.1-3.108.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
The harmonious balance of nature through divine providence is discussed as the reason why the winged serpents of Arabia do not overpopulate. As examples of this providence, the author contrasts the high fertility of the preyed-upon hare (superfetation) with the extreme infertility of the predatory lioness.
λέγουσι δὲ καὶ τόδε Ἀράβιοι, ὡς πᾶσα ἂν γῆ ἐπίμπλατο τῶν ὀφίων τούτων, εἰ μὴ γίνεσθαι1 κατʼ αὐτοὺς οἷόν τι2 κατὰ τὰς ἐχίδνας ἠπιστάμην γίνεσθαι.
And the Arabians also say this: that the whole earth would have been filled with these serpents, if there did not happen in their case something of the sort which I knew to happen in the case of vipers.
καί κως τοῦ θείου ἡ προνοίη, ὥσπερ καὶ οἰκός ἐστι, ἐοῦσα σοφή, ὅσα μὲν ψυχήν τε δειλὰ καὶ ἐδώδιμα, ταῦτα μὲν πάντα πολύγονα πεποίηκε, ἵνα μὴ ἐπιλίπῃ κατεσθιόμενα, ὅσα δὲ σχέτλια καὶ ἀνιηρά, ὀλιγόγονα.
And somehow the providence of the divine, being wise just as is reasonable, has made all those things that are cowardly in spirit and edible to be extremely prolific, so that they might not fail by being eaten up, whereas it made all those that are cruel and troublesome to be unproductive.
τοῦτο μέν, ὅτι ὁ λαγὸς ὑπὸ παντὸς θηρεύεται θηρίου καὶ ὄρνιθος καὶ ἀνθρώπου, οὕτω δή τι πολύγονον ἐστί· ἐπικυΐσκεται3 μοῦνον πάντων θηρίων, καὶ τὸ μὲν δασὺ τῶν τέκνων ἐν τῇ γαστρὶ τὸ δὲ ψιλόν, τὸ δὲ ἄρτι ἐν τῇσι μήτρῃσι πλάσσεται, τὸ δὲ ἀναιρέεται.
On the one hand, because the hare is hunted by every beast and bird and man, it is indeed an extremely prolific thing; it alone of all beasts conceives again while pregnant, and some of the offspring in its womb are furry, some are bare, some are just being formed in the uterus, and some are being conceived.
τοῦτο μὲν δὴ τοιοῦτο ἐστί· ἡ δὲ δὴ λέαινα ἐὸν4 ἰσχυρότατον καὶ θρασύτατον ἅπαξ ἐν τῷ βίῳ τίκτει ἕν· τίκτουσα γὰρ συνεκβάλλει τῷ τέκνῳ τὰς μήτρας. τὸ δὲ αἴτιον τούτου τόδε ἐστί· ἐπεὰν ὁ σκύμνος ἐν τῇ μητρὶ ἐὼν ἄρχηται διακινεόμενος, ὁ δὲ ἔχων ὄνυχας θηρίων πολλὸν πάντων ὀξυτάτους ἀμύσσει τὰς μήτρας, αὐξόμενός τε δὴ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐσικνέεται καταγράφων· πέλας τε δὴ ὁ τόκος ἐστί, καὶ τὸ παράπαν λείπεται αὐτέων ὑγιὲς οὐδέν.
This indeed is of such a nature; but the lioness, though being an extremely strong and bold thing, brings forth one offspring once in her lifetime; for as she gives birth, she casts out her uterus along with her cub. And the cause of this is as follows: when the cub, being inside its mother, begins to move about, since it has claws that are by far the sharpest of all beasts, it scratches the uterus; and as it grows, it reaches much further in scratching; and when the birth is near, absolutely nothing of the uterus is left undamaged.
- 3.108.1γίνεσθαι
The infinitive γίνεσθαι stands in the conditional clause introduced by εἰ μὴ, which would have been the imperfect indicative ἐγίνετο in direct speech representing a past/present unfulfilled condition (matching ἂν ἐπίμπλατο in the apodosis), here converted into an infinitive due to the indirect speech governed by λέγουσι.
- 3.108.1οἷόν τι
The combination of the relative pronoun of quality οἷον with the indefinite pronoun τι, where the antecedent (such as τοιοῦτόν τι) is omitted.
- 3.108.3ἐπικυΐσκεται
Meaning "to conceive again during pregnancy" (superfetate). The subsequent series of parallel clauses (τὸ μὲν δασὺ ...) explains this term by depicting in detail the simultaneous existence of fetuses at different stages of development inside the womb.
- 3.108.4ἐὸν
The participle ἐὸν (equivalent to Attic ὄν), though grammatically neuter singular, refers to the feminine singular subject λέαινα. This is a construction according to sense (constructio ad sensum), arising because the author conceptualizes the lioness under the general category of a wild beast (θηρίον, neuter).