- 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-grc2:3.147.1-3.147.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
Seeing the heavy Persian casualties, General Otanes disregarded King Darius's commands to spare Samos and instead ordered a general massacre, leading the army to besiege the acropolis and slaughter the inhabitants both inside and outside the temples.
Ὀτάνης δὲ ὁ στρατηγὸς ἰδὼν πάθος μέγα Πέρσας πεπονθότας, ἐντολὰς μὲν τὰς1 Δαρεῖός οἱ ἀποστέλλων ἐνετέλλετο, μήτε κτείνειν μηδένα Σαμίων μήτε ἀνδραποδίζεσθαι ἀπαθέα τε κακῶν ἀποδοῦναι τὴν νῆσον Συλοσῶντι, τουτέων μὲν τῶν ἐντολέων μεμνημένος ἐπελανθάνετο,2 ὁ δὲ παρήγγειλε τῇ στρατιῇ πάντα τὸν ἂν λάβωσι καὶ ἄνδρα καὶ παῖδα ὁμοίως κτείνειν.
But Otanes the general, seeing that the Persians had suffered a great disaster, though he remembered the instructions which Darius had given him when sending him out—namely, neither to kill any of the Samians nor to enslave them, but to hand over the island to Syloson undamaged—deliberately chose to forget these instructions, and ordered the army to kill everyone they might capture, man and child alike.
ἐνθαῦτα τῆς στρατιῆς οἳ μὲν τὴν ἀκρόπολιν ἐπολιόρκεον, οἳ δὲ ἔκτεινον πάντα τὸν ἐμποδὼν γινόμενον ὁμοίως ἔν τε ἱρῷ καὶ ἔξω ἱροῦ.
Thereupon, some of the army besieged the acropolis, while others killed everyone who came in their way, alike inside the temples and outside.
- 3.147.1ἐντολὰς μὲν τὰς...
The noun ἐντολὰς is the antecedent of the relative pronoun τὰς, placed at the beginning of the clause for emphasis. The particle μὲν (in ἐντολὰς μὲν) corresponds to δὲ in ὁ δὲ παρήγγειλε, setting up a contrast: 'on the one hand, regarding the instructions of Darius (he ignored them), but on the other hand, he ordered the army...'
- 3.147.1μεμνημένος ἐπελανθάνετο
The combination of the perfect participle μεμνημένος ('remembering') and the imperfect verb ἐπελανθάνετο ('was forgetting/ignoring') seems paradoxical. It expresses a deliberate or psychological action: 'although he remembered them, he chose to forget or ignore them.'