- 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-grc2:3.153.1-3.153.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
In the twentieth month of the siege, a miraculous portent occurs to Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus, as one of his mules gives birth. Recalling the Babylonian's earlier prophecy, Zopyrus realizes that Babylon can now be captured through divine will and begins to deliberate.
ἐνθαῦτα εἰκοστῷ μηνὶ Ζωπύρῳ τῷ Μεγαβύζου, τούτου ὃς τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀνδρῶν ἐγένετο τῶν τὸν Μάγον κατελόντων, τούτῳ τῷ Μεγαβύζου παιδὶ Ζωπύρῳ ἐγένετο τέρας τόδε· τῶν οἱ σιτοφόρων ἡμιόνων μία ἔτεκε. ὡς δέ οἱ ἐξαγγέλθη καὶ ὑπὸ ἀπιστίης αὐτὸς ὁ Ζώπυρος εἶδε τὸ βρέφος, ἀπείπας1 τοῖσι ἰδοῦσι μηδενὶ φράζειν τὸ γεγονὸς ἐβουλεύετο.
There, in the twentieth month, to Zopyrus, the son of Megabyzus—that Megabyzus who had been one of the seven men who overthrew the Magus—to this Zopyrus, the son of Megabyzus, the following portent occurred: one of his food-carrying mules gave birth. When this was reported to him, and Zopyrus himself, out of disbelief, saw the newborn beast, he forbade those who had seen it to tell anyone what had happened, and began to deliberate.
καί οἱ πρὸς τὰ τοῦ Βαβυλωνίου ῥήματα, ὃς κατʼ ἀρχὰς ἔφησε, ἐπεάν περ ἡμίονοι τέκωσι, τότε τὸ τεῖχος ἁλώσεσθαι, πρὸς ταύτην τὴν φήμην Ζωπύρῳ ἐδόκεε εἶναι ἁλώσιμος ἡ Βαβυλών· σὺν γὰρ θεῷ ἐκεῖνόν τε εἰπεῖν καὶ ἑωυτῷ τεκεῖν τὴν ἡμίονον.2
And in relation to the words of the Babylonian, who in the beginning had said that the wall would be captured whenever mules should give birth—in relation to this saying, it seemed to Zopyrus that Babylon could be captured. For he believed that it was with divine aid both that the man had spoken and that his own mule had given birth.
- 3.153.1ἀπείπας
The aorist participle ἀπείπας (from ἀπειπεῖν), meaning 'to forbid' or 'to command not to', governs the infinitive with a negative (μηδενὶ φράζειν) to mean 'forbidding those who had seen it to tell anyone'.
- 3.153.2σὺν γὰρ θεῷ ἐκεῖνόν τε εἰπεῖν καὶ ἑωυτῷ τεκεῖν τὴν ἡμίονον
The infinitives εἰπεῖν and τεκεῖν function in indirect discourse depending on the thinking implied by ἐδόκεε. Their logical subjects are the accusatives ἐκεῖνον (that Babylonian) and τὴν ἡμίονον (the mule) respectively, while ἑωυτῷ is a dative of interest referring to Zopyrus.