- 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-grc2:3.27.1-3.27.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
When Cambyses returned to Memphis, the god Apis appeared, and the Egyptians began to celebrate. Cambyses, misinterpreting this as rejoicing over his military failure, questioned the local officials and put them to death.
ἀπιγμένου δὲ Καμβύσεω ἐς Μέμφιν ἐφάνη Αἰγυπτίοισι ὁ Ἆπις, τὸν Ἕλληνες Ἔπαφον καλέουσι· ἐπιφανέος δὲ τούτου γενομένου αὐτίκα οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι εἵματα ἐφόρεον τὰ κάλλιστα καὶ ἦσαν ἐν θαλίῃσι.
When Cambyses arrived at Memphis, Apis appeared to the Egyptians, whom the Greeks call Epaphos. Upon this appearance, the Egyptians immediately put on their finest garments and were in festive spirits.
ἰδὼν δὲ ταῦτα τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους ποιεῦντας ὁ Καμβύσης, πάγχυ σφέας καταδόξας ἑωυτοῦ κακῶς πρήξαντος1 χαρμόσυνα ταῦτα ποιέειν, ἐκάλεε τοὺς ἐπιτρόπους τῆς Μέμφιος, ἀπικομένους δὲ ἐς ὄψιν εἴρετο ὅ τι2 πρότερον μὲν ἐόντος αὐτοῦ ἐν Μέμφι ἐποίευν τοιοῦτον οὐδὲν Αἰγύπτιοι, τότε δὲ ἐπεὶ αὐτὸς παρείη τῆς στρατιῆς πλῆθός τι ἀποβαλών.
Seeing the Egyptians doing this, Cambyses, fully suspecting that they were doing these rejoicing acts because he had fared badly, summoned the governors of Memphis; and when they came into his presence, he asked why the Egyptians had done nothing of this kind before when he was in Memphis, but did so now when he was present after losing a large part of his army.
οἳ δὲ ἔφραζον ὥς σφι θεὸς εἴη φανεὶς διὰ χρόνου πολλοῦ ἐωθὼς ἐπιφαίνεσθαι, καὶ ὡς ἐπεὰν φανῇ τότε πάντες Αἰγύπτιοι κεχαρηκότες ὁρτάζοιεν. ταῦτα ἀκούσας ὁ Καμβύσης ἔφη ψεύδεσθαι σφέας καὶ ὡς ψευδομένους θανάτῳ ἐζημίου.
They explained that a god had appeared to them, who was accustomed to appear only after a long interval of time, and that whenever he appeared, then all the Egyptians rejoiced and kept holiday. Hearing this, Cambyses said that they were lying, and as liars he punished them with death.
- 3.27.2ἑωυτοῦ κακῶς πρήξαντος
Although this is a genitive absolute construction, its logical subject, the reflexive pronoun ἑωυτοῦ, refers to the same person as the subject of the main clause, ὁ Καμβύσης. Normally, the genitive absolute is used when the subject of the participle is different from that of the main verb, making this an irregular usage.
- 3.27.2ὅ τι
This pronoun introduces an indirect question, used here in an adverbial sense meaning 'why' or 'for what reason' (equivalent to διὰ τί) rather than 'what'.