- 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-grc2:4.132.1-4.132.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-10
Regarding the Scythian gifts, Darius interprets them favorably as a sign of submission, whereas Gobryas offers the opposite interpretation, warning that they will be destroyed unless they escape like birds, mice, or frogs.
ταῦτα ἀκούσαντες οἱ Πέρσαι ἐβουλεύοντο. Δαρείου μέν νυν ἡ γνώμη ἦν Σκύθας ἑωυτῷ διδόναι σφέας τε αὐτοὺς καὶ γῆν τε καὶ ὕδωρ, εἰκάζων1 τῇδε, ὡς μῦς μὲν ἐν γῇ γίνεται καρπὸν τὸν αὐτὸν ἀνθρώπῳ σιτεόμενος, βάτραχος δὲ ἐν ὕδατι, ὄρνις δὲ μάλιστα ἔοικε ἵππῳ, τοὺς δὲ ὀιστοὺς ὡς τὴν ἑωυτῶν ἀλκὴν παραδιδοῦσι.
Having heard these things, the Persians held a council. Now the opinion of Darius was that the Scythians were giving themselves up to him, along with both land and water; conjecturing in this way: that a mouse is produced in the earth, eating the same food as a human, a frog in the water, a bird is most like a horse, and as for the arrows, that they were surrendering their own military prowess.
αὕτη μὲν Δαρείῳ ἀπεδέδεκτο ἡ γνώμη. συνεστήκεε2 δὲ ταύτῃ τῇ γνώμῃ ἡ Γοβρύεω, τῶν ἀνδρῶν τῶν ἑπτὰ ἑνὸς τῶν τὸν Μάγον κατελόντων, εἰκάζοντος τὰ δῶρα λέγειν3 ἢν μὴ ὄρνιθες γενόμενοι ἀναπτῆσθε ἐς τὸν οὐρανόν, ὦ Πέρσαι, ἢ μύες γενόμενοι κατὰ τῆς γῆς καταδύητε, ἢ βάτραχοι γενόμενοι ἐς τὰς λίμνας ἐσπηδήσητε, οὐκ ἀπονοστήσετε ὀπίσω ὑπὸ τῶνδε τῶν τοξευμάτων βαλλόμενοι.
This opinion, indeed, had been declared by Darius. But opposed to this opinion was that of Gobryas, one of the seven men who had overthrown the Magus, who conjectured that the gifts meant this: ”Unless you become birds and fly up into the sky, O Persians, or become mice and sink down into the earth, or become frogs and leap into the lakes, you shall not return back home, being struck by these arrows.”
- 4.132.1εἰκάζων
Nominative masculine singular present participle. Although the grammatical subject of the preceding main clause is the noun 'opinion' (ἡ γνώμη), the participle is placed in the nominative case by agreeing with Darius (genitive Δαρείου) as the logical subject, resulting in an anacoluthon.
- 4.132.2συνεστήκεε
Pluperfect active of the intransitive συνίστημι. Here it means 'to stand opposed to, conflict with,' taking the dative ταύτῃ τῇ γνώμῃ. The subject is the omitted noun 'opinion' (ἡ γνώμη) modified by the genitive Γοβρύεω (of Gobryas).
- 4.132.2λέγειν
Present active infinitive. It functions as the complement of the participle εἰκάζοντος, with the accusative τὰ δῶρα (the gifts) acting as its subject. This forms an accusative and infinitive (Aci) construction ('that the gifts mean...'), leading into the conditional sentence of the following section §4.132.3 as indirect discourse.