- 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-grc2:4.155.1-4.155.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-11
Battus, born to Phronime and Polymnestus, visits the oracle of Delphi as an adult to consult about his voice, but unexpectedly receives a command to colonize Libya.
ἐνθεῦτεν δὲ τὴν Φρονίμην παραλαβὼν Πολύμνηστος, ἐὼν τῶν Θηραίων ἀνὴρ δόκιμος, ἐπαλλακεύετο. χρόνου δὲ περιιόντος ἐξεγένετό οἱ παῖς ἰσχόφωνος καὶ τραυλός, τῷ οὔνομα ἐτέθη Βάττος, ὡς Θηραῖοι τε καὶ Κυρηναῖοι λέγουσι, ὡς μέντοι ἐγὼ δοκέω, ἄλλο τι·1
After this, Polymnestus, a distinguished man among the Theraeans, took Phronime and made her his concubine. As time went on, a son was born to him, who had a stutter and a lisp, to whom the name Battus was given, as the Theraeans and Cyrenaeans say; however, in my opinion, it was something else.
Βάττος δὲ μετωνομάσθη, ἐπείτε ἐς Λιβύην ἀπίκετο, ἀπό τε τοῦ χρηστηρίου τοῦ γενομένου ἐν Δελφοῖσι αὐτῷ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς τιμῆς τὴν ἔσχε τὴν ἐπωνυμίην ποιεύμενος.2 Λίβυες γὰρ βασιλέα βάττον καλέουσι, καὶ τούτου εἵνεκα δοκέω θεσπίζουσαν τὴν Πυθίην καλέσαι μιν Λιβυκῇ γλώσσῃ, εἰδυῖαν ὡς βασιλεὺς ἔσται ἐν Λιβύῃ.
And he was renamed Battus when he arrived in Libya, taking this surname both from the oracle that was given to him in Delphi and from the honorable office that he held. For the Libyans call a king “battus,” and for this reason I think that the Pythia, in her prophesying, called him so in the Libyan tongue, knowing that he would be king in Libya.
ἐπείτε γὰρ ἠνδρώθη οὗτος, ἦλθε ἐς Δελφοὺς περὶ τῆς φωνῆς· ἐπειρωτῶντι δέ οἱ χρᾷ ἡ Πυθίη τάδε. "Βάττʼ ἐπὶ φωνὴν ἦλθες. ἄναξ δέ σε Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων ἐς Λιβύην πέμπει μηλοτρόφον οἰκιστῆρα," ὥσπερ εἰ εἴποι3 Ἑλλάδι γλώσσῃ χρεωμένη ὦ βασιλεῦ, ἐπὶ φωνὴν ἦλθες.
For when this man grew to manhood, he went to Delphi to inquire about his voice; and as he asked, the Pythia gave him this oracle: “Battus, you have come for a voice; but Lord Phoebus Apollo sends you to sheep-breeding Libya to be a founder of a colony,” just as if she, using the Greek tongue, had said, “O king, you have come for a voice.”
ὃ δʼ ἀμείβετο τοῖσιδε. ὦναξ, ἐγὼ μὲν ἦλθον παρὰ σὲ χρησάμενος περὶ τῆς φωνῆς, σὺ δέ μοι ἄλλα ἀδύνατα χρᾷς, κελεύων Λιβύην ἀποικίζειν τέῳ δυνάμι,4 κοίῃ χειρί; ταῦτα λέγων οὐκὶ ἔπειθε ἄλλα οἱ χρᾶν· ὡς δε κατὰ ταὐτὰ ἐθέσπιζέ οἱ καὶ πρότερον, οἴχετο μεταξὺ ἀπολιπὼν5 ὁ Βάττος ἐς τὴν Θήρην.
And he answered her with these words: “O Lord, I indeed came to you to inquire about my voice, but you declare to me other impossible things, ordering me to colonize Libya; with what power, with what hand?” Though he said this, he could not persuade her to give him another oracle; and when she prophesied to him in the same way as before, Battus left her in the middle of it and went away to Thera.
- 4.155.1ἄλλο τι
An ellipse of the noun ὄνομα (name) or the verb ἐτέθη (was given). This indicates Herodotus' own view that the boy's original name was not "Battus."
- 4.155.2τὴν ἐπωνυμίην ποιεύμενος
The present middle participle, meaning "making/taking the surname (ἐπωνυμίην) for himself." It depends on the prepositional phrases starting with ἀπό ..., explaining how he came to acquire this name.
- 4.155.3ὥσπερ εἰ εἴποι
A hypothetical comparative construction with ὥσπερ εἰ (just as if) followed by the optative εἴποι. It illustrates the irony of the Pythia using the Libyan word for "king" which sounded like his actual condition in Greek.
- 4.155.4τέῳ δυνάμι
The word τέῳ is the Ionic dative singular form of the interrogative pronoun τίς (corresponding to Attic τίνι), modifying the feminine dative singular noun δυνάμι (= δυνάμει).
- 4.155.4μεταξὺ ἀπολιπὼν
The adverb μεταξύ combined with the participle expresses the idea of "in the middle of doing something" or "abandoning the matter halfway." Here it implies that Battus left the oracle abruptly, abandoning the dialogue.