- 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-grc2:4.187.1-4.187.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-11
The Libyans west of Lake Tritonis are non-nomadic and have different customs. The nomadic Libyans practice cauterizing the veins of their children's heads at four years old to maintain health, and their remedy for convulsions is described.
ταῦτα μὲν δὴ οὕτω ἔχει. τὸ δὲ πρὸς ἑσπέρης1 τῆς Τριτωνίδος λίμνης οὐκέτι νομάδες εἰσὶ Λίβυες οὐδὲ νόμοισι τοῖσι αὐτοῖσι χρεώμενοι, οὐδὲ κατὰ τὰ παιδία ποιεῦντες οἷον τι καὶ οἱ νομάδες ἐώθασι ποιέειν.
These things are indeed so. But to the west of Lake Tritonis, the Libyans are no longer nomads, nor do they practice the same customs, nor do they do with regard to their children anything such as the nomads are accustomed to do.
οἱ γὰρ δὴ τῶν Λιβύων νομάδες, εἰ μὲν πάντες, οὐκ ἔχω ἀτρεκέως τοῦτο εἰπεῖν, ποιεῦσι δὲ αὐτῶν συχνοὶ τοιάδε· τῶν παιδίων τῶν σφετέρων, ἐπεὰν τετραέτεα γένηται, οἴσπῃ προβάτων καίουσι τὰς ἐν τῇσι κορυφῇσι φλέβας, μετεξέτεροι δὲ αὐτῶν τὰς ἐν τοῖσι κροτάφοισι, τοῦδε εἵνεκα ὡς μή σφεας ἐς τὸν πάντα χρόνον καταρρέον φλέγμα ἐκ τῆς κεφαλῆς δηλέηται.
For the nomadic Libyans—whether all of them do, I cannot say for certain, but many of them do as follows: when their children become four years old, they burn the veins on the crowns of their heads with greasy sheep’s wool, and others of them, the veins on their temples, for this reason, so that phlegm flowing down from the head may not harm them for the rest of their lives.
καὶ διὰ τοῦτο σφέας λέγουσι εἶναι ὑγιηροτάτους· εἰσὶ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθέως οἱ Λίβυες ἀνθρώπων πάντων ὑγιηρότατοι τῶν ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν,2 εἰ μὲν διὰ τοῦτο, οὐκ ἔχω ἀτρεκέως εἰπεῖν, ὑγιηρότατοι δʼ ὦν εἰσί. ἢν δὲ καίουσι3 τὰ παιδία σπασμὸς ἐπιγένηται, ἐξεύρηταί σφι ἄκος· τράγου γὰρ οὖρον σπείσαντες ῥύονται σφέα. λέγω δὲ τὰ λέγουσι αὐτοὶ Λίβυες.
And because of this, they say that they are the healthiest of people; for indeed, the Libyans are the healthiest of all the people we know, whether it is because of this, I cannot say for certain, but they are indeed the healthiest. But if a convulsion occurs when they are burning the children, a remedy has been found by them: for by sprinkling the urine of a he-goat, they rescue them. I am repeating what the Libyans themselves say.
- 4.187.1τὸ δὲ πρὸς ἑσπέρης
Functions either as a nominative or an adverbial accusative, serving to present the topic or indicate direction: "as for the region to the west."
- 4.187.3τῶν ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν
The relative pronoun τῶν would expectedly be in the accusative (οὕς) as the object of the verb ἴδμεν (Ionic 1st person plural of οἶδα), but it has been attracted into the genitive case (attraction of the relative) by its antecedent ἀνθρώπων πάντων.
- 4.187.3καίουσι
Although homonymous with the third-person plural indicative, this is the dative plural masculine of the present participle καίων. Within the conditional clause ἢν ... ἐπιγένηται ("if a convulsion occurs"), it functions as a dative of time or agent, meaning "while they are burning (the children)."