- 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-grc2:4.198.1-4.198.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-10
Although the land of Libya is generally not fertile, the region of Cinyps is an exception, boasting grain yields comparable to Babylon. The land of the Euesperitae is also fertile, yielding a hundredfold at best, while Cinyps reaches three hundredfold.
δοκέει δέ μοι οὐδʼ ἀρετὴν1 εἶναι τις ἡ Λιβύη σπουδαίη ὥστε ἢ Ἀσίῃ ἢ Εὐρώπῃ παραβληθῆναι, πλὴν Κίνυπος μούνης· τὸ γὰρ δὴ αὐτὸ οὔνομα ἡ γῆ τῷ ποταμῷ ἔχει.
And Libya does not seem to me to be of any remarkable fertility so as to be compared either with Asia or with Europe, except only Cinyps; for the land has the same name as the river.
αὕτη δὲ ὁμοίη τῇ ἀρίστῃ γέων Δήμητρος καρπὸν ἐκφέρειν2 οὐδὲ ἔοικε οὐδὲν τῇ ἄλλῃ Λιβύῃ. μελάγγαιός τε γὰρ ἐστὶ καὶ ἔπυδρος πίδαξι, καὶ οὔτε αὐχμοῦ φροντίζουσα οὐδὲν οὔτε ὄμβρον πλέω πιοῦσα δεδήληται.3 ὕεται γὰρ δὴ ταῦτα τῆς Λιβύης. τῶν δὲ ἐκφορίων τοῦ καρποῦ ταὐτὰ μέτρα τῇ Βαβυλωνίῃ γῇ κατίσταται. ἀγαθὴ δὲ γῆ καὶ τὴν Εὐεσπερῖται νέμονται·
This land is equal to the best of lands in bearing the fruit of Demeter, and is not at all like the rest of Libya. For it is black-soiled and well-watered with springs, and is neither caring at all for drought nor having been damaged by drinking too much rain. For indeed this part of Libya is visited by rain. And the measure of its yield of fruit equals that of the Babylonian land. The land which the Euesperitae inhabit is also good;
ἐπʼ ἑκατοστὰ γάρ, ἐπεὰν αὐτὴ ἑωυτῆς ἄριστα4 ἐνείκῃ, ἐκφέρει, ἣ δὲ ἐν τῆ Κίνυπι ἐπὶ τριηκόσια.
for when it bears at its very best, it yields a hundredfold, while that in Cinyps yields three hundredfold.
- 4.198.1ἀρετήν
Accusative of respect (or specification), meaning 'in respect to the fertility (or goodness of soil).' It qualifies the infinitive construction εἶναι τις ... σπουδαίη with ἡ Λιβύη as the subject, indicating that Libya as a whole is not remarkable in terms of soil quality.
- 4.198.2ἐκφέρειν
An infinitive of respect (or epexegetical infinitive) limiting and explaining the adjective ὁμοίη, meaning 'equal [to the best of lands] in bearing [the fruit of Demeter].'
- 4.198.2δεδήληται
The third-person singular perfect passive of δηλέομαι ('to damage, spoil'). The subject is αὕτη (the land of Cinyps). It is constructed with the nominative participles φροντίζουσα ('caring') and πιοῦσα ('drinking'), functioning predicatively to mean 'it has never been shown to be damaged by...'
- 4.198.3αὐτὴ ἑωυτῆς ἄριστα
An idiomatic construction where the genitive of the reflexive pronoun ἑωυτῆς acts as the point of comparison for the superlative (here the adverbial superlative ἄριστα), meaning 'at its own very best' or 'in its best possible state.'