- 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-grc2:4.72.1-4.72.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-10
One year after the king's death, the Scythians strangle fifty young servants and fifty fine horses for sacrifice, preserve them, and arrange them on wooden frames and posts as mounted horsemen in a circle around the royal tomb.
ἐνιαυτοῦ δὲ περιφερομένου αὖτις ποιεῦσι τοιόνδε· λαβόντες τῶν λοιπῶν θεραπόντων τοὺς ἐπιτηδεοτάτους (οἳ δὲ εἰσὶ Σκύθαι ἐγγενέες· οὗτοι γὰρ θεραπεύουσι τοὺς ἂν αὐτὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς κελεύσῃ1 ἀργυρώνητοι δὲ οὐκ εἰσί σφι θεράποντες), τούτων ὦν τῶν διηκόνων ἐπεὰν ἀποπνίξωσι πεντήκοντα καὶ ἵππους τοὺς καλλίστους πεντήκοντα, ἐξελόντες αὐτῶν τὴν κοιλίην καὶ καθήραντες ἐμπιπλᾶσι ἀχύρων καὶ συρράπτουσι.
And when a year has come round, they do again as follows: having taken the most suitable of the remaining servants (now these are native Scythians; for these serve whomsoever the king himself may command, and they have no servants bought with money), when therefore they have strangled fifty of these servants and fifty of the finest horses, having taken out their bowels and cleansed them, they fill them with chaff and sew them up.
ἁψῖδος δὲ ἥμισυ ἐπὶ δύο ξύλα στήσαντες ὕπτιον2 καὶ τὸ ἕτερον ἥμισυ τῆς ἁψῖδος ἐπʼ ἕτερα δύο, καταπήξαντες τρόπῳ τοιούτῳ πολλὰ ταῦτα, ἔπειτα τῶν ἵππων κατὰ τὰ μήκεα ξύλα παχέα διελάσαντες μέχρι τῶν τραχήλων ἀναβιβάζουσι αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τὰς ἁψῖδας·
And having set half of a wheel-rim upside down upon two wooden posts, and the other half of the wheel-rim upon another two, having fixed many of these in this manner, then having run thick poles through the horses along their length up to their necks, they mount them upon the wheel-rims;
τῶν δὲ αἱ μὲν πρότεραι ἀψῖδες ὑπέχουσι τοὺς ὤμους τῶν ἵππων, αἱ δὲ ὄπισθε παρὰ τοὺς μηροὺς τὰς γαστέρας ὑπολαμβάνουσι· σκέλεα δὲ ἀμφότερα κατακρέμαται μετέωρα. χαλινοὺς δὲ καὶ στόμια ἐμβαλόντες ἐς τοὺς ἵππους κατατείνουσι ἐς τὸ πρόσθε αὐτῶν καὶ ἔπειτα ἐκ πασσάλων δέουσι.
and of these, the front rims support the shoulders of the horses, and the rear ones support their bellies near the thighs; and both pairs of legs hang down dangling in the air. And having put bridles and bits into the mouths of the horses, they stretch them out in front of them and then tie them to pegs.
τῶν δὲ δὴ νεηνίσκων τῶν ἀποπεπνιγμένων τῶν πεντήκοντα ἕνα ἕκαστον ἀναβιβάζουσι ἐπὶ τὸν ἵππον, ὧδε ἀναβιβάζοντες, ἐπεὰν νεκροῦ ἑκάστου παρὰ τὴν ἄκανθαν ξύλον ὀρθὸν διελάσωσι μέχρι τοῦ τραχήλου· κάτωθεν δὲ ὑπερέχει τοῦ ξύλου τούτου τὸ ἐς τόρμον πηγνύουσι3 τοῦ ἑτέρου ξύλου τοῦ διὰ τοῦ ἵππου. ἐπιστήσαντες δὲ κύκλῳ τὸ σῆμα ἱππέας τοιούτους ἀπελαύνουσι.
Then, upon each of these horses they mount one of the fifty strangled young men, mounting them in this way: when they have run a straight piece of wood through each corpse along the spine up to the neck; and from below there projects a part of this wood, which they drive into a socket of the other wood that goes through the horse. And having set such horsemen in a circle around the tomb, they depart.
- 4.72.1τοὺς ἂν αὐτὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς κελεύσῃ
The relative clause with ἄν and the subjunctive (τοὺς ἂν... κελεύσῃ) expresses a general relative condition ("whomsoever the king himself may command"). The antecedent (τοὺς) is the direct object of the verb θεραπεύουσι.
- 4.72.3ὕπτιον
The neuter accusative singular of the adjective ὕπτιος ("laid on its back", "flat") is used adverbially, describing how the half-rims (ἁψῖδος ἥμισυ) are set up with their concave sides facing upwards (like a U-shape rather than an inverted U).
- 4.72.5τὸ ἐς τόρμον πηγνύουσι
The neuter accusative singular article τὸ is used as a relative pronoun (equivalent to ὅ), a common feature of the Ionic dialect of Herodotus. It refers back to the projecting part of the wood (the subject of ὑπερέχει) and serves as the direct object of πηγνύουσι.