- 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-grc2:4.79.1-4.79.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-10
Despite an ominous portent, Scyles undergoes initiation into the Bacchic rites, but a Borysthenite betrays him to the Scythian leaders, who witness his Bacchic frenzy.
ἐπείτε δὲ ἔδεέ οἱ κακῶς γενέσθαι,1 ἐγίνετο ἀπὸ προφάσιος τοιῆσδε. ἐπεθύμησε Διονύσῳ Βακχείῳ τελεσθῆναι· μέλλοντι δέ οἱ ἐς χεῖρας ἄγεσθαι τὴν τελετὴν ἐγένετο φάσμα μέγιστον.
But when it was fated for misfortune to befall him, it came about from the following pretext. He desired to be initiated into the rites of Bacchus Dionysus; and as he was about to take the initiation in hand, a greatest portent occurred.
ἦν οἱ ἐν Βορυσθενεϊτέων τῇ πόλι οἰκίης μεγάλης καὶ πολυτελέος περιβολή, τῆς καὶ ὀλίγῳ τι πρότερον τούτων μνήμην εἶχον,2 τὴν πέριξ λευκοῦ λίθου σφίγγες τε καὶ γρῦπες ἕστασαν· ἐς ταύτην ὁ θεὸς ἐνέσκηψε βέλος. καὶ ἣ μὲν κατεκάη πᾶσα, Σκύλης δὲ οὐδὲν τούτου εἵνεκα ἧσσον ἐπετέλεσε τὴν τελετήν.
He had in the city of the Borysthenites the enclosure of a large and costly house, of which I also made mention a little before this, around which stood sphinxes and gryphons of white stone; upon this the god cast a thunderbolt. And though it was entirely burnt down, Scyles none the less completed the initiation.
Σκύθαι δὲ τοῦ βακχεύειν πέρι Ἕλλησι ὀνειδίζουσι· οὐ γὰρ φασὶ οἰκὸς εἶναι θεὸν ἐξευρίσκειν τοῦτον ὅστις μαίνεσθαι ἐνάγει ἀνθρώπους.3
Now the Scythians reproach the Greeks on account of Bacchic revelry; for they say it is not reasonable to acknowledge a god of this kind, who leads men to go mad.
ἐπείτε δὲ ἐτελέσθη τῷ Βακχείῳ ὁ Σκύλης, διεπρήστευσε τῶν τις Βορυσθενειτέων πρὸς τοὺς Σκύθας λέγων ἡμῖν γὰρ καταγελᾶτε, ὦ Σκύθαι, ὅτι βακχεύομεν καὶ ἡμέας ὁ θεὸς λαμβάνει· νῦν οὗτος ὁ δαίμων καὶ τὸν ὑμέτερον βασιλέα λελάβηκε, καὶ βακχεύει τε καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ μαίνεται. εἰ δέ μοι ἀπιστέετε, ἕπεσθε, καὶ ὑμῖν ἐγὼ δέξω.
And when Scyles had been initiated into the Bacchic rites, one of the Borysthenites ran to the Scythians as a messenger, saying: “You laugh at us, O Scythians, because we play the Bacchanal and the god seizes us; now this deity has seized your king also, and he both plays the Bacchanal and is driven mad by the god. If you do not believe me, follow, and I will show you.”
εἵποντο τῶν Σκύθεων οἱ προεστεῶτες, καὶ αὐτοὺς ἀναγαγὼν ὁ Βορυσθενεΐτης λάθρῃ ἐπὶ πύργον κατεῖσε. ἐπείτε δὲ παρήιε σὺν τῷ θιάσῳ ὁ Σκύλης καὶ εἶδόν μιν βακχεύοντα οἱ Σκύθαι, κάρτα συμφορὴν μεγάλην ἐποιήσαντο, ἐξελθόντες δὲ ἐσήμαινον πάσῃ τῇ στρατιῇ τὰ ἴδοιεν.4
The leading men of the Scythians followed, and the Borysthenite, leading them up secretly, seated them upon a tower. And when Scyles passed by with his sacred band and the Scythians saw him playing the Bacchanal, they regarded it as a very great calamity, and going out they made known to the whole army what they had seen.
- 4.79.1ἔδεέ οἱ κακῶς γενέσθαι
The impersonal verb δεῖ (here in the Ionic imperfect form ἔδεε) is combined with the dative of the third-person pronoun οἱ (equivalent to αὐτῷ, indicating disadvantage) and the infinitive κακῶς γενέσθαι ("to fare ill"). This is a formulaic expression in Herodotus indicating that a tragic fate was destined to happen. Although δεῖ typically takes an accusative with infinitive, Herodotus frequently uses the dative.
- 4.79.2τῆς καὶ ὀλίγῳ τι πρότερον τούτων μνήμην εἶχον
The relative pronoun τῆς (genitive feminine singular, with οἰκίης or περιβολή as its antecedent) is in the genitive case because it is governed by the verbal phrase μνήμην εἶχον ("made mention of"). The phrase ὀλίγῳ τι πρότερον τούτων ("a little before these things"), featuring the dative of measure of difference ὀλίγῳ, refers back to the mention of the house in the previous section (4.78.5).
- 4.79.3οὐ γὰρ φασὶ οἰκὸς εἶναι θεὸν ἐξευρίσκειν τοῦτον ὅστις μαίνεσθαι ἐνάγει ἀνθρώπους
οὐ φασὶ ("they say ... not", negative raising) introduces the impersonal infinitive construction οἰκὸς εἶναι ("to be reasonable"; οἰκός is the Ionic form of εἰκός), which in turn takes the infinitive ἐξευρίσκειν ("to invent, acknowledge") as its subject. The direct object of ἐξευρίσκειν is the phrase θεὸν τοῦτον ὅστις... ("such a god who..."), modified by the relative clause.
- 4.79.5τὰ ἴδοιεν
Since the main verb ἐσήμαινον is in a secondary tense (imperfect), the verb in the relative clause (which would originally be an indicative aorist εἶδον) is changed into the optative of oblique sequence (ἴδοιεν). It represents the content of their report ("what they had seen") from a past perspective.