- 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-grc2:5.41.1-5.41.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-10
After Anaxandrides' second wife gives birth to Cleomenes, the previously childless first wife also becomes pregnant and successively gives birth to Dorieus, Leonidas, and Cleombrotus.
χρόνου δὲ οὐ πολλοῦ διελθόντος ἡ ἐσύστερον ἐπελθοῦσα γυνὴ τίκτει τὸν δὴ Κλεομένεα τοῦτον. καὶ αὕτη τε ἔφεδρον βασιλέα Σπαρτιήτῃσι ἀπέφαινε, καὶ ἡ προτέρη γυνὴ τὸν πρότερον χρόνον ἄτοκος ἐοῦσα τότε κως ἐκύησε, συντυχίῃ ταύτῃ χρησαμένη.
Not long afterward, the wife who had come in later gave birth to this Cleomenes. And while she thus presented the Spartans with a successor to the throne, the former wife, who had been childless before, then somehow became pregnant, meeting with this piece of fortune.
ἔχουσαν1 δὲ αὐτὴν ἀληθεῖ λόγῳ οἱ τῆς ἐπελθούσης γυναικὸς οἰκήιοι πυθόμενοι ὤχλεον, φάμενοι αὐτὴν κομπέειν ἄλλως βουλομένην ὑποβαλέσθαι.2 δεινὰ δὲ ποιεύντων αὐτῶν, τοῦ χρόνου συντάμνοντος, ὑπʼ ἀπιστίης οἱ ἔφοροι τίκτουσαν τὴν γυναῖκα περιιζόμενοι ἐφύλαξαν.
When the relatives of the wife who had come in later learned that she was truly pregnant, they made a disturbance, claiming that she was merely making a false boast and wished to introduce a supposititious child. As they were making a great fuss and the time was drawing near, the ephors, out of disbelief, sat around the woman as she gave birth and watched her.
ἣ δὲ ὡς ἔτεκε Δωριέα ἰθέως ἴσχει3 Λεωνίδην, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτον ἰθέως ἴσχει Κλεόμβροτον· οἳ δὲ καὶ διδύμους λέγουσι Κλεόμβροτον καὶ Λεωνίδην γενέσθαι. ἣ δὲ Κλεομένεα τεκοῦσα καὶ τὸ δεύτερον ἐπελθοῦσα γυνή, ἐοῦσα θυγάτηρ Πρινητάδεω τοῦ Δημαρμένου, οὐκέτι ἔτικτε τὸ δεύτερον.
And when she had given birth to Dorieus, she immediately conceived Leonidas, and immediately after him Cleombrotus; though some say that Cleombrotus and Leonidas were twins. But the second wife who had come in, the mother of Cleomenes, who was the daughter of Prinetades the son of Demarmenus, never bore a child a second time.
- 5.41.2ἔχουσαν
ἔχουσαν is an elliptical expression for ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσαν ("being pregnant"), functioning as a supplementary participle in indirect discourse depending on πυθόμενοι ("having learned that she was [pregnant]").
- 5.41.2ὑποβαλέσθαι
The middle infinitive ὑποβαλέσθαι carries the specific middle-voice meaning of introducing a supposititious child (secretly adopting another's child as one's own). Here it functions as a complementary infinitive dependent on βουλομένην.
- 5.41.3ἴσχει
The verb ἴσχω ("to hold", "to get") is used here in the specific sense of "to conceive" (a child). The tense is historical present, interspersed with past tenses (ἔτεκε, ἔτικτε) to bring vividness to the narrative.