- 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-grc2:5.7.1
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-10
The author describes the most prominent customs of the Thracians and the gods they worship (Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis), noting that their kings worship Hermes above all others and claim descent from him.
οὗτοι μὲν σφέων1 οἱ ἐπιφανέστατοι νόμοι εἰσί, θεοὺς δὲ σέβονται μούνους τούσδε, Ἄρεα καὶ Διόνυσον καὶ Ἄρτεμιν. οἱ δὲ βασιλέες αὐτῶν, πάρεξ τῶν ἄλλων πολιητέων,2 σέβονται Ἑρμέην μάλιστα θεῶν, καὶ ὀμνύουσι μοῦνον τοῦτον, καὶ λέγουσι γεγονέναι ἀπὸ Ἑρμέω ἑωυτούς.3
These are their most conspicuous customs; as for gods, they worship only these: Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis. But their kings, apart from the other citizens, worship Hermes most of all the gods, and swear by him alone, and say that they themselves are descended from Hermes.
- 5.7.1σφέων
The genitive plural of the third-person pronoun σφεῖς in the Ionic dialect. Here it functions as a possessive genitive modifying οἱ ... νόμοι, meaning 'their (most conspicuous customs)'.
- 5.7.1πολιητέων
The Ionic form corresponding to Attic πολιτῶν, the genitive plural of πολίτης ('citizen', 'fellow countryman'). It is governed in the genitive case by the preposition πάρεξ ('except', 'apart from').
- 5.7.1γεγονέναι ἀπὸ Ἑρμέω ἑωυτούς
An accusative and infinitive construction (AcI) introduced by the main verb λέγουσι. The reflexive pronoun in the accusative, ἑωυτούς (referring back to the subject 'kings'), acts as the subject of the perfect infinitive γεγονέναι (from γίγνομαι, 'to be born'). Ἑρμέω is the Ionic genitive of Ἑρμῆς, used with the preposition ἀπό to denote origin or descent.