- 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-grc2:6.138.1-6.138.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
The Pelasgians living in Lemnos, fearing the solidarity and dominance of the children born from the abducted Athenian women, massacred the children and their mothers, a crime that led to the Greek idiom calling all monstrous deeds "Lemnian."
οἱ δὲ Πελασγοὶ οὗτοι Λῆμνον τότε νεμόμενοι καὶ βουλόμενοι τοὺς Ἀθηναίους τιμωρήσασθαι, εὖ τε ἐξεπιστάμενοι τὰς Ἀθηναίων ὁρτάς, πεντηκοντέρους κτησάμενοι ἐλόχησαν Ἀρτέμιδι ἐν Βραυρῶνι ἀγούσας ὁρτὴν τὰς τῶν Ἀθηναίων γυναῖκας, ἐνθεῦτεν δὲ ἁρπάσαντες τουτέων πολλὰς οἴχοντο ἀποπλέοντες,1 καί σφεας ἐς Λῆμνον ἀγαγόντες παλλακὰς εἶχον.
Now these Pelasgians, who were then dwelling in Lemnos and wishing to punish the Athenians, knowing well the festivals of the Athenians, obtained fifty-rowed ships and lay in wait for the Athenian women celebrating the festival of Artemis at Brauron; and having snatched many of them from there, they sailed away with them, and having brought them to Lemnos, they kept them as concubines.
ὡς δὲ τέκνων αὗται αἱ γυναῖκες ὑπεπλήσθησαν, γλῶσσάν τε τὴν Ἀττικὴν καὶ τρόπους τοὺς Ἀθηναίων ἐδίδασκον τοὺς παῖδας. οἳ δὲ οὔτε συμμίσγεσθαι τοῖσι ἐκ τῶν Πελασγίδων γυναικῶν παισὶ ἤθελον, εἴ τε τύπτοιτό τις αὐτῶν τινός,2 ἐβοήθεόν τε πάντες καὶ ἐτιμώρεον ἀλλήλοισι· καὶ δὴ καὶ ἄρχειν τε τῶν παίδων οἱ παῖδες ἐδικαίευν καὶ πολλῷ ἐπεκράτεον.
When these women had given birth to children, they taught their sons the Attic tongue and the manners of the Athenians. And these boys would neither associate with the children of the Pelasgian women, and if one of them was struck by any of the others, they would all come to his aid and avenge one another; moreover, these boys even claimed the right to rule over the other children and got the upper hand by far.
μαθόντες δὲ ταῦτα οἱ Πελασγοὶ ἑωυτοῖσι λόγους ἐδίδοσαν· καί σφι βουλευομένοισι δεινόν τι ἐσέδυνε,3 εἰ δὴ διαγινώσκοιεν4 σφίσι τε βοηθέειν οἱ παῖδες πρὸς τῶν κουριδιέων γυναικῶν τοὺς παῖδας καὶ τούτων αὐτίκα ἄρχειν πειρῴατο, τί δὴ ἀνδρωθέντες δῆθεν ποιήσουσι.
When the Pelasgians learned of this, they held consultations among themselves; and as they deliberated, a terrible dread came upon them, thinking that if these boys already resolved to aid one another against the children of the lawful wives and were attempting to rule over them immediately, what indeed would they do when they became men.
ἐνθαῦτα ἔδοξέ σφι κτείνειν τοὺς παῖδας τοὺς ἐκ τῶν Ἀττικέων γυναικῶν. ποιεῦσι δὴ ταῦτα, προσαπολλύουσι δὲ σφέων καὶ τὰς μητέρας. ἀπὸ τούτου δὲ τοῦ ἔργου καὶ τοῦ προτέρου τούτων, τὸ ἐργάσαντο αἱ γυναῖκες τοὺς ἅμα Θόαντι ἄνδρας σφετέρους ἀποκτείνασαι, νενόμισται ἀνὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα τὰ σχέτλια ἔργα πάντα Λήμνια καλέεσθαι.
Thereupon they resolved to kill the children of the Attic women. They indeed did this, and in addition they also destroyed their mothers. From this deed and that which happened before it, which the women did when they killed their own husbands along with Thoas, it has become the custom throughout Greece to call all monstrous deeds “Lemnian.”
- 6.138.1οἴχοντο ἀποπλέοντες
The verb οἴχομαι combined with a present participle emphasizes that the action of the participle is completed and the subjects have gone off after performing it.
- 6.138.2εἴ τε τύπτοιτό τις αὐτῶν τινός
The verb τύπτοιτό is in the middle-passive. It is best interpreted as "if any of them (τις αὐτῶν) should be struck by anyone (τινός, meaning one of the Pelasgian children)," where τινός functions as the agent in the genitive without the preposition ὑπό.
- 6.138.3καί σφι βουλευομένοισι δεινόν τι ἐσέδυνε
The dative σφι βουλευομένοισι functions either as a dative of interest or as the indirect object of ἐσέδυνε, meaning "as they were deliberating, a terrible dread/thought entered into them."
- 6.138.3εἰ δὴ διαγινώσκοιεν
The optatives διαγινώσκοιεν and πειρῴατο in the conditional protasis introduced by εἰ represent indirect discourse (or oblique mood) reflecting the Pelasgians' thoughts, which lead to the direct future indicative question ποιήσουσι in the apodosis.