- 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-grc2:6.68.1-6.68.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
Demaratus asks his mother to tell him the truth about his parentage, mentioning Leotychides' insults and the rumor that he is the son of an ass-herd.
ἀπικομένῃ δὲ τῇ μητρὶ ἐσθεὶς ἐς τὰς χεῖράς οἱ τῶν σπλάγχνων1 κατικέτευε, τοιάδε λέγων. ὦ μῆτερ, θεῶν σε τῶν τε ἄλλων καταπτόμενος ἱκετεύω καὶ τοῦ ἑρκείου Διὸς τοῦδε φράσαι μοι τὴν ἀληθείην, τίς μευ ἐστὶ πατὴρ ὀρθῷ λόγῳ.
When his mother had come, he placed some of the entrails into her hands and supplicated her, saying as follows: “O mother, I entreat you, laying hold of the other gods and of this Zeus of the household, to tell me the truth, who in very truth is my father.
Λευτυχίδης μὲν γὰρ ἔφη ἐν τοῖσι νείκεσι λέγων κυέουσάν σε ἐκ τοῦ προτέρου ἀνδρὸς οὕτω ἐλθεῖν παρὰ Ἀρίστωνα· οἱ δὲ καὶ τὸν ματαιότερον λόγον λέγοντες φασί σε ἐλθεῖν παρὰ τῶν οἰκετέων τὸν ὀνοφορβόν, καὶ ἐμὲ ἐκείνου εἶναι παῖδα.
For Leotychides said in his abuse that you came to Ariston already pregnant by your former husband; and others, telling a still sillier story, say that you went to the ass-herd among the servants, and that I am his son.
ἐγώ σε ὦν μετέρχομαι τῶν θεῶν εἰπεῖν τὠληθές· οὔτε γάρ, εἴ περ πεποίηκάς τι τῶν λεγομένων, μούνη δὴ πεποίηκας, μετὰ πολλέων δέ· ὅ τε λόγος πολλὸς ἐν Σπάρτῃ ὡς Ἀρίστωνι σπέρμα παιδοποιὸν οὐκ ἐνῆν· τεκεῖν γὰρ ἄν2 οἱ καὶ τὰς προτέρας γυναῖκας.
Therefore, I adjure you by the gods to tell the truth; for even if you have done any of the things that are said, you have certainly not done it alone, but with many others; and there is much talk in Sparta that Ariston had no child-begetting seed in him, for otherwise his former wives would also have borne children to him.”
- 6.68.1οἱ τῶν σπλάγχνων
οἱ is the dative of interest/possession referring to her (the mother), functioning with ἐς τὰς χεῖρας ("into her hands"). τῶν σπλάγχνων is a partitive genitive, meaning "some of the entrails."
- 6.68.3τεκεῖν γὰρ ἄν
The infinitive τεκεῖν (aorist infinitive of τίκτω) with ἄν represents the apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact condition ("they would have borne"). It is cast into the infinitive construction to provide the explanation (introduced by γάρ) for the preceding rumor introduced by ὡς.