- 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-grc2:6.86.1
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
Leotychides goes to Athens to demand the return of the hostages, but the Athenians refuse to restore them, arguing that they were deposited by two kings.
ὡς δὲ ἀπικόμενος Λευτυχίδης ἐς τὰς Ἀθήνας ἀπαίτεε τὴν παραθήκην, οἱ δʼ Ἀθηναῖοι προφάσιας εἷλκον1 οὐ βουλόμενοι ἀποδοῦναι, φάντες δύο σφέας2 ἐόντας βασιλέας παραθέσθαι3 καὶ οὐ δικαιοῦν τῷ ἑτέρῳ ἄνευ τοῦ ἑτέρου ἀποδιδόναι·
But when Leotychides, having arrived in Athens, demanded the return of the deposit, the Athenians, not wishing to restore it, dragged out excuses, saying that two kings had deposited it with them and they did not think it right to restore it to the one without the other.
- 6.86.1προφάσιας εἷλκον
Literally 'they dragged out excuses,' an idiomatic expression describing how they kept making up excuses to delay the return of the hostages.
- 6.86.1σφέας
This accusative pronoun refers to the Athenians (the subject of the main clause) and functions here as a dative ('to them'). This is a characteristic of the Ionic dialect in Herodotus.
- 6.86.1παραθέσθαι
The aorist middle infinitive of παρατίθημι, meaning 'to deposit for safekeeping, entrust.' Its subject is the accusative δύο βασιλέας ('two kings').