- 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-grc2:7.10E.1
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Artabanus explains the nature of divine jealousy, illustrating how the god strikes down prominent animals, tall buildings, trees, and great armies to prevent anyone other than himself from thinking big.
ὁρᾷς τὰ ὑπερέχοντα ζῷα1 ὡς κεραυνοῖ ὁ θεὸς οὐδὲ ἐᾷ φαντάζεσθαι, τὰ δὲ σμικρὰ οὐδέν μιν2 κνίζει· ὁρᾷς δὲ ὡς ἐς οἰκήματα τὰ μέγιστα αἰεὶ καὶ δένδρεα τὰ τοιαῦτα ἀποσκήπτει τὰ βέλεα· φιλέει γὰρ ὁ θεὸς τὰ ὑπερέχοντα πάντα κολούειν. οὕτω δὲ καὶ στρατὸς πολλὸς ὑπὸ ὀλίγου διαφθείρεται κατὰ τοιόνδε· ἐπεάν σφι ὁ θεὸς φθονήσας φόβον ἐμβάλῃ ἢ βροντήν, διʼ ὦν3 ἐφθάρησαν ἀναξίως ἑωυτῶν. οὐ γὰρ ἐᾷ φρονέειν μέγα ὁ θεὸς ἄλλον ἢ ἑωυτόν.
You see how the god strikes with lightning those animals that stand out, and does not allow them to show off, while the small ones do not vex him at all. And you see how he always hurls his bolts against the tallest houses and trees of such kind; for the god loves to prune back everything that stands out. In this way, too, a great army is destroyed by a small one in the following manner: whenever the god, out of envy, casts fear or thunder among them, they are thereby destroyed in a manner unworthy of themselves. For the god does not allow anyone else but himself to think big.
- 7.10E.1τὰ ὑπερέχοντα ζῷα
Proleptic accusative. It is placed as the direct object of the main verb ὁρᾷς, but logically functions as the object of the verb κεραυνοῖ inside the subordinate clause ("how the god strikes [them] with lightning").
- 7.10E.1μιν
Ionic third-person singular pronoun in the accusative (equivalent to Attic αὐτόν). Here it refers back to ὁ θεός (the god), meaning "the small ones do not vex him (the god) at all."
- 7.10E.1διʼ ὦν
ὦν is the Ionic spelling of the particle οὖν (therefore), not the relative pronoun ὧν. Thus διʼ ὦν is equivalent to διʼ οὖν, meaning "and so" or "consequently."