- 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-grc2:7.152.1-7.152.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-04
Herodotus, addressing the rumors of Argive medizing, defends Argos by stating that people would prefer their own troubles if they saw those of others, and asserts his historiographical duty to report what is said without being obliged to believe it.
εἰ1 μέν νυν Ξέρξης τε ἀπέπεμψε ταῦτα λέγοντα κήρυκα ἐς Ἄργος καὶ Ἀργείων ἄγγελοι ἀναβάντες ἐς Σοῦσα ἐπειρώτων Ἀρτοξέρξεα περὶ φιλίης, οὐκ ἔχω ἀτρεκέως εἰπεῖν, οὐδέ τινα γνώμην περὶ αὐτῶν ἀποφαίνομαι ἄλλην γε ἢ τήν περ αὐτοὶ Ἀργεῖοι λέγουσι·
Now, whether Xerxes did indeed send a herald to Argos to say these things, and whether the Argive envoys went up to Susa and questioned Artaxerxes about their friendship, I cannot say for certain, nor do I declare any opinion about these matters other than what the Argives themselves say.
ἐπίσταμαι δὲ τοσοῦτο ὅτι εἰ πάντες ἄνθρωποι τὰ οἰκήια κακὰ ἐς μέσον συνενείκαιεν ἀλλάξασθαι βουλόμενοι τοῖσι πλησίοισι, ἐγκύψαντες ἂν ἐς τὰ τῶν πέλας κακὰ ἀσπασίως ἕκαστοι αὐτῶν ἀποφεροίατο ὀπίσω τὰ ἐσενεικαίατο.2
But this much I know: that if all people were to bring their own troubles into a common stock with the desire of exchanging them with their neighbors, they would each, after looking closely into their neighbors’ troubles, gladly carry back home those which they had brought.
οὕτω δὲ οὐδʼ Ἀργείοισι αἴσχιστα πεποίηται. ἐγὼ δὲ ὀφείλω λέγειν τὰ λεγόμενα, πείθεσθαί γε μὲν οὐ παντάπασι ὀφείλω, καί μοι τοῦτο τὸ ἔπος ἐχέτω ἐς πάντα λόγον· ἐπεὶ καὶ ταῦτα λέγεται, ὡς ἄρα Ἀργεῖοι ἦσαν οἱ ἐπικαλεσάμενοι τὸν Πέρσην ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα, ἐπειδή σφι πρὸς τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους κακῶς ἡ αἰχμὴ ἑστήκεε, πᾶν δὴ βουλόμενοι σφίσι εἶναι πρὸ τῆς παρεούσης λύπης.3
In this way, then, the conduct of the Argives has not been the most shameful. I am bound to tell what is told, but I am by no means bound to believe it completely, and let this saying of mine apply to my entire history. For this too is told, that it was actually the Argives who invited the Persian into Greece, because their war against the Lacedaemonians was going badly for them, and they preferred anything to their present distress.
- 7.152.1εἰ
The conjunction εἰ here does not introduce a conditional clause ("if"), but an indirect question ("whether"), serving as the object of the subsequent phrase οὐκ ἔχω ἀτρεκέως εἰπεῖν ("I cannot say for certain").
- 7.152.2ἐσενεικαίατο
An Ionic form of the 3rd person plural aorist optative middle (equivalent to Attic εἰσενέγκαιντο). Within the relative clause τὰ..., the optative mood is used due to assimilation to the potential optative ἀποφεροίατο ἂν in the main clause.
- 7.152.3πᾶν δὴ βουλόμενοι σφίσι εἶναι πρὸ τῆς παρεούσης λύπης
The preposition πρό here expresses preference or comparison ("rather than," "in preference to"). The infinitive phrase πᾶν... εἶναι ("that everything/anything be") means they preferred any outcome (even Persian domination) to their current distress.