- 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-grc2:7.16A.1-7.16A.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Artabanus explains to Xerxes that self-wisdom and obeying good counsel are of equal value, warning that evil associates are misleading him. He laments that of the two options presented, the king chose the more dangerous path of expansion.
ἴσον ἐκεῖνο1 ὦ βασιλεῦ παρʼ ἐμοὶ κέκριται, φρονέειν τε εὖ καὶ τῷ λέγοντι χρηστὰ ἐθέλειν πείθεσθαι· τά σε καὶ ἀμφότερα περιήκοντα2 ἀνθρώπων κακῶν ὁμιλίαι σφάλλουσι, κατά περ τὴν πάντων χρησιμωτάτην ἀνθρώποισι θάλασσαν πνεύματα φασὶ ἀνέμων ἐμπίπτοντα οὐ περιορᾶν φύσι τῇ ἑωυτῆς χρᾶσθαι.
O King, in my judgment, these two things are of equal value: to be wise oneself, and to be willing to obey one who speaks good advice. Though both of these qualities belong to you, the associations of evil men mislead you, just as they say that the blasts of the winds falling upon the sea, which is of all things the most useful to men, do not permit it to follow its own nature.
ἐμὲ δὲ ἀκούσαντα πρὸς σεῦ κακῶς οὐ τοσοῦτο ἔδακε λύπη ὅσον γνωμέων δύο προκειμενέων Πέρσῃσι, τῆς μὲν ὕβριν αὐξανούσης, τῆς δὲ καταπαυούσης καὶ λεγούσης ὡς κακὸν εἴη διδάσκειν τὴν ψυχὴν πλέον τι δίζησθαι αἰεὶ ἔχειν τοῦ παρεόντος, τοιουτέων προκειμενέων γνωμέων ὅτι τὴν σφαλερωτέρην σεωυτῷ τε καὶ Πέρσῃσι ἀναιρέο.3
But it was not so much the pain of being ill-spoken of by you that bit me, as it was when two opinions were set before the Persians, the one increasing insolence, and the other checking it and saying that it is a bad thing to teach the soul to be always seeking to have more than what is present; when such opinions were proposed, it was that you chose the one which is more dangerous both to yourself and to the Persians.
- 7.16A.1ἴσον ἐκεῖνο
The demonstrative pronoun ἐκεῖνο serves a cataphoric (anticipatory) function, referring forward to the two infinitive phrases (φρονέειν... and ἐθέλειν πείθεσθαι) that follow the colon.
- 7.16A.1τά σε καὶ ἀμφότερα περιήκοντα
The relative pronoun τά (neuter plural accusative) refers back to the two preceding infinitive phrases. The accusative pronoun σε is the direct object of the participle περιήκοντα (from περιήκω, 'to belong to, come to one's share'), forming a concessive participial construction meaning 'although both of these belong to you'. While it is grammatically possible to take σε as the direct object of the subsequent verb σφάλλουσι and τά as an accusative of respect, it is more natural to construct σε with περιήκοντα.
- 7.16A.2ὅτι τὴν σφαλερωτέρην σεωυτῷ τε καὶ Πέρσῃσι ἀναιρέο
The ὅτι clause is a noun clause expressing the true subject or cause of the main verb and noun (ἔδακε λύπη). It stands in contrast to 'being ill-spoken of by you' (ἐμὲ ἀκούσαντα πρὸς σεῦ κακῶς), which 'did not bite me so much' (οὐ τοσοῦτο ἔδακε), thereby specifying what actually pained Artabanus the most. The verb ἀναιρέο is the Ionic contracted form of the second-person singular present indicative middle ἀναιρέεαι.