- 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-grc2:7.170.1-7.170.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-05
This passage recounts the violent death of Minos, the failed Cretan expedition to Sicania to avenge him, and how the shipwrecked Cretans settled in southern Italy and became the Iapygian Messapians.
λέγεται γὰρ1 Μίνων κατὰ ζήτησιν Δαιδάλου ἀπικόμενον ἐς Σικανίην τὴν νῦν Σικελίην καλευμένην ἀποθανεῖν βιαίῳ θανάτῳ. ἀνὰ δὲ χρόνον Κρῆτας, θεοῦ σφι ἐποτρύναντος, πάντας πλὴν Πολιχνιτέων τε καὶ Πραισίων ἀπικομένους στόλῳ μεγάλῳ ἐς Σικανίην πολιορκέειν ἐπʼ ἔτεα πέντε πόλιν Καμικόν, τὴν κατʼ ἐμὲ Ἀκραγαντῖνοι ἐνέμοντο·
For it is said that Minos, coming to Sicania, which is now called Sicily, in search of Daedalus, died there by a violent death. And in process of time, a god having urged them on, all the Cretans except the Polichnitae and the Praesians came with a great fleet to Sicania and besieged for five years the city of Camicus, which in my time the Agrigentines inhabited.
τέλος δὲ οὐ δυναμένους οὔτε ἑλεῖν οὔτε παραμένειν λιμῷ συνεστεῶτας, ἀπολιπόντας οἴχεσθαι. ὡς δὲ κατὰ Ἰηπυγίην γενέσθαι πλέοντας, ὑπολαβόντα σφέας χειμῶνα μέγαν ἐκβαλεῖν ἐς τὴν γῆν· συναραχθέντων δὲ τῶν πλοίων, οὐδεμίαν γάρ σφι ἔτι κομιδὴν ἐς Κρήτην φαίνεσθαι, ἐνθαῦτα Ὑρίην πόλιν κτίσαντας καταμεῖναί τε καὶ μεταβαλόντας ἀντὶ μὲν Κρητῶν γενέσθαι Ἰήπυγας Μεσσαπίους, ἀντὶ δὲ εἶναι νησιώτας ἠπειρώτας.2
But at last, being unable either to take it or to remain there because they were afflicted by famine, they abandoned it and departed. And when they came in their sailing near Iapygia, a great storm caught them and cast them shoreward. Their ships having been shattered, for no way of return to Crete any longer appeared to them, they founded there the city of Hyria and remained, and changing their customs, they became Iapygian Messapians instead of Cretans, and mainlanders instead of islanders.
ἀπὸ δὲ Ὑρίης πόλιος τὰς ἄλλας οἰκίσαι, τὰς δὴ Ταραντῖνοι χρόνῳ ὕστερον πολλῷ ἐξανιστάντες προσέπταισαν μεγάλως, ὥστε φόνος Ἑλληνικὸς μέγιστος οὗτος δὴ ἐγένετο πάντων τῶν ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν, αὐτῶν τε Ταραντίνων καὶ Ῥηγίνων, οἳ ὑπὸ Μικύθου τοῦ Χοίρου ἀναγκαζόμενοι τῶν ἀστῶν3 καὶ ἀπικόμενοι τιμωροὶ Ταραντίνοισι ἀπέθανον τρισχίλιοι οὕτω· αὐτῶν δὲ Ταραντίνων οὐκ ἐπῆν ἀριθμός.
And from the city of Hyria they founded the other cities, which indeed the Tarentines a long time afterwards, trying to drive them out, met with a great disaster; so that this became the greatest slaughter of Greeks of all that we know, both of the Tarentines themselves and of the Rhegines, who, being compelled from among the citizens by Micythus son of Choerus and coming to assist the Tarentines, died to the number of about three thousand; and of the Tarentines themselves there was no count.
ὁ δὲ Μίκυθος οἰκέτης ἐὼν Ἀναξίλεω ἐπίτροπος Ῥηγίου καταλέλειπτο, οὗτος ὅς περ ἐκπεσὼν ἐκ Ῥηγίου καὶ Τεγέην τὴν Ἀρκάδων οἰκήσας ἀνέθηκε ἐν Ὀλυμπίῃ τοὺς πολλοὺς ἀνδριάντας.
Now this Micythus, being a servant of Anaxilaus, had been left as guardian of Rhegium; he it was who, having been expelled from Rhegium and having settled in Tegea of the Arcadians, dedicated the many statues in Olympia.
- 7.170.1λέγεται γὰρ
The impersonal verb λέγεται ("it is said that") at the beginning governs the syntax of almost the entire chapter up to οἰκίσαι in §7.170.3. Not only the main verbs of the indirect discourse (ἀποθανεῖν, πολιορκέειν, οἴχεσθαι, καταμεῖναι, γενέσθαι, εἶναι, οἰκίσαι) but also the verbs in subordinate clauses (the temporal clause ὡς ... γενέσθαι and the causal clause γάρ ... φαίνεσθαι) are attracted into the infinitive, indicating a continuous reported narrative.
- 7.170.2ἀντὶ δὲ εἶναι νησιώτας ἠπειρώτας
The preposition ἀντί ("instead of"), which normally takes a genitive noun or a genitive articular infinitive (ἀντὶ τοῦ ... εἶναι), is here used directly with the infinitive εἶναι and its accusative predicate nouns (νησιώτας, ἠπειρώτας), forming an unconventional construction meaning "instead of being islanders, [they became] mainlanders."
- 7.170.3ἀναγκαζόμενοι τῶν ἀστῶν
The genitive τῶν ἀστῶν ("of the citizens") is best interpreted as a partitive genitive with the participle ἀναγκαζόμενοι ("those among the citizens who were compelled"), which fits the context of military mobilization. Alternatively, it could be construed as a genitive of agency ("compelled by the citizens"), though the absence of a preposition like ὑπό makes this less standard.