- 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-grc2:7.207.1
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-07
With the Persian army approaching, a disagreement arises among the Greeks at Thermopylae regarding retreat, but Leonidas decides to remain and send for reinforcements.
οὗτοι μὲν δὴ οὕτω διενένωντο ποιήσειν· οἱ δὲ ἐν Θερμοπύλῃσι Ἕλληνες, ἐπειδὴ πέλας ἐγένετο τῆς ἐσβολῆς ὁ Πέρσης, καταρρωδέοντες ἐβουλεύοντο περὶ ἀπαλλαγῆς. τοῖσι μέν νυν ἄλλοισι Πελοποννησίοισι ἐδόκεε ἐλθοῦσι1 ἐς Πελοπόννησον τὸν Ἰσθμὸν ἔχειν ἐν φυλακῇ· Λεωνίδης δέ, Φωκέων καὶ Λοκρῶν περισπερχεόντων τῇ γνώμῃ ταύτῃ, αὐτοῦ τε μένειν ἐψηφίζετο πέμπειν τε ἀγγέλους ἐς τὰς πόλιας κελεύοντάς σφι ἐπιβοηθέειν, ὡς ἐόντων αὐτῶν ὀλίγων2 στρατὸν τὸν Μήδων ἀλέξασθαι.
These men indeed had intended to act in this way. But the Greeks at Thermopylae, when the Persian drew near to the pass, became terrified and began to deliberate about retreat. To the other Peloponnesians it seemed best to return to the Peloponnese and hold the Isthmus under guard; but Leonidas, as the Phocians and Locrians were highly indignant at this opinion, voted to remain there and to send messengers to the cities ordering them to bring aid, on the ground that they themselves were too few to ward off the army of the Medes.
- 7.207.1ἐλθοῦσι
A dative plural participle agreeing with τοῖσι... Πελοποννησίοισι, which is the dative complement of the impersonal verb ἐδόκεε. The entire infinitive phrase ἐλθοῦσι... ἔχειν functions as the subject.
- 7.207.1ὡς ἐόντων αὐτῶν ὀλίγων
The genitive absolute with the conjunction ὡς (ἐόντων, Ionic for ὄντων) expresses the subjective reason of the main subject Leonidas ('on the grounds that they were few'). The following infinitive ἀλέξασθαι (middle of ἀλέξω) modifies the adjective ὀλίγων, indicating result or limitation ('too few to ward off the army of the Medes').