- 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-grc2:7.31.1
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Upon entering Lydia from Phrygia, Xerxes took the right-hand road toward Sardis, where he decorated a beautiful plane tree with gold and assigned a guardian to it before reaching the city of Sardis the next day.
ὡς δὲ ἐκ τῆς Φρυγίης ἐσέβαλε ἐς τὴν Λυδίην, σχιζομένης τῆς ὁδοῦ καὶ τῆς μὲν ἐς ἀριστερὴν ἐπὶ Καρίης φερούσης τῆς δὲ ἐς δεξιὴν ἐς Σάρδις, τῇ1 καὶ πορευομένῳ διαβῆναι τὸν Μαίανδρον ποταμὸν πᾶσα ἀνάγκη γίνεται καὶ ἰέναι παρὰ Καλλάτηβον πόλιν, ἐν τῇ ἄνδρες δημιοεργοὶ μέλι ἐκ μυρίκης τε καὶ πυροῦ ποιεῦσι, ταύτην ἰὼν ὁ Ξέρξης τὴν ὁδὸν εὗρε πλατάνιστον, τὴν κάλλεος εἵνεκα δωρησάμενος κόσμῳ χρυσέῳ καὶ μελεδωνῷ ἀθανάτῳ ἀνδρὶ2 ἐπιτρέψας δευτέρῃ ἡμέρῃ ἀπίκετο ἐς τῶν Λυδῶν τὸ ἄστυ.
When he entered Lydia from Phrygia, the road split, one branch leading to the left toward Caria, and the other to the right toward Sardis. For one traveling by this latter road, it is an absolute necessity to cross the river Maeander and to pass by the city of Callatebus, where craftsmen make honey from tamarisk and wheat. Xerxes, marching along this road, found a plane tree, which, because of its beauty, he presented with golden ornaments; and having entrusted it to the care of a man who was one of the Immortals, on the second day he arrived at the city of the Lydians.
- 7.31.1τῇ
Relative adverb or feminine singular dative relative pronoun (referring to the right-hand road toward Sardis, τῆς δὲ...), meaning 'by which route'. Together with the dative participle πορευομένῳ, it forms the construction 'for one traveling by this road'.
- 7.31.1ἀθανάτῳ ἀνδρὶ
Literally 'an immortal man', referring to a member of the 'Immortals' (Athanatoi), the elite royal Persian guard. The unit was so named because its strength of exactly ten thousand was always maintained by immediately replacing any casualty. While it could theoretically mean a 'permanent guardian' whose successor was always appointed, it is most natural to understand it as a soldier of the famous elite unit mentioned later by Herodotus (7.83).