- 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-grc2:8.107.1-8.107.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Xerxes entrusts his children to Artemisia to send them to Ephesus, and orders Mardonius to select his forces and fulfill his promises. The Persian fleet withdraws at night to the Hellespont but panics on the way, mistaking the spits of Zoster for enemy ships.
Ξέρξης δὲ ὡς τοὺς παῖδας ἐπέτρεψε Ἀρτεμισίῃ ἀπάγειν ἐς Ἔφεσον, καλέσας Μαρδόνιον ἐκέλευσέ μιν τῆς στρατιῆς διαλέγειν τοὺς βούλεται, καὶ ποιέειν τοῖσι λόγοισι τὰ ἔργα πειρώμενον ὅμοια. ταύτην μὲν τὴν ἡμέρην ἐς τοσοῦτο ἐγίνετο, τῆς δὲ νυκτὸς κελεύσαντος βασιλέος τὰς νέας οἱ στρατηγοὶ ἐκ τοῦ Φαλήρου ἀπῆγον ὀπίσω ἐς τὸν Ἑλλήσποντον ὡς τάχεος εἶχε ἕκαστος,1 διαφυλαξούσας2 τὰς σχεδίας πορευθῆναι βασιλέι.3
When Xerxes had entrusted his children to Artemisia to take away to Ephesus, he called Mardonius and ordered him to choose from the army whomever he wished, and to endeavor to make his deeds match his words. For that day, things went only so far; but when night came, by the king’s command, the generals withdrew the ships from Phalerum back to the Hellespont, each as fast as he could, to guard the bridges for the king to cross.
ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀγχοῦ ἦσαν Ζωστῆρος πλέοντες οἱ βάρβαροι, ἀνατείνουσι γὰρ ἄκραι λεπταὶ τῆς ἠπείρου ταύτης, ἔδοξάν τε νέας εἶναι4 καὶ ἔφευγον ἐπὶ πολλόν· χρόνῳ δὲ μαθόντες ὅτι οὐ νέες εἶεν5 ἀλλʼ ἄκραι, συλλεχθέντες ἐκομίζοντο.
When the barbarians in their sailing were near Zoster—for thin spits of land stretch out from this continent—these spits of land seemed to them to be ships, and they fled for a long distance; but learning in time that they were not ships but spits of land, they gathered together and continued their voyage.
- 8.107.1ὡς τάχεος εἶχε ἕκαστος
The construction ὡς + ἔχω (intransitive) + partitive genitive is an idiomatic expression meaning "in such state of...". Here it means "each as fast as he could".
- 8.107.1διαφυλαξούσας
Future participle in the feminine accusative plural, modifying the preceding noun τὰς νέας (the ships). The future participle is used here to express purpose ("to guard").
- 8.107.1πορευθῆναι βασιλέι
The passive infinitive πορευθῆναι (to march/cross) is used to express purpose or result, with the dative βασιλέι acting as its subject of interest/reference. It means "for the king to cross".
- 8.107.2ἔδοξάν τε νέας εἶναι
The subject of the verb ἔδοξαν (seemed) is ἄκραι (spits of land) from the parenthetical clause. νέας (ships) is the accusative predicate of the infinitive εἶναι. Thus, "they (the spits of land) seemed to be ships." The subject is not the barbarians (οἱ βάρβαροι).
- 8.107.2ὅτι οὐ νέες εἶεν
The optative εἶεν is an optative of indirect discourse (oblique optative) used in the ὅτι clause because the main verb is a participle of past time (historical tense), μαθόντες.