- 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-grc2:8.132.1-8.132.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-09
Ionian envoys from Chios plead with the Greeks for the liberation of Ionia, but the Greeks hesitantly advance only as far as Delos, with both sides held back from further movement by mutual dread of the unknown.
ὡς δὲ παρεγένοντο ἐς τὴν Αἴγιναν πᾶσαι αἱ νέες, ἀπίκοντο Ἰώνων ἄγγελοι ἐς τὸ στρατόπεδον τῶν Ἑλλήνων, οἳ καὶ ἐς Σπάρτην ὀλίγῳ πρότερον τούτων ἀπικόμενοι ἐδέοντο Λακεδαιμονίων ἐλευθεροῦν τὴν Ἰωνίην·
When all the ships had assembled at Aegina, envoys from the Ionians arrived at the camp of the Greeks; these same men had also gone to Sparta a little before this and begged the Lacedaemonians to set Ionia free.
τῶν καὶ Ἡρόδοτος ὁ Βασιληίδεω ἦν· οἳ στασιῶται σφίσι γενόμενοι ἐπεβούλευον θάνατον Στράττι τῷ Χίου τυράννῳ, ἐόντες ἀρχὴν1 ἑπτά· ἐπιβουλεύοντες δὲ ὡς φανεροὶ ἐγένοντο, ἐξενείκαντος τὴν ἐπιχείρησιν ἑνὸς τῶν μετεχόντων, οὕτω δὴ οἱ λοιποὶ ἓξ ἐόντες ὑπεξέσχον ἐκ τῆς Χίου καὶ ἐς Σπάρτην τε ἀπίκοντο καὶ δὴ καὶ τότε ἐς τὴν Αἴγιναν, τῶν Ἑλλήνων δεόμενοι καταπλῶσαι ἐς τὴν Ἰωνίην· οἳ προήγαγον αὐτοὺς μόγις μέχρι Δήλου.
Among them was Herodotus, the son of Basileides. These men, having formed a conspiracy among themselves, plotted the death of Strattis, the tyrant of Chios, being seven in number at the beginning. But as they were plotting, they were discovered because one of their accomplices revealed the attempt; whereupon the remaining six made their escape from Chios, and came to Sparta, and indeed at this time to Aegina, entreating the Greeks to sail down to Ionia. But the Greeks could hardly bring them as far as Delos.
τὸ γὰρ προσωτέρω πᾶν δεινὸν ἦν τοῖσι Ἕλλησι οὔτε τῶν χώρων ἐοῦσι ἐμπείροισι, στρατιῆς τε πάντα πλέα ἐδόκεε εἶναι, τὴν δὲ Σάμον ἐπιστέατο δόξῃ καὶ Ἡρακλέας στήλας ἴσον ἀπέχειν.2 συνέπιπτε δὲ τοιοῦτο ὥστε τοὺς μὲν βαρβάρους τὸ πρὸς ἑσπέρης ἀνωτέρω Σάμου μὴ τολμᾶν καταπλῶσαι καταρρωδηκότας, τοὺς δὲ Ἕλληνας,3 χρηιζόντων Χίων, τὸ πρὸς τὴν ἠῶ κατωτέρω Δήλου· οὕτω δέος τὸ μέσον ἐφύλασσε σφέων.
For everything beyond that seemed terrifying to the Greeks, who were inexperienced in those regions, and everything seemed to be full of armed forces; they believed, moreover, through mere imagination, that Samos was as far away as the Pillars of Heracles. Thus it happened that the barbarians, being terrified, dared not sail further west than Samos, while the Greeks, despite the entreaties of the Chians, dared not sail further east than Delos; in this way, fear guarded the space between them.
- 8.132.2ἀρχὴν
An accusative noun functioning adverbially here in the sense of 'at first' or 'to begin with'.
- 8.132.3ἐπιστέατο δόξῃ καὶ Ἡρακλέας στήλας ἴσον ἀπέχειν
The verb ἐπιστέατο is the Ionic dialect form of ἠπίσταντο (the third-person plural imperfect of ἐπίσταμαι, 'to know' or 'to believe'). It governs an accusative and infinitive construction, with τὴν δὲ Σάμον as the subject accusative and ἀπέχειν as the infinitive. The dative δόξῃ means 'by conjecture' or 'in fancy', showing that their belief was based on imagination rather than geographical knowledge.
- 8.132.3τοὺς μὲν βαρβάρους... τοὺς δὲ Ἕλληνας...
A contrastive structure within the result clause introduced by ὥστε. In the second part, following τοὺς δὲ Ἕλληνας (the subject accusative), the predicate μὴ τολμᾶν καταπλῶσαι ('did not dare to sail') is omitted from the first clause. The directional adverbs ἀνωτέρω ('higher/further up') and κατωτέρω ('lower/further down') reflect the respective geographical perspectives of the Persians and Greeks regarding directions of movement.