- 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-grc2:8.16.1-8.16.3
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
The fierce naval battle of Artemisium is described, where Xerxes' massive fleet causes its own confusion due to its immense size, yet they fight stubbornly and both sides eventually withdraw with heavy casualties.
ἐνθεῦτεν οἱ Ἕλληνες ἐπανέπλεόν τε καὶ συνέμισγον. ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ ναυμαχίῃ παραπλήσιοι ἀλλήλοισι ἐγίνοντο.
Thence the Greeks sailed forth to meet them and joined battle. In this sea-fight they proved themselves a match for each other.
ὁ γὰρ Ξέρξεω στρατὸς ὑπὸ μεγάθεός τε καὶ πλήθεος αὐτὸς ὑπʼ ἑωυτοῦ1 ἔπιπτε, ταρασσομενέων τε τῶν νεῶν καὶ περιπιπτουσέων περὶ ἀλλήλας· ὅμως μέντοι ἀντεῖχε καὶ οὐκ εἶκε· δεινὸν γὰρ χρῆμα ἐποιεῦντο2 ὑπὸ νεῶν ὀλιγέων ἐς φυγὴν τρέπεσθαι.
For the fleet of Xerxes, by reason of its size and numbers, fell in ruin upon itself, as the ships became confused and ran foul of one another; nevertheless, they held their ground and did not yield, for they deemed it a terrible thing to be put to flight by so few ships.
πολλαὶ μὲν δὴ τῶν Ἑλλήνων νέες διεφθείροντο πολλοὶ δὲ ἄνδρες, πολλῷ δʼ ἔτι πλεῦνες3 νέες τε τῶν βαρβάρων καὶ ἄνδρες, οὕτω δὲ ἀγωνιζόμενοι διέστησαν χωρὶς ἑκάτεροι.
Many ships of the Greeks indeed were destroyed, and many men perished, and yet far more ships and men of the barbarians; and having fought in this manner, each of the two sides drew off apart.
- 8.16.2αὐτὸς ὑπʼ ἑωυτοῦ
The nominative intensive pronoun αὐτός is combined with the prepositional phrase ὑπʼ ἑωυτοῦ (by itself) to emphasize that the subject, Xerxes' army (ὁ στρατός), brought about its own ruin rather than being destroyed by the enemy. The following genitive absolute clause (ταρασσομενέων...) describes the manner of this self-inflicted chaos.
- 8.16.2δεινὸν γὰρ χρῆμα ἐποιεῦντο
This is a variant of the idiom δεινὸν ποιέεσθαι (to deem something a serious matter, to resent), with the noun χρῆμα (thing) inserted for emphasis. The following infinitive clause (ὑπὸ νεῶν ὀλιγέων ἐς φυγὴν τρέπεσθαι) functions as the content of what they deemed so terrible.
- 8.16.3πολλῷ δʼ ἔτι πλεῦνες
The dative of measure of difference πολλῷ modifies the comparative πλεῦνες (Ionic form of πλείονες), meaning 'still (ἔτι) far (πολλῷ) more'. In this clause, the verb διεφθείροντο (were destroyed) from the preceding sentence is omitted, leaving νέες τε ... καὶ ἄνδρες as the subject.