- 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-grc2:8.51.1-8.51.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
The Persian army reaches Attica four months after crossing the Hellespont and captures the deserted city of Athens, where a few citizens remain barricaded in the Acropolis temple, trusting their own interpretation of the oracle.
ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς διαβάσιος τοῦ Ἑλλησπόντου, ἔνθεν πορεύεσθαι ἤρξαντο οἱ βάρβαροι, ἕνα αὐτοῦ διατρίψαντες μῆνα ἐν τῷ διέβαινον1 ἐς τὴν Εὐρώπην, ἐν τρισὶ ἑτέροισι μησὶ ἐγένοντο ἐν τῇ Ἀττικῇ, Καλλιάδεω ἄρχοντος Ἀθηναίοισι.
From the crossing of the Hellespont, from where the barbarians began to march, spending one month there while they were crossing into Europe, in three additional months they arrived in Attica, when Calliades was archon for the Athenians.
καὶ αἱρέουσι ἔρημον τὸ ἄστυ, καί τινας ὀλίγους εὑρίσκουσι τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἐν τῷ ἱρῷ ἐόντας, ταμίας τε τοῦ ἱροῦ καὶ πένητας ἀνθρώπους, οἳ φραξάμενοι τὴν ἀκρόπολιν θύρῃσί τε καὶ ξύλοισι ἠμύνοντο τοὺς ἐπιόντας, ἅμα μὲν ὑπʼ ἀσθενείης βίου οὐκ ἐκχωρήσαντες ἐς Σαλαμῖνα, πρὸς δὲ2 αὐτοὶ δοκέοντες ἐξευρηκέναι τὸ μαντήιον τὸ ἡ Πυθίη σφι ἔχρησε, τὸ ξύλινον τεῖχος ἀνάλωτον ἔσεσθαι· αὐτὸ δὴ τοῦτο εἶναι τὸ κρησφύγετον3 κατὰ τὸ μαντήιον καὶ οὐ τὰς νέας.
And they captured the deserted city, and found some few of the Athenians remaining in the temple—treasurers of the temple and poor men—who, having barricaded the Acropolis with doors and timbers, were defending themselves against the attackers, partly because they had not withdrawn to Salamis owing to their lack of means, and besides because they believed they had found the meaning of the oracle which the Pythia had given them, namely, that the wooden wall would be impregnable; for they thought that this very thing, and not the ships, was the place of refuge according to the oracle.
- 8.51.1ἐν τῷ διέβαινον
The construction uses the preposition ἐν and the dative neuter article τῷ followed by the imperfect indicative διέβαινον. While ἐν τῷ usually takes an infinitive, here it functions conjunctionally (equivalent to ἐν ᾧ, 'while they were crossing').
- 8.51.2ἅμα μὲν ... πρὸς δὲ
A correlative construction linking two participial clauses (οὐκ ἐκχωρήσαντες and δοκέοντες) indicating cause. It expresses the double motivation of the remaining Athenians (financial inability and their own interpretation of the oracle). πρὸς δέ functions adverbially as 'and furthermore' or 'on the other hand'.
- 8.51.2αὐτὸ δὴ τοῦτο εἶναι τὸ κρησφύγετον
An accusative with infinitive construction in indirect speech dependent on the participle δοκέοντες ('thinking/believing'). The accusative subject is αὐτὸ τοῦτο ('this very thing'), representing the belief that the wooden barricade, not the ships (οὐ τὰς νέας), was the true refuge meant by the oracle.