- 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-grc2:8.55.1
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
The author explains the legend of the olive tree and the sea in the temple of Erechtheus on the Athenian Acropolis, noting the miraculous report that a new shoot grew from the burnt olive stump on the day after the burning.
τοῦ δὲ εἵνεκεν1 τούτων ἐπεμνήσθην, φράσω. ἔστι ἐν τῇ ἀκροπόλι ταύτῃ Ἐρεχθέος τοῦ γηγενέος λεγομένου εἶναι νηός, ἐν τῷ ἐλαίη τε καὶ θάλασσα ἔνι, τὰ2 λόγος παρὰ Ἀθηναίων Ποσειδέωνά τε καὶ Ἀθηναίην ἐρίσαντας περὶ τῆς χώρης μαρτύρια θέσθαι. ταύτην ὦν τὴν ἐλαίην ἅμα τῷ ἄλλῳ ἱρῷ κατέλαβε3 ἐμπρησθῆναι ὑπὸ τῶν βαρβάρων· δευτέρῃ δὲ ἡμέρῃ ἀπὸ τῆς ἐμπρήσιος Ἀθηναίων οἱ θύειν ὑπὸ βασιλέος κελευόμενοι ὡς ἀνέβησαν ἐς τὸ ἱρόν, ὥρων βλαστὸν ἐκ τοῦ στελέχεος ὅσον τε πηχυαῖον ἀναδεδραμηκότα. οὗτοι μέν νυν ταῦτα ἔφρασαν.
Now I will declare for what reason I made mention of these things. In this Acropolis there is a temple of Erechtheus, who is said to be “earth-born,” within which there is an olive tree and a sea, which, according to the story told by the Athenians, Poseidon and Athena set there as tokens when they contended for the land. Now it happened that this olive tree was burned by the barbarians along with the rest of the sacred precinct; but on the second day after the burning, when those of the Athenians who were commanded by the king to offer sacrifice went up to the sacred precinct, they saw a shoot run up from the stump as much as a cubit in height. These men, then, reported this.
- 8.55.1τοῦ δὲ εἵνεκεν
The relative pronoun τοῦ corresponds to Attic οὗ, which together with the postposition εἵνεκεν (Ionic for ἕνεκα) forms a relative clause meaning "for which reason." It functions like an indirect question dependent on φράσω ("I will declare").
- 8.55.1τά
A relative pronoun in the neuter plural accusative, referring back to the dual/plural subject ἐλαίη τε καὶ θάλασσα (the olive tree and the sea). It functions as the direct object of the infinitive θέσθαι in the accusative-and-infinitive (A.C.I.) construction introduced by λόγος [ἐστί] ("there is a story").
- 8.55.1κατέλαβε
The third-person singular aorist of καταλαμβάνω. Here it is used impersonally or semi-impersonally with the passive infinitive ἐμπρησθῆναι to mean "it befell (that it was burned)" or "it happened that it was burned," describing an inevitable event.