- 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-grc2:8.68A.1-8.68A.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Artemisia advises Mardonius to tell the king that he should avoid a sea-fight and spare his ships, pointing out the Greeks' superiority at sea and the Persians' existing strategic achievements.
εἰπεῖν1 μοι πρὸς βασιλέα, Μαρδόνιε, ὡς ἐγὼ τάδε λέγω, οὔτε κακίστη γενομένη ἐν τῇσι ναυμαχίῃσι τῇσι πρὸς Εὐβοίῃ οὔτε ἐλάχιστα ἀποδεξαμένη.2 δέσποτα, τὴν δὲ ἐοῦσαν γνώμην με δίκαιον ἐστὶ ἀποδείκνυσθαι, τὰ τυγχάνω φρονέουσα3 ἄριστα ἐς πρήγματα τὰ σά. καὶ τοι τάδε λέγω, φείδεο τῶν νεῶν μηδὲ ναυμαχίην ποιέο. οἱ γὰρ ἄνδρες τῶν σῶν ἀνδρῶν κρέσσονες τοσοῦτο εἰσὶ κατὰ θάλασσαν ὅσον ἄνδρες γυναικῶν.
Mardonius, tell the king for me that I say this, I who was neither the most cowardly in the sea-fights off Euboea nor performed the least service. “Master, it is right for me to declare my real opinion, those things which I happen to think are best for your affairs. And I say this to you: spare your ships and do not engage in a sea-fight. For their men are as much superior to your men at sea as men are to women.
τί δὲ πάντως δέει σε ναυμαχίῃσι ἀνακινδυνεύειν; οὐκ ἔχεις μὲν τὰς Ἀθήνας, τῶν περ εἵνεκα ὁρμήθης στρατεύεσθαι, ἔχεις δὲ τὴν ἄλλην Ἑλλάδα; ἐμποδὼν δέ τοι ἵσταται οὐδείς· οἳ δέ τοι ἀντέστησαν, ἀπήλλαξαν4 οὕτω ὡς κείνους ἔπρεπε.
Why must you run risks in sea-fights at all? Do you not hold Athens, for the sake of which you set out on this campaign, and do you not hold the rest of Greece? No one stands in your way; and those who did oppose you have fared as they deserved.”
- 8.68A.1εἰπεῖν
An independent infinitive used as an imperative (imperative infinitive). Here it functions as a command addressed to Mardonius, acting as the main verb for the sentence that contains the nominative participles (γενομένη, ἀποδεξαμένη).
- 8.68A.1ἀποδεξαμένη
An Ionic dialectal variant of the middle aorist participle (feminine nominative singular) of ἀποδείκνυμι ('exhibit', 'display'). Here it is used in the sense of 'exhibiting (exploits)', i.e., 'performing services' or 'achieving deeds'.
- 8.68A.1τὰ τυγχάνω φρονέουσα
A construction consisting of the relative pronoun τὰ (neuter plural accusative, containing its antecedent and acting as the object of φρονέουσα) and the supplementary participle construction of τυγχάνω with φρονέουσα, meaning 'the things which I happen to (actually) think'.
- 8.68A.2ἀπήλλαξαν
The aorist active of ἀπαλλάσσω ('release', 'deliver'), used intransitively in the sense of 'to get off', 'fare', or 'come off'. Together with the adverbial phrase οὕτω ὡς..., it forms an ironic expression meaning 'they fared as they deserved' (i.e., met a disastrous end).