- 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-grc2:8.83.1-8.83.2
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Believing the report of the Tenians, the Greeks prepare for battle, and Themistocles delivers an encouraging speech to the marines. As the troops embark, the trireme sent to fetch the Aeacidae returns from Aegina.
τοῖσι δὲ Ἕλλησι ὡς πιστὰ δὴ τὰ λεγόμενα ἦν τῶν Τηνίων ῥήματα, παρεσκευάζοντο ὡς ναυμαχήσοντες. ἠώς τε διέφαινε καὶ οἳ1 σύλλογον τῶν ἐπιβατέων ποιησάμενοι, προηγόρευε εὖ ἔχοντα μὲν ἐκ πάντων Θεμιστοκλέης, τὰ δὲ ἔπεα ἦν πάντα κρέσσω τοῖσι ἥσσοσι ἀντιτιθέμενα,2 ὅσα δὴ ἐν ἀνθρώπου φύσι καὶ καταστάσι ἐγγίνεται·
When the words spoken by the Tenians became credible to the Greeks, they began to prepare as if for a sea battle. As dawn was breaking, they held an assembly of the marines, and Themistocles made a speech that was the finest of all; his words were entirely a contrast of the better against the worse, in all things that indeed occur in the nature and condition of man.
παραινέσας δὲ τούτων τὰ κρέσσω αἱρέεσθαι καὶ καταπλέξας τὴν ῥῆσιν, ἐσβαίνειν ἐκέλευε ἐς τὰς νέας. καὶ οὗτοι μὲν δὴ ἐσέβαινον, καὶ ἧκε ἡ ἀπʼ Αἰγίνης τριήρης, ἣ κατὰ τοὺς Αἰακίδας3 ἀπεδήμησε.
Having exhorted them to choose the better of these, and having wound up his speech, he ordered them to embark on the ships. And while they were indeed embarking, the trireme from Aegina arrived, which had gone away to fetch the Aeacidae.
- 8.83.1ἠώς τε διέφαινε καὶ οἳ
The coordination of τε... καί expresses two events closely related in time: "no sooner was dawn breaking than they..." The word οἳ, though having the form of a relative pronoun, functions here as a demonstrative pronoun acting as the subject ("they").
- 8.83.1τὰ δὲ ἔπεα ἦν πάντα κρέσσω τοῖσι ἥσσοσι ἀντιτιθέμενα
κρέσσω (contracted form of κρείσσονα, neuter plural nominative) serves as the predicate of the subject τὰ ἔπεα, with the participle ἀντιτιθέμενα modifying it to mean "better things contrasted with the worse" (τοῖσι ἥσσοσι, dative).
- 8.83.2κατὰ τοὺς Αἰακίδας
The preposition κατὰ with the accusative denotes purpose or destination: "to fetch" or "in quest of" the Aeacidae. This refers to the ship sent to Aegina to bring the sacred images (or spiritual protection) of the heroic house of Aeacus for the battle of Salamis.