Mardonius' Recapture of the Deserted Athens — Herodotus, Histories Book 9 (9.3.1–9.3.2), Greek & English

§9.3.1

οἳ μὲν ταῦτα συνεβούλευον, ὁ δὲ οὐκ ἐπείθετο, ἀλλά οἱ δεινὸς ἐνέστακτο ἵμερος τὰς Ἀθήνας δεύτερα ἑλεῖν, ἅμα μὲν ὑπʼ ἀγνωμοσύνης, ἅμα δὲ πυρσοῖσι διὰ νήσων ἐδόκεε¹ βασιλέι δηλώσειν ἐόντι ἐν Σάρδισι ὅτι ἔχοι Ἀθήνας·

They gave this advice, but he was not persuaded; rather, a fierce desire had been instilled in him to capture Athens a second time, partly due to his stubbornness, and partly because he thought he would signal to the King, who was in Sardis, by means of fire-signals through the islands, that he held Athens.

§9.3.2

ὃς² οὐδὲ τότε ἀπικόμενος ἐς τὴν Ἀττικὴν εὗρε τοὺς Ἀθηναίους, ἀλλʼ ἔν τε Σαλαμῖνι τοὺς πλείστους ἐπυνθάνετο εἶναι ἔν τε τῇσι νηυσί, αἱρέει τε ἔρημον τὸ ἄστυ. ἡ δὲ βασιλέος αἵρεσις ἐς τὴν ὑστέρην τὴν Μαρδονίου ἐπιστρατηίην δεκάμηνος ἐγένετο.

And so when he arrived in Attica, not even then did he find the Athenians, but he learned that most of them were either in Salamis or on board the ships, and he captured the city deserted. Ten months had elapsed from the King’s capture of the city to this later expedition of Mardonius.

Syntax notes2 items

9.3.1ἐδόκεε
The verb ἐδόκεε can be interpreted either personally with Mardonius as the subject ('he thought/intended to show') or impersonally ('it seemed likely that...'). Here, the personal interpretation is adopted. In Herodotus, δοκέω with a nominative subject and a future infinitive frequently means 'to intend to' or 'to think that one will'.
9.3.2ὃς
The relative pronoun ὃς at the beginning of the sentence functions as a connective link ('and he', referring to Mardonius), similar to the 'qui connectivus' (connective relative) in Latin syntax.

Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25)urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:9.3.1-9.3.2