- Source
- Pausanias. Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio, Volumes 1-3. Spiro, Friedrich, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903.
- 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:tlg0525.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:9.28.1-9.28.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-02
The author describes the fertile nature of Mount Helicon, noting its non-lethal herbs and weakened snake venom, and relates anecdotes about vipers in Phoenicia and Arabia.
ὁ δὲ Ἑλικὼν ὀρῶν τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι ἐν τοῖς μάλιστά ἐστιν εὔγεως καὶ δένδρων ἡμέρων ἀνάπλεως· καὶ οἱ τῆς ἀνδράχνου θάμνοι παρέχονται τῶν πανταχοῦ1 καρπὸν αἰξὶν ἥδιστον. λέγουσι δὲ οἱ περὶ τὸν Ἑλικῶνα οἰκοῦντες καὶ ἁπάσας ἐν τῷ ὄρει τὰς πόας καὶ τὰς ῥίζας ἥκιστα ἐπὶ ἀνθρώπου θανάτῳ φύεσθαι.2 καὶ δὴ καὶ τοῖς ὄφεσι τὸν ἰὸν ποιοῦσιν ἐνταῦθα ἀσθενέστερον αἱ νομαί, ὥστε καὶ διαφεύγουσι τὰ πολλὰ οἱ δηχθέντες, ἢν ἀνδρὶ Λίβυι γένους τοῦ Ψύλλων ἢ καὶ ἄλλως προσφόροις ἐπιτύχωσι τοῖς φαρμάκοις.
Mount Helicon is among the mountains in Greece one of those that are most fertile and full of cultivated trees; and the shrubs of the arbutus provide a fruit sweetest for goats of those anywhere. And those who dwell around Helicon say that all the herbs and roots on the mountain by no means grow for the death of man. Indeed, also the pastures there make the venom weaker for the snakes, so that those who have been bitten for the most part escape, if they happen upon a Libyan man of the race of the Psylli or otherwise upon appropriate remedies.
ἔστι μὲν δὴ ὁ ἰὸς τοῖς ἀγριωτάτοις τῶν ὄφεων καὶ ἄλλως ὀλέθριος ἔς τε ἀνθρώπους καὶ ζῷα ὁμοίως τὰ πάντα, συντελοῦσι δὲ οὐχ ἥκιστα ἐς ἰσχύν σφισι τοῦ ἰοῦ καὶ αἱ νομαί, ἐπεί τοι καὶ ἀνδρὸς ἀκούσας οἶδα Φοίνικος ὡς ἐν τῇ ὀρεινῇ τῇ Φοινίκης ἀγριωτέρους τοὺς ἔχεις ποιοῦσιν αἱ ῥίζαι. ἔφη δὲ ἄνθρωπον ἰδεῖν αὐτὸς3 ἀποφεύγοντα ὁρμὴν ἔχεως, καὶ τὸν μὲν ἐπί τι ἀναδραμεῖν δένδρον, τὸν δὲ ἔχιν, ὡς ἦλθεν ὕστερος, ἀποπνεῦσαι πρὸς τὸ δένδρον τοῦ ἰοῦ καὶ οὐ ζῆν ἔτι τὸν ἄνθρωπον.
To be sure, the venom is, in the case of the wildest of snakes, otherwise destructive to men and all animals alike, but the pastures contribute not least to the strength of their venom, since indeed I know from hearing a Phoenician man that in the mountainous part of Phoenicia the roots make the vipers wilder. And he said that he himself saw a man escaping the rush of a viper, and that the man ran up onto a tree, but the viper, when it arrived later, breathed out its venom against the tree, and the man lived no longer.
τούτου μὲν τοιαῦτα ἤκουσα· ἐν δὲ τῇ χώρᾳ τῇ Ἀράβων ὅσοι τῶν ἔχεων περὶ τὰ δένδρα τὰ πάλσαμα οἰκοῦσι, τοιάδε ἄλλα ἐς αὐτοὺς συμβαίνοντα οἶδα. μέγεθος μὲν κατὰ μυρσίνης θάμνον τὰ πάλσαμά ἐστι, φύλλα δὲ αὐτοῖς κατὰ τὴν πόαν τὸ σάμψουχον· ἔχεων δὲ τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἀραβίᾳ κατὰ ποσοὺς καὶ πλείονες καὶ ἐλάσσονες ὑπὸ ἕκαστον αὐλίζονται δένδρον· τροφὴ γὰρ αὐτοῖς ὁ τῶν παλσάμων ἐστὶν ὀπὸς ἡδίστη, καὶ ἔτι καὶ ἄλλως τῇ σκιᾷ τῶν φυτῶν χαίρουσιν.
From this man I heard such things; but in the country of the Arabians, as many of the vipers as dwell around the balsam trees, I know other such things happening to them. In size the balsam trees are like a myrtle shrub, and their leaves are like the herb marjoram. The vipers in Arabia lodge under each tree, some in greater and some in lesser numbers; for the juice of the balsam is sweetest food for them, and furthermore they otherwise delight in the shade of the plants.
ἐπὰν οὖν συλλέγειν τοῦ παλσάμου τὸν ὀπὸν ἀφίκηται τοῖς Ἄραψιν ὥρα, ξύλων δύο ἕκαστος σκυτάλας ἐπὶ τοὺς ἔχεις ἐσφέρει, κροτοῦντες δὲ τὰ ξύλα ἀπελαύνουσι τοὺς ἔχεις· ἀποκτείνειν δὲ αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἐθέλουσιν ἱεροὺς τῶν παλσάμων νομίζοντες. ἢν δὲ καὶ ὑπὸ ἔχεων δηχθῆναί τῳ συμβῇ, τὸ μὲν τραῦμά ἐστιν ὁποῖον καὶ ὑπὸ σιδήρου, δεῖμα δὲ ἄπεστι τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰοῦ· ἅτε γὰρ σιτουμένοις τοῖς ἔχεσι4 μύρων τὸ εὐοσμότατον, μετακεράννυταί σφισιν ἐκ τοῦ θανατώδους ἐς τὸ ἠπιώτερον ὁ ἰός.
So when the season arrives for the Arabians to collect the juice of the balsam, each man brings two wooden sticks against the vipers, and by clashing the sticks they drive the vipers away; they are unwilling to kill them, believing them to be sacred to the balsam. And if it happens to anyone to be bitten by the vipers, the wound is like one made by iron, but the fear of the venom is absent; for since the vipers feed on the most fragrant of perfumes, their venom is altered for them from deadly to milder.
- 9.28.1τῶν πανταχοῦ
The genitive "of those anywhere" functions as a genitive of comparison depending on the superlative adjective ἥδιστον ("sweetest").
- 9.28.1ἥκιστα ἐπὶ ἀνθρώπου θανάτῳ φύεσθαι
The adverb ἥκιστα functions as a strong negation ("by no means"), and the preposition ἐπί with the dative (ἀνθρώπου θανάτῳ) indicates purpose ("for the death of man").
- 9.28.2ἔφη δὲ ἄνθρωπον ἰδεῖν αὐτὸς
An accusative and infinitive construction in indirect discourse. The nominative pronoun αὐτός is used to emphasize that the logical subject of the infinitive ἰδεῖν is identical to the subject of the main verb ἔφη ("he himself"). ἄνθρωπον is the direct object of ἰδεῖν.
- 9.28.4ἅτε γὰρ σιτουμένοις τοῖς ἔχεσι
The causal particle ἅτε introduces an objective reason, with the present participle σιτουμένοις agreeing with the dative noun τοῖς ἔχεσι. This is not a genitive absolute but a participle modifying the dative pronoun (σφισιν) in the main clause.