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Herodotus · Histories §1.146.1-1.146.3

The Mixed Origin of the Ionians and the Carian Women's Vow

Passage 146 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

The author shows that the Ionians who founded the twelve cities were actually a mixed group of various tribes, and recounts how those claiming Athenian nobility slaughtered local Carians to take their women, leading the women to swear never to eat with them or call them by name.

§1.146.1τούτων δὴ εἵνεκα καὶ οἱ Ἴωνες δυώδεκα πόλιας ἐποιήσαντο· ἐπεὶ ὥς γέ τι μᾶλλον οὗτοι Ἴωνες εἰσὶ τῶν ἄλλων Ἰώνων ἢ κάλλιόν τι γεγόνασι, μωρίη πολλὴ λέγειν·
For these very reasons indeed, the Ionians too founded twelve cities; since to say that these are any more Ionians than the other Ionians, or are born in any way more nobly, is great folly.
τῶν Ἄβαντες μὲν ἐξ Εὐβοίες εἰσὶ οὐκ ἐλαχίστη μοῖρα, τοῖσι Ἰωνίης μέτα οὐδὲ τοῦ οὐνόματος οὐδέν, Μινύαι δὲ Ὀρχομένιοί σφι ἀναμεμίχαται καὶ Καδμεῖοι καὶ Δρύοπες καὶ Φωκέες ἀποδάσμιοι καὶ Μολοσσοὶ καὶ Ἀρκάδες Πελασγοὶ καὶ Δωριέες Ἐπιδαύριοι, ἄλλα τε ἔθνεα πολλὰ ἀναμεμίχαται·
Among them, the Abantes from Euboea make up no small part, who have no share at all even in the name of Ionia; and Orchomenian Minyans have been mixed with them, as well as Cadmeans, Dryopes, detached Phocians, Molossians, Arcadian Pelasgians, and Epidaurian Dorians, and many other tribes have been mixed with them.
§1.146.2οἱ δὲ αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ πρυτανηίου τοῦ Ἀθηναίων ὁρμηθέντες καὶ νομίζοντες γενναιότατοι εἶναι Ἰώνων, οὗτοι δὲ οὐ γυναῖκας ἠγάγοντο ἐς τὴν ἀποικίην ἀλλὰ Καείρας ἔσχον, τῶν ἐφόνευσαν τοὺς γονέας.
And those of them who set out from the prytaneum of the Athenians and consider themselves to be the most noble of the Ionians—these did not bring wives to the colony, but took Carian women, whose parents they had slaughtered.
§1.146.3διὰ τοῦτὸν δὲ τὸν φόνον αἱ γυναῖκες αὗται νόμον θέμεναι σφίσι αὐτῇσι ὅρκους ἐπήλασαν καὶ παρέδοσαν τῇσι θυγατράσι, μή κοτε ὁμοσιτῆσαι τοῖσι ἀνδράσι μηδὲ οὐνόματι βῶσαι τὸν ἑωυτῆς ἄνδρα, τοῦδε εἵνεκα ὅτι ἐφόνευσαν σφέων τοὺς πατέρας καὶ ἄνδρας καὶ παῖδας καὶ ἔπειτα ταῦτα ποιήσαντες αὐτῇσι συνοίκεον.
Because of this slaughter, these women, establishing a custom for themselves, bound themselves by oaths and handed it down to their daughters, never to eat with their husbands, nor to call their own husband by name, for this reason: because they had slaughtered their fathers and husbands and children, and then, having done these things, lived with them.

Notes

  1. 1.146.1ἐπεὶ ὥς γέ τι μᾶλλον οὗτοι Ἴωνες εἰσὶ τῶν ἄλλων Ἰώνων ἢ κάλλιόν τι γεγόνασι, μωρίη πολλὴ λέγειν — The conjunction ἐπεὶ introduces an explanation ('for / since'), essentially leading an independent sentence due to the ellipsis of a copula in μωρίη πολλὴ [ἐστί] λέγειν. The infinitive λέγειν functions either as the grammatical subject of the clause or as a limiting infinitive modifying the phrase μωρίη πολλή ('great folly to say').
  2. 1.146.1τοῖσι Ἰωνίης μέτα οὐδὲ τοῦ οὐνόματος οὐδέν — The relative pronoun τοῖσι is the Ionic dative plural (= τοῖς). The preposition μέτα with anastrophe (accent shifted to the first syllable) stands for the impersonal verb μέτεστι, which takes a dative of the person (τοῖσι) and a genitive of the thing (Ἰωνίης, οὐνόματος), meaning 'who have no share at all even in the name of Ionia.'
  3. 1.146.2οἱ δὲ αὐτῶν... οὗτοι δὲ... — The subject introduced by οἱ δὲ αὐτῶν is modified by a long clause containing two participles (ὁρμηθέντες and νομίζοντες). Due to this length, the subject is resumed before the main verb with the demonstrative pronoun οὗτοι (anacoluthon or resumptive pronoun). Consequently, the particle δέ is repeated in both οἱ δὲ and οὗτοι δέ.

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §1.146.1-1.146.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.146.1-1.146.3

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