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Herodotus · Histories §2.11.1-2.11.4

The Arabian Gulf and Silt Deposition in Ancient Gulfs

Passage 227 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

The author describes the extremely long and narrow geography of the Arabian Gulf (Red Sea) and its tides. He further argues that Egypt was once a similar gulf, which could have been easily silted up within ten or twenty thousand years by the powerful alluvial action of the Nile, had the river been diverted into it.

§2.11.1ἔστι δὲ τῆς Ἀραβίης χώρης, Αἰγύπτου δὲ οὐ πρόσω, κόλπος θαλάσσης ἐσέχων ἐκ τῆς Ἐρυθρῆς καλεομένης θαλάσσης, μακρὸς οὕτω δή τι καὶ στεινὸς ὡς ἔρχομαι φράσων· §2.11.2μῆκος μὲν πλόου ἀρξαμένῳ ἐκ μυχοῦ διεκπλῶσαι ἐς τὴν εὐρέαν θάλασσαν ἡμέραι ἀναισιμοῦνται τεσσεράκοντα εἰρεσίῃ χρεωμένῳ· εὖρος δέ, τῇ εὐρύτατος ἐστὶ ὁ κόλπος, ἥμισυ ἡμέρης πλόου.
In the Arabian land, not far from Egypt, there is a gulf of the sea running inland from the sea called the Red Sea, which is indeed so long and narrow as I am about to describe: in length, for one starting from the innermost recess to row through into the open sea, forty days are consumed for one using oars; and in width, where the gulf is widest, it is half a day's sail.
ῥηχίη δʼ ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ ἄμπωτις ἀνὰ πᾶσαν ἡμέρην γίνεται.
In it, a flood tide and an ebb tide occur every day.
§2.11.3ἕτερον τοιοῦτον κόλπον καὶ τὴν Αἴγυπτον δοκέω γενέσθαι κοτέ, τὸν μὲν ἐκ τῆς βορηίης θαλάσσης κόλπον ἐσέχοντα ἐπʼ Αἰθιοπίης, τὸν δὲ Ἀράβιον, τὸν ἔρχομαι λέξων, ἐκ τῆς νοτίης φέροντα ἐπὶ Συρίης, σχεδὸν μὲν ἀλλήλοισι συντετραίνοντας τοὺς μυχούς, ὀλίγον δέ τι παραλλάσσοντας τῆς χώρης.
I believe that Egypt also was once another such gulf; the one gulf entering from the northern sea towards Ethiopia, and the other, the Arabian one of which I am about to speak, stretching from the southern sea towards Syria, having their innermost recesses boring through so as to almost meet each other, and passing by each other by only a small space of land.
§2.11.4εἰ ὦν ἐθελήσει ἐκτρέψαι τὸ ῥέεθρον ὁ Νεῖλος ἐς τοῦτον τὸν Ἀράβιον κόλπον, τί μιν κωλύει ῥέοντος τούτου ἐκχωσθῆναι ἐντός γε δισμυρίων ἐτέων;
If, therefore, the Nile should wish to divert its stream into this Arabian gulf, what prevents it from being silted up within twenty thousand years, with this river flowing into it?
ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ ἔλπομαί γε καὶ μυρίων ἐντὸς χωσθῆναι ἄν·
For my part, I expect that it would be silted up even within ten thousand years.
κοῦ γε δὴ ἐν τῷ προαναισιμωμένῳ χρόνῳ πρότερον ἢ ἐμὲ γενέσθαι οὐκ ἂν χωσθείη κόλπος καὶ πολλῷ μέζων ἔτι τούτου ὑπὸ τοσούτου τε ποταμοῦ καὶ οὕτω ἐργατικοῦ;
How then, in the vast time elapsed before I was born, could a gulf even much larger than this not have been silted up by so great and so industrious a river?

Notes

  1. §2.11.1τῆς Ἀραβίης χώρης — Used with the existential verb ἔστι to denote possession or partitive relation ('belongs to the Arabian land').
  2. §2.11.2ἀρξαμένῳ — The dative participle ἀρξαμένῳ, along with the subsequent χρεωμένῳ, functions as a dative of relation (dativus relationis), specifying the person from whose perspective the time is measured ('for one who begins...').
  3. §2.11.3συντετραίνοντας — An accusative plural present participle modifying the two gulfs introduced by τὸν μὲν ... τὸν δὲ ... within the larger accusative and infinitive construction.
  4. §2.11.4χωσθῆναι ἄν — The infinitive with ἄν (χωσθῆναι ἄν) governed by ἔλπομαι represents an indirect statement of a potential optative or an indicative with ἄν, denoting potentiality ('that it would be silted up').
  5. §2.11.4κοῦ γε δὴ — An idiomatic phrase containing intensive particles that introduces a rhetorical question, meaning 'how much less...' or 'how indeed... not,' emphasizing that the event is even more likely to have occurred.

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §2.11.1-2.11.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:2.11.1-2.11.4

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