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Herodotus · Histories §2.146.1-2.146.2

Herodotus on Dating Dionysus and Pan

Passage 368 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Herodotus states his own opinion on the genealogies of the Greek and Egyptian gods, arguing that the Greeks learned the names of Dionysus and Pan much later and only began tracing their genealogies from the moment they learned their names.

§2.146.1τούτων ὦν ἀμφοτέρων πάρεστι χρᾶσθαι τοῖσί τις πείσεται λεγομένοισι μᾶλλον· ἐμοὶ δʼ ὦν ἡ περὶ αὐτῶν γνώμη ἀποδέδεκται.
Therefore, of these two accounts, anyone may adopt whichever he is more likely to believe; but as for me, my opinion concerning them has already been declared.
εἰ μὲν γὰρ φανεροί τε ἐγένοντο καὶ κατεγήρασαν καὶ οὗτοι ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι, κατά περ Ἡρακλέης ὁ ἐξ Ἀμφιτρύωνος γενόμενος, καὶ δὴ καὶ Διόνυσος ὁ ἐκ Σεμέλης καὶ Πὰν ὁ ἐκ Πηνελόπης γενόμενος, ἔφη ἄν τις καὶ τούτους ἄλλους ἄνδρας γενομένους ἔχειν τὰ ἐκείνων οὐνόματα τῶν προγεγονότων θεῶν.
For if these also, namely Dionysus the son of Semele and Pan the son of Penelope, had appeared openly and grown old in Greece, just like Heracles the son of Amphitryon had done, one might have said that these too, though being born as mere men, had the names of those pre-existing gods.
§2.146.2νῦν δὲ Διόνυσόν τε λέγουσι οἱ Ἕλληνες ὡς αὐτίκα γενόμενον ἐς τὸν μηρὸν ἐνερράψατο Ζεὺς καὶ ἤνεικε ἐς Νύσαν τὴν ὑπὲρ Αἰγύπτου ἐοῦσαν ἐν τῇ Αἰθιοπίῃ, καὶ Πανός γε πέρι οὐκ ἔχουσι εἰπεῖν ὅκῃ ἐτράπετο γενόμενος.
But as it is, the Greeks say of Dionysus that as soon as he was born, Zeus sewed him up in his thigh and carried him to Nysa, which is in Ethiopia beyond Egypt; and as for Pan, they are not able to say where he went after he was born.
δῆλά μοι γέγονε ὅτι ὕστερον ἐπύθοντο οἱ Ἕλληνες τούτων τὰ οὐνόματα ἢ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν· ἀπʼ οὗ δὲ ἐπύθοντο χρόνου, ἀπὸ τούτου γενεηλογέουσι αὐτῶν τὴν γένεσιν.
It has therefore become clear to me that the Greeks learned the names of these gods later than those of the other gods, and from the time when they learned them, they trace their birth and genealogy.

Notes

  1. 2.146.1τούτων ὦν ἀμφοτέρων — Partitive genitive modifying the following relative clause of choice (toisi... legomenoisi). Placed at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis, meaning "of these two accounts."
  2. 2.146.1ἔφη ἄν τις — The apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact conditional (with protasis 'ei' + indicative past 'egenonto'). The imperfect 'ephē' combined with the particle 'an' expresses a past possibility ('someone would have said'), governing the infinitive 'echein'.
  3. 2.146.2ὅκῃ ἐτράπετο — An indirect question clause. The Ionic form 'hokēi' corresponds to Attic 'hopēi' ('whither', 'where'). The verb 'etrapeto' is the second aorist middle of 'trepō' ('turned oneself', 'went').

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §2.146.1-2.146.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:2.146.1-2.146.2

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