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Herodotus · Histories §4.180.1-4.180.6

Maiden Battles and Marriage Customs of the Auseans

Passage 744 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

The customs of the Auseans are described, including a ritual combat among maidens during a festival for a goddess they identify with Athena, as well as their practice of having women in common and determining paternity by physical resemblance.

§4.180.1τούτων δὲ ἔχονται τῶν Μαχλύων Αὐσέες· οὗτοι δὲ καὶ οἱ Μάχλυες πέριξ τὴν Τριτωνίδα λίμνην οἰκέουσι, τὸ μέσον δέ σφι οὐρίζει ὁ Τρίτων.
Bordering on these Machlyes are the Auseans; both they and the Machlyes dwell around Lake Tritonis, and the river Triton forms the boundary between them.
καὶ οἱ μὲν Μάχλυες τὰ ὀπίσω κομῶσι τῆς κεφαλῆς, οἱ δὲ Αὐσέες τὰ ἔμπροσθε.
The Machlyes wear their hair long at the back of the head, and the Auseans at the front.
§4.180.2ὁρτῇ δὲ ἐνιαυσίῃ Ἀθηναίης αἱ παρθένοι αὐτῶν δίχα διαστᾶσαι μάχονται πρὸς ἀλλήλας λίθοισί τε καὶ ξύλοισι, τῷ αὐθιγενέι θεῷ λέγουσαι τὰ πάτρια ἀποτελέειν, τὴν Ἀθηναίην καλέομεν.
At an annual festival of Athena, their maidens separate into two bands and fight against one another with stones and clubs, asserting that they are performing the ancestral rites for the indigenous goddess whom we call Athena.
τὰς δὲ ἀποθνησκούσας τῶν παρθένων ἐκ τῶν τρωμάτων ψευδοπαρθένους καλέουσι. §4.180.3πρὶν δὲ ἀνεῖναι αὐτὰς μάχεσθαι, τάδε ποιεῦσι κοινῇ.
Those of the maidens who die of their wounds they call "false maidens." But before they send them out to fight, they do the following in common.
παρθένον τὴν καλλιστεύουσαν ἑκάστοτε κοσμήσαντες κυνέῃ τε Κορινθίῃ καὶ πανοπλίῃ Ἑλληνικῇ καὶ ἐπʼ ἅρμα ἀναβιβάσαντες περιάγουσι τὴν λίμνην κύκλῳ.
Each time, they adorn the maiden who is the most beautiful with a Corinthian helmet and a Greek panoply, and having mounted her on a chariot, they conduct her in a circle around the lake.
§4.180.4ὁτέοισι δὲ τὸ πάλαι ἐκόσμεον τὰς παρθένους πρὶν ἤ σφι Ἕλληνας παροικισθῆναι, οὐκ ἔχω εἰπεῖν, δοκέω δʼ ὦν Αἰγυπτίοισι ὅπλοισι κοσμέεσθαι αὐτάς· ἀπὸ γὰρ Αἰγύπτου καὶ τὴν ἀσπίδα καὶ τὸ κράνος φημὶ ἀπῖχθαι ἐς τοὺς Ἕλληνας.
With what they used to adorn the maidens in ancient times, before Greeks came to live near them, I cannot say; but I suppose they were adorned with Egyptian armor; for I maintain that both the shield and the helmet came to the Greeks from Egypt.
§4.180.5τὴν δὲ Ἀθηναίην φασὶ Ποσειδέωνος εἶναι θυγατέρα καὶ τῆς Τριτωνίδος λίμνης, καί μιν μεμφθεῖσάν τι τῷ πατρὶ δοῦναι ἑωυτὴν τῷ Διί, τὸν δὲ Δία ἑωυτοῦ μιν ποιήσασθαι θυγατέρα.
They say that Athena is the daughter of Poseidon and Lake Tritonis, and that she, having some grievance against her father, gave herself to Zeus, and Zeus made her his own daughter.
ταῦτα μὲν λέγουσι, μῖξιν δὲ ἐπίκοινον τῶν γυναικῶν ποιέονται, οὔτε συνοικέοντες κτηνηδόν τε μισγόμενοι.
This is what they say, but they have their women in common, not living together but consorting like beasts.
§4.180.6ἐπεὰν δὲ γυναικὶ τὸ παιδίον ἁδρὸν γένηται, συμφοιτῶσι ἐς τὠυτὸ οἱ ἄνδρες τρίτου μηνός, καὶ τῷ ἂν οἴκῃ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τὸ παιδίον, τούτου παῖς νομίζεται.
When a child is grown big in the care of its mother, the men assemble in the same place in the third month, and whichever of the men the child resembles, it is considered to be his child.

Notes

  1. §4.180.1ἔχονται — The middle verb ἔχονται with the genitive τούτων τῶν Μαχλύων means "to border on" or "be next to."
  2. §4.180.2τὴν Ἀθηναίην καλέομεν — The clause τὴν Ἀθηναίην καλέομεν functions as a relative clause modifying τῷ αὐθιγενέι θεῷ with a relative pronoun omitted, meaning "for the indigenous goddess, whom we call Athena."
  3. §4.180.3ἀνεῖναι — ἀνεῖναι is the second aorist active infinitive of ἀνίημι (to let go, send forth) with psilosis (loss of rough breathing) in the Ionic dialect. It takes αὐτὰς as its subject accusative and is followed by the complementary/purpose infinitive μάχεσθαι.
  4. §4.180.4ὁτέοισι — ὁτέοισι is the Ionic form of ὁποίοις (with what), used here as a dative of instrument/means.
  5. §4.180.6οἴκῃ — οἴκῃ is the present subjunctive of ἔοικα (to resemble, look like), specifically the Ionic form of the subjunctive οἴκῃ. Combined with ἄν, it expresses a general condition ("whomever the child may resemble") and governs the dative relative pronoun τῷ.

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §4.180.1-4.180.6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:4.180.1-4.180.6

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