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Herodotus · Histories §5.105.1-5.105.2

Darius' Vow of Revenge against the Athenians

Passage 881 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

King Darius learns of the burning of Sardis by the Athenians and Ionians, and vows vengeance against the Athenians, ordering a servant to remind him of them daily.

§5.105.1Ὀνήσιλος μέν νυν ἐπολιόρκεε Ἀμαθοῦντα.
So Onesilus was besieging Amathus.
βασιλέι δὲ Δαρείῳ ὡς ἐξαγγέλθη Σάρδις ἁλούσας ἐμπεπρῆσθαι ὑπό τε Ἀθηναίων καὶ Ἰώνων, τὸν δὲ ἡγεμόνα γενέσθαι τῆς συλλογῆς ὥστε ταῦτα συνυφανθῆναι τὸν Μιλήσιον Ἀρισταγόρην, πρῶτα μὲν λέγεται αὐτόν, ὡς ἐπύθετο ταῦτα, Ἰώνων οὐδένα λόγον ποιησάμενον, εὖ εἰδότα ὡς οὗτοί γε οὐ καταπροΐξονται ἀποστάντες, εἰρέσθαι οἵτινες εἶεν οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι, μετὰ δὲ πυθόμενον αἰτῆσαι τὸ τόξον, λαβόντα δὲ καὶ ἐπιθέντα δὲ ὀιστὸν ἄνω πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀπεῖναι, καί μιν ἐς τὸν ἠέρα βάλλοντα εἰπεῖν §5.105.2ὦ Ζεῦ, ἐκγενέσθαι μοι Ἀθηναίους τίσασθαι, εἴπαντα δὲ ταῦτα προστάξαι ἑνὶ τῶν θεραπόντων δείπνου προκειμένου αὐτῷ ἐς τρὶς ἑκάστοτε εἰπεῖν δέσποτα, μέμνεο τῶν Ἀθηναίων.
But when it was reported to King Darius that Sardis had been taken and burnt by the Athenians and Ionians, and that the leader of the gathering, so that these things were woven together, was Aristagoras the Milesian, it is said that at first, when he learned this, making no account of the Ionians, knowing well that they would not escape unpunished for their revolt, he asked who the Athenians were; and after he was informed, he asked for his bow, and taking it and fitting an arrow to it, he shot it up toward heaven, and as he cast it into the air, he said: "O Zeus, grant that I may take vengeance on the Athenians!" And having said this, he ordered one of his servants, whenever dinner was set before him, to say three times on each occasion: "Master, remember the Athenians."

Notes

  1. 5.105.1λέγεται αὐτόν ... εἰρέσθαι — This is an accusative and infinitive construction introduced by the impersonal verb λέγεται ("it is said"), with αὐτόν as the subject accusative. Despite the complexity caused by multiple participles and adverbial phrases modifying αὐτόν, the skeletal structure consists of a series of infinitives depending on λέγεται: εἰρέσθαι, αἰτῆσαι, ἀπεῖναι, εἰπεῖν, and subsequently προστάξαι in section 2.
  2. 5.105.1οὐ καταπροΐξονται ἀποστάντες — The verb καταπροΐξομαι ("to escape unpunished") regularly takes a participle (here ἀποστάντες, "having revolted") to express a strong negative certainty, meaning "they will not get away with having revolted."
  3. 5.105.1καί μιν — The pronoun μιν (Ionic third-person singular accusative) could be interpreted as referring to the arrow (ὀιστόν), but here it re-establishes Darius (αὐτόν) as the subject accusative of the infinitive εἰπεῖν ("to say"), which had become distant due to the long parenthesis. The direct object of the participle βάλλοντα ("casting") is understood contextually as the arrow and is omitted.
  4. 5.105.2ἐκγενέσθαι — An independent infinitive used to express a wish (infinitive of wish). It is the aorist infinitive of the impersonal verb ἐκγίγνεται ("to be allowed, to be possible"), and with the dative μοι ("to me"), it expresses the strong prayer: "may it be granted to me to..."

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §5.105.1-5.105.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:5.105.1-5.105.2

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