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Herodotus · Histories §6.118.1-6.118.3

Datis and the Restoration of the Apollo Statue to Delion

Passage 1024 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Datis, following a vision at Myconos, finds a gilded statue of Apollo on a Phoenician ship, deposits it at Delos, and orders the Delians to return it to Delion; the Delians fail to do so, and the Thebans themselves recover it twenty years later.

§6.118.1Δᾶτις δὲ πορευόμενος ἅμα τῷ στρατῷ ἐς τὴν Ἀσίην, ἐπείτε ἐγένετο ἐν Μυκόνῳ, εἶδε ὄψιν ἐν τῷ ὕπνῳ.
Datis, journeying with his army to Asia, when he arrived at Myconos, saw a vision in his sleep.
καὶ ἥτις μὲν ἦν ἡ ὄψις, οὐ λέγεται· ὁ δέ, ὡς ἡμέρη τάχιστα ἐπέλαμψε, ζήτησιν ἐποιέετο τῶν νεῶν, εὑρὼν δὲ ἐν νηὶ Φοινίσσῃ ἄγαλμα Ἀπόλλωνος κεχρυσωμένον ἐπυνθάνετο ὁκόθεν σεσυλημένον εἴη, πυθόμενος δὲ ἐξ οὗ ἦν ἱροῦ, ἔπλεε τῇ ἑωυτοῦ νηὶ ἐς Δῆλον·
What the vision was is not told; but he, as soon as day dawned, made a search of the ships, and having found in a Phoenician ship a gilded statue of Apollo, he inquired whence it had been plundered; and having learned from which temple it came, he sailed with his own ship to Delos.
§6.118.2καὶ ἀπίκατο γὰρ τηνικαῦτα οἱ Δήλιοι ὀπίσω ἐς τὴν νῆσον, κατατίθεταί τε ἐς τὸ ἱρὸν τὸ ἄγαλμα καὶ ἐντέλλεται τοῖσι Δηλίοισι ἀπαγαγεῖν τὸ ἄγαλμα ἐς Δήλιον τὸ Θηβαίων· τὸ δʼ ἔστι ἐπὶ θαλάσσῃ Χαλκίδος καταντίον.
For the Delians had by that time returned to their island, and he deposited the statue in the temple, and charged the Delians to convey the statue back to Delion of the Thebans, which is on the coast opposite Chalcis.
§6.118.3Δᾶτις μὲν δὴ ταῦτα ἐντειλάμενος ἀπέπλεε, τὸν δὲ ἀνδριάντα τοῦτον Δήλιοι οὐκ ἀπήγαγον, ἀλλά μιν διʼ ἐτέων εἴκοσι Θηβαῖοι αὐτοὶ ἐκ θεοπροπίου ἐκομίσαντο ἐπὶ Δήλιον.
Datis indeed, having given these instructions, sailed away; but the Delians did not convey this statue back, but twenty years later the Thebans themselves, in accordance with an oracle, brought it to Delion.

Notes

  1. 6.118.1ὡς ἡμέρη τάχιστα — The conjunction ὡς combined with the superlative adverb τάχιστα means "as soon as". Here, the noun ἡμέρη ("day") is placed between them, meaning "as soon as day dawned."
  2. 6.118.1ἐξ οὗ ἦν ἱροῦ — The noun ἱροῦ, which is the antecedent, is attracted into the relative clause (antecedent attraction); in a normal word order, it would be equivalent to ἐκ τοῦ ἱροῦ ἐξ οὗ ἦν ("from the temple from which it was").
  3. 6.118.2καὶ ἀπίκατο γὰρ — The combination καὶ ... γάρ introduces a parenthetical explanation, meaning "for indeed...". The verb ἀπίκατο is the third-person plural pluperfect of ἀπικνέομαι (Ionic for ἀφικνέομαι), equivalent to the Attic ἀφιγμένοι ἦσαν.

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §6.118.1-6.118.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.118.1-6.118.3

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