Herodotus · Histories §6.139.1-6.139.4

Pelasgian Calamities and Their Impossible Condition for Athens

Passage 1044 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Suffering from famine and barrenness as punishment for their crime, the Pelasgians seek a remedy from Delphi and offer reparations to Athens, but they refuse the Athenian demands by proposing an impossible sailing condition.

§6.139.1ἀποκτείνασι δὲ τοῖσι Πελασγοῖσι τοὺς σφετέρους παῖδάς τε καὶ γυναῖκας οὔτε γῆ καρπὸν ἔφερε οὔτε γυναῖκές τε καὶ ποῖμναι ὁμοίως ἔτικτον καὶ πρὸ τοῦ.

And when the Pelasgians had killed their own children and wives, neither did the earth bear fruit for them, nor did their women and flocks bring forth offspring as before.

πιεζόμενοι δὲ λιμῷ καὶ ἀπαιδίῃ ἐς Δελφοὺς ἔπεμπον λύσιν τινὰ αἰτησόμενοι τῶν παρεόντων κακῶν.

Being hard pressed by famine and childlessness, they sent to Delphi to ask for some release from their present evils.

§6.139.2ἡ δὲ Πυθίη σφέας ἐκέλευε Ἀθηναίοισι δίκας διδόναι ταύτας τὰς ἂν αὐτοὶ Ἀθηναῖοι δικάσωσι.

And the Pythia ordered them to pay such penalties to the Athenians as the Athenians themselves should adjudge.

ἦλθόν τε δὴ ἐς τὰς Ἀθήνας οἱ Πελασγοὶ καὶ δίκας ἐπαγγέλλοντο βουλόμενοι διδόναι παντὸς τοῦ ἀδικήματος.

So the Pelasgians came to Athens and offered to pay penalties for all their wrongdoing, wishing to do so.

§6.139.3Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ ἐν τῷ πρυτανηίῳ κλίνην στρώσαντες ὡς εἶχον κάλλιστα καὶ τράπεζαν ἐπιπλέην ἀγαθῶν πάντων παραθέντες, ἐκέλευον τοὺς Πελασγοὺς τὴν χώρην σφίσι παραδιδόναι οὕτω ἔχουσαν.

But the Athenians, having spread a couch in the prytaneum as beautifully as they could, and having set beside it a table full of all good things, ordered the Pelasgians to deliver up their land to them in such a condition.

§6.139.4οἱ δὲ Πελασγοὶ ὑπολαβόντες εἶπαν ἐπεὰν βορέῃ ἀνέμῳ αὐτημερὸν ἐξανύσῃ νηῦς ἐκ τῆς ὑμετέρης ἐς τὴν ἡμετέρην, τότε παραδώσομεν, ἐπιστάμενοι τοῦτο εἶναι ἀδύνατον γενέσθαι.

And the Pelasgians answered and said: "Whenever a ship, with a north wind, shall accomplish the voyage from your land to ours in a single day, then we will deliver it up," knowing that this was impossible to happen.

ἡ γὰρ Ἀττικὴ πρὸς νότον κεῖται πολλὸν τῆς Λήμνου.

For Attica lies far to the south of Lemnos.

Notes

6.139.1ἀποκτείνασι δὲ τοῖσι Πελασγοῖσι — Analyzed as a dative of disadvantage (dativus incommodi), meaning "for the Pelasgians who had killed their own children and wives."
6.139.2ταύτας τὰς ἂν αὐτοὶ Ἀθηναῖοι δικάσωσι — The relative clause features ἂν with the subjunctive (aorist), expressing a future general condition or expectation: "such [penalties] as the Athenians themselves should adjudge."
6.139.3οὕτω ἔχουσαν — A feminine accusative singular participle modifying τὴν χώρην ("the land"), indicating the state in which the land is to be delivered: "in such a condition" (i.e., as richly furnished as the couch and table prepared by the Athenians).
6.139.4ἐπεὰν ... ἐξανύσῃ — The construction ἐπεάν (equivalent to ἐπειδάν) with the subjunctive (aorist) expresses a future conditional limitation: "whenever / once [a ship] shall have accomplished."

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §6.139.1-6.139.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.139.1-6.139.4

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