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Herodotus · Histories §7.95.1-7.95.2

Fleet and Origins of Islanders, Aeolians, and Hellespontians

Passage 1158 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

The passage describes the number of ships provided by the islanders, Aeolians, and Hellespontians, their equipment, and their ancestral origins.

§7.95.1νησιῶται δὲ ἑπτακαίδεκα παρείχοντο νέας, ὡπλισμένοι ὡς Ἕλληνες, καὶ τοῦτο Πελασγικὸν ἔθνος, ὕστερον δὲ Ἰωνικὸν ἐκλήθη κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον καὶ οἱ δυωδεκαπόλιες Ἴωνες οἱ ἀπʼ Ἀθηνέων.
The islanders provided seventeen ships, armed like the Greeks; and this people too was Pelasgian, but was later called Ionian for the same reason as the Ionians of the twelve cities who came from Athens.
Αἰολέες δὲ ἑξήκοντα νέας παρείχοντο, ἐσκευασμένοι τε ὡς Ἕλληνες καὶ τὸ πάλαι καλεόμενοι Πελασγοί, ὡς Ἑλλήνων λόγος.
The Aeolians provided sixty ships, equipped like the Greeks and called of old Pelasgians, according to the account of the Greeks.
§7.95.2Ἑλλησπόντιοι δὲ πλὴν Ἀβυδηνῶν (Ἀβυδηνοῖσι γὰρ προσετέτακτο ἐκ βασιλέος κατὰ χώρην μένουσι φύλακας εἶναι τῶν γεφυρέων) οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ οἱ ἐκ τοῦ Πόντου στρατευόμενοι παρείχοντο μὲν ἑκατὸν νέας, ἐσκευασμένοι δὲ ἦσαν ὡς Ἕλληνες.
The Hellespontians, except for the Abydenes (for the Abydenes had been ordered by the king to remain in their own country and be guardians of the bridges)—the rest, that is, who served from the Pontus, provided one hundred ships, and were equipped like the Greeks.
οὗτοι δὲ Ἰώνων καὶ Δωριέων ἄποικοι.
These were colonists of the Ionians and Dorians.

Notes

  1. §7.95.1καὶ τοῦτο Πελασγικὸν ἔθνος — The demonstrative pronoun τοῦτο, which refers back to the νησιῶται (islanders, masculine plural) in the preceding clause, is attracted to the gender and number of the predicate noun ἔθνος (nation/people, neuter singular).
  2. §7.95.2Ἀβυδηνοῖσι γὰρ προσετέτακτο ... φύλακας εἶναι — Although the logical subject of the impersonal passive προσετέτακτο is in the dative Ἀβυδηνοῖσι (with the dative participle μένουσι), the predicate of the infinitive εἶναι appears in the accusative plural φύλακας. Instead of agreeing with the dative, the accusative is used as the default subject/predicate case for an infinitive.
  3. §7.95.2Ἑλλησπόντιοι δὲ ... οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ ... παρείχοντο — The sentence starts with the subject Ἑλλησπόντιοι δὲ ("The Hellespontians"), but after an intervening exceptional clause (πλὴν...), the subject is restated as οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ ("the rest") to connect with the verb παρείχοντο, forming an anacoluthon.

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §7.95.1-7.95.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:7.95.1-7.95.2

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