Herodotus · Histories §8.27.1-8.27.5

Phocian-Thessalian Feud and the Chalk Stratagem

Passage 1329 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

The narrator explains the deep-seated hostility between the Thessalians and the Phocians, detailing a night attack before the Persian invasion where the Phocians defeated the Thessalians through the stratagem of the seer Tellias.

§8.27.1ἐν δὲ τῷ διὰ μέσου χρόνῳ, ἐπείτε τὸ ἐν Θερμοπύλῃσι τρῶμα ἐγεγόνεε, αὐτίκα Θεσσαλοὶ πέμπουσι κήρυκα ἐς Φωκέας, ἅτε σφι ἔχοντες αἰεὶ χόλον, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ὑστάτου τρώματος καὶ τὸ κάρτα.

In the intervening time, immediately after the disaster at Thermopylae had occurred, the Thessalians sent a herald to the Phocians, inasmuch as they always harbored resentment against them, and most especially since their last defeat.

§8.27.2ἐσβαλόντες γὰρ πανστρατιῇ αὐτοί τε οἱ Θεσσαλοὶ καὶ οἱ σύμμαχοι αὐτῶν ἐς τοὺς Φωκέας, οὐ πολλοῖσι ἔτεσι πρότερον ταύτης τῆς βασιλέος στρατηλασίης, ἑσσώθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν Φωκέων καὶ περιέφθησαν τρηχέως.

For the Thessalians themselves and their allies, having invaded the Phocians with their whole army not many years before this expedition of the king, had been defeated by the Phocians and treated roughly.

§8.27.3ἐπείτε γὰρ κατειλήθησαν ἐς τὸν Παρνησὸν οἱ Φωκέες ἔχοντες μάντιν Τελλίην τὸν Ἠλεῖον, ἐνθαῦτα ὁ Τελλίης οὗτος σοφίζεται αὐτοῖσι τοιόνδε. γυψώσας ἄνδρας ἑξακοσίους τῶν φωκέων τοὺς, ἀρίστους, αὐτούς τε τούτους καὶ τὰ ὅπλα αὐτῶν, νυκτὸς ἐπεθήκατο τοῖσι Θεσσαλοῖσι, προείπας αὐτοῖσι, τὸν ἂν μὴ λευκανθίζοντα ἴδωνται, τοῦτον κτείνειν.

For when the Phocians were shut up in Parnassus, having with them Tellias the Elean as a seer, then this Tellias devised for them the following stratagem: having covered six hundred of the bravest of the Phocians with gypsum, both themselves and their armor, he sent them to attack the Thessalians by night, having first ordered them to kill whomever they saw who was not whitened.

§8.27.4τούτους ὦν αἵ τε φυλακαὶ τῶν Θεσσαλῶν πρῶται ἰδοῦσαι ἐφοβήθησαν, δόξασαι ἄλλο τι εἶναι τέρας, καὶ μετὰ τὰς φυλακὰς αὐτὴ ἡ στρατιὴ οὕτω ὥστε τετρακισχιλίων κρατῆσαι νεκρῶν καὶ ἀσπίδων Φωκέας, τῶν τὰς μὲν ἡμισέας ἐς Ἄβας ἀνέθεσαν τὰς δὲ ἐς Δελφούς· §8.27.5ἡ δὲ δεκάτη ἐγένετο τῶν χρημάτων ἐκ ταύτης τῆς μάχης οἱ μεγάλοι ἀνδριάντες οἱ περὶ τὸν τρίποδα συνεστεῶτες ἔμπροσθε τοῦ νηοῦ τοῦ ἐν Δελφοῖσι, καὶ ἕτεροι τοιοῦτοι ἐν Ἄβῃσι ἀνακέαται.

So the sentries of the Thessalians, seeing them first, were terrified, thinking it was some other kind of portent, and after the sentries the whole army did likewise, so that the Phocians became masters of four thousand dead bodies and shields, of which they dedicated half at Abae and the other half at Delphi; and the tithe of the money from this battle went to make the great statues that stand around the tripod in front of the temple at Delphi, and other such statues are dedicated at Abae.

Notes

8.27.1ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ὑστάτου τρώματος καὶ τὸ κάρτα — Meaning 'and most especially since the last defeat.' The preposition ἀπό denotes either the temporal starting point or the cause, and the adverbial phrase καὶ τὸ κάρτα ('very much indeed') intensifies it.
8.27.3γυψώσας ... ἐπεθήκατο — The subject of the third-person singular main verb ἐπεθήκατο (aorist middle) is the seer Tellias, but those who actually attacked were the six hundred select men covered in gypsum. The middle voice implies that Tellias directed them to attack or organized the assault.
8.27.4τῶν τὰς μὲν ἡμισέας — The genitive relative pronoun τῶν (Ionic for ὧν) could grammatically refer to either 'dead bodies' (νεκρῶν, masculine) or 'shields' (ἀσπίδων, feminine) from the previous clause. However, because the following accusative ἡμισέας is feminine plural, it clearly refers only to the 'shields.'

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §8.27.1-8.27.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:8.27.1-8.27.5

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