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Herodotus · Histories §9.1.1

Mardonius' Advance from Thessaly to Athens

Passage 1454 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Upon learning of the Athenian refusal, Mardonius marches hastily from Thessaly to Athens, recruiting locals along the way, while the Thessalian leaders continue to support the Persian advance.

§9.1.1Μαρδόνιος δέ, ὥς οἱ ἀπονοστήσας Ἀλέξανδρος τὰ παρὰ Ἀθηναίων ἐσήμηνε, ὁρμηθεὶς ἐκ Θεσσαλίης ἦγε τὴν στρατιὴν σπουδῇ ἐπὶ τὰς Ἀθήνας.
Mardonius, when Alexander on his return had reported to him the answer from the Athenians, set out from Thessaly and led his army with haste against Athens.
ὅκου δὲ ἑκάστοτε γίνοιτο, τούτους παρελάμβανε.
Wherever he came at any time, he took these people along with him.
τοῖσι δὲ Θεσσαλίης ἡγεομένοισι οὔτε τὰ πρὸ τοῦ πεπρηγμένα μετέμελε οὐδὲν πολλῷ τε μᾶλλον ἐπῆγον τὸν Πέρσην, καὶ συμπροέπεμψέ τε Θώρηξ ὁ Ληρισαῖος Ξέρξην φεύγοντα καὶ τότε ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ παρῆκε Μαρδόνιον ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα.
As for the leaders of Thessaly, they did not at all regret what they had done before, but all the more egged on the Persian; and Thorax of Larissa, who had accompanied Xerxes in his flight, now also openly let Mardonius pass into Greece.

Notes

  1. 9.1.1ὥς — The conjunction ὡς (when) written with an accent. It frequently appears as a temporal conjunction in Ionic prose, particularly in Herodotus.
  2. 9.1.1οἱ — The dative of the third-person singular pronoun (indirect reflexive/non-reflexive use of οὗ, οἷ, ἕ). Here it refers to Mardonius, the subject of the main clause, meaning 'to him.'
  3. 9.1.1ὅκου δὲ ἑκάστοτε γίνοιτο — The combination of the relative adverb ὅκου (the Ionic form of ὅπου) and the optative γίνοιτο (third-person singular present optative of γίγνομαι) expresses a past general or iterative condition ('whenever he came,' 'wherever he might be'). This corresponds to the imperfect verb παρελάμβανε in the main clause.
  4. 9.1.1τοῖσι δὲ Θεσσαλίης ἡγεομένοισι οὔτε τὰ πρὸ τοῦ πεπρηγμένα μετέμελε οὐδὲν — The construction of the impersonal verb μετέμελε (imperfect of μεταμέλει). The person who regrets is in the dative (τοῖσι ... ἡγεομένοισι), and the cause of regret is expressed by the nominative subject (the neuter plural substantivized participle τὰ ... πεπρηγμένα), modified by the adverbial οὐδέν ('not at all'). It means 'to the leaders of Thessaly what had been done before caused no regret at all,' i.e., 'they did not regret their past actions at all.'

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §9.1.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:9.1.1

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