Reginald Walter Macan, Herodotus, The Seventh, Eighth, & Ninth Books with Introduction and Commentary

---

---

τοῦλόγου μοι παρενθήκη γέγονε. The λόγος here is not the whole history (as in 1. 95 perhaps) but simply the Kretan λόγος started in c. 170, λέγεται γὰρ Μίνων κτλ.

παρενθήκη: cp. 6. 19 of the παρενθήκη, of four verses, applying to Miletos, in a Delphic response ohtained for Argos: also c. 5 supra. Those passages are enough to show that the mere word could not by itself be taken to prove the digression, or excursus, of younger composition than the main story, or text. On the other hand, granting that the passage on Tarentum in c. 171 appears to be from a different source, and to belong to a different date in composition, as against the main story in which it is inserted, we must admit that it might be called a παρενθήκη, just as in 1. 186 architectural works. are spoken of as a παρενθήκη, in relation to others with which they are not structurally continuous.

In this case, then, Hdt. has notified a fact in regard to the composition of his work; but he no more as a rule notifies all παρενθῆκαι in his work which are later insertions or additions than he notifies παρενθῆκαι which are mere parentheses in a text of uniform date. Even here is certainly a παρενθήκη (on Mikythos) within the παρενθήκη (on the Tarentines), which may also well be a still later insertion.

---

ἐρημωθεῖσαν: absolutely deserted the island was not, as the men of Polichne and Praisos at least had not taken part in the expedition: besides, what of the women and children of the absentees?

ὡς λέγουσι Πραίσιοι: where Hdt. picked up this Eteokretan yarn there is no telling. It may have come to him already in writing (from a logograph, or from a poet). It is probably the same authority as underlies the λέγεται in c. 170, or is taken from it.

---

ἄλλους τε ἀνθρώπους καὶ μάλιστα Ἕλληνας: this would account for the presence of Pelasgoi and Achaians in the island: to Hdt. the Pelasgoi are nonHellenic (cp. 1. 57 f.), but the Achaians of course Hellenes (on Homericauthority). See further infra: ἀνθρώπους, without prejudice!

---

τρίτῃ δὲ γενεῇ μετὰ Μίνων τελευτήσαντα γίνεσθαι τὰ Τρωικά: we are here obviously in the presence of learned and rationalizing logography based on Homer. The generations are of course reckoned inclusively: Minos—Deukalion —Idomeneus (Il. 13. 449 ff.; cp. Diodor. 5. 79). The Trojan war is but some 60-70 years after the death of Minos: Minos is, to Hdt. as to Homer, the son of Zeus; cp. 3. 122.

---

οὐ φλαυροτάτους ... τιμωροὺς Μενέλεῳ: they furnished eighty black ships, Il. 2. 652; and what is more, Idomeneus and his squire Meriones (Il. 7. 165 f.) are among the bravest and most efficient warriors: cp. Il. 3. 230, 4. 250 ff., 5. 43, 13. 361 ff. (Ἰδομενεὺς άριστεύει), 16. 342 ff., 17. 605 ff., 23. 450 ff.

---

ἀπὸ τούτων δὲ ... προβάτοισι. The meaning of the first two words is not very clear; taken chronologically=μετὰ ταῦτα (cp. App. Crit.). In the Homeric tradition Idomeneus and his surviving men returned happily to Krete, Od. 3. 191 f.; and Diodoros (5. 79) has a tradition, fortified, or discredited, by a transparently fraudulent epigram, that Idomeneus and Meriones were buried in Knosos, and enjoyed heroic honours: though he contradicts himself by having made Meriones follow the first flight of Kretans to Sicily: 4. 79. Hdt. here seems to be acquainted with the rudiments at least of the saga, underlying Vergil, Aen. 3. 121-3, 400 f., which represented Idomeneus as expelled from Krete, after his return from Troy, and settling in Iapygia.

The cause of his expulsion is explained by Servins to have been a pestilence, which broke out in Krete in consequence of the immolation of his son to Poseidon, in fulfilment of a vow, to sacrifice the first thing that should meet him on landing. This is very märchenhaft; but Hdt. has the famine and pestilence.

---

τὸ δεύτερον ἐρημωθείσης Κρήτης: the migration of Minos himself is not reckoned by Hdt. as having entailed a devastation, or evacuation of Krete, though he does not assert that Minos went alone to Sicily. The first great loss of population is caused by the μἐγας στόλος for the purpose of avenging Minos; the second, by the famine and plague after the Return of Idomeneus. Hdt. does not clearly state that there was a fresh migration west, but at least he leaves the do<*>r open for it. The losses here fall upon an already Hellenic Krete.

μετὰ τῶν ὑπολοίπων τρίτους αὐτὴν νῦν νέμεσθαι Κρῆτας. These words contain a clear reference to the coming of the Dorians into Krete. Hdt. and his logographic authorities were of courae well aware that the Iliad nowhere recognized Dorians on the map of Greece, and that the Odyssey placed Dorians in Krete: 19. 172 ff. The Kretan ethnography of that passage relates itself to the Kretan history in Hdt. as follows. Minoan Krete is represented in Homer by Eteokretans and Kydonians, in Hdt. by Polichne and Praisos. The Pelasgoi and Achaians of Homer correspond to the ἄλλοι τε ἄνθρωποι καὶ μάλιστα Ἕλληνες whom Hdt. has introduced after the evacuation of the island by the avengers of Minos. And the Dorians come in as the ‘Kretans’ of the present day, who take a superior place among the remnants of the previous population (μετὰ τῶν ὑπολοίπων). Stein3's emendation spoils this last point, and destroys the article before Πυθίη (but cp. App. Crit.).

---

ὑπομνήσασα ταῦτα, ‘reminded them of these things’ (ὑπομνῆσαί τινά τι, frequent). Whether this Kretan story was to any extent manufactured in Delphi, who can say? The influence of Delphi upon Hellenic logography and historiography can never perhaps be worked out or verified in detail, but it must have been immense, not merely through the normal action of the oracle, and the nucleating effects of the offerings, but also owing to the stimulating and synthetic tendency of the periodic Agones or Panegyreis upon poets and historians; cp. Introduction, § 10.

ἔσχε, a strong ἔχειν, ‘stayed,’ ‘withheld’; cp. c. 169 1. 10 supra.