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φασί: presumably the same authority as before; the φασί (bis) applies to his bon-mots; the λέγεται above, like the λέγοντα<*> here, to the ἀριστεῖα. Dienekes is called a Lakedaimonian here (in respect of his jests), a Spartiate above (in respect of his prowess): a distinction without a difference, for the two brothers who succeed him are ‘Lakedaimonians’; but if Hdt. has followed a separate source for the jests, that might explain the addition of τὸν Λακεδαιμόνιον. Perhaps the record of the ἀριστεῖα belongs to the original story of Thermopylai; and the jests of ‘Dienekes the Laked.’ are a later insertion, from a different source. Cp. Introd. § 9; Aristoph. Wasps 1084.
λέγονται: cp. λέγεται c. 226 supra.
Ἀλφεός τε καὶ Μάρων Ὀρσιφάντου παῖδες. They may have been of the 300; but perhaps they were not even full Spartiates—for a Periorkos might on occasion be allowed a patronymic. Alpheios is better known as a river than as a man; Maron is suggestive rather of wine than of water (cp. Homer, Od. 9. 197 ff.; Eurip. Kykl. 141, 412), and the word, or title, doubtless underlies the city-name of Μαρώνεια (c. 109 supra), famous for its wine. There was a cult of ‘Maron’ and ‘Alpheios’ in Sparta. Pausan. 3. 12. 7 “καὶ Μάρωνός ἐστιν ἱερὸν καὶ Ἀλφείου: Λακεδαιμονίων δὲ τῶν ἐς Θερμοπύλας στρατευσαμένων λόγου μάλιστα ἀξίως μαχέσασθαι μετά γε αὐτὸν δοκοῦσι Λεωνίδαν”. Dienekes has dropped out between Leonidas and these gallant brethren; or else Pausanias substitutes Leonidas for Dienekes. The cult does not necessarily discredit the historical personage (cp. the case of Brasidas, Thuc. 5. 11. 1, Aristot. Eth. N. 5. 7. 1= 1134 B). Orsiphantos, or Orsiphantes, the father's name, nowhere recurs, and has a somewhat hieratic flavour. ὀρσός is Lakonian for ὀρθός, Aristoph. Lys. 995.
εὐδοκίμεε seems to connote a less formal award than the άριστεῖα.
Διθύραμβος Ἁρματίδεω. Dithyrambos, son of Harmatides, was not the captain, or general of the Thespians (cp. c. 222 supra). Dithyrambos, as a proper name, is a little startling: it is primarily (like Μάρων) a title of Bakchos, cp. Eurip. Bakch. 526; it is secondarily a kind of poetry or melody (of which Arion was inventor, cp. 1. 23). This Thespian is the only human person to whom the name is given. His father (‘Wagoner’) may have been a musician —of the Dionysiac order (the dithyramb was always in the ‘Phrygian’ mode, and decidedly orgiastic: Aristot. Pol. 5 (8). 7. 9 f.=1342 A-B).
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