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Πύθιος ὁ Ἄτυος ἀνὴρ Λυδός. Urlichs (Rh. Mus. N. F. x. 26) first suggested that this man was a son of Atys, son of Kroisos, cp. 1. 34. The anecdote that follows is a tale often repeated, with additions or variants. Plutarch l.c. infra gives the name as Πυθής (cp. Steph. Byz. sub v. Πυθόπολις); a scholiast on Aristeid. Πυθέας. Pliny (33. 10) made the man a ‘Bithynian’; Basil Mag. calls him a ‘Mysian’ (cp. Baehr's note ad l.); Grote, <*> an obvious slip, a ‘Phrygian’ —perhaps as he awaited the king at Kelainai. (ὑποκατήμενος, not “lived in,” Rawlinson; cp. 8. 40 infra of a hostile position, at a distance from home.) The name is suggestive of the Delphic relations of the Mermnad house (and doubly suggestive in the city of Marsyas!). Stein regards Plutarch, Mor. 263 f., as only “a moralizing novelette,” but the representation of Pythios as (1) governor of a city, and (2) owner of gold mines, should not be dismissed as unhistorical (cp. Geltzer, “Zeitalter d. Gyges,” 2 Rh. Mus. xxxv. (1880); Radet, Lydie (1893), p. 82).
ἐπαλλέλλετο (mid.), ‘offered,’ ‘promised.’ Cp. c. 1 supra.
Περσέων τ. π., his immediate suite. Blakesley's note on Xerxes' question (the king knowing nothing of the donor's name, but familiar with his gifts), “beautifully characteristic of courtly selfishness,” hardly requires refutation; apart from all other arguments, is the question really authentic? is it more than a literary device or formula? (cp. 5. 105).
τῇ πλατανίστῳ τῇ χρυσέῃ καὶ τῇ ἀμπέλῳ: the gifts had been presented, perhaps, on the occasion of Dareios' visit to Sardcs in 512 B.C. (cp. Hdt. IV.-VI. App. IV. § 8). These objects must have been famous to pass into anecdote in this fashion, though but few Greeks in the time of Hdt. can have seen them. Urlichs (l.c. supra) supposes them to have been among the treasures of Kroisos; they were works of one or other Samian Theodoros, or at least the golden vine apparently was (ἄμπελος Ἀρταξέρξῃ (sic） χρυσῆ, Θεοδώρου Σαμίου ποίημα, ἄχρηστον ἔργον τρυφῶντος Μήδου κατὰ τῆς φύσεως, Photius, Biblioth. 612 H after Himerios). Athenaeus 12. 514 f. ἦν δ᾽ ἐν τῷ κοιτῶνι καὶ λιθοκόλλητος ἄμπελος χρυσῆ ὑπὲρ τῆς κλίνης (so far Chares of Mitylene). τὴν δὲ ἄμπελον ταύτην Ἀμύντας φησὶν ἐν τοῖς Σταθμοῖς καὶ βότρυας ἔχειν ἐ<*> τῶν πολυτελεστάτων ψήφων συντεθειμένους (not far off was a golden krater, a work of Theodoios the Samian). The vine was apparently a large object if it overshadowed the couch on which (Phylarchos said) the kings held audience (ἐχρημάτιζον: which Rawlinson humorously (?) translates ‘slept,’ Athenaeus, 12. 539). The bunches of grapes were represented by emeralds and carbuncles (ibid.). The plane-tree, on the other hand, was small (so Antiochos of Arcadia speaking sarcastically apud Xenoph. Hell. 7. 1. 38 τὴν ὑμνουμένην ἂν χρυσῆν πλάτανον οὐχ ἱκανὴν εἶναι ἔφη τέττιγι σκιὰν παρέχειν). The vine is last heard of authentically in possession of Antigonos in 316 B.C. (“αὐτὸς δὲ παραλαβὼν τὴν ἐν Σούσοις ἄκραν κατέλαβεν ἐν αὐτῇ τήν τε χρυσῆν ἀναδενδράδα καὶ πλῆθος ἄλλων κατασκευασμάτων” Diodor. 19. 48). Perhaps it went into the melting-pot then, with the plane-tree to boot.
τῶν ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν: mere conventionalism, whether uttered by Hdt. himself, or, as here, by the mouth of one of his dramatis personae; cp. c. 20.
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