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ταύτην μὲν τὴν ἡμἐρην. Much more than a day mnst have passed since the arrival at Abydos, c. 44 supra; the expression is little more than a device to emphasize the morrow.
ἀνέμενον: they must have becn early astir to await the sunrise. The importance of the snn and the sunrise for the Persians (cp. 3. 84-87, the accession legend of Dareios) seems to square very ill with the mantic principle laid down by the Magi, c. 37 supra.
πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον, ‘with his face towards the sun,’ facing the sun; an orientalism which, as Canon Blakesley observes, has passed into Christian ritual, probably as a direct bequest of sunworship; see his interesting note 174 ad l. (Sitzler takes εὔχεσθαι πρός together: not so well). θυμιήματα παντοῖα would also have been used in Hellenic worship; Stein cps. Aristoph. Wasps 860 ff., but the σπονδαί of Xerxes would have been Haoma, not wine; so 1. 132 οὐ σπονδῆ̣ χρέωνται (Stein). On spreading ‘myrtle’ in the road cp. 8. 99 and S. Matt. xxi. 8.
παύσει καταστρέψασθαι: “παύειν with infin.=κωλύειν with mid. and pass. Hdt. (like the Attic writers) uses participle” (Sitzler). Cp. 5. 67.
γένηται, with negative οὐ πρότερον (πρὶν) ἤ. Hdt. uses the snbjunctive without ἄν (e.g. 9. 86, 87, 93); as there is here no negative γενέσθαι would be correct, but is diverted in order to avoid clashing with καταστρέψασθαι (Stein) and also, presumably, with γενέσθαι just before. Sitzler says there is a negative present in μηδεμίαν οἱ συντυχίην—is not the negative which affects γένηται really implied in παύσει? As Xerxes cannot be supposed to place Hellas ἐπὶ τέρμασι τοῖσι Εὐρώπης, ‘Europe’ is here given as the objective of the expedition; not indeed the ‘Europe’ of Hdt.'s geo. graphy, or later geography, but a more conventional (and Persian) Europe. Cp. note to c. 50 supra.
Περσικὸν ξίφος τὸν ἀκινάκην καλέουσι, taken for a ‘scimitar’ (Krumme Sa<*>bel) in O. Schrader, Reallexikon d. indog. Altert. (1901), p. 751, but erroneously; cp. my note to 4. 62, and Rawlinson's here; nor is the etymology of the word attempted by Schrader. The ‘Persian ξίφος’ is not, however, a long sword, bnt a dagger (cp. 3. 78). Pollux, 1. 138, gives a description (ξιφίδιόν τι τῷ μηρῷ προσηρτημένον) quite in accordance with the monumental representations; cp. c. 61 infra. The Persian word akinakes is here explained, and then naturally taken as understood in 8. 120, 9. 80, and equally so in 3. 118, 128, and 4. 62—an observation which supports the hypothesis that Bks. 7-9 are the earliest composition of Hdt. Cp. Introd. §§ 7-8, and App. Crit. ταῦτα οὐκ ἔχω ἀτρεκέως διακρῖναι. What Hdt. cannot decide is whether the gold cup, the Persian akinakes, and the gold bowl were offerings to the Sun or atonements to the Sea. The very similar offerings of Alexander at the mouth of the Indus were distinctly to propitiate Poseidon: Arrian Anab. 6. 19. 5 ἐνταῦθα ταύρους τε σφάξας τῷ Ποσειδῶνι ἀφῆκεν ἐς τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ σπείσας ἐπὶ τῇ θυσίᾳ τήν τε φιάλην, χρυσῆν οὖσαν, καὶ κρατῆρας χρυσοῦς ἐνέβαλλεν ἐς τὸν πόντον χαριστήρια, εὐχόμενος σῶόν οἱ παραπέμψαι τὸν στρατὸν τὸν ναυτικόν κτλ., but there was a long voyage then in view. Alexander had, however, apparently offered similar sacrifice on crossing the Hellespont; Arrian, Anab. 1. 11. 6.
οὔτε εἰ: how throwing things into the sea could be taken as offering them to the sun is not clear. Both πέλαγος and θάλασσα (bis) are here used of the Hellespont. There is an implicit reference back to c. 35 supra in the second alternative here propounded (in which the second εἰ=ἤ).
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