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

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τέρας ... μέγα: as the thing is a physical impossibility the story is an obvious fiction, and Xerxes stands acquitted of neglecting the divine warning. It is not clear how far Hdt. designed a contrast between this anecdote and the one immediately preceding; but he seemingly regards this as the more authentic of the two (λέγεται supra).

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ἐν οὐδενὶ λ. ἐποιήσατο, c. 14 supra.

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εὐσύμβλητον, Aischyl. Prom. 775, who also uses εὐσύμβολος in the same sense (easy of interpretation); cp. συμβάλλω III. 2 L. & S.

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ἀγαυρότατα, a noticeable word =γαῦρος with α- euphon. (L. & S.) or rather intens. (Stein): from the root γαϝ or γαυ-; cp. L. & S. sub v. γαίω. The verb γαυριᾶν is used of a horse prancing, Xenoph. de re Eq. 10. 16; ἀγαυρός of a bull bellowing. Hesiod, Theog. 832; γαῦρος in Attic, but rarely if ever in a good sense.

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περὶ ἑωυτοῦ τρέχων, like the hare, running for his life: the metaphor more explicitly put 8. 102 infra: πολλοὺς πολλάκις ἀγῶνας δραμέονται περὶ σφέων αὐτῶν οἱ Ἔλληνες, and 8. 74, 140, 9. 37.

ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν χῶρον, ‘to the place from which he had set out’ (not merelv the place where the portent occurred?) But ought not the portent to have occurred, like the next reported, at Sardes?

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ἕτερον ... τέρας, not quite so clear either in statement or in interpretation: the arrangement described by Hdt. (κατύπερθε δὲ ἦν τὰ τοῦ ἔρσενος) is not easy to visnalise; and though the portent might indicate the inferiority of the weaker, who was to decide beforehand which side that was? Cp. 8, 136, where Mardonios still expected κατύπερθέ οἱ τὰ πρήγματα ἔσεσθαι τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν. This portent, too, looks like an ex eventu.

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ὁ πεζὸς στρατός, clearly inclnding the cavalry, = ὁ κατ᾽ ἤπειρον στρατός c. 58.

FROM SESTOS TO DORISKOS.