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

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ἀριστεύσας: cp. c. 73 ad init.

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διξοὺς λόγους λεγομένους ἔχει: sc. ὁ Σωφάνης: for λόγον ἔχειν (to be reported) cp. 5. 66. Stein suggests as the source of these ‘Marchen’ Skolia in honour of the popular Marathono- maches. (It is not expressly recorded that Sophanes was at Marathon, but he may certainly be credited therewith.) Such Skolia may have contained expressions or allusions, of which the διξοὶ λόγοι here reported are prosaic interpretations.

（a） According to the one, Sophanes used to carry, slung (δεδεμένην ἐκ) from the belt of his cuirass on a bronze chain, an iron auchor; this he would throw, when he approached the enemy (and it would, no doubt, stick in the ground), in such a way that the enemy could not make him budge, though they might charge him; then, when the adversaries were put to flight, his plan was to pick up his anchor and so be after them.

This is not a very credible story, and it is contradicted by the other.

（b) He had upon his shield an anchor as a device, or emblem; and his shield was in perpetual motion, never at rest. In which case there was a contrast between the man's emblem and his action.

It is possible that the latter and simpler story was at the root of the other, or that some jest on the anchor and its bearer generated the more prosaic and less credible interpretation.

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δέδοκτο: sc. αὐτῷ.

οὕτω: i.e. to take up his anchor before attempting to pursue.

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ἀμφισβατέων: cp. the subst. 8. 81.

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ἀτρεμιζούσης: the form ἀτρεμέειν 7. 8, 8. 68 supra; but ὰτρεμίζειν 7. 18. It must have been the man, not his shield, that was so restless. The Karians had the credit of such inventions; cp. 1. 171.