This text is part of:
διεκρούσαντο: διακρούεσθαι (τὸ δοῦναι δίκην, etc.), a favourite word with Demosthenes. Rawlinson quotes the Scholiast to Thuc. 1. 136 as showing that the Greeks afterwards meditated punishing the Korkyreans but that Themistokles interposed and saved them. Plutarch, Them. 24, gives a more probable explanation of the εὐεργεσία, and αἰτιωμένων c. 168. 23 above, διεκρούσαντο here, do not necessarily imply that things went so far as the Scholiast supposed. Κρῆτες: a comprehensive term, primarily geographical; for the Homeric ethnology of Krete cp. Od. 19. 175 ff. (Achaians, Dorians, Pelasgoi, Kydonians, Eteokretans). Perhaps only the Dorian Kretans would have been applied to on this occasion (Lyktos, Gortyn, etc.); but if so, their answer reveals their complete adoption of the ‘Minoan’ associations, and their alienation from Hellas proper, and Peloponnese. The isolation of Krete during the ‘Hellenic’ period offers an extraordinary contrast to the prommence and importance of the island and its culture in Mykenaian or in ‘Minoan’ times. That the whole of Krete acted on this occasion as one state, or communion, is not credible; but apparently no Kretan city, of any race or origin, was officially represented on the Hellenic side in the Persian war; there may, however, be some ground for the statement in Ktesias 26 that archers were brought from Krete by advice of Themistokles and Aristeides.
παρελάμβανον: c. 168 supra.
ἡ δὲ Πυθίη ὑπεκρίνατο: (i.) the answer almost falls into iambic trimeters of its own accord: Μίνως ἔπεμψε μηνίων δακρύματα is one ready made; (ii.) the dialect appears to be preserved (Μενελάου, cp. App. Crit.). These observations throw suspicion upon the authenticity of the oracle. Stein admits the supposition that the response is a Kretan forgery: Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψευσταί. But would not a forger have forged in hexameters? Hdt. may here be following a poetic source, in which the real or supposed response to the eommon Kretan theoria at Delphi was recorded in iambics. Cp. Introduction, § 10. The material point of the alleged oracle is that Krete had already done more than its duty by Hellas: Kretans had taken part in the Trojan war on behalf of Menelaos, though Hellenes had taken no part with Krete in avenging the death of Minos in Sicily; and the wrath of Minos had already come upon them. The god does not give a direct answer, but with hitter irony adduces a precedent, the moral of which is evident.
ἐπιμέμφεσθε: conquerimini, Wesseling; ihr beschwert ench, Stein; “you are not content with,” Blakesley. ὅσα ... δακρύματα: “lacrimarum materiam, res illacrimabiles,” Baehr (cp. “sunt lacrimae rerum,” Verg.). ἐκ τῶν Μενελάου τιμωρημάτων, ‘consequent on the assistance (auxilia） ye lent to Menelaos’ (objective genitive). The reading is obviously right. Μίνως ἔπεμψε μηνίων: this metaphorical πέμπειν is found in Il. 15. 109, Aischyl. Eumenid. 203 ἔχρησα ποινὰς τοῦ πατρὸς πέμψαι (Apoll. loq.), and the other dramatists. The μῆνις of Minos would doubtless rank still higher than that of Talthybios, c. 134 supra.
οἳ μέν is rather vagne as it stands; in the original verses (οἳ μὲν γὰρ οὐ συνεξεπρήξαντ᾽) its connotation may have been clear from the context; here it may be referred to Ἕλληνες understood from τῇ Ἑλλάδι supra. The emendations of Cobet are brilliant but unconvincing. συνεξεπρήξαντο, ‘joined (you) in exacting vengeance for . .’ αὐτῷ might be the ethical dative (rather than with συν-, joined him . .); yet taken immediately with the verb it has a grandiose effect and a high animistic significance. In which case, too, the Kretans are, as it were, one with Minos.
τὸν ἐν Καμικῷ θάνατον γενόμενον: see next chapter. ἐκείνοισι: cp. οἳ μέν supra; not the mere ethical dative, certainly. The Kretans (under Idomeneus) brought 80 black ships to the Trojan war, B 645 ff., where of the hundred cities of Krete seven are named: Knosos, Gortyn, Lyktos, Miletos, Lykastos, Phaistos, Rhytion.
τὴν γυναῖκα: cp. 5. 94 ὅσοι Ἑλλήνων συνεπρήξαντο Μενέλεῳ τὰς Ἑλένης ἁρπαγάς.
ἔσχοντο τῆς τιμωρίης: “ab auxilio ferendo abstinuerunt,” Baehr; the strong ἔχειν, cp. c. 171 infra, and middle (not passive) force: ‘restrained them from assisting,’ ‘held them off helping,’ ‘withheld their aid.’
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.