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

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ὁλκάδων: not speeified in c. 186, but mentioned in c. 25 supra. It was on them, and their like, not on the battle-ships, that the losses in this storm really or chiefly fell: it was they which the storm caught μεταρσίας e. 188 supra; for at this stage in the advance they were in the rear of the fighting lines, ep. e. 183 supra, and may have been eoming on from Therme during the night.

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ὥστε. Stein has observed that the anecdote of Ameinokles (c. 190) is a later insertion, and that this sentence originally followed in its place, after ἄφθονον. Cp. Introduction, § 9. On this use of ὥστε ep. e. 118 supra.

οἱ στρατηγοὶ τ. ν. στ.: cp. e. 97 supra.

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οἱ Θεσσαλοί: notwithstanding their undivided and simple medism, c. 174 supra! The word is here used perhaps in a narrow sense; cp. c. 172.

περιεβάλοντο, in a strictly material sense. The reeurrence of the word, especially with a change of meaning, confirms the view that the anecdote of Ameinokles above is an insertion, though such inelegancies are not infrequent with Hdt Cp. c. 190 1. 7.

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ἡμέρας γὰρ δὴ ἐχείμαζε τρεῖς: sc. ὁ θεός, or perhaps in a purely impersonal construction. χειμάζειν in a different sense 8. 133 (following the usage of χεῖμα). The ‘three days’ in this ease are not merely conventional (as might be inferred from Aristot. Prob. 26. 9= 941A) but an important and unconscious synchronism, taking its constitutive place in the Diary of ArtemisionThermopylai; cp. Appendix V. § 4.

ἔντομα ποιεῦντες: ep. 2. 119. The terminology is proper to the Ritual of the Dead, the propitiation is offered to the Wind; ep. e. 178 supra.

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καταείδοντες γόησι has been a erux to the commentators, variously rendered or removed. So “laying the wind by means of chants of sorcerers,” Blakesley; “charming them with the help of conjurors” (!) Rawlinson; γόησι ‘per praestigiatores’ is a rendering strongly condemned by Baehr on three grounds: (i.) Hdt. would hardly use a simple dative for that; (ii.) still less, with another dative, τῷ ἀνέμῳ; (iii.) γόης 2. 33, 4. 105 comes to much the same as μάγος. He therefore reads γοῇσι ‘ineantationibus’; Wesseling preferred γόοισι ‘sacro ululatu’! Reiske suggested χοῇσι, which would fit in exquisitely with ἔντομα, and with the necromancy of the Winds (cp. c. 178 supra), but hardly suits ἀείδοντες or καταεἰδοντες. Madvig's βοῆ̣σι endorsed by Holder sounds comic. Stein suggests ἐπῳδῇσι, but the reading is not strong, and the corruptela remote. I venture to suggest that we are in presence of a gloss: <*>er οἱ Μάγοι is the gloss (the subject being found in οἱ στρατηγοί), or γόησι is itself the gloss, the glossator having written it in the ethical dative, for the benefit of experts or dupes. (Van Herwerden seems to incline to this opinion.)

τῷ ἀνέμῳ: sc. τῷ Ἀπηλιώτῃ or Ἑλλησποντίῃ (c. 188). The construction is not regular, verbs compounded with κατα- taking as a rule the accusative or genitive of the remoter object; but the following cases are more or less parallel: καταγελάσαι ἡμῖν c. 9 supra; οὐ παρεόντι κατηγορέων c. 10 supra; τοῖσι μὲν κατεκέκριτο θάνατος c. 146 supra; ὀνείδεα κατιόντα ἀνθρώπῳ c. 160 supra; κατηγέεσθαι with dat. cc. 183 supra, 215 infra; τοῖσι κατεδόκεον 9. 99: cp. also τοῖσι Λακεδαιμονίοισι κατέσκηψε c. 137 supra; κατὰ ... κέχυται ὀρόφοισι c. 140 supra, ap. orac. Also τῷ ἡλίῳ καταρῶνται 4. 184, τῆ̣ μητρὶ κατικέτευε 6. 68, ete. The ‘ethical’ dat. will perhaps account for some cases.

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τῇ Θέτι καὶ τῇσι Νηρηίσι, as to gods (θύοντες). The reason for this θυσίη is given just below: they learned from ‘the Ionians’ that Thetis was an enchorial divinity, and that they were on the scene of her abduction by Peleus (ἐκ τοῦ χώρου τούτου predicative). That is a λόγος to Hdt. as much as the story of the storm itself. By ‘the Ionians’ Hdt. probably means the Ionians on the fleet (and not Dorians, or ‘Aiolians,’ who might have been the best authorities of all). With Thetis, Peleus, the Nereides, we step within the circle of Homeric, or Homero-Hesiodic theogony (cp. 2. 53). Thetis in Homer is a goddess united to a mortal Peleus, and the Mater dolorosa of Achilles; but the union does not appear there to have been effected by ἁρπαγή: Hera sanctions it, and the gods all attend the weddingfeast, Il. 24. 59 ff. Was the story told by the ‘Ionians’ to the Persians different in that respect (and more like the myth of Boreas and Oreithyia)? The Nereids, if not Thetis herself, seem to represent the calmer and more gracious aspects of the sea. On the Homeric points see Buehholz, Hom. Realien iii.a 246-56.

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ἢ ἄλλως κως αὐτὸς ἐθέλων ἐκόπασε. As the Greeks had been praying to the Winds to intervene in their favour (c. 178 supra), Hdt. only means to express a doubt as to the efficacy of the Persian sacrifices and incantations, and on this occasion. There is nothing naturalistic, or scientifie, in his scepticism, for in the very expression of it he manifests an intensely anthropomorphic idea of the natural phenomenon (αὐτὸς ἐθέλων). Longinus, l.c. c. 188 supra, censured the use of the word ἐκόπασε. Cp. S. Matth. 14. 32.

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εἴη τε κτλ., ‘was (the property, haunt, etc.) of that goddess and her sister Nereids.’ Cp. Il. 18. 35 ff., where their dwelling is in a cave under the sea, παρὰ πατρὶ γέροντι: cp. 1. 357 ff., which, however, need hardly be located ‘halfway’ twixt Samos and Imbros' on the strength of 24. 77 ff., nor, in any case, prevent the dedication of Sepias to the said divinities.