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Ξέρξης δέ: the narrative resumed from c. 103 supra; the story of Hermotimos, though a digression, is hardly an insertion: it will have belonged to the earliest deposits in Hdt.'s memory and knowledge.
διαλέγειν, secernere, to divide the ‘sheep and the goats’; cp. c. 113 infra τοῖσι εἴδεα ὑπῆρχε διαλέγων. ποιέειν τοῖσι λόγοισι τὰ ἔργα πειρώμενον ὅμοια: πειρώμενον, a limitation; si fieri posset, Stein. Or, ‘so far as in him lay.’
ταύτην μὲν τὴν ἡμέρην. Is this merely a conventional turn, or does Hdt. use it with conscious design? No change of day has been noticed since the dawn in c. 83 supra. On that showing, the day here is the day of battle, and the night is the night of that very day. There seems no reason to doubt this result, though it suggests that the battle was over long before nightfall (perhaps before noon?) ἐς τοσοῦτο ἐγίνετο: things went no further; ἐγίνετο, impers, as in c. 6 supra.
οἱ στρατηγοί, the admirals; cp. c. 75 supra. ἐκ τοῦ Φαλήρου ... ἐς τὸν Ἑλλήσποντον: from out the bay of Phaleron into the Hellespont—from which they had oome (ὀπίσω). Did they go direct, or all round by the route they had come by? They apparently reached the Hellespont, cp. c. 117 infra.
ὡς τάχεος εἶχε ἕκαστος, ‘each one as fast as he could . .’ The picture presented is of a shattered fleet streaming across the sea in a sauve qui peut style.
διαφυλαξούσας ... βασιλέι, “infinitivum πορευθῆναι nescio quid durius habere videtur,” Baehr. διαφ. βας. ὠ̔στε αὐτὸν πορευθῆναι, Schweighaeuser. Perhaps πορευθῆναι is rather an exegetical, or even a telic infinitive after διαφυλαξούσας, and βασιλέι a purely ethical dative (so B.). Stein cps. 4. 64 χλαίνας ἐπείνυσθαι ποιεῦσι, and καταβάλλειν 7. 25 supra (a less exact parallel).
Ζωστῆρος. Strabo 398 describes it as a large promontory, next the deme of Aixone. It is certainly identified with the three-headed promontory, near the modern Vari. Pausanias 1. 31. 1 mentions that there was an altar there Ἀθηνᾶς καὶ Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ Ἀρτέμιδος καὶ Λητοῦς, and explams the name: τεκεῖν μὲν οὖν Λητὼ τοὺς παῖδας ἐνταῦθα οὔ φασι. λύσασθαι δὲ τὸν ζωστῆρα ὡς τεξομένην, καὶ τῷ χωρίῳ διὰ τοῦτο γενέσθαι τὸ ὄνομα. The promontory might perhaps be considered like a ζωστήρ in appearance.
ἄκραι λεπταὶ τῆς ἠπείρου ταύτης: is ταύτης merely graphic = ταύτῃ, or is Hdt. writing as in Europe? Stein cps. 7. 201, which does not settle the point. Zoster itself is a large promontory; but its three headlands may be referred to as ἄκραι λεπταί. Rawlinson, however, remarks that “it is not very likely they could have been mistaken by the Persians (sic) for ships.” Theophrastus Charact. 25 has ὁ δειλὸς τοιοῦτός τις οἷος πλέων τὰς ἄκρας φάσκειν ἡμιολίας εἶναι.
ἐπὶ πολλόν, of space, as in 2. 32, not of time, as in 2. 119.
συλλεχθέντες: passive in form, middle in force. ἐκομίζοντο, ‘they continued their voyage’; cp. ἐκομίζετο c. 118 infra.
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