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

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ἐς Πέρσας ἔχειν, ‘to apply to the Persians’; cp. 6. 19.

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ἐς Ἰλλυριούς τε καὶ τὸν Ἐγχελέων στρατὸν οἶδα πεποιημένον, ‘I know to have been composed (in verse) with reference to Illyrians, that is to say, the Enchelean host.’ ‘Encheleus’ was apparently (according to Appian, Illyr. 2) the eldest son of Illyrios. The ‘Encheleis’ are mentioned 5. 61 as a folk among whom the ‘Kadmeians’ took refuge when driven out of Thebes by the Argives, ‘in the days of Laodamas son of Eteokles.’ Pausanias too (9. 5. 3） represents Kadmos himself as having retired to dwell among the Illyrian tribe of Encheleans, leaving the Theban throne to his son Polydoros. Strabo 326 places the Ἐγχέλειοι, οὓς καὶ Σεσαρηθίους καλοῦσι, in the Hinterland of Epidamnos and Apollonia, and adds that ἐν τοῖς Ἐγχελείοις οἱ Κάδμου καὶ Ἁρμονίας ἀπόγονοι ἦρχον καὶ τὰ μυθευόμενα περὶ αὐτῶν ἐκεῖ δείκνυται. Apollodoros (3. 5. 4) gives the story of Kadmos. The ‘Encheleis’ were at war with the ‘Illyrians,’ and had an oracular promise of victory if they took Kadmos and Harmonia as leaders: they obeyed and obtained victory. Subsequently, however, Kadmos and Harmonia were metamorphosed into serpents. This is the story utilized by Euripides, where he shows acquaintance with the oracle as interpreted by Hdt. in this place; cp. Bakchai (ed. Sandys) 1330-1339. For οἶδα here see below.

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τὰ μὲν Βάκιδι: sc. ἔπη. On Bakis cp. 8. 20. The μέν here has no corresponding δέ. So too ταῦτα μέν just below.

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ταύτην τὴν μάχην is curious, as it apparently refers to the battle of Plataia, still to come.

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λεχεποίῃ of the Asopos is Homeric: Il. 4. 383.

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σύνοδον: cp. c. 27 supra.

ἰυγή is a rare word, found also ap. Soph. Philok. 741; cp. verb ἰύζειν Tr. 784. The Homeric form is ἰυγμός, Il. 18. 572.

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ὑπὲρ λάχεσίν τε μόρον τε, ‘beyond what destiny and fate decree.’— ‘Lachesis’ does not appear in Homer; but ὑπὲρ μόρον is Homeric, Od. 1. 34.

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α<*>σιμον ἦμαρ: Homerum quoque redolet, Baehr; cp. Il. 8. 72, etc.

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Μουσαίῳ: cp. 7. 6 supra.

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οἶδα: cp. l. 3 supra. The two are remarkable, the rather as they hardly refer to exactly the same kind of knowledge. Had Hdt. in his hands a MS. copy of the poems and prophecies of Musaios, or whence his assurance of personal knowledge in this case? His assertion that the prediction (said to have been) referred by Mardonios to the Persians in truth referred not to them but to the Encheleians is a question of interpretation. Here we may suppose an antecedent visit to Delphi, and even the correction of a previous error. This chapter has many marks of being an insertion, an interpolation if from the author's own hand, then not as part of the first or original draft of the work; cp. Introduction, § 9. Two further points are of special interest in regard to the λόγιον. (1) It is an ‘unfulfilled’ prophecy; a prophecy, indeed, designed to defeat its own fulfilment. (2) It exhibits the possibility and the practice of transferring predictions from one event to another as might suit.

ὁ δὲ Θερμώδων κτλ.: the geographical gloss is added to explain the name in the oraole above. On the river cp. c. 27 supra. Plutarch (Dem. 19, cp. Theseus 27) shows that the ‘Sibylline’ verse τῆς ἐπὶ Θερμώδοντι μάχης ἀπάνευθε γενοίμην could be interpreted of the battle of Chaironeia, in 338 B.C. On Tanagra cp. c. 15 supra.

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Γλίσαντος. Glisas appears in the Catalogue (Il. 2. 504) in one line with Plataia. Its ruins are placed by Pausanias (9. 19. 2) off the road from Thebes to Chalkis, seven stades to the north of Teumesos, under Mount Hypatos. It was famous as the scene of a battle between the Argives, i.e. Epigonoi, and the Thebans (1. 44. 4 etc.). Pausanias names the Thermodon beside it. Cp. Strabo 412 Γλίσσαντα δὲ λέγει κατοικίαν ἐν τῷ Υπάτῳ ὄρει ... πλήσιον Τευμησσοῦ . . ᾧ ὑποπίπτει τὸ Ἀόνιον καλούμενον πεδίον.