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

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ἐν δὲ Πλαταιῇσι, ‘to return to Plataia,’ the name of the city for the land; cp. c 16 supra. Even so, there may be an inaccuracy. The actual scene of the Persian repulse was perhaps rather in the confines of Hysiai than in the land of Plataia proper; though the position occupied at the Androkrateion and Gargaphia had no doubt been ἐν τῇ Πλαταιίδι, cp. c. 25 supra.

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ἐτράποντο Baehr takes as imperf. passive, but renders in fugam conversi sunt; Stein (more accurately) in fugam vertebantur.

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οὐδένα κόσμον: cp. 8. 117. The Persians may have advanced originally in good order; not so, however, the rest of the βαρβαρικὰ τέλη, cp. c. 59 supra.

τὸ στρατόπεδον τὸ ἑωυτῶν appears to be distinguishable from τὸ τεῖχος τὸ ξύλινον to this extent, that the στρατόπεδον was considerably larger than the τεῖχος, cp. c. 15 supra. But Stein's theory that the τεῖχος was on the sonth side of the Asopos and the στρατόπεδον on the north side of the Asopos, and (apparently) quite distinct and separate, is hardly satisfactory. The distinction between the στρατόπεδον and the τεῖχος is perfectly sound and intelligible, even if both were on the same side of the river and locally continuous with each other; it is a distinction analogous to that between ἡ πόλις and τὸ ἄστυ. Again, the addition of the words τὸ ἐποιήσαντο ἐν μοίρῃ τῇ Θηβαίδι cannot possibly mean that the τεῖχος was on Theban territory while the στρατόπεδον was not! And if that were the meaning, then the στρατόπεδον would have to be placed south of the river, and the τεῖχος north, whereas Stein places the τεῖχος south, and the στρατόπεδον north.

In my opinion the camp (στρατόπεδον） and the fort (τεῖχος) were continnous; the camp was on the left (north) bank of the Asopos, along the road from Erythrai to Thebes; the fortified portion of the camp may have been projected across the river on to the south bank, so that a part of the river flowed right through the fortification, or at least a tête de pont may have been fortified to the south of the river on the said road. This τεῖχος was an ἔρυμα to the στρατός in any case, and a κρησφύγετον in case of disaster; cp. c. 15 supra. It probably contained the quarters of all the combatants, and assuredly of the Persians and picked troops.

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ἐν μοίρῃ τῇ Θηβαΐδι: μοῖρα here is as strictly topical as it ever can be; cp. 8. 23 τῆς Ἑλλοπίης μοίρης γῆς δὲ τῆς Ιστιαιήτιδος τὰς παραθαλασσίας χώρας πάσας ἐπέδραμον, 5. 57 οἴκεον δὲ τῆς χώρης ταύτης (sc. τῆς γῆς τῆς νῦν Βοιωτίης καλεομένης) ἀπολαχόντες τὴν Ταναγρικὴν μοῖραν. There is nothing to iestrict the word here to one side of the Asopos, least of all the south side. ἡ Θηβαιὶς μοῖρα is all the portion of Boiotia in the dominion of Thebes; it cannot be distinguished from ἡ Θηβαὶς γῆ nor from οἱ τῶν Θηβαίων χῶροι (cp. c. 15 supra). But, at least as against Plataia and Hysiai, the Asopos was its boundary, 6. 108.

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θῶμα δέ μοι: the cause of this marvel Hdt. explains just below as a direct divine interposition to bring about the given result. On the supposition that the Demetrion in question is marked by the church of St. Demetrion Dr. Grundy explains the fact by the lie of the ground: the Persians in rushing back to their laager and camp would naturally avoid the delay of climbing up the hill, on the top of which the Demetrion was sitnate, and would naturally rush along the lower slopes and stream valleys (A4, A5) either side the ‘Long Ridge.’ This plansible suggestion remains equally valid whether the routed fugitives were mounted or on foot. But it is possible that Mardonios himself had occupied this hill during the battle, in order to survey the action; and Hdt. (or his source) would have had small excuse for wonder if the area had not been within the field of battle. At an earlier stage in the proceedings the Demetrion may have been held by the Spartans (Amompharetos? cp. c. 53 supra). Hdt. does not say that no Greeks fought or fell within the enclosure. See also next note.

τῆς Δήμητρος τὸ ἄλσος: this grove (cp. 7. 197) is a new feature in the Herodotean landscape and may very suitably be imagined growing round the church of St. Demetrion, upon the hilltop, which is of decidedly conical formation. Hdt. apparently conceives this point as the very centre and stress of the fight, as οἱ πλεῖστοι, sc. τῶν Περσέων, fell in the immediat <*>icinity of the Holy Place, though up<*> unconsecrated ground (ἐν τῷ βεβήλῳ, <*> Thuc. 4. 97. 3). As the Persians are <*>e in flight the slaughter among the<*> may well have been great, but we <*> scarcely feel quite sure that the ca<*> of the Persians was quite as Hdt. rep<*>s, no doubt bona fide; the statement<*>s so exactly what would afterwards have been believed and said ad maiorem Deae gloriam.

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δοκέω δέ: an expression of uncertainty; cp. οὐ δοκέω 7. 186, and δόκησιν δὲ δεῖ λέγειν 7. 185—a proceeding unobjectionable in purely human matters, such as the number of the Persian forces, but perhaps not advisable περὶ τῶν θείων πρηγμάτων. This reserve is not an expression of incredulity on Hdt.'s part, but seems to arise rather from a belief in the vindictive nature of the gods, and an apprehension that such speculations might be visited with a nemesis: οὐ γὰρ ἐᾷ φρονέειν μέγα ὁ θεὸς ἄλλον ἢ ἑωυτόν 7. 10.

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σφεας οὐκ ἐδέκετο, ‘rejected them,’ refused them entrance. δέκεσθαι, sc. as ἱκέτας, or ἐπὶ ξεινίῃ. Would the Greeks have spared the lives of any Persians found in the Holy Place, or simply have taken them out and slain them ἐν τῷ βεβήλῳ? Hdt. does not go so far as to say that Demeter interfered directly to procure the victory of the Greeks, any more than Hera, c. 61 supra. The story of the war is comparatively free from the miracle manifest, apart from the Delphic apology (8. 35 ff.). Cp. Introduction, § 11.

ἐμπρήσαντας ... τὸ ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι: this outrage has not been expressly recorded before; cp. cc. 13, 14 supra. Mardonios has put the saddle on the wrong horse, c. 42 supra. It is not clear whether the destruction at Eleusis was in 480 B.C. (8. 50), or in the present year (c. 14 supra). Baehr defends both ἱρόν and ἀνάκτορον in this passage. Valckenaer had condemned τὸ ἱρόν, Bredow ἀνάκτορον. Hdt. nowhere else uses the word. Euripides applies it to (1) Delphic temple of Apollo, Andr. 1157; (2) Tauric temple of Artemis, Iph. T. 41, 66; (3) Trojan temples, Troad. 15: Pausanias, 2. 14. 4, of a part of the Demetrion at Keleai, near Phleiûs. In Athenaeus first, apparently, we get the word used with a special or restricted reference to Eleusis: 213 τὸ σεμνὸν ἀνάκτορον τοῖν θεοῖν, cp. 167. Dr. Frazer has suggested that it designated the Great Hall of Initiation (τὸ τελεστήριον), cp. n. to Pausan. l.c. But Pollux, 1. 9, still has ἀνάκτορον (seemingly as an adj.) for the ἄδυτον or any χωρίον ἄβατον τοῦ ἱεροῦ, i.e. of any temple. ἀνάκτορον is, of course, the house of the ἄναξ (or ἄνασσα).