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

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ἤχθοντο ὡς ἐκπεφευγότων: sc. τῶν βαρβάρων. The construction is not quite regular; cp. 8. 109 ἐκπεφευγότων περιημέκτεον.

ἀπορίῃ τε εἴχοντο ὅ τι ποιέωσι, ‘were in doubt (at a loss) what to do’; the agendum is conceived of as future, the antecedent imperfect notwithstanding, hence the subjunctives. Three courses were open to them: (i.) to return to Delos, (ii.) to steer for the Hellespont, (iii.) to follow the Persians to the maiuland at Mykale. The first is merely a logical alternative; the second might have drawn the Persian fleet after them, but was obviously rather speculative. The third course was under the circumstances the obvious one to take, and hardly required very much deliberation, especially if, as appears, they were still counting upon a sea-engagement. The ἐπίπλοος is distinctly militant and hostile: ἐπὶ τὴν ἤπειρον. The actual πλόος is merely geographical, ἐπὶ τῆς Μυκάλης.

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ἀποβάθραι reappear in Thuc. 4. 12. 1 as ‘landing-gangways’; here they must have been intended in the first instance for boarding the Persian ships.

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ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀγχοῦ τε ... καὶ οὐδείς . .: a common form of parataxis; cp. 8. 37. ἐπαναγόμενος, ‘putting out to sea against them.’ παρακεκριμένον, cp. 8. 70. 2: in acie stantem, Baehr. ἐγχρίμψας, a not uncommon word with Hdt. and elsewhere transitive; cp. 2. 60 τὴν βάριν τῇ γῇ, also 2. 93, 3. 85, 4. 113.

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ὑπὸ κήρυκος, ‘by the voice of a herald,’ instrumental; but not quite parallel with ὑπὸ μαστίγων 7. 22, 56.

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τοῖσι Ἴωσι, who probably furnished and manned the major part, if not the whole, of the Persian fleet on this occasion, the Epibatai excepted; cp. c. 97 supra.

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ἐπεὰν συμμίσγωμεν: Hdt. characteristically makes nothing of the determination of the Greeks to effect a landing. They had advanced against the mainland only in the expectation of fighting a ναυμαχίη. The resolution to force a landing in the actual presence of a hostile force, in possession of the shore, is far more remarkable. This was more than the Persians themselves had attempted at Marathon, and certainly more than they could have effected. The Persians at Mykale were in a position to dispute the attempted landing of the Greeks (cp. the situation at Pylos in 425 B.C., Thucyd. 4. 11 ff.), and their failure to do so is best explained by their distrust of the Ionians. συμμίσγειν, as in 8. 22 12, 4. 127, 6. 14, etc, of hostile encounter.

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τινὰ χρή: cp. 8. 109. 19 καί τις οἰκίην κτλ.

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τοῦ συνθήματος Ἥβης: σύνθημα is any preconcerted signal (cp. 8. 7. 10), or even the mere prearrangement itself (cp. 5. 75 ἀπὸ συνθήματος, 6. 121 ἐκς.). Here it is the ‘password’ (Ἥβης in apposition). Why Ἥβη should have been the mot d'ordre is not self-evident: there was no apparent local association to suggest it, but it need not be changed into Ἤρης, out of compliment to the Samians. Hebe is, indeed, in attendance upon Here, Iliad 5. 721 f., and on Ares, ib. 905, and in Hesiod, Theog. 922, 952, is daughter of Zeus and Here (and sister of Ares). Moreover, she is the bride of Herakles in heaven, Od. 11. 603, and so might well have charms for a Herakleid on earth. μετὰ δέ is, of course, adverbial: the genitives are regular, with μεμνῆσθαι, cp. 8. 62. 9 (but the accus. is found 7. 18. 9, 10).

τάδε ἴστω καὶ ὁ μὴ ἀκούσας ὑμέων: there is something of the nature of an Irish ‘bull’ in this imperative; but Leotychidas means ὁ ἀκούσας, not ὁ μὴ ἀκούσας, to act on the suggestion, and to pass the word.

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ὡυτὸς δὲ ... τοῖσι Ἕλλησι. The passage is clumsy in expression, and particular words are scarcely correct. Stein5 now brackets the whole as a gloss, or imitation of 8. 22 supra; presumably after Krueger.

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νόος: cp. 7. 162 and c. 120 infra, notwithstanding which, the co-ordina tion here of νόος τοῦ πρήγματος or κηρύγματος and ὁ Θεμιστοκλέος (νόος) is a little manqué. So, too, ἔπειτα ἀνενειχθέντα as a reproduction of ἐπείτε ἀνενειχθῇ 8. 22 is poor, and ἀπίστους active, for the passive there, very suspicious. τυγχάνει should be ἐτύγχανε (Krueger). οὗτος might better be τούτου. Cp. App. Crit.; prodit interpolatorem sermonis imperitia, van H.