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σιδηρίοισι: σιδήριον, a tool of iron, cp. 9. 37 infra, 3. 29, Thuc. 4. 4. 2. The order of words is very effeetive (θ. ς. ἐ. αὐτ. μ. τ. ὀ.). On putting out the eyes as an Oriental punishment vide Rawlinson iv.3 20, and especially Xen. Anab. 1. 9. 13. Grote iv. 110 regards the story here as a product of “religious imagination.” Thirlwall ii. 279 suspects “the influence and arts of the Magian priesthood”; Rawlinson endorses the latter suspicion, and suggests “a skilfully devised fraud on the part of the friends of Mardonios,” by which “a pretended spectre” subdued “the weak mind of Xerxes,” and “threats” the stronger mind of Artabanos. This exegesis is but misplaced ingenuity. Artabanos would, in such circumstances, have been shrewd enough to discover the plot. Dreams, apparitions, and the supernatural are a part of Hdt 's stock in trade. One might almost as well suspect the Ghost in Hamlet as a contrivance of Bernardo and Marcellus. The real motivation of the expedition does not require either the human or the superhuman device; cp. Introduction, § 11.
παριζόμενος Ξέρξῃ: the king must be conceived as passing the night in the chamber with Artabanos.
ὡς ... δεύτερα, ‘first he gave him a full account of the dream, and then . .’ speaks to him just in the sense of Hdt.; cp. 1. 5 τὰ γὰρ τὸ πάλαι μεγάλα ἦν κτλ. Artabanos, however, has no occasion to specify the rise of the lesser powers, though he as<*>ribes the fall of the greater to their agency.
τῇ ἡλικίῃ εἴκειν: cp. νεότης c. 13 supra, and 3. 36 μὴ πάντα ἡλικίῃ καὶ θυμῷ ἐπίτρεπε: in 5. 19 εἶκε τῇ ἡλικίῃ (age). Blakesley's censure on Baehr's comment here is overdone; the actual meaning of ἡλικίη varies with the context, or circumstances. Cp. for a difference 5. 71.
Μασσαγέτας ... Αἰθίοπας . . Σκύθας: the stock examples of disaster on a large scale. The first story is related 1. 201-216, the second 3. 17-25, the third 4. 1-144, more or less; and the problem of the order of composition presents itself. There is nothing in the reff. here to show whether Hdt. had or had not already written his accounts of these three expeditions. The phrase puts the presence of Artabanos iu the ‘Skythian’ campaign more clearly than c. 10 supra, or 4. 83, 143. Cp. Introduction, § 7. συστρατευσάμενος: συστρατευόμενος: the imperfect describes (schildert), the aorist narrates (erzahlt), Sitzler.
ἀτρεμίζοντά σε. in opposition to the ‘law of empire,’ c. 8 supra; the participle here equals a conditional. πρός, ‘in the eyes of . .’; a proximity still closer might be expressed by the dative (=coram). The element of opiuion is also conveyed by the predicative μακαριστός (as distinct from μάκαρ, μακάριος).
δαιμονίη τις γίνεται ὸρμή: the ὀρμή might be that experienced by Xerxes (cp. c. 19 infra ad init.), or might be more general and objective: ‘the powers above are on the move’; in either case the δαιμὁνιον is not here precisely contrasted with the θεῖον. Thrice at least A<*>tabanos is made to confess the divine (δαιμονίη ὁρμὴ ... φθορὴ θεήλατος ... τὰ ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ πεμπόμενα), yea, a fourth time recognises the god's lead (τοῦ θεοῦ παραδιδόντος). All this is doubtless the author's deviee to emphasize his own point.
ποίεε ... ὅκως ... ἐνδεήσει μηδέν: cp. c. 8 supra ἐφρόντιζον ὅκως μὴ λείψομαι.
ἐπαερθέντες: an ominous or sinister word; cp. c. 9 supra ἐπ. ἀβουλίῃ, 9. 49 ψυχρῇ νίκῃ.
ὑπερτίθεσθαι, ‘to lay before’ for the purpose of consultation; cp. 1. 107, 5. 24 et al.
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