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οὕτω ἔχουσαν, i.e. τοιαύτην οὖσαν: a weak ἔχω, so to speak, repeated from c. 216 ad init.
τὸν Ἀσωπὸν διαβάντες. If they were ascending the whole gorge of the Asopos, from the bottom to the top (probably dry, or almost dry at that season, in spite of the recent storms!), they would not exactly ‘cross’ the Asopos, but quit the ravine, and take to the ascent on the left. The ‘crossing of the Asopos’ might suggest that instead of ascending the gorge, they had fetched a compass to the west at starting; cp. infra and note to c. 216 supra. In any case it is plain that Hdt. does not here write from autopsy, and even those who think that he saw Thermopylai have not the hardihood to take him round Anopaia.
τὰ Οἰταίων ... The ‘Oitaians’ meet us here for the first and last time in Hdt. In Thuc. 3. 92. 2, 3, they appear as neigh bours and enemies alike of the Trachinians and of the Dorians, of Doris (cp. Thuc. 8. 3. 1). They are not, properly speaking, to be identified with the Αἰνιᾶνες (Thuc. 5. 51. 1; cp. c. 132 supra), for Xenoph. Hell. 3. 5. 6 mentions them both, and τὸ κοινὸν τῶν Οἰταιέων appears side by side with τὸ κοινὸν τῶν Αἰνιάνων on inscriptions; cp. Bursian, i. 88. They are presumably to be placed on the higher ground of Oita, above the Spercheios, and on the upper course of the Asopos.
τὰ Τρηχινίων constitutes here a difficulty, as it seems to take the Persians away to the right, if they really mounted by the Asopos gorge. Was it perhaps to remove this difficulty, and to enable Hydarnes to cross the Asopos, that Pausanias (a close student and imitator of Hdt.) devised his pass διὰ τῆς Αἰνιάνων? Or is there not in this passage a dim suggestion that the Persians went, not by the Asopos-gorge, but by another route, ‘between Oita and Trachis.’ The difficulty is also movable by Leake's supposition that by ‘the Trachinian monntains’ Hdt. (i.e. his source or authority) understood Kallidromos itself (or a part of Kallidromos), which may in fact have been reckoned (on the sea side, I suppose) at that time to Trachis. But the accuracy of this designation is obviously doubtful. ἠώς τε ... καὶ οῖ . .: an effective parataxis, and demonstrative. ἐπ᾽ ἀκρωτηρίῳ τοῦ ὄρεος suggests rather ‘the top of the mountain’ than ‘the summit of the pass’ (L. & S. actually render it here ‘mountain-peak’). But Hdt. below (c. 218) has a higher height in reserve (τὸν κόρυμβον), and may here be given ‘the benefit of the doubt.’
ὡς καὶ πρότερόν μοι δεδήλωται: a reference back to c. 212; so too, just below, ὑπὸ τῶν εἰρημένων refers back to cc. 202, 208, 212 rather more vaguely.
ῥυόμενοί τε ... καὶ φρουρέοντες: they are not in their own country, but they may be said to be covering or defending it, the rather as the path by which the Persians advanced strikes, at Drakospilia, into a route across from Thermopylai (by Boudonitza, or Mendenitza) into the valley of the Kephisos: though perhaps Hdt. does not mean all that. ἡ κάτω ἐσβολή is of course the road by Thermopylai.
ἐθελονταὶ ... ὑποδεξάμενοι: the terms emphasize the responsibility, and doubly condemn the failure of the Phokians. They had volunteered for the post, and undertaken, or pledged themselves to defend it to the last. The point is stated, less circumstantially, in c. 212 supra.
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