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

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Πέρσαι μέν, answered by Μῆδοι δέ in c. 62.

ὧδε ἐσκευασμένοι: there follows a description of the Persian, or rather Median, dress and eqnipments, which had once been snch a fearsome sight for Greek eyes (6. 112), more fnlly and systematically (head, body, legs) described here than in 5. 49: a difference which is at least consistent with the earlier composition of this passage.

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τιάρας καλεομένους πἰλους ἀπαγέας. The first two words look rather like a gloss: κυρβασίας is the word in 5. 49, bnt τὸν τιάραν occnrs 1. 132, πίλους τιάρας 3. 12, and τιήρῃ χρυσοπάστῳ 8. 120 infra. τιάρα, τιάρας (τιήρης), apparently a Persian (Median?) word for a Persian (Median) thing, bnt can hardly have been a ‘tnrban’ (L. & S. sub v. πῖλος) as we understand the word. πῖλος is ‘felt’ in name and nature. ἀπαγής (πήγνυμι) ‘not fixed, not stiffened,’ i.e. ‘soft,’ or perhaps ‘hanging,’ in contrast to κυρβασίαι ἐς ὀξὺ ἀπηγμέναι ὀρθαὶ πεπηγυῖαι c. 64 infra, the king alone wearing the point of his Fez npright, Xen. Anab. 2. 5. 23; Arrian, Anab. 3. 25. 3 (ἤγγελλον) Βῆσσον τήν τε τιάραν ὀρθὴν ἔχειν καὶ τὴν Περσικὴν στολὴν φοροῦντα Ἀρταξέρξην τε καλεῖσθαι ἀντὶ Βήσσου καὶ βασιλέα φάσκειν εἶναι τῆς Ἀσίας. Cp. the mosaic in Naples Museum of the so-called ‘Battle of Issus’ (Baumeister, Denkmaeler, ii. 873, Tafel xxi.).

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κιθῶνας χειριδωτοὺς ποικίλους, ‘embroidered tunics with sleeves’ just such as represented on the frieze from Susa, now in the Louvre.

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Some words must have fallen out from the description which follows: cp. App. Crit. In 9. 22 infra Masistios wears ἐντὸς θώρηκα χρύσεον λεπιδωτόν and over that κιθῶνα φοινίκεον. (In 2. 68 the crocodile is λεπιδωτός.)

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ἀναξυρίδας. The Median ‘trews’ (cp. 5. 49), Baehr states (note to 1. 70), were wider, ampler, those worn by Skyths and other nomads of tighter make, and the Persians (he adds) preferred the latter. They were wide enough above to have pockets apparently; cp. 3. 87 τὴν χεῖρα κρύψας ἐν τῆ̣σι ἀναξυρίσι.

ἀντὶ δὲ ἀσπίδων γέρρα: the word γέρρα is freely used by Hdt. (throughout Bk. 9, as here) without explanation. The ‘wickers,’ ‘hurdles,’ or ‘basketwork’ shields were in fact familiar to Greeks; and the word was current in Athens (at least in the time of Demosthenes) for hurdles used in the marketplace; cp. the celebrated description de Cor. 169. (L. & S. appear to regard the word as pure Greek, connecting it with εἴρω.)

ὑπὸ δέ. Blakesley thinks the quiver (φαρετρεών = φαρέτρη) was hung to the interior of the shield itself; Stein that as the γέρρον was carried slung at the back it generally covered the quiver. This view is borne out by the Susan frieze (Maspero iii. 516).

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αἰχμὰς βραχέας, presumably for throwing? The spears of the Guard (as represented l.c.) are somewhat higher than the bearers (7. 6), but they perhaps were not meant to be thrown away; the bow and arrow was doubtless the characteristic weapon of the bulk of the army of further Asia. Cp. Appendix II. § 5.

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ἐγχειρίδια, the before-mentioned περσικὸν ξίφος τὸν ἀκινάκην καλέουσι c. 54 supra. Greeks carried such weapons on the left side (slung from right shoulder: so on reliefs, etc.).

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παραιωρεύμενα, an uncommon word, perhaps from Hdt.'s source. The simple verb occurs c. 92 infra, 8. 100.

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Ὀτάνεα τὸν Ἀμήστριος πατέρα. It is curious that no patronymic is given; cp. c. 40 supra; but from the fact that his daughter is principal wife of the king, it may be argued that he is identical with Otanes son of Pharnaspes, one of the Seven, 3. 68-72. Ktesias Pers. 20 gives the name of the father of ‘Amistris’ as Onophas. Of this lady such things are related c. 114 infra and 9. 108-112 as place her in no very amiable light. She was the mother of Artaxerxes, Ktes. Pers. 20. Ktesias relates other brutality of her, §§ 42, 43, and her death κάρτα γραῦς γενομένη. Cp. c. 114 infra.

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Κηφῆνες: Strabo 42 οἱ δὲ πλάττοντες Ἐρεμβοὺς ἴδιόν τι ἔθνος Αἰθιοπικὸν καὶ ἄλλο Κηφήνων καὶ τρίτον Πυγμαίων καὶ ἄλλα μυρία ἦττον ἂν πιστεύοιντο, πρὸς τῷ μὴ άξιοπίστῳ καὶ σύγχυσίν τινα ἐμφαίνοντες τοῦ μυθικοῦ καὶ ἱστορικοῦ σχήματος. The ‘Kephenes’ are here not in very good company. Andromeda is the daughter of Kepheus (c. 150 infra), and the ‘Kephenes’ are no doubt (as with Ovid, Metamorph. 5. 1, 97) the followers of Kepheus (or Kepheus is eponym of the Kephenes, irregularly, for why not Kepheioi, or Kephen?). Further items in the mythical pedigree are set forth c. 150 infra, 6. 53, 54 (cp. my notes ad ll.) and 1. 7. The pedigree here assumed does not, however, expressly contradict that in 1. 7 (as Stein suggests) but rather that in 6. 53. Rawlinson can discern “no ray of truth in the fables respecting Perseus”; Blakesley observes that Hdt. is here drawing “not from Persian but from Greek sources” (Hekataios? cp. Introduction, § 10). Stein well explains all Hdt. means as being that the Kephenes known to old Greek story are to be identified with the people now known as Persians. Kepheus, however, certainly does not represent ‘Assyria’ (Ninos) any more than Babylonia (Belos): but why not the primitive, pre-Phoenician inhabitants of Canaan? (or Elam?) Steph. B. sub v. Ἰόπη has οἱ Ἔλληνες κακῶς φασιν: ἀφ᾽ οὖ Κηφῆνες οἱ Αἰθίοπες (i.e. ‘eastern Aethiopians’): again, sub v. Χαλδαῖοι: οἱ πρὸτερον Κηφῆνες. The authority for this was Hellanikos, in the first Book of his Persica, who thus differed from Hdt. on the point.

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Ἀρταῖοι has a genuine ring about it, from its obvious connexion with arta —which appears in many Persian names: Artaios itself as a proper name cc. 22 supra, 66, 117 infra, and in the Ktesian list of Median kings (cp. Gilmore, Ktesias, p. 92). The most valuable gloss on the name is in Steph. Byz. Ἀρταῖα: Περσικὴ χώρα, τὴν ἐπόλισε Περσεύς (sic), ὸ Περσὲως καὶ Ἀνδρομέδας: Ἑλλάνικος ἐν Περσικῶν πρώτῃ. οἱ οἰκοῦντες Ἀρταῖοι. Ἀρταίοὺς δὲ Πέρσαι ὤσπερ οι<*> Ἔλληνες τοὺς παλαιοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἥρωας καλοῦσι, κτλ. This article shows a source common to Hdt. and Hellanikos. Rawlinson's “most probable account” of the word, connecting it with Afarti, “which is not an Arian name at all,” seems far-fetched. Ed. Meyer (ap. Pauly-Wissowa ii. 1303) sees in it a distortion of the ‘Arian’ name itself.

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ἔσχε, ‘had to wife.’

αὐτοῦ, ‘on the spot’: but where was it? The Perseus-Andromeda myth laid the scene in Phoenicia (Steph. B. sub v. Ἰόπη), or perhaps in Babylon (Hellanikos?). The vagueness here is necessary, Hdt. not having courage to lay the scene actually in Persia.