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

---

---

ἄλλος ὅδε λόγος λεγόμενος, ‘another story is told, to the following effect . .’ The formula does not prove that the variant had not been reduced to writing (cp. Introduction, § 10). If it had been merely an oral tradition perhaps Hdt. would not have been at such pains to refute it.

---

Ἠιόνα τὴν ἐπὶ Στρυμόνι: cp. 7. 25.

---

ὁδοιπορίῃσι: of journeys by land; the plural perhaps only idiomatic or rhetorical (like ἀβουλίῃσι c. 97 supra). Cp. 3. 52 ἀλουσίῃσί τε καὶ ἀσιτίῃσι, which Stein regards as Homeric.

---

Ὑδάρνεϊ: cp. c. 113 supra. This story coheres with that anecdote, and is contradicted by the story (probably truer) of Artabazos c. 126 infra, though Hdt. misses this argument.

ἐπὶ νεὸς Φοινίσσης: of course; cp. 7. 128 supra.

---

ἄνεμον Στρυμονίην. It was

πνοιαὶ δ᾽ ἀπὸ Στρυμόνος μολοῦσαι

κακόσχολοι, νήστιδες, δύσορμοι,

that detained the fleet of Agamemnon at Aulis (Aischyl. Ag. 192 f.). Cp. Aristotle, de vent. ς 973 B Θρᾳκίας κατὰ μὲν Θρᾴκην Στρυμονίας, πνεῖ γὰρ ἀπὸ τοῦ Στρυμόνος ποταμοῦ. (It does not, however, figure on the octagonal ‘Tower of the Winds’ in Athens.) Baehr considers it equivalent to Boreas. ‘Strymonian’ is presumably a purely geographical expression. Hdt. has suddenly changed into orat. obliq. after having started with ὡς and the recta, as in c. 111 supra.

---

χειμαίνεσθαι, cp. c. 113 supra, seems to be a poetical word, an observation not contravened by its (metaphorical) use in Aristotle, Poet. 17. 3. It is not quite plain whether the construction here is transitive (passive) or intransitive (neuter); and if transitive, whether τὴν νέα or τὸν βασιλέα should be understood as subject.

---

διαδεξάτω ... κηδόμενος, ‘may prove his care of . .’; cp. 3. 72 δεικνύσθω ἐνθαῦτα ἐὼν πολέμιος. With the τις cp. c. 109 supra.

---

ἐν ὑμῖν: cp. c. 60 supra.

---

προσκυνέοντας: cp. 7. 136 supra. That even in this supreme hour the forms of Persian court etiquette are not omitted is a touch not so much of verisimilitude as of humour.

---

ψυχήν: 7. 39 supra.

---

ἀποταμεῖν τὴν κεφαλήν: on beheading, 7. 35 supra; did he wear the crown at his execution? The anecdote illustrates the despot's cowardice and caprice, and the ludicrous loyalty of his subjects; it is a part of the comic Nemesis, though a trifle grim.