This text is part of:
ἀγχοῦ ἦσαν ... καὶ ἀπώρων: a parataxis. Apparently they never entered the sacred precincts, but just came within sight of the temple. They would have to come pretty near to be in sight, owing to the way in which the cliffs project on the road from Arachova. With ἀπώρων cp. ἀπιδόντες 9. 69.
ὁ προφήτης, τῷ οὔνομα ἦν Ἀκήρατος, see note previous chapter. The name is rare as a proper name, though common enough as an epithet, a fine one for a prophet or a priest (integer, pure, unmixed, undefiled).
ὁρᾷ: graphic present: πρό, very distinctly of place. The νηός here would denote the whole structure, including the peristyle. The arms would have been lying before the east front of the temple, in the open space on the terrace where now are the remains of the Altar of the Chians (see plan, Frazer v. 258).
τῶν οὐκ ὅσιον ἦν: they were ἀκίνητα; cp. c. 36 supra.
δ μὲν δὴ ἤιε: he was evidently in the temple precincts; the ‘sixty’ were elsewhere.
τὸ τέρας: a marvel, sign, in abstracto; cp. 6. 98 τέρας άνθρώποισι τῶν μελλόντων ἔσεσθαι κακῶν ἔφαινε ὸ Θεός. Down below τέρεα seems to be used in a slightly more concrete sense, of actual φάσματα, as certainly c. 27 supra, if the reading stand. Similar portents assured the courage of the Thebans before Leuktra: Xenophon, Hell. 6. 4. 7 ἀπηγγέλλετο δὲ καὶ ἐκ τῆς πόλεως αὐτοῖς ὡς οἵ τε νεῲ πάντες αὐτόματοι ἀνεῴγοντο, αἵ τε ἱέρειαι λέγοιεν ὡς νίκην οἱ θεοὶ φαίνοιεν. ἐκ δὲ τοῦ Ἡρακλείου καὶ τὰ ὅπλα ἔφασαν ἀφανῆ εἶναι, ὡς τοῦ Ἡρακλέους εἰς τὴν μάχην ἐξωρμημένου. Xenophon, who, though pious, is no friend to Thebes, adds: οἱ μὲν δή τινες λέγουσιν ὡς ταῦτα πάντα τεχνάσματα ἦν τῶν προεστηκότων.
κατά: of place; in the vicinity of, in a line with, over against. τὸ ἱρὸν τῆς Προναίης Ἀθηναίης. This temple has now been identified by M. Homolle, and excavated; see J.H.S. xxi. (1901) 347. It was the last of five buildings on the left of the road from Arachova to Delphi, which formed an important group, or row, outside the Pythian sanctuary itself, at a spot known as the Marmaria, halfway between the Logari and the gymnasium. The first of these buildings was in ruins at the time of Pausanias, the other four he mentions. The temple of Athene is now identified, not with the Rotunda or tholos (as by Laurent), but with a temple in antis, built of local limestone, the last of the five (πεντέλοιπος!) and therefore rightly πρόναιος, whieh agrees with the description of ps.- Demosth. Or. 25. 34 παρὰ τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι ἐν Δελφοῖς κάλλιστος καὶ μέγιστος νεὼς εύθὺς εἰσιόντι εἰς τὸ ἱερόν. That Προναία (cp. 1. 92, where the same temple is mentioned) is the official title of the goddess at Delphi is proved by inscriptions; albeit προνοία is a frequent variant, found apparently in Pausanias 10. 8. 7, and therefore followed by J. G. Frazer, Pausanias, v. 251.
θῶμα: a more generic term than τέρας, and probably more ‘subjective,’ or psychological, at least in ‘origin.’ Hdt.'s method of describing the portent, miracle, apparition, godsend—perhaps in close loyalty to his source—is remarkable, and suggests some antecedent challenge, doubt, discussion. (a) There is a crescendo, a climax, from τέρας to τέρεα ἔτι μέζονα, and so on. (b) Thrice is the exact locality of the apparition indicated, κατὰ τὸ ἱρὸν τῆς Προναίης Ἀθηναίης (bis), ἐν τῷ τεμενέι τ. Π. Ἀ. (c） His grammar becomes slightly disordered, as not infrequently, at moments of excitation: οἱ δὲ βάρβαροι ... ἐπιγίνεταί σφι. (d) He urges the case for marvelling the more: θῶμα μὲν γὰρ ... ἄξια θωμάσαι μάλιστα. (e) He adduces as evidence confirmatory of the miracle the stones still lying in the close of Athene. (f） He cites the Persians themselves as witnesses for ἄλλα θεῖα se. φάσματα, sc. θώματα sc. τέρεα. One cannot but admire the courage with which Delphi, when censured for its escape in the Persian war, knew how to defend itself. It is likely that the critique had been mainly an Athenian one; if so, Delphi called Athene Pronaia herself as chief witness for the defence, and Athene Pronaia, or Pronoia, was justified of her children. Cp. Appendix III. § 4.
δεύτερα, ‘next,’ but not inferior.
διὰ πάντων: in the whole catalogue (number, series) of . .; cp. 1. 25 of the krater of Glaukes the Chian, θέης ἄξιον διὰ πάντων τῶν ἐν Δελφοῖσι ἀναθημάτων. Also 7. 83 supra.
ἐν τούτῳ: sc. τῷ χρόνῳ. κεραυνοί: fulmina; thunderbolts, strictly material and massive (like the rocks themselves), and not the mere flashes of lightning (στεροπαί, fulgura） much less the mere crash or rumble of thunder (βρονταί, tonitrus). A thunderbolt can strike a ship: Od. 14. 305 “ἔμβαλε νηὶ κεραυνόν” etc.
δύο κορυφαί: not αἱ δ. κ. but simply two ‘peaks’ or pointed rocks; cp. τοῦ Παρνησοῦ τὰς κορυφάς c. 36 supra, which cannot be supposed to have fallen on the Persians.
βοή τε καὶ ἀλαλαγμός, ‘war-whoop and battle-cry’—a distinction without a difference: βοή is perhaps more generic. ἀλαλάζειν is to utter a specific cry, ἀλαλαί. Perhaps this is a cry of victory; cp. “νίκην ὀρμῶντα ἀλαλαξαι” Soph. Antig. 133. Pindar uses ἀλαλά (ἀλαλή) Nem. 3. 60, Isth. 6. (7.) 10, which L. & S. render ‘the cry with which battle was begun,’ and Rumpel (Lex. Pind. (1883) p. 25) clamor bellicus. Most remarkable is the personification Pindar Fr. 78 (225) κλῦθ̓ Ἀλαλὰ Πολεμοῦ θύγατερ. The words ἀλαλάζειν et cog. of course came to be used for any loud cry, shout, etc. ἐλελίζειν is to raise the cry ἐλελεῦ, a battle-cry still, but a thinner, shriller one than ἀλαλαί, while ὀλολύζειν—the cry ὀλολύ—is distinctly womanish: ὠλόλυξαν μὲν αἱ γυναῖκες, ἠλάλαξαν δὲ οἱ ἄνδρες Heliod. 3. 5. We cry the cry still in our borrowed Allelu-jah; but it is only the ‘Salvation Army’ which uses it as a ‘war-cry.’
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.