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Μουρυχίδην ἄνδρα Ἑλλησπόντιον. The proper name appears in Attic as Μορυχίδης and Μυριχίδης; cp. Μορυχίων and Μόρυχος, a tragic poet, the butt of sundry Aristophanic gibes (Acharn. 887, Wasps 506, 1142, Peace 1008). Μόρυχος was also an epithet of Dionysos, ‘in Sicily,’ his face ‘soiled’ with wine-lees (cp. μορύσσειν). and there was a proverb μωρότερος Μορύχου or Μωρύχου (Photius, Lex., et al.). This Hellespontine with his proposals was surely ‘a son of the foul fiend’ to Athens! There is a want of precision about his habitat; Ἑλλησπόντιοι have, indeed, been mentioned collectively as furnishing 100 ships to the Persian fleet (7. 95), and an anonymous ‘Hellespontian’ is credited with a crude remark, 7. 56; was this Morychides the man? How does a ‘Hellespontine’ come to be with Mardonios? Was he the nearest thing to an ‘Ionian,’ or an Athenian, that the Persian could employ? Was he perhaps an ex-Athenian Kleruch? φέροντα τοὺς αὐτοὺς λόγους κτλ.: cp. 8. 140. Some of the λόγοι would suit the present situation better than the former; e.g. the order from the king τὴν γῆν σφι ἀπόδος κτλ., which have a direct bearing on Mardonios' fiery message ὅτι ἔχοι Ἀθήνας c. 3 supra. φέροντα is but slightly metaphorical; indeed, if the λόγοι were in writing (a despatch), not even slightly. διεπόρθμευσε is very highly metaphorical, though less highly if the Athenians had already been in Salamis when ‘Alexauder the Makedonian’ visited them. The word is elsewhere by Hdt. always used of actually crossing water; cp. 8. 130 supra, 1. 205, 4. 141, 5. 52.
τὸ δεύτερον: cp. c. 3 supra.
προέχων μὲν τῶν Ἀθηναίων οὐ φιλίας γνώμας, ‘though already in possession of the hostile mind (or resolutions) of the Athenians’ (against himself). This simple use of προ- in comp. (= πρότερον, so Wesseling) is observable; cp. προοφειλομένη in 5. 82. Blakesley somewhat perversely takes προέχων as ‘putting forward.’ φίλιος (λόγος) 7. 163, and in the comparative 7. 151.
ὑπήσειν τῆς ἀγνωμοσύνης: the verb used intrans. as in 1. 156 ὑπεὶς τῆς ὀργῆς (cp. also 7. 162 supra abs.): in the middle vid. 2. 121, 4. 181. The substantive as in c. 3 supra; here used from Mardonios' point of view (ἐλπίζων, not, by the way, ‘hoping,’ but ‘expecting’). δοριαλώτου, as in 8. 74 supra.
ἐούσης ὑπ᾽ ἑωυτῷ: the preposition with the dat. is no doubt very strong, but the participle, especially in repetition, is rather thin; it would be strengthened by omission the first time. Cp. App. Crit.
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