The history of Herodotus Volume II Part 19

83 [ {tukous}, which appears to mean ordinarily a tool for stone-cutting.]

84 [ {mitresi}, perhaps "turbans."]

85 [ {kithonas}: there is some probability in the suggestion of {kitarias} here, for we should expect mention of a head-covering, and the word {kitaris} (which is explained to mean the same as {tiara}), is quoted by Pollux as occurring in Herodotus.]

86 [ {kithonas}.]

87 [ {drepana}, "reaping-hooks," cp. v. 112.]

88 [ See i. 171.]

89 [ {Pelasgoi Aigialees}.]

90 [ {kerkouroi}.]

91 [ {makra}: some MSS. and editions have {smikra}, "small."]

92 [ Or "Mapen."]

93 [ Or "Seldomos."]

94 [ {metopedon}.]

95 [ {me oentes arthmioi}. This is generally taken to mean, "unless they were of one mind together"; but that would very much weaken the force of the remark, and {arthmios} elsewhere is the opposite of {polemios}, cp.

vi. 83 and ix. 9, 37: Xerxes professes enmity only against those who had refused to give the tokens of submission.]

96 [ {men mounoisi}: these words are omitted in some good MSS., and {mounoisi} has perhaps been introduced from the preceding sentence. The thing referred to in {touto} is the power of fighting in single combat with many at once, which Demaratos is supposed to have claimed for the whole community of the Spartans.]

97 [ {stergein malista}.]

98 [ {oudamoi ko}.]

99 [ Or, "Strauos."]

100 [ Or, "Compsatos."]

101 [ {tas epeirotidas polis}: it is not clear why these are thus distinguished. Stein suggests {Thasion tas epeirotidas polis}, cp.

ch. [Footnote 118; and if that be the true reading {ion} is probably a remnant of {Thasion} after {khoras}.]

102 [ Or, "Pistiros."]

103 [ {oi propheteountes}, i.e. those who interpret the utterances of the Oracle, cp. viii. 36.]

104 [ {promantis}.]

105 [ {kai ouden poikiloteron}, an expression of which the meaning is not quite clear; perhaps "and the oracles are not at all more obscure,"

cp. Eur. Phoen. 470 and Hel. 711 (quoted by Bahr).]

106 [ "Ennea Hodoi."]

107 [ Cp. iii. 84.]

108 [ The "royal cubit" is about 20 inches; the {daktulos}, "finger's breadth," is rather less than inch.]

109 [ Or, "Cape Canastraion."]

110 [ Or "Echeidoros": so it is usually called, but not by any MS. here, and by a few only in ch. 127.]

111 [ {pro mesogaian tamnon tes odou}: cp. iv. 12 and ix. 89.]

112 [ Cp. ch. 6 and 174: but it does not appear that the Aleuadai, of whom Xerxes is here speaking, ever thought of resistance, and perhaps {gnosimakheontes} means, "when they submitted without resistance."]

113 [ Some MSS. have {Ainienes} for {Enienes}.]

114 [ {dekateusai}: there is sufficient authority for this rendering of {dekateuein}, and it seems better here than to understand the word to refer only to a "t.i.thing" of goods.]

115 [ {es to barathron}, the place of execution at Athens.]

116 [ "undesirable thing."]

117 [ {ouk ex isou}: i.e. it is one-sided, because the speaker has had experience of only one of the alternatives.]

118 [ Cp. ch. 143 (end), and viii. 62.]

119 [ {teikheon kithones}, a poetical expression, quoted perhaps from some oracle; and if so, {kithon} may here have the Epic sense of a "coat of mail," equivalent to {th.o.r.ex} in i. 181: see ch. 61, note 56.]

120 [ {to megaron}.]

121 [ The form of address changes abruptly to the singular number, referring to the Athenian people.]

122 [ {azela}, probably for {aionla}, which has been proposed as a correction: or possibly "wretched."]

123 [ {oxus Ares}.]

124 [ i.e. a.s.syrian, cp. ch. 63.]

125 [ {min}, i.e. the city, to which belong the head, feet, and body which have been mentioned.]

126 [ {kakois d' epikidnate thumon}: this might perhaps mean (as it is taken by several Editors), "show a courageous soul in your troubles,"

but that would hardly suit with the discouraging tone of the context.]

127 [ {onax}, cp. iv. 15.]

128 [ {ouros}: the word might of course be for {oros}, "mountain," and {Kekropos ouros} would then mean the Acropolis (so it is understood by Stein and others), but the combination with Kithairon makes it probable that the reference is to the boundaries of Attica, and this seems more in accordance with the reference to it in viii. 53.]

129 [ {Demeteros}.]

130 [ {sustas}, "having been joined" cp. viii. 142.]