NOTES ON HERODOTUS. CLIO. BOOK I. 'Toropins ȧwódekis] In presenting to the public these researches. 'Axoδείκνυμι conveys more than συγγράφειν ; it is taken in the sense of presenting to the public, giving to the public. 'Ioropin, in Herodotus, does not signify a History, but the result of researches carefully made. The word bears the former signification only with writers much later than Herodotus. Thus the 18th Ode in the works of Anacreon cannot be from the pen of that author; for in the 9th verse we find pevкròv ioróînμa an odious history. This commencement of Herodotus is found in the Rhetoric of Aristotle; but it has been unfaithfully rendered by the Latin Translator, as also by Cassandre, who translated it into French. In other respects, the way in which Herodotus opens his account is exceedingly simple; which, indeed, is the case with most of the ancient authors. Hecatæus of Miletus, an historian antecedent to Herodotus, commences his History in a similar manner : "I write these things according to my own impression of the truth; for the opinions of the Greeks differ widely, and, in my opinion, are highly absurd." Ι. Περσέων μέν νυν οἱ λόγιοι] Those Persians who were best learned in History. Aéyos often signifies, both with Herodotus and other writers, a History; λoyowoιòs, an Historian; λóycos, a man deeply read in the history and antiquities of his country. This word has not been properly understood in Josephus. Καίτοιγε ἐπιτιμήσαιμ' ἂν αὐτὸς δια καίως τοῖς ̔Ελλήνων λογίοις, ο " I might justly reproach the Greek Historians." The Latin translator has ill rendered "Græcorum disertos merito increpaverim," as also Father Gilet, who followed him, "I might, I think, justly reproach those amongst the Greeks who pride themselves on their eloquence." There is no question of eloquence in this passage, but of historical information. Hesychius also has it, λόγιος, ὁ τῆς ἱστορίας ἔμπειρος : " " λόγιος, one who is learned in Hisó tory." Gronovius's note on the 2nd Book of Herodotus, § III. p. 88. may likewise be consulted; and more especially that of the late Mr. Wesseling on Diodorus Siculus, B. 11. § IV. p. 116. note 35. ̓Απὸ τῆς Ἐρυθρής καλεομένης θαλάσσης, κ. τ. λ.] Being come from the borders of the sea of Erythrea, &c. When Herodotus first mentions any people, he almost invariably goes back to their origin. He here informs us, that the Phoenicians were inhabiting the coast of the Red Sea before their establishment in the country, called after them Phoenicia. But as this sea is very extensive, what part of its coast shall we assign them? This appears to me involved in very great uncertainty; but I here mention what appears to me the most probable. The Homerites, a people of Arabia, whose name in Arabic bears the same signification as Phoenician in Greek, lived on the borders of the sea, which took its name from them. This nation increasing, peopled a larger and a larger extent of coast; and we find near Hippos, a port of the Gulf of Ailath or Ælana, a town called Phoenicum oppidum, or the City of the Phoenicians. The Greeks had so called it, for the same reason that they gave the name of Phoenicians to the Homerites who were transported to the borders of the Mediterranean. From this town to the Phoenician coast is a distance of about 300 leagues; but this in no respect detracts from the probability of my conjecture. Some authors will have it that the Phoenicians came from the Persian Gulf; and Strabo reports this opinion, without confirming it. Yet, in another place, where he quotes a verse of Homer, which mentions the Sidonians, he adds, "It is not certain, whether these Sidonians must be understood to be those who inhabited the shores of the Persian Gulf, of which ours are a colony." But even if we should agree to fix upon that spot, the distance from this Gulf to the Mediterranean is not so great, but that they might have traversed it by land. Dionysius Periegetes is of the same opinion as Herodotus." "The Syrians," says he, "who live on the sea-coast, and who are called Phoenicians, derive their origin from the Erythreans. They were the first people who attempted to cross the sea in ships." We also find from Hesychius, that there were Phoenicians on the Hesych. voc. Ayios, Vol. ii. p. 493. 905. See also the Commentary of Eusta Id. lib. xvi. p. 1131. A. B. borders of the Red Sea. See also Eustathius in his Commentary on Homer." This fact, thus well attested, nevertheless has not appeared the less fictitious to Voltaire. "What," he asks, "does the Father of History mean by the observation at the beginning of his work? The Persian historians assert that the Phoenicians were the authors of all wars. From the Red Sea, they entered into ours.' It would seem that the Phoenicians had embarked at the Gulf of Suez, that, arrived at the Straits of Babel-Mandel, they had coasted along Ethiopia, passed the line, doubled the Cape of Storms, since called the Cape of Good Hope, passed up again between Africa and America, repassed the line, and entered from the Ocean into the Mediterranean sea by the Pillars of Hercules; which would have been a voyage of more than four thousand of our sea-leagues, at a time when navigation was in its infancy." A slight knowledge of the Greek language would have spared this critic the trouble of these remarks. If Herodotus had meant to show that the Phoenicians went by sea, he would have said, 'Amɩkoμévovs eis τήνδε τὴν θάλασσαν, instead of ἐπί. Nor would he have proceeded to observe, that immediately after their settling on the borders of the Mediterranean, they had applied themselves to long maritime voyages, as they would previously have accomplished one of much more terrific length, than any which they afterwards undertook. But if a doubt remained on the subject, the same Historian, speaking more pointedly in another place, would be sufficient to remove it. "These Phoenicians," says he," formerly inhabited the borders of the Red Sea, as they themselves say; but having travelled from thence to the maritime parts of Syria, they there established themselves." "Eveurev irepßárres, which I have rendered 'having passed from thence,' (étant passés de là,) gives the idea of a country which is traversed, mountains which are climbed, but never of the sea; at least I have found no instance of it either in Herodotus or elsewhere. Ἐκ δὲ τῆς Κολχίδος οὐ πολλὸν ὑπερβῆναι ἐς τὴν Μηδικὴν, ἀλλὰ ἂν τὸ διὰ μέσου ἔθνος αὐτῶν éorì, Zámɛipes." "From Colchis to Media is no great distance. Between the two, the nation of the Sapirians only intervenes, and that passed, we enter the territory of Media." Strabo always employs the word in speaking of a mountainous country: Ἡ ἐπὶ τὴν Κασπίαν vrépẞarts," it is the passage from Colchis to the Caspian Sea." Dion • Eust. ad Homeri Odyss. lib. iv. Vol. iii. p. 1484. lin. 33. et seq. Volt. Quest. sur l'Encyclopédie, Part. iv. p. 310. • Herodot. lib. vii. sect. lxxxix. Strab. lib. ii. p. 122. A. Cassius has also, ἐπεὶ δὲ τόν τε Αἷμον ὑπερέβησαν; “ “ when they had crossed Mount Hemus." It is quite clear, therefore, from this passage in the 7th Book, that Herodotus makes the Phoenicians to have travelled by land, and not by sea. I may repeat, that this is by no means at variance with probability; for, as I have before observed, the distance from Phoenicum oppidum, on the Red Sea, to the Phoe nician coast, is only from two to three hundred leagues. Απαγινέοντας δὴ φορτία, κ. τ. λ.] And that they transported. Lycophron pretends that these Phoenicians were from the town of Carnea. "For ever perish," says he, "those dogs of Carnites, those first sailors, those wolfish merchants, who carrying off from the shores of Lerna the girl with the heifer's face, and taking her to the Prince of Memphis for a bribe, lighted the torch of discord between two Continents!" The Greek has it, 'raised the torch of hatred between two Continents.' It is universally known, that prior to the invention of trumpets, persons dedicated to Mars, in both armies, advanced in front of the ranks, with a lighted torch in their hands, and gave the signal for the combat, by letting it fall; they were then allowed by both parties to retire behind the ranks. The two Continents here mentioned, are Asia and Europe. Пpоeixer ärασι TV K. T. λ.] All those of the country. I am not desirous of loading this work with mere grammatical notes, except when they appear necessary to a right understanding of the text, as the generality of readers would be but little interested by them. I cannot however refrain from remarking, that in this phrase, poεἶχεν ἅπασι τῶν ἐν τῇ Ελλάδι, τῶν is necessarily governed by ἅπασι. Пloλéwv being understood in connexion with TV, as Eustathius proves in verse 419 of Dionysius Periegetes, the same word must consequently be understood with aware. If no other editor has made this remark, it is perhaps because such minutiae were scarcely worth occupying the attention of a beginner; and I should have been careful to avoid this error, had not a certain learned man, whose name it is not proper to mention, suspected Gronovius of a want of accuracy, because he had translated: " omnibus civitatibus..... antecellebat." 'Ev tỷ vũr 'Edλádi] Of Greece. The Greek has Hellas.' Thucydides says the same, B. 1. § II. "the country now called Hellas." The whole country, in the time of Herodotus, called Hellas or Greece, was known, previous to the Trojan war, and even long after p. 657. a Dion Cassius, lib. li. sect. xxiii. Vol. i. "Apyos ToÛTO TроEÎXÉ TOTE tâv ¿v tỷî “EAλádi xwpą moλéwv. Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. p. 76. col. 1. lin. ult. Lycoph. Cassand. vers. 1291. wards, only by the name of the different people who inhabited it, Homer speaks of the Danai, of the Argivi, of the Achivi, &c. but he never applies a general or collective name to the Greeks in a body. Some of the lesser people of Thessalia were called Hellenes, from Hellen, son of Deucalion. Other little states in the same country, having invoked his aid, took his name, which being communicated from one to another, became, at length, extended to the whole nation. See Thucydides, Book 1. § 111. 'Iour Thy 'Iváxov] Daughter of Inachus. This appears to have been added by a copyist. It mattered very little whether Io were the daughter of Inachus or of Iasus. All that the historians of Persia knew of her was, that she was the daughter of the king of Argos. Herodotus, a little further on, expresses himself in the same manner; he does not name the father of Europa, nor that of Medea. VALCKENAER. WESSELING. See my Essay on Chronology, chap. x. § 11. p. 313. Κατὰ πρύμνην.] Near the poop. Κατὰ πρύμνην τῆς νηὸς does not mean on the poop, but towards the poop, or near the poop. If these women had been on board the vessel, how could they have fled? The Latin translator has been mistaken. Zur aλλŋow åряаσñva] And other women with them. In the Greek, it is our äλλnow, with others.' It is useful to remark the propriety of the article in the original. If Herodotus had used the definite article, it would have appeared that all the women who had accompanied Io, to purchase merchandise, had been carried off; but the use of the indefinite article in the Greek, renders the sense as clear as our modern languages could have expressed it, and certainly gives to that language a great advantage over the Latin. T II. Aéyovσi Пépraι ovк is Doivikes] The Persians, in this, agree but ill with the Phænicians. I have followed the reading of Aldus, which is to be found likewise in the margin of the Greek edition of Henry Stephens, 1570, in a manuscript in the library of St. Mark, and in the English versions: in all the other editions it is, ook ŮS “EλAŋves, ' in that, agreeing ill with the Greeks;' but it should seem, that Herodotus records but two opinions on the subject of carrying off Io, that of the Persians, and that of the Phoenicians. He says, § v. 'the Persians and the Phoenicians thus relate it,' without mentioning the Greeks. At the commencement of the same paragraph, we have, Such is the way in which the Persians relate this event...... but with respect to Io, the Phoenicians do not agree with them.' There is no mention of the Greeks either in this place, nor was it necessary. The manner in which lo had been carried off was a matter so well known in Greece, that it was scarcely worth while to relate it. |
