Herodotus, Histories 1.24.7 · 1.24.7
Periander holds an inquiry
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Περίανδρον δὲ ὑπὸ ἀπιστίης Ἀρίονα μὲν ἐν φυλακῇ ἔχειν οὐδαμῇ μετιέντα, ἀνακῶς δὲ ἔχειν τῶν πορθμέων. ὡς δὲ ἄρα παρεῖναι αὐτούς, κληθέντας ἱστορέεσθαι εἴ τι λέγοιεν περὶ Ἀρίονος. φαμένων δὲ ἐκείνων ὡς εἴη τε σῶς περὶ Ἰταλίην καί μιν εὖ πρήσσοντα λίποιεν ἐν Τάραντι, ἐπιφανῆναί σφι τὸν Ἀρίονα ὥσπερ ἔχων ἐξεπήδησε· καὶ τοὺς ἐκπλαγέντας οὐκ ἔχειν ἔτι ἐλεγχομένους ἀρνέεσθαι.
Periander, out of disbelief, kept Arion under guard and would not let him go, and kept a watch for the sailors. When they arrived, they were summoned and questioned whether they could say anything about Arion. They said that he was safe in Italy, and that they had left him doing well in Tarentum; whereupon Arion appeared before them just as he was when he leapt; and they, thunderstruck and caught out, could no longer deny it.
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Periander does not believe the story. He tests it.
A note on this passage
Periander hears a man in a wet costume claim to have ridden a dolphin, and he does not believe a word of it. <em>Hypo apistiēs</em>, "out of disbelief," he locks Arion up and waits for the other witnesses. Then he questions them, and the verb Herodotus uses is <em>historeesthai</em>: they were put to <em>historiē</em>. It is the word of the proem, used here in its old sense, the questioning of witnesses to find out what is true. The tyrant of Corinth conducts the book's first cross-examination.
The sailors lie, smoothly: Arion is safe, doing well, they left him in Tarentum. Then Arion walks in "just as he was when he leapt," still in the costume. The detail from the last section turns into proof. No one has to argue. The men are <em>elenchomenoi</em>, "refuted," the word Plato's Socrates uses for exposing a false claim by questioning, and they cannot deny it any longer.
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Herodotus, Histories 1.24.7 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/herodotus/1.24.7/