Herodotus, Histories 1.53.2 · 1.53.2
The envoys' message
Read the full text in our reader
ὡς δὲ ἀπικόμενοι ἐς τὰ ἀπεπέμφθησαν, οἱ Λυδοὶ ἀνέθεσαν τὰ ἀναθήματα, ἐχρέωντο τοῖσι χρηστηρίοισι λέγοντες
The Lydians — Κροῖσος ὁ Λυδῶν τε καὶ ἄλλων ἐθνέων βασιλεύς, νομίσας τάδε μαντήια εἶναι μοῦνα ἐν ἀνθρώποισι, ὑμῖν τε ἄξια δῶρα ἔδωκε τῶν ἐξευρημάτων, καὶ νῦν ὑμέας ἐπειρωτᾷ εἰ στρατεύηται ἐπὶ Πέρσας καὶ εἴ τινα στρατὸν ἀνδρῶν προσθέοιτο σύμμαχον.
When they arrived where they had been sent, the Lydians dedicated the offerings and consulted the oracles, saying: Croesus, king of the Lydians and of other nations, believing these to be the only true oracles among men, has given you gifts worthy of your discoveries, and now he asks you whether he should march against the Persians, and whether he should add to himself any army of men as an ally.
Word by word
The setting
At each oracle, after dedicating the gifts, the Lydians deliver Croesus's message in his own words.
A note on this passage
The message the envoys carry is really Croesus introducing himself to the god, in the third person, the way a king addresses an equal. He calls himself ruler "of the Lydians and other nations" and tells each shrine it is the only true oracle mouna en anthrōpoisi, "alone among men." It is a compliment with a price tag already attached.
That price tag is the word exeurēmatōn, "of your discoveries": the gifts Croesus sent were payment for what the oracle found out, the boiled tortoise and lamb no one else could name. Herodotus lets the reader hear Croesus's own account of the test he set two chapters earlier, now recast as proof rather than experiment. He has stopped checking the god and started rewarding it.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Herodotus, Histories 1.53.2 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Herodotus, Histories — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Herodotus, Histories 1.53.2 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/herodotus/1.53.2/