Herodotus, Histories 1.63.1 · 1.63.1
The attack at breakfast
Read the full text in our reader
Ὃ μὲν δή οἱ ἐνθεάζων χρᾷ τάδε, Πεισίστρατος δὲ συλλαβὼν τὸ χρηστήριον καὶ φὰς δέκεσθαι τὸ χρησθὲν ἐπῆγε τὴν στρατιήν. Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ οἱ ἐκ τοῦ ἄστεος πρὸς ἄριστον τετραμμένοι ἦσαν δὴ τηνικαῦτα, καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἄριστον μετεξέτεροι αὐτῶν οἳ μὲν πρὸς κύβους οἳ δὲ πρὸς ὕπνον. οἱ δὲ ἀμφὶ Πεισίστρατον ἐσπεσόντες τοὺς Ἀθηναίους τρέπουσι.
Amphilytus, divinely inspired, declared this prophecy to him, and Pisistratus, grasping the oracle and declaring that he accepted what it foretold, led his army forward. The Athenians from the city were just then at their breakfast, and after breakfast some of them were at dice, others asleep. But Pisistratus and his men fell upon the Athenians and routed them.
Word by word
The setting
Convinced by Amphilytus's verses, Pisistratus marches on the city while the Athenians, having just eaten, are caught off guard.
A note on this passage
Herodotus marks Amphilytus as entheazōn, "possessed by the god," the same root as theos itself. The old man speaks while something else moves through him, channeling rather than composing his own verse. Pisistratus answers with the verb syllabōn, "having taken hold of" the oracle, the same verb Greek uses for grasping an idea, gathering an army, or arresting a man. One man is seized by the god's words; the other seizes them right back and marches.
The scene that follows reads like an eyewitness memory: the Athenian soldiers are scattered over ariston, the midday meal, some throwing kyboi, dice, some already asleep, with no battle line in sight. The verb for the attack, espesontes, "having thrown themselves in," is the same word Greek uses for a dog leaping on its prey. Pisistratus wins through timing rather than strength, catching a city with its guard down over lunch, and Herodotus lets that unheroic image stand without comment.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Herodotus, Histories 1.63.1 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 1.63.1 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/herodotus/1.63.1/