Herodotus, Histories 1.86.6 · 1.86.6
Cyrus repents
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καὶ τὸν Κῦρον ἀκούσαντα τῶν ἑρμηνέων τὰ Κροῖσος εἶπε, μεταγνόντα τε καὶ ἐννώσαντα ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς ἄνθρωπος ἐὼν ἄλλον ἄνθρωπον, γενόμενον ἑωυτοῦ εὐδαιμονίῃ οὐκ ἐλάσσω, ζῶντα πυρὶ διδοίη, πρός τε τούτοισι δείσαντα τὴν τίσιν καὶ ἐπιλεξάμενον ὡς οὐδὲν εἴη τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποισι ἀσφαλέως ἔχον, κελεύειν σβεννύναι τὴν ταχίστην τὸ καιόμενον πῦρ καὶ καταβιβάζειν Κροῖσόν τε καὶ τοὺς μετὰ Κροίσου. καὶ τοὺς πειρωμένους οὐ δύνασθαι ἔτι τοῦ πυρὸς ἐπικρατῆσαι.
And when Cyrus heard from the interpreters what Croesus had said, he repented and took it to heart that he himself, being a man, was giving alive to the fire another man who had been no less fortunate than himself; and besides this, fearing retribution and reflecting that nothing among human affairs stood secure, he ordered the burning fire to be put out as quickly as possible, and Croesus and those with him to be brought down. But those who tried were no longer able to master the fire.
Word by word
The setting
The interpreters repeat Croesus's words about Solon to Cyrus as he stands by the blazing pyre.
A note on this passage
The turn happens on one verb, metagnonta, "having changed his mind," built on γιγνώσκω, "to know": Cyrus comes to know the situation differently than he did a moment ago. What changes his knowing is the plainest word in the sentence, repeated twice, anthrōpos, "man": he himself is a man, giving alive to the fire another man. Herodotus hands conqueror and captive the identical noun, with no title attached to either one. The man on the pyre, he adds, had been ouk elassō, "no less" fortunate than Cyrus once was, which is Solon's warning from two chapters back arriving exactly on schedule.
Cyrus gives his order with the verb keleuein, "to command," still inside the long indirect construction that has carried this whole episode since the Lydians' report began; everything here, strictly, remains what is said to have happened, not Herodotus's own flat claim. The order fails on a verb built from κράτος, "power": epikratēsai, "to get the mastery over." A king who has made himself master of nations cannot master a fire he lit himself. Herodotus leaves the irony sitting there unstated, the same restraint he showed with the tortoise riddle and the mule.
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