Herodotus, Histories 1.90.2 · 1.90.2
Croesus asks only this
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Herodotus — ὃ δὲ εἶπε
Croesus — Ὦ δέσποτα, ἐάσας με χαριεῖ μάλιστα τὸν θεὸν τῶν Ἑλλήνων, τὸν ἐγὼ ἐτίμησα θεῶν μάλιστα, ἐπειρέσθαι πέμψαντα τάσδε τὰς πέδας, εἰ ἐξαπατᾶν τοὺς εὖ ποιεῦντας νόμος ἐστί οἱ.
Herodotus — Κῦρος δὲ εἴρετο ὅ τι οἱ τοῦτο ἐπηγορέων παραιτέοιτο.
And he said, "O master, you will please me most by letting me ask the god of the Greeks, whom I honored most of the gods, by sending these fetters, whether it is his custom to deceive those who treat him well." And Cyrus asked what he was alleging against the god in making this request.
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The setting
Cyrus has just offered Croesus any gift he wishes, right away.
A note on this passage
Croesus turns down gold for a question. The one gift he wants is to send tasde tas pedas, "these very fetters," his own chains, back to the god he says he honored malista theōn, "most of all the gods." The request is framed as politeness, a man merely wishing to ask something, but the verb underneath is accusing: exapatan, "to deceive," aimed at the god who told him that attacking Persia would destroy a great empire, and did not say which empire that would be.
Herodotus lets Cyrus hear only the request, not yet its sting, and has him ask the obvious question: what exactly is Croesus charging the god with, epēgoreōn, in asking this? The word is a legal one, "bringing a charge against," and it sets up Croesus's answer in the next section as something closer to a prosecution than a prayer.
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