Herodotus, Histories 1.91.4 · 1.91.4
The empire he never named
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κατὰ δὲ τὸ μαντήιον τὸ γενόμενον οὐκ ὀρθῶς Κροῖσος μέμφεται. προηγόρευε γὰρ οἱ Λοξίης, ἢν στρατεύηται ἐπὶ Πέρσας, μεγάλην ἀρχὴν αὐτὸν καταλύσειν. τὸν δὲ πρὸς ταῦτα χρῆν εὖ μέλλοντα βουλεύεσθαι ἐπειρέσθαι πέμψαντα κότερα τὴν ἑωυτοῦ ἢ τὴν Κύρου λέγοι ἀρχήν. οὐ συλλαβὼν δὲ τὸ ῥηθὲν οὐδʼ ἐπανειρόμενος ἑωυτὸν αἴτιον ἀποφαινέτω·
As for the oracle he was given, Croesus is wrong to find fault with it. For Loxias told him beforehand that if he marched against the Persians he would destroy a great empire. If he meant to plan well in response to that, he should have sent and asked whether the god meant his own empire or Cyrus's. Since he did not grasp what was said, nor asked again, let him declare the fault his own.
Word by word
The setting
The Pythia turns from pity to judgment, and explains exactly where Croesus went wrong.
A note on this passage
Now the Pythia turns from pity to judgment. Ouk orthōs Kroisos memphetai, "Croesus is wrong to blame," because the oracle he complains about was true: megalēn archēn auton katalysein, "he would destroy a great empire." Every word of the prophecy came true exactly as spoken. The failure was never in the god's Greek; it was in the man's listening.
The correction is almost a lesson in method: chrēn... epeiresthai pempsanta kotera tēn heōutou ē tēn Kyrou legoi archēn, "he ought to have sent and asked whether he meant his own empire or Cyrus's." Croesus had already run one careful experiment, the hundred-day test with the tortoise; he simply stopped asking questions at the one point where another question would have saved him. Ou syllabōn... oude epaneiromenos heauton aition apophainetō, "not having grasped it, nor asked again, let him show himself the one at fault." The sentence hands Croesus the blame with its very last word.
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