Volume 1

Herodotus : the fourth, fifth, and sixth books / With introduction, notes, appendices, indices, maps by Reginald Walter Macan.

  • Herodotus.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Herodotus : the fourth, fifth, and sixth books / With introduction, notes, appendices, indices, maps by Reginald Walter Macan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    521/528 (page 393)
    avTO(f>Mpci). €(0VT0V<; Be yeveaOat Toaovrco eKeLvcov avBpa^ apiel- vova<i, oa(p, irapeov ecovToiau aTroKrelvaL rov<; TLeXaayovf;, iiret 20 a(f>€a<i eXa^ov i'm^ovXevovra^;, ovk ideXijcraL, aXXd a-(pt 'irpoeLirelv etc TT)^ 7779 e^ievai. tov? Be ovrco B^ eK')(^cop7]aavTa'i dXXa re cr')(elv '^copia KOL By koX Aypivov. eKelva puev By 'E/carato? eXe^e, ravra Be 'AdyvaloL Xeyovai. ol 8e neXacT70fc ovtol Ayp,vov Tore vepbo- 138 pLevoL KoX /3ovX6p,evot rov<; ’Adyvaiov<i TLp,copyaa(r6ai, ev re e^em- ardpLevoL ra? ^Adyvatcov oprd^;, TrevryKovrepov<; KrycrdpLevoL iXo'^yaav ^AprepuBt ev ^pavpwvL dyovcra<; opryv ra? rSiv 'AdyvaLwv yvvalKa’^, evdevrev Be dp7rdaavre<; rovrecov 7roXXd<i ot'^ovro d'lroirXeovre^, Ka'i 5 a(f)ea<; e’9 Aypuvov dyay6vre<i 'TraXXaKa^ reKvcov avral at ywaiKe^ v'Tre'irXyaOycrav, yXwacrdv re ryv 'ArrLKyv koX rpoirov’; 21. dXXd. Samotlirake 2. 51, Im- bros 5. 26, Plakia and Skylake 1. 57. 138. 1. t6t€. Cp. 5. 26. The story which follows looks like a reminis- cence of the customs of exogamy and marriage by capture misunderstood and transfigured in tradition. On its an- thropological bearings, cp. M'Lennan’s Studies in Ancient History, ‘ Primitive Marriage,’ c. iv., Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, c. xvii. The suggestion that the motiv is obviously {offenbar) taken from the saga of Boreas and Oreithyia (Meyer, Forschungen, p. 9) seems hardly adequate. 3. rds ’A0T|vatcov opras. The number in Periklean Athens was legion. Cp. Xen. (?), de Rep. Ath. 3. 2, A. Mommsen, Heortologie (1864). ‘7T€vn]KovWpovs, open galleys. On the form of the word cp. L. & S. sub V. 4. ’AGtjvaCwv. The statement im- plies (1) the synoikism, and so probably an anachronism ; (2) the antiquity of the (Athenian) cult of Artemis in Brauron. It is thus inconsistent with the Athenian legend, as found in Euri- pides, Iphig. in Tauris, 1435 if., Avhich identifies the image at Brauron with the Tauric Artemis, and represents it as brought there by Orestes. (The Brau- ronian rite was Arctic if not Tauric !) It was, indeed, a pre-Hellenic cult, and likely enough ‘ Pelasgian ’ property : the ritual involving a dance in bear- skins. It was a rural festival, presum- ably instituted by a pastoral people ; and if there were lions in Paionia in the days of Herodotus (7. 125) there may have been bears on Hymettos in ‘ Pelasgian ’ times. In Hdt. ’s time, perhaps since the time of Peisistratos, the Brauronian goddess had a sanctuary on the Akropolis, the remains of which are still visible : and it was in the Akro- polis that the Athenian girls were initiated ; probably yearly on the 16th of Munychion. This may have been the date of the rural festival in Brauron, which at any rate would be a Spring festival and in the sea-faring season, and’ perhaps annual; but in later times at least it was only a TrevreTTjpls. (Perhaps already so in Hdt.’s day: hence e5 i^eTrurTd/JLepoL rds ’AdrjvaLup oprhs with special signifi- cance.) Cp. A. Mommsen, Heortologie, pp. 403 ff. ; Harrison, Mythology and Monuments, pp. 395 ff. ; Lang, Myth and Ritual, ii. 212 ff. (With the ritual described, Eurip. Iph. in Tauris, 1458 ff., cp. the rite of the ‘ Shrove-Tide Bear,’ Frazer, Golden Bough, i. 254.) 6. iraXXaKds. The legend seems to suggest one frequent origin, at once of domestic slavery and of polygamy. For the rest, the fate of the Attic mothers and their sons of course justi- fied the Athenian conquest of Lemnos ; and the case is an instance of the political utility of myths and legends. 7. yXwo-o-ttv T. ’A. On the lan- guage of the Pelasgi 1. 57. But that the women carried to Lemnos spake ‘ Attic, ’ looks anachronistic. The primi- tive Lemnian language may be repre- sented in the celebrated prehistoric in- scription most conveniently accessible in Dr. Carl Pauli’s Vorgriechische In- schrift von Lemnos, Leipzig, 1886.