11-14-2009, 03:05 AM
He, he, he. I knew that would get a response! To paraphrase the movie: "Write it (just so) and he will respond...".
I have no issue with "Athenian spite" - I have, in fact, remarked on it elsewhere (the Spartan dilatory response based on the near fictional Isthmus Wall). It is somewhat apparent in Thucydides words placed into the mouths of the Athenians in the debate prior to hostilities in 432/1. We need not be surprised that will relect, in part, views effecting Herododotus a decade and more earlier.
That said, Herodotus when he says, in your translation, "so far as my information goes" is clearly referring to the fact that he is told (by Athenians, likely, as you point out) that these tombs were built for show. I don't see it having any bearing on whether or not he'd seen the tombs himself. In fact your copying of the passage seems to lack "were" prior to or immediately "so far as..." The same can be said of the line referring to the Aeginetan tomb "which I am told, was constructed after....". This does not mean he has not seen it, rather that someone has told him that what he has (possibly) seen was built ten years after the battle.
Perhaps the Perseus (Godley) translation is clearer:
I have no issue with "Athenian spite" - I have, in fact, remarked on it elsewhere (the Spartan dilatory response based on the near fictional Isthmus Wall). It is somewhat apparent in Thucydides words placed into the mouths of the Athenians in the debate prior to hostilities in 432/1. We need not be surprised that will relect, in part, views effecting Herododotus a decade and more earlier.
That said, Herodotus when he says, in your translation, "so far as my information goes" is clearly referring to the fact that he is told (by Athenians, likely, as you point out) that these tombs were built for show. I don't see it having any bearing on whether or not he'd seen the tombs himself. In fact your copying of the passage seems to lack "were" prior to or immediately "so far as..." The same can be said of the line referring to the Aeginetan tomb "which I am told, was constructed after....". This does not mean he has not seen it, rather that someone has told him that what he has (possibly) seen was built ten years after the battle.
Perhaps the Perseus (Godley) translation is clearer:
Quote:All the tombs of these peoples were filled with dead; but as for the rest of the states whose tombs are to be seen at Plataeae, their tombs are but empty barrows that they built for the sake of men that should come after, because they were ashamed to have been absent from the battle. There is one there called the tomb of the Aeginetans, which, as I learn by inquiry, was built as late as ten years after, at the Aeginetans' desire, by their patron and protector Cleades son of Autodicus, a Plataean.
Paralus|Michael Park
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu
