Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides Book 1

Ἀγαμέμνων τε: τε = and so, leading from the general statement to the particular. Cf. c. 4. 5; 5. 19; 6. 16. The stress of the sentence rests on δυνάμει προύχων, from his surpassing his contemporaries in power.

οὐ τοσοῦτον...ἄγων : οὐ τοσοῦτον (followed by ὅσον, c. 11. 1; 88. 2; viii.45.14), though strictly denying only comparatively, has nearly the force of a full negation: and not so much because he had the leading of Helen's suitors, bound, as they were, by their oaths to Tyndareus. According to the post-Homeric legend (Isocr. x. 40; Paus. iii.20.9; Apollod. iii.10.9) all who paid their court to Helen engaged to defend her choice against all wrong. In what follows Thuc. confines himself simply to the traditional connexion of the houses of Perseus and Pelops, which is thus shown:—

καί: in confirmation of this.— οἱ τὰ σαφέστατα...δεδεγμένοι : those of the Peloponnesians who have received the clearest traditional accounts from men of former times. Πελοποννησίων is a part. gen. placed irregularly between the art. and partic. See Kr. Spr. 47, 9, 11. Cf. c. 25. 18; 126. 33; iv.111.6; 125. 20. “Traditionary history (μνήμῃ παρὰ τῶν πρότερον) almost necessarily implies that it is indigenous in the country of which it treats.” Arnold.

ἦλθεν...ἔχων : he had with him when he came; the same order in c. 11. 10; viii.8.4; 27. 20.— 7. τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν...σχεῖν : stranger though he was, secured the calling of the country after his own name. σχεῖν = κατασχεῖν, and the whole is for the more usual τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν τῇ χώρᾳ παρασχέσθαι. The name is found perhaps first in Tyrtaeus, frg. 2, εὐρεῖαν Πέλοπος νῆσον ἀφικόμεθα. See Curtius, Peloponnesus, I. p. 30. The form ἔπηλυν is rightly adopted by Stahl for ἐπηλύτην, as in c. 29. 23, after the analogy of νέηλυς, σύνηλυς.

ἔτι μείζω ξυνενεχθῆναι : yet greater things fell to the lot of. Cf. viii.83.4; Hdt. iv.157.2, οὐδέν σφι χρηστὸν συνεφέρετο. v.82.7, ἄμεινον συνοίσεσθαι. Ar. Nub. 594.— Εὐρυσθέως μὲν...μείζους καταστῆναι : Sh. remarks on this passage as being an excellent example of what Arist. (Rhet. iii.9.2) calls εἰρομένη λέξις, ἢ οὐδὲν ἔχει τέλος καθ᾽ αὑτήν, ἂν μὴ τὸ πρᾶγμα λεγόμενον τελειωθῇ. The intention of Thuc. appears to have been to state the grounds of the advancement of the Pelopidae in a series of absolute genitives, logically arranged. But the consistent carrying out of this plan is infringed: (a) by his placing first Εὐρυσθέως . . . ἀποθανόντος out of its natural order, perhaps as being the really decisive matter; (b) by the choice of the active ἐπιτρέψαντος Εὐρυσθέως . . . Ἀτρεῖ instead of the passive Ἀτρέως ὑπ᾽ Εὐρυσθέως . . . ἐπιτραπέντος; (c) by the desertion of the absolute construction and the introducing of the infinitives τυγχάνειν, παραλαβεῖν, καταστῆναι in direct dependence on λέγουσι.

ἐν τῇ Ἀττικῇ : according to the legend, at the Scironian rocks in Megaris; so that Attica must be here taken in an extended sense.

Ἡρακλειδῶν: by Hyllus (Diod. iv.57.6) or by Iolaus (Eur. Heracl. 859). Patronymics are sometimes used like proper names without the art. Cf. c. 12. 11; viii. 53. 10.

Χρυσίππου: his halfbrother, son of Pelops and Axioche, killed by Atreus and Thyestes at the instance of their mother Hippodamia.

δυνατόν: i.e. by his riches, which, as son of Pelops, he was assumed to possess. See on c. 5. 5. Note the combination of the concordant partics. δοκοῦντα and τεθεραπευκότα (agreeing with Ἀτρέα） with the abs. partic. Cf. c. 2. 8. Kr. Spr. 56, 14, 2.

ἅ: all of which powers. The rel. serves as an emphatic connective. Cf. c. 33. 13; 35. 15; 40. 9, etc. The intervention of Thyestes between Atreus and Agamemnon (Hom. B 106) is not noticed.

καὶ ναυτικῷ τε ἅμα...ἰσχύσας : Cl. regards τε as the conj., taking καὶ—ἅμα not as a copula, but as an adv. emphasizing the new element of power, and compares c. 2. 8; 14. 13; 64. 14; and for the use of τε without relation to καί, vi.44.18; viii.68.12. So in ii.36.2 καὶ . . . ἅμα without relation to the conj. δέ. Cf. also ii.68.19. See App.

οὐ...τὸ πλεῖον ἤ : not so much . . . as, by litotes = ἧσσον ἤ, so that the former suggestion is wholly excluded. Cf. c. 36. 6; 69. 32; ii.37.7; 39. 6, 20. The Mss. vary between πλεῖον and πλέον. For χάριτι, cf. Hom. ε 307, οἳ τότ᾽ ὔλοντο | Τροίῃ ἐν εὐρείῃ χάριν Ἀτρείδῃσι φέροντες.

φαίνεται: opp. to the subjective δοκεῖ, 19, as giving the positive assertion of Hom. B 576, that Agamemnon commanded 100 ships, and B 612, that he supplied 60 to the Arcadians. Cf. c. 13. 9; vi.2.6, where this verb is presumably used of written testimony.

τεκμηριῶσαι: see on c. 3. 12. The doubt here suggested refers only to the details, not to the authority of Homer on the whole. Cf. c. 10. 19; vi.2.5.

ἐν τοῦ...παραδόσει : Hom. B 101-9. For position of the gen., cf. v.47.65; vi.34.57; vii.24.5. This mode of referring to passages of Homer by their contents assumes complete familiarity on the part of readers. Cf. c. 10. 25, ἐν νεῶν καταλόγῳ.

οὐκ ἂν οὖν...ἐκράτει...εἰ μὴ εἶχεν : he would not be lord of the islands, as he is in the poem, if he did not possess a fleet, as he is represented as doing. But GMT. 49, 2; H. 895 a, and Kr. Spr. 54, 10, 3 explain the impfs. as implying a real state of the case enduring in the past; i.e. νίͅσων ἐκράτει, not κρατεῖ, ναυτικὸν εἶχεν, not ἔχει. See on c. 11. 12.

ἔξω τῶν περιοικίδων...εἴησαν : a parenthetical objection, at once rejected; except those on the coast; and these could not be called πολλαί. For ἔξω, cf. c. 10. 29; v.26.11. For εἴησαν ἄν, see GMT. 52, 2, Rem.

εἰκάζειν: with dat. of the ground of judgment; elsewhere with ἐκ, ἀπό. Cf. c. 10. 15; iii.20.21; iv.126.14; viii.46.27.