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τὴν πεπρωμένην: the answer is significant for the theology of H. Not only men (cf. iii. 43. 1; ix. 16. 4) are bound by Fate, but gods also (vii. 141. 3), in so far as they cannot save their worshippers (cf. Apollo in Euripides' Alcestis). If this be H.'s meaning, it is an advance on the early idea that the gods themselves were ruled by destiny, which survives in the Prometheus of Aeschylus. But there was a growing tendency from the beginning of the fifth century to identify Fate and the will of Zeus, who is thus exalted above all subordinate deities (cf. vii. 141. 3).

πέμπτου. The reckoning (‘fifth’ from Gyges) is inclusive; for the bearing of this and of the ‘three years of grace’ (§ 3) on Lydian chronology cf. App. I, § 9.

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