[2]
12. δοκεῖ δέ μοι—(1) at first parenthetical, afterwards (2) δοκεῖ ἡ ἐπίκλησις οὐδὲ εἶναι, (3) δοκεῖ ἄλλα (nom.) ... παρέχεσθαι, (4) δοκεῖ Ἔλληνας καλεῖσθαι, (5) ? parenthetical, before ἐδύνατο. When a verb can take more than one construction, Thuc. sometimes combines alternative constructions in the same sentence without repeating the verb.
13. τὰ πρὸ Ἕλληνος—adv. accus., as τὰ πρότερα c. 2, τὰ ἐν τῇ εἰρήνῃ 54.3. Hellen was son of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and Hellenes from Phthiotis accompanied Achilles to Troy. How the name came to be be extended to all the Greeks is unknown.
14. καὶ πάνυ—emphasised by being separated from εἶναι. Cf. Xen. Anab. 1.5.8 καὶ μάλα κατὰ πρανοῦς γηλόφου, Dem. 5. 15 καὶ πάνυ φησί τις αὐτοὺς ἀναισθήτους εἶναι, and so with οὐ （μή） πάνυ not unfrequently. We should rather expect οὐ πάνυ μοι δοκεῖ οὐδ᾽ εἶναι.
εἶναι—this and the infins, that follow are imperfect.
15. κατὰ ἔθνη—distributive. This forms the subject to παρέχεσθαι = ‘various tribes,’ ἄλλα τε καὶ τὸ π., among others the Pelasgian tribe, being in apposition to κ. ἔθνη. Adverbial phrases are frequent in Thuc. as equivalent of a case of a subst.: as in 6.39 ταῦτα καὶ κατὰ μέρη καὶ ξύμπαντα.
16. τὸ Πελασγικόν—a tribe of aborigines, whom Homer speaks of as dwelling in Asia Minor and Crete as well as in Greece. For the facts and theories about them see Abbott. Hist. Greece i. p. 27 fol. “When the Pelasgi became established [in literature] as an ancient tribe, those nations which laid claim to great antiquity, as the Athenians and Arcadians, became Pelasgians” (This is enough to know.)
ἐπὶ πλεῖστον—this belongs to τὸ Πελασγικόν, meaning that the name of the P. was more widely extended than that of any other tribe.
17. παρέχεσθαι—sc. to the country.
τῶν παίδων—Aeolus, Dorus, and Xuthus.
18. ἰσχυσάντων—ingressive aor., ‘having become mighty.’
19. ἐπαγομένων—sc. τινῶν.
ἐπ᾽ ὠφελίᾳ—to aid them. ὠφελία often = βοήθεια; cf. 1.73.2 ἐπ᾽ ὠφελίᾳ.
20. καθ᾽ ἑκάστους—subject of καλεῖσθαι: the several tribes more and more (ἤδη μᾶλλον) began to be called Hellenes in consequence of their intercourse (with the Hellenes).
21. πολλοῦ χρόνου—time within which (partitive), less commonly found in positive sentences.
22. ἐδύνατο—sc. τὸ καλεῖσθαι Ἕλληνας. Shil. quotes Eur. Phoen. 12-13 “καλοῦσι δ᾽ Ἰοκάστην με, τοῦτο γὰρ πατὴρ
ἔθετο”. The ἐδύνατο is probably spurious, because, though the constrn. of δοκεῖ shifts (see on 1. 12), the two clauses καθ᾽ ἑκάστους μὲν ... οὐ μέντοι should have the same form, just as τὰ μὲν . κατὰ ἔθνη δέ have. Even if the constrn. were again changed here, we should probably have ἐξενίκησε.
This text is part of:
Commentary on Thucydides Book 1. E. C. Marchant. 1905. London. MacMillan and Company, Ltd.
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