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120.
The Egyptians' priests said this, and I myself believe their story about Helen, for I reason thus: had Helen been in Ilion, then with or without the will of Alexandrus she would have been given back to the Greeks.
[2]
For surely Priam was not so mad, or those nearest to him, as to consent to risk their own persons and their children and their city so that Alexandrus might cohabit with Helen.
[3]
Even if it were conceded that they were so inclined in the first days, yet when not only many of the Trojans were slain in fighting against the Greeks, but Priam himself lost to death two or three or even more of his sons in every battle (if the poets are to be believed), in this turn of events, had Helen been Priam's own wife, I cannot but think that he would have restored her to the Greeks, if by so doing he could escape from the evils besetting him.
[4]
Alexandrus was not even heir to the throne, in which case matters might have been in his hands since Priam was old, but Hector, who was an older and a better man than Alexandrus, was going to receive the royal power at Priam's death, and ought not have acquiesced in his brother's wrongdoing, especially when that brother was the cause of great calamity to Hector himself and all the rest of the Trojans.
[5]
But since they did not have Helen there to give back, and since the Greeks would not believe them although they spoke the truth—I am convinced and declare—the divine powers provided that the Trojans, perishing in utter destruction, should make this clear to all mankind: that retribution from the gods for terrible wrongdoing is also terrible. This is what I think, and I state it.
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
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References (20 total)
- Cross-references to this page
(4):
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.2.2
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.6.1
- Smith's Bio, Euri'pides
- Smith's Bio, Paris
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(16):
- LSJ, ἀλλάσσω
- LSJ, ἀπαλλάσσω
- LSJ, ἀποφαίνω
- LSJ, ἐπιλέγω
- LSJ, ἐπιτρέπ-ω
- LSJ, ἐποποι-ός
- LSJ, φρενοβλαβ-ής
- LSJ, καταφαν-ής
- LSJ, κινδυν-εύω
- LSJ, ὅτε
- LSJ, πα^ν-ωλεθρία
- LSJ, παραλαμβάνω
- LSJ, περίειμι
- LSJ, προστίθημι
- LSJ, τι_μωρ-ία
- LSJ, ὥστε
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