E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2

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Γ̔πῆρχον—‘had homes ready to receive them.’ It appears that the whole of the country population was opposed to war. The rich landed gentry had town houses, but rarely lived in them and felt the loss of their fine country places. Cf. c. 65; Isocr. VII. 52. The farmers and peasants were ruined by the invasion. Cf. [Lys.] 20. 33.

Ἐλευσινίου— at the foot of the Acropolis, at the N.E. It was regarded with great awe, and even in the time of Pausanias some mysterious sanctity belonged to it. The Boule sat there the day after the Eleusinian Festival ended.

τὸ Πελαργικὸν—（a) a fortification built by the ‘Pelasgians’ on the W. side of the Acropolis, the only side accessible to an enemy; (b) a space below this fortification and also above it. It is to this space on either side that the curse attached. (On the orthography, Herodian says, Πελαργικὸν ἀντὶ τοῦ Πελασγικόν. Cf Lobeck, Phryn. p. 109.

ἐπάρατον—what was the reason of this? Only the W. side was ‘cursed’ since only on that side could buildings be placed; but this space was part of the pomoerium of the original settlement, the Acropolis being then the τέμενος of Pelasgian Zeus. Hence no human beings were to live there. μὴ—due to the prohibition implied in ἐπάρατον. τοιόνδε— i.e. μὴ οἰκεῖν αὐτό, the relative construction disappearing. See c. 4, 5.

Πελαργικὸν ἀργὸν—such παρονομασία is common in oracles. See c. 54, 2.

ἄμεινον—a favourite word at Delphi, suiting well the oracle which worked by suggestion rather than command.

ἐξῳκήθη—‘was filled with settlers.’