C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

τοῦ δὲ θέρους—the same words with which the third and fourth books begin; see note on iv. 1, 1. αἱ μέν—answered by δέ at the beginning of chapter 2, the rest of this chapter being parenthetical. A second protasis to the same δέ occurs below in line 9, οἱ μὲν Δήλιοι. Krüger however considers that this first μέν is answered by καί in the next clause, as in chapter 71, 1, where ποιεῖ μὲν καὶ ἅπαντα is followed by καὶ τότε.

διελέλυντο—‘had come to an end’ or ‘was ipso facto at an end’, the pluperfect denoting the termination of the treaty and the state of things resulting, as in iv. 16, 3, τότε λελύσθαι τὰς σπονδάς. For the terms of the year's truce see iv. 117—119. The words μέχρι Πυθίων define the time when the treaty actually ended, ‘(after lasting) till the Pythian games’. For this force of μέχρι cf. i. 71, 3, μέχρι τοῦδε ὡρίσθω ὑμῶν ἡ βραδυτής ‘let this be the limit of your inaction’: so i. 51, 2, ἡ ναυμαχία ἐτελεύτα ἐς νύκτα, ‘lasted till night and then ended’: ni. 108 (fin). ἐτελεύτα ἕως ὀψέ: iv. 48, 4, ἡ στάσις ἐτελεύτης εν ἐς τοῦτο. Poppo and others take the sense of the clause to be that ‘the truce was ended (and a state of war followed) till the Pythian games’; but no warlike operations are recorded, nor any hint given of the war beginning again; and on the contrary it seems clear that Cleon's expedition was not allowed to start till after the sacred season. Other editors think that a nondescript state of things, neither peace nor war, is meant, which followed the expiration of the treaty. There seems some justice in Classen's view, that Thucydides had mtended at first to write only αἱ μὲν .διελέλυντο: Κλέων δέ κ.τ.λ. and then had inserted a note of time and the account of the cleansing of Delos. It is ascertained by an inscription that the Pythian games were held in the Delphian month Bucatius, which corresponded to Metageitnion at Athens, and to part of our August and Sep tember (see Classen and Jowett). The year's truce therefore which formally expired in Elaphebolion (March—April) was informally prolonged because of the approach of the Pythian festival.

ἐν τῇ ἐκεχειρἰᾳ—the year's truce is called ἡ ἐκεχειρία in iv. 119 (fin.), 122, 1, and 123, 1, and this might be the meaning here. Most editors however take it to denote either the informal truce after the regular expiration of the treaty, or the sacred truce of the Pythian festival.

Δηλίους ἀνέστησαν—Arnold points out that the Athenians were naturally anxious to propitiate Apollo, who was the national deity of their enemies, and whose temple at Delium they themselves had lately profaned. They had been excluded from Delphi by the war, and now that the sacred games drew near, ‘what wonder if the peace party ava led themselves of this pretext to delay Cleon's proposed expedition: if they urged the duty and wisdom of not trying again the chances of war till the god at Delphi had been fully appeased. His birthplace had been now completely purified; it only remained to approach his temple with their suppliant offerings at his great Pythian festival; to profane it by no d<*> of wailike preparation, but to wait till they should be assured of his favour, in consideration of their devout reverence to his solemnity’.

οὐ καθαροὺς ὄντας—the participial construction gives the principal thing in the clause, the suspected impurity of the Delians when their island was consecrated: cf. i. 20, 2, Ἵππαρχον οἴονται τύραννον ὄντα ὰποθανεῖν, ‘think that Hipparchus who was slain was tyrant’.

ᾗ—‘in which’, in construction a sort of instrumental dative (or perhaps rather dative of ‘occasion when’, like οἷ ch. 49, 1) with ἀνελόντες: see ch. 7, 10. In sentences of this character, with a participle and a verb, the Greek idiom generally differs from the English, and the construction is determined by the participle, especially if it is closer to the dependent word, as it is here to ᾗ. We should say, ‘which they thought they had properly carried out by removing the sepulchres of the dead’.

πρότερον—the former purification was in 426. It is described in iii. 104, where a still earlier purification by Peisistratus is mentioned, and an account given of the ancient Delian festivals: see also i. 8, 1. The θῆκαι are mentioned in both passages.

Ἀτραμύττιον—(or -ειον) acc. governed by ᾤκησαν: i. 8, 1, τὰς πλείστας τῶν νήσων ᾤκησαν. At(d)ramyttium was on the coast of Mysia near Lesbos. Pharnaces (ii. 67, 1) appears to have been satrap of the district near the Hellespont, in which he was succeeded by his son Pharnabazus (viii. 6, 1).