Reginald Walter Macan, Herodotus, The Seventh, Eighth, & Ninth Books with Introduction and Commentary

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Ξέρξης δὲ ὁρέων ... ἐόντα: the neuter mountain, further south (τὸ Πήλιον, c. 129), he could not see. Rawlinson (after Leake) asserts that “in clear weather Olympos and Ossa are full in view” though the latter from Saloniki is more than 70 miles distant. Mr. J. A. R. Munro assures me that Olympos at least is visible. Olympos is 10,000 feet in height (Tozer, Highἰands, ii. 6; 9750 feet, Kiepert, Manual, § 132). Ossa (feminine) is of lesser height (5-6000?) but “of even more striking appearance.” For Xcrxes, his views, his inquiries, his visit to the scene, his researches, his theories, his criticisms, one is tempted in this passage (cc. 128-30) to substitute Herodotus himself. The proceedings of Xerxes are too absurd! His desire to inspect the Peneios finds, indeed, a parallel in Dareios' inspection of the Pontos, 4. 85, but with this difference, that Xerxes was bound for Thessaly, and was naturally going through Tempe (pace Hdt.!) or at any rate within easy reach of it, while Dareios took his only chance of viewing the sea. But that is the least of Xerxes' absurdities. Not content with visiting Tempe in his Sidonian yacht (cp. c. 100 supra) with a decent convoy, he takes the whole fleet with him on this voyage to Thessaly and back: an unlikely proceeding, even if there had been any opposition in Thessaly to his landing. Other irrational points in the narrative (noticed ad ll.） seem further to discredit the story, which appears to be introduced in order to give Hdt. an opportunity of airing his own knowledge and ideas about Thessaly. That Tempe is further described c. 173 infra (from another source) only confirms the hypothesis that we are here in the presence of a later addition from the author's hand. It does not follow that Hdt. visited Tempe from Therme, and by sea, or at least from Makedon, as M. Hauvette, p. 35, suggests. There is, indeed, an obvious (<*> ast between the character and tone of this passage on Thessaly and Tempe, and the geographical obscurities or incongrnities of Hdt.'s previous descriptions of Makedonia and of the route tbrough Thrace. But that this difference arises from Hdt.'s autopsy in Thessaly as compared with hearsay or letters in Thrace and Makedon is perhaps too much to infer. He is here following southern sources. In Athens, in Sparta, and elsewhere he might <*>nd many who could describe Tempe or Thessaly from having taken part in one or other of the expeditions northwards: see further, Introduction, §§ 9, 10.

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αὐλῶνα στεινὸν πυνθανόμενος: the pass of Tempe (τὰ Τέμπεα, c. 173 infra) here anonymous (perhaps just because—already—named there); it could not of course be seen from Saloniki. The primary meaning of the word αὐλών is (presumably) a pipe, or pipe-like channel, or conduit, which can only be applied metaphorically to a narrow defile, straits, or such-like, so “αὐλὼν Μαιωτικός” Aischyl. Pr. 731, “πόντιοι αὐλῶνες” Soph. Tr. 100. Hdt. himself applies it to a built and covered aqueduct or conduit, 2. 100, 127; and so here of the long narrow ravine, or gorge, through which the Peneios makes its way to the sea. It is from 5 to 6 miles long, and at places barely wide enough for river and road. For descriptions cp. Wordsworth's Greece (ed. Tozer) p. 296 f.; Tozer, Highlands, ii. 66 ff.; Leake, N. Gr. iii. 384 ff.

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ταύτῃ εἶναι ὁδὸν ἐς Θεσσαλίην φέρουσαν, ‘there was (is) a road there leading into Thessaly’—one, of several, here treated as a secondary one (for the sake of the argument), but in c. 173 infra (presumably a passage of earlier composition) treated as the principal and practically the only one.

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τὴν ἐκβολὴν τοῦ Πηνειοῦ: the exit, or outlet, of the Peneios, ἐκβολή (a word of many meanings) must here cover not merely the mouth but the whole gorge, or αὐλών; cp. 9. 38, 39.

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τὴν ἄνω ὁδὸν ... διὰ Μακεδόνων τῶν κατύπερθε ο<*>νων ἔστε Περραιβοὺς παρὰ Γόννον τ<*>λιν: the passage recognizes the existence of a second pass into Thessaly, distinct from Tempe, and described as (a) leading from Upper Makedonia, (b) coming into Perrhaibia, (c) by the city of Gonnos. The description of this second pass appears in even more explicit terms (in c. 173 infra） and might have been transferred from that passage (if of earlier composition). Neither the Perrhaiboi nor the city of Gonnos are precisely located by Hdt. The Homeric Catalogne, B 748 ff., places the folk, with the Ἐνιῆνες, περὶ Δωδώνην δυσχείμερον, and ἀμφ᾽ ι<*>μερτὸν Τιταρήσιον. (The Titaresios is the great northern tributary of the Peneios, flowing down from Olymposand the Kambunian range.) Strabo 441, commenting on the passage, puts the Perrhaiboi on τὰ ὀρεινότερα χωρία τρὸς τῷ Ὀλύμπῳ καὶ τοῖς Τέμπεσι, but also extends them into Hestiaiotis (ἀπὸ μέρους τῆς Ἑστιαιώτιδος ἐπειληφότας). This agrees generally with the location of the Perrhaiboi in other authorities (Thucyd., Polyb., Livy). Perrhaibia, though never an officially recognized district of Thessaly, corresponded to the mountainous northern portion of the country. Strabo meutions Olosson (sic） and Gonnos as Perrhaibian cities.

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Γόννος, or Gonni (celebrated as the birthplace of Antigonus Gonatas), is located by Polybios 18. 10. 2 close to Tempe (Philip retreating after his defeat at Kynoskephalai προελθὼν εἰς Γόννους ἐπὶ τὴν εἰσβολὴν τῶν Τεμπῶν, halted to collect fugitives, and afterwards proceeded διὰ τῶν Τεμπῶν εἰς Μακεδονίαν, ib. 18. 16. 1). This location is confirmed by Livy (42. 54. 8); “utraque oppida (Elatia et Gonnus) in faueibus sunt, qua Tempe adeunt, magis Gonnus.” Cp. 33. 10.11 (=Polyb. <*> ... 36.10.11 “oppidum Gonni viginti n <*> ab Larisa abest, in ipsis fancibus saitus, quae Tempe appellantur, situm.” 42. 67. 6 “ante ipsa Tempe in faucibus situm Macedoniae claustia tutissima praebet et in Thessaliam opportunum Macedonibus decursum.” Cp. 44. 6. 10 (in the celebrated description of Tempe) “unum (praesid<*>um) in primo aditu ad Gonnum erat.” It is quite obvious that Gonnos is itself a part of Tempe, and not a separate pass. A path by which the gorge might be circumvented may have <*> from, or down to, Gonnos (like Anopaia at Thermopylai), but nothing more. Such a path in fact there was; cp. c. 179 infra. Xerxes could never have rejected Tempe in favour of a pass by Gonnos, nor would such a route have led to or from ‘Upper Makedonia.’ Hdt. has fallen into a serious error and contradietion, over and above the absurdity of supposing that there was any better or safer pass from Macedonia into Thessaly than by Tempe.

There were (and are) three main passes between macedonia and ancient Thessaly: I. Tempe, which Hdt. describes, but treats as ‘unsafe,’ and not used by the Persians. II. The Pass of Petra, further west, leading from Oloosson (in Perrhaibia) across to Dion, and therefore joining there the route through Tempe. It was probably by this pass that Brasidas crossed Olympos in 424 B.C., Thucyd. 4. 78. 6. III. The Pass of Volustăna, still further west, likewise starting from Oloosson and debouching into the upper valley of the Haliakmon, the only pass which could be described as leading into ‘Upper Makedonia.’

The superiority of Tempe lies in its piercing the mountain barrier once for all. A force coming from Makedonia to Elassona has still to traverse the lower passes of Perrhaibia (which figured largely in the Turkish invasion of ‘Thessaly’ in 1896). It is more than possible that the Persian columns in 480 B.C. used all three routes into ancient Thessaly; and if Xerxes marched still with the centre (ep. c. 121 supra) he may have crossed by Petra, and visited Tempe (if he did visit it) from Larisa or the neighbourhood.

ταύτῃ γὰρ ἀσφαλέστατον ἐπυνθάνετο εἶναι cannot mean that Tempe was garrisoned, or held against him; for the Thessalians have by this time medized and the Greeks have abandoned Tempe. Yet apart from such opposition, Tempe was the easiest and probably the safest natural pass. The horrors described by Livy 44. 6 partly belong to a time when the pass was strongly fortified, are stated without reference to the other passes, and did not prevent Tempe being the most frequented of the routes between Thessaly and Makedonia. If there is not here a confused reminiscence of actual or anticipated resistance at Tempe, it must be regarded as a bit of bad motivation to account for the tradition that the king himself entered Thessaly, not through the pass of Tempe, but by another route.

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ἐν θώματι μεγάλῳ ἐνέσχετο: cp. 8. 135, 9. 37.

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τοὺς κατηγεμόνας τῆς ὁδοῦ: evidently on land. Hdt. may suppose that the king had landed from his yacht; but he involves himself in the further inconsequence that the king proceeds to survey the pass, though he had determined not to use it.

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ἐστί=ἔξεστι or πάρεστι.