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Λακεδαιμονίων: both the situation and the term suggest that the 300 were not the only men of Lakedaimon present; cp. c. 202.
ἐτρέψαντο τοὺς ἐναντίους τετράκις. How was all this remembered? Did the Thebans report it? or Persians? or Greeks on the Persian side? Or stray local onlookers? Or Aristodamos ο<*> τρέσας? (He was not present.) What was done with the dead body of Leonidas when they drew it out from under the mêlée? Did they bear it back with them to ‘the hill,’ where the last stand was made, and the end came? (The body was afterwards found apparently, c. 238 infra.）
τοῦτο δὲ συνεστήκεε, ‘the struggle here lasted ... ’; cp. σύστασις c. 167. οἱ σὺν Ἐπιάλτῃ παρεγένοντο. On the phrase and the situation cp. c. 233 infra. The arrival of these men (Hydarnes and the ‘Immortals’), or rather the news of their arrival, is the signal for a change in the course and character of the struggle (νεῖκος of actual battle, Homeric; and a term strong enough to be chosen by Empedokles as one of the poles of his cosmic dualism). But Hdt.'s description of the change might be clearer (especially if he had ever visited the scene). Though he has described the path as coming down to Alpenos (c. 216 supra), it is not in this place by any means clear that Epialtes and his men arrive a tergo, and that in retreating ἐς τὸ στεινὸν τῆς ὸδοῦ the Greeks are moving in the direction of the men with Epialtes and Hydarnes, or that as they ‘passed beyond the wall’ the Greeks must have moved up the slope, out of the road way, on to somewhat more open ground, or that there were several ‘hills’ or ‘hillocks’ east of the wall, upon one or other of which they might have elected to take their last station (ἵζοντο).
τὸ στεινὸν τῆς ὁδοῦ: not to be confounded with the narrow Western Gate, άμαξιτὸς μούνη, κατὰ τὸν Φοίνικα ποταμὁν c. 200 supra, the ἔμπροσθε Θερμοπυλέων, κατὰ Φοίνικα ποταμὸν ἀγχοῦ Ἀνθήλης πὁλιος, άμαξιτὸς μούνη of c. 176: not to be confounded with the still narrower Eastern Gate, ὄπισθε Θερμοπυλέων, κατὰ Ἀλπηνοὺς ὄπισθε ἐόντας ἐοῦσα ἁμαξιτὸς μούνη ibid., close to which the path Anopaia came down (or one fork from it) κατὰ Ἀλπηνὸν πόλιν, τῇ καὶ τὸ στεινότατον ἐστί, c. 216. The narrow way here in question is the passage of ‘the Middle Gate,’ or Thermopylai proper, in traversing which, from the west, the road rose over a low spur, or υ<*>πωρέη, of Kallidromos, to the wall, beyond which, going east, the ground declined again towards the larger spur, or process of the hill, which formed the Eastern Gate, and down over which the ten thousand Persians came streaming, when the Hellenes were informed (by the watchers at the wall?) that the ‘strangers’ were there.
οἱ ἄλλοι πλὴν Θηβαίων should mean apparently the remnant of 700 Thespians, and 300 Spartans; but that can hardly be so: cp. c. 222 supra. Probably the body which takes its stand closely massed on the hill is made up of Spartans. Perioikoi, and perhaps some Helots too; but not a man, save from Lakedaimon. ὁ δὲ κολωνὸς ... ἐπὶ Λεωνίδῃ. This sentence again has the air of an insertion, perhaps from the author's hand, although the νῦν ἕστηκε cannot be precisely dated, nor can it prove autopsy on the writer's part The Lion has long disappeared, but may yet one day be ‘restored’: if that time comes, it will be a matter of some interest to set the Lion on the proper hill. The Lakedaimonians had to receive an attack on both sides, perhaps from all sides: their Kolonos stood more or less clear of the mountain (S.) and of the road (E. and W.). I counted three, if not four, such Kolonoi there (April 1899) that might dispute the honour. From notes taken at the time an Ort und Stelle I see that I inclined to identify the Kolonos with the highest of the mounds, immediately above the Upper Mill, and that appears to be Dr. Grundy's view (G.P.W. 312), though the Phokian wall stands on the ‘summit of the slope,’ or western side of this hill.
μαχαίρῃσι might be only the same weapons as τοῖσι ξίφεσι in c. 224 supra: the words τοῖσι ... περιεοῦσαι favour that interpretation; but properly the μάχαιρα is a dagger, short sword, or dirk, which hangs beside the ξίφος, at least on the Homeric hero, Il. 3. 272. It is clearly distinguished from the ξίφος in Xenoph. Hell. 3. 3. 7. The sense of this passage seems to demand a short weapon used at closest quarters.
οἵ μέν κτλ. clearly describes the Persian forces which follow the Greeks eastwards out of the open, through (or across?) the ‘neck,’ then up the hill, across the wall, which they (partially) destroyed in passing, every ineh of the way perhaps disputed, till the Greeks withdrew on to ‘the Kolonos’—not on the main road going east, but somewhat to the right (or south). These Persians would naturally then work round the hill from the west, to north and south.
οἳ δὲ περιελθόντες πάντοθεν περισταδόν. Some account of the precise part plaved in the last scene by Hydarnes and his men is fairly to be expeeted; it cannot be said that Hdt. supplies it. If the περιελθὁντες is referred specifically to those ‘who had come round’ by Anopaia, yet the words πάντοθεν περισταδόν (sc. κατἐχωσαν βάλλοντες) can hardly be restricted to their action. If the words πάντοθεν περισταδὁν describe the last situation generally, then περιελθόντες cannot be confined to Hydarnes and his men. Did they actually take part in this last scene at all?
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