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137.
This Alexander was seventh in descent from Perdiccas, who got for himself the tyranny of Macedonia in the way that I will show. Three brothers of the lineage of Temenus came as banished men from Argos to Illyria, Gauanes and Aeropus and Perdiccas; and from Illyria they crossed over into the highlands of Macedonia till they came to the town Lebaea.
[2]
There they served for wages as thetes in the king's household, one tending horses and another oxen. Perdiccas, who was the youngest, tended the lesser flocks. Now the king's wife cooked their food for them, for in old times the ruling houses among men, and not the common people alone, were lacking in wealth.
[3]
Whenever she baked bread, the loaf of the thete Perdiccas grew double in size. Seeing that this kept happening, she told her husband, and it seemed to him when be heard it that this was a portent signifying some great matter. So he sent for his thetes and bade them depart from his territory.
[4]
They said it was only just that they should have their wages before they departed. When they spoke of wages, the king was moved to foolishness and said, “That is the wage you merit, and it is that I give you,” pointing to the sunlight that shone down the smoke vent into the house.
[5]
Gauanes and Aeropus, who were the elder, stood astonished when they heard that, but the boy said, “We accept what you give, O king,” and with that he took a knife which he had with him and drew a line with it on the floor of the house round the sunlight. When he had done this, he three times gathered up the sunlight into the fold of his garment and went his way with his companions.
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
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References (33 total)
- Cross-references to this page
(10):
- The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, EDESSA Macedonia, Greece.
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.1.3
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), DOMUS
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), REX
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LEBAEA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MACEDO´NIA or MACEDON
- Basil L. Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, Tenses
- Smith's Bio, Ae'ropus
- Smith's Bio, Cara'nus
- Smith's Bio, Philippus I.
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(3):
- Isocrates, To Philip, Isoc. 5 32
- Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander, The Creation of Macedonian Power
- Sir Richard C. Jebb, The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeos, Isokrates: Political Writings
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(20):
- LSJ, ἀπολαμβάνω
- LSJ, ἀρύω
- LSJ, δίκαιος
- LSJ, διπλ-άσιος
- LSJ, ἔδα^φος
- LSJ, εἰσέρχομαι
- LSJ, εἰσέχω
- LSJ, γενέτωρ
- LSJ, καπνο-δόκη
- LSJ, λεπτός
- LSJ, μισθός
- LSJ, νέμω
- LSJ, ὀπτάω
- LSJ, πέσσω
- LSJ, περι-γράφω
- LSJ, πρόβα^τον
- LSJ, θεοβλαβ-ής
- LSJ, θητ-εύω
- LSJ, τυ^ρανν-ίς
- LSJ, ὑπερβάλλω
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