Herodotus' HISTORY BOOK 2 (EUTERPE) Complete

Translated by G. Macaulay.

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116. This the priests said was the manner of Helen's coming to Proteus; and I suppose that Homer also had heard this story, but since it was not so suitable to the composition of his poem as the other which he followed, he dismissed it finally, [96] making it clear at the same time that he was acquainted with that story also: and according to the manner in which he described [97] the wanderings of Alexander in the Iliad (nor did he elsewhere retract that which he had said) it is clear that when he brought Helen he was carried out of his course, wandering to various lands, and that he came among other places to Sidon in Phenicia. Of this the poet has made mention in the "prowess of Diomede," and the verses run this: [98]

"There she had robes many-coloured, the works of women of Sidon, Those whom her son himself the god-like of form Alexander Carried from Sidon, what time the broad sea-path he sailed over Bringing back Helene home, of a noble father begotten."

And in the Odyssey also he has made mention of it in these verses: [99]

[96] {es o meteke auton}, "until at last he dismissed it"; but the construction is very irregular, and there is probably some corruption of text. Stein reads {ekon} by conjecture for {es o}.

[97] {delon de kata per epoiese}: a conjectural emendation of {delon de' kata gar epoiese}, which some editors retain, translating thus, "and this is clear; for according to the manner in which Homer described the wanderings of Alexander, etc., it is clear how, etc."

[98] Il. vi. 289. The sixth book is not ordinarily included in the {Diomedeos aristeia}.

[99] Od. iv. 227. These references to the Odyssey are by some thought to be interpolations, because they refer only to the visit of Menelaos to Egypt after the fall of Troy; but Herodotus is arguing that Homer, while rejecting the legend of Helen's stay in Egypt during the war, yet has traces of it left in this later visit to Egypt of Menelaos and Helen, as well as in the visit of Paris and Helen to Sidon.

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