herodotus

from the Hellespont, that is presenting their prows (or sterns) tothe stream, yet this did not mean that they pointed straighttowards the Propontis and Euxine; for the stream after passingSestos runs almost from North to South with even a slight tendencyto the East (hence {eurou} a few lines further on), so that shipslying in the stream would point in a line cutting at right anglesthat of the longer axis (from East to West) of the Pontus andPropontis. This is the meaning of {epikarsios} elsewhere inHerodotus (i. 180 and iv. 101), and it would be rash to assign toit any other meaning here. It is true however that the expression{pros esperes} is used loosely below for the side toward theEgean. For {anakokheue} a subject must probably be supplied fromthe clause {pentekonterous--sunthentes}, "that it (i.e. thecombination of ships) might support etc.," and {ton tonon tonoplon} may either mean as below "the stretched ropes," or "thetension of the ropes," which would be relieved by the support: thelatter meaning seems to me preferable.Mr. Whitelaw suggests to me that {epikarsios} ({epi kar}) may meanrather "head-foremost," which seems to be its meaning in Homer(Odyss. ix. 70), and from which might be obtained the idea ofintersection, one line running straight up against another, whichit has in other passages. In that case it would here mean "headingtowards the Pontus."35. {tas men pros tou Pontou tes eteres}. Most commentators wouldsupply {gephures} with {tes eteres}, but evidently both bridgesmust have been anchored on both sides.36. {eurou}: Stein adopts the conjecture {zephurou}.37. {ton pentekonteron kai triereon trikhou}: the MSS. give {tonpentekonteron kai trikhou}, "between the fifty-oared galleys in asmany as three places," but it is strange that the fifty-oaredgalleys should be mentioned alone, and there seems no need of{kai} with {trikhou}. Stein reads {ton pentekonteron kai triereon}(omitting {trikhou} altogether), and this may be right.38. i.e. in proportion to the quantity: there was of course a greaterweight altogether of the papyrus rope.39. {autis epezeugnuon}.40. {ekleipsin}: cp. {eklipon} above.41. Or, according to some MSS., "Nisaian."