Monday, August 17, 2015
Knowledge About the Gods
Herodotus 2.3.2 (tr. A.D. Godley):
Newer› ‹Older
Now, such stories as I heard about the gods I am not ready to relate, except their names, for I believe that all men are equally knowledgeable about them.Alan Lloyd ad loc., in A Commentary on Herodotus, Books I-IV (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 244:
τὰ μέν νυν θεῖα τῶν ἀπηγημάτων οἷα ἤκουον οὐκ εἰμὶ πρόθυμος ἐξηγέεσθαι, ἔξω ἢ τὰ οὐνόματα αὐτῶν μοῦνον, νομίζων πάντας ἀνθρώπους ἴσον περὶ αὐτῶν ἐπίστασθαι.
αὐτῶν here and in περὶ αὐτῶν below is probably masculine plural, referring to the θεοί implicit in θεῖα. νομίζων ... ἐπίστασθαι: 'considering that all men have equal knowledge concerning them (sc. θεοί)', i.e. all men have equal lack of knowledge of them.
