Reginald Walter Macan, Herodotus, The Seventh, Eighth, & Ninth Books with Introduction and Commentary

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Σκυλλίης Σκιωναῖος: Skyllias (cp. Σκύλλα, Σκύλλη) of Skione, the city on Pallene, 7. 123.

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δύτης τῶν τότε ἀνθρώπων ἀ̔ριστος. Had Hdt. believed the anecdote which he proceeds to relate he would perhaps have employed the formula πάντων τῶν ἡμεῖς ἴδμεν ἄριστος. The term ἀνθρώπων is introdueed perhaps because the water is not man's native element.

τῇ ναυηγίῃ τῇ κατὰ Πήλιον γενομένῃ: cp. 7. 188-91, and the luck of Ameinokles, 7. 190. περιεβάλετο, ibid. ἦν γὰρ ... οὗτος shows a slight anacoluthon; the whole anecdote rings with the vox viva: so ἄρα (‘as he afterwards explained’), ἀλλ᾽ οὐ γάρ οἱ κτλ.

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καὶ πρότερον, ‘even before this’; cp. c. 6 supra.

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παρέσχε is neuter. ἀνέσχε, just below, is of course personal, but intransitive; cp. Od. 5. 320 “οὐδ᾽ ἐδυνάσθη Αἶψα μάλ᾽ ἀνσχεθέειν μεγάλου ὑπὸ κύματος ὁρμῆς”.

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τὸ ἐνθεῦτεν, coming just after τότε, might appear to be spatial rather than temporal; but if taken with ἔτι must be vaguely opposed to καὶ πρότερον just before. ἔτι may be referred (with Stein) to the man's previous unsuccessful attempts (not that any are recorded), or more generally (with Sitzler) to his period of suspense and waiting for a favourable opportunity.

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θωμάζω δὲ εἰ τὰ λεγόμενα ἐστὶ ἀληθέα, ‘I wonder if the story is true’ —a wonder which, if Hdt. had given more way to it, might have flooded his work with shallow rationalism. His critique of the story of Skyllias is poor, for he seems to see no alternative between Skyllias having dived all the way from Aphetai to Artemision and having come all the way in a boat.

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σταδίους μάλιστά κῃ τούτους ἐς ὀγδώκοντα. 80 stades would not eover the whole distance from Aphetai (wherever it be placed) to Artenrision, assuming that Artemision is east of Aphetai. But from shore to shore the ehannel is in places barely 50 stades, and many a swimmer nowadays would make little of it. τούτους (omitted by β) is rightly taken by Stein as “appositive”; cp. 3. 5 ἐὸν τοῦτο οὐκ ὀλίγον χωρίον.

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ἄλλα ψευδέσι εἴκελα, as perhaps the story told by Pausanias l.c. infra of his (and his daughter's) diving down, in the storm off Pelion, and cutting the cables, etc., of the Persian ships. τὰ δὲ μετεξέτερα ἀληθέα may be a concession to Delphi, where was a statue, dedicated by the Amphiktyones, of Σκύλλις and of his daughter, Ὕδνα by name, which Hdt. may have seen (Pausan. 10. 19. 1). If so, this story would not be of the original draft; cp. Introduction, § 9. The dedication attests the reality and importance of the services of Skyllias, whatever they were. μετεξέτερα = ἔνια.

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αὐτίκα ἐσήμηνε τοῖσι στρατηγοῖσι: according to Hdt. Skyllias reported to the Greek admirals (1) the storm, its origin and effects; (2) the despatch of the 200 ships round Enboia. The Greeks knew all about the storm already, πάντα τὰ γενόμενα περὶ τὴν ναυηγίην, from their sconts, 7. 192, and they had also, apparently before the arrival of Skyllias, captured fifteen of the enemy's vessels, and closely questioned their prisoners, 7. 194 f. It is possible (with Stein) to emphasize the construction ὡς γένοιτο as referring not to the fact, the bare fact of a storm having occurred, but to the course, circumstances, and results of the storm, the extent of the Persian losses, etc. The change or ineompleteness of the construction is observable, a limb coordinate with ὡς γένοιτο to follow τὰς περιπεμφθείσας τῶν νεῶν being conspicuous by its absence, though not grammatically indispensable. Hdt. seems to make the report on the storm (off Pelion) the chief point of Skyllias's communication; while, upon the face of it, his report on the flying squadron was newer and more startling and important tidings for the Greeks. But what did he report of the 200 ships? Simply that they had been despatched? Or that they too had been, must have been, wrecked? (ὡς νεναυηγήκασι).