ἱστορίαι Historiai
Hdt. 6.86C The Histories, Herodotus; served verbatim
So the Milesians went away in sorrow, as men robbed of their possessions; but Glaucus journeyed to Delphi to question the oracle. When he asked the oracle whether he should seize the money under oath, the Pythian priestess threatened him in these verses: Glaucus son of Epicydes, it is more profitable now To prevail by your oath and seize the money. Swear, for death awaits even the man who swears true. But Oath has a son, nameless; he is without hands Or feet, but he pursues swiftly, until he catches And destroys all the family and the entire house. The line of a man who swears true is better later on. When Glaucus heard this, he entreated the god to pardon him for what he had said. The priestess answered that to tempt the god and to do the deed had the same effect.

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

← Hdt. 6.86B contents Hdt. 6.86D →

Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
Epicydes — a candidate entry Glaucus — a candidate entry

The Histories, Herodotus — translated by A. D. Godley, 1920–25
Perseus Digital Library — Herodotus, The Histories (Godley translation) · A. D. Godley, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press / William Heinemann, 1920–25
license: public-domain (US: pre-1930 publication); Perseus digital edition CC BY-SA 4.0, attribution recorded in ops/corpus-staging/SOURCES.md