Herodotus. Book 1, Chapter 39.
39. "Ah, father," returned the youth, "I blame you not for keeping watch over me after a dream so terrible; but if you are mistaken, if you do not apprehend the dream aright, 'tis no blame for me to show you where you are wrong. Now the dream, you said yourself, foretold that I should die stricken by an iron weapon. But what hands has a boar to strike with? What iron weapon does he wield? Yet this is what you fear for me. Had the dream said that I should die pierced by a tusk, then you would do well to keep me away; but it said a weapon. Now here we do not combat men, but a wild animal. I pray you, therefore, let me go with them."
39. "Ah, father," returned the youth, "I blame you not for keeping watch over me after a dream so terrible; but if you are mistaken, if you do not apprehend the dream aright, 'tis no blame for me to show you where you are wrong. Now the dream, you said yourself, foretold that I should die stricken by an iron weapon. But what hands has a boar to strike with? What iron weapon does he wield? Yet this is what you fear for me. Had the dream said that I should die pierced by a tusk, then you would do well to keep me away; but it said a weapon. Now here we do not combat men, but a wild animal. I pray you, therefore, let me go with them."
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Text source: Herodotus. Translated by George Rawlinson, first issued in 1858. Grammar and spelling updated by Michael Presky, 1993.
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