Journal of Hellenic Studies 133 (2013) 135–145 doi:10.1017/S0075426913000086 ΔΗΛΟΣ ἘΚΙΝΉΘΗ: AN ‘IMAGINARY EARTHQUAKE’ ON DELOS IN HERODOTUS AND THUCYDIDES JEFFREY S. RUSTEN Cornell University* Abstract: Thucydides’ and Herodotus’ comments on a portentous (and unique) Delian earthquake contain the same phrase, but date the event almost 60 years apart and mutually rule out each other’s datings. Two additional problems in these passages – geology demonstrates that Delos has never in fact had an earthquake of any significance and κινεῖν is not the word for an earthquake – point to an explanation for the historians’ treatment. Τhey are based on the Delphic oracle quoted by Herodotus which promised to ‘move unmoved Delos’, a paradox based on the island’s mythical transition from floating to fixed (Pindar), but liable to confusion with its equally well-known aseismicity. Normally κινεῖν τὰ ἀκίνητα is used of interfering with religious sites; but the oracle’s prediction was interpreted as an earthquake, that was assumed to have occurred in due course (although it had not). Both historians accepted the interpretation, but followed different datings since they invested it with different symbolism, Herodotus of the evils of the Persian and subsequent Greek wars, Thucydides of excited anticipation on the eve of the Peloponnesian War, since for him κίνησις meant ‘mobilization’ (1.1). Keywords: Delos, oracles, Thucydides, Herodotus, earthquakes, Peloponnesian War * jsr5@cornell.edu. I am indebted to Caitlín Barrett for alerting me to the importance of Delian archaeology and geology to this question; subsequently Oren Falk, Simon Hornblower, Cynthia King, Sturt Manning, Hayden Pelliccia, Courtney Roby and the anonymous referees for this journal offered helpful suggestions. 1 Notably when he denies the existence of Pitanates Lochos or the extra votes of the kings at Sparta (1.20.3; cf. Hdt 6.57.5, 9.53); or omits information that Herodotus thinks is significant, for example Thuc. 2.2.1 with Hdt. 7.233 on the role of the father of Eurymachus at Thermopylae and the son’s murder at Plataea or Thuc. 2. 67.4 with Hdt. 7. 137 on the background of the killing of Aristeus by the Athenians. On a few occasions it appears not that Thucydides responds to Herodotus, but that each is responding to the other or even that Herodotus already knows and rejects a position that Thucydides will accept (notably Minos: Thuc. 1.4 versus Hdt. 3.122.1; see Irwin (2007); Hornblower (2011)). For others, see Hornblower (1996) 37, 123 and the extensive list 139–45; Stadter (2012). Thucydides closes his survey of public opinion on the eve of the Peloponnesian War with this statement (2.8.3): ... ἔτι δὲ Δῆλος ἐκινήθη ὀλίγον πρὸ τούτων, πρότερον οὔπω σεισθεῖσα ἀφ’ οὗ Ἕλληνες μέμνηνται ... and moreover, Delos was moved a little before these events, although it had never before been shaken in Greek memory. As is well known, Δῆλος ἐκινήθη duplicates an expression of Herodotus (6.98.4) appended to the account of the Persian admiral Datis’ stop at Delos on his way to Marathon in 490: μετὰ δὲ τοῦτον ἐνθεῦτεν ἐξαναχθέντα Δῆλος ἐκινήθη, ὡς ἔλεγον οἱ Δήλιοι, καὶ πρῶτα καὶ ὕστατα μέχρι ἐμέο σεισθεῖσα after his [Datis’] setting sail from there, Delos was moved, as the Delians said, shaken for the first time and, up to my own day, the last This seems to be one of those occasions when Thucydides, without mentioning Herodotus by name, makes a ‘correcting’ reference to his text. 1 In the case of the Delian earthquake, the nature