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Headword: Panta kinêsô petron
Adler number: pi,222
Translated headword: I will move every rock
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
Similar to the [proverb] "move every stone". When Mardonius had been defeated at the battle of Plataea, a rumor took hold that he had buried a treasure in the circuit of his tent and abandoned it. So Polycrates of Athens bought the spot and searched for a long time. As he achieved nothing, he sent and enquired at Delphi, how he might find it. They say that Apollo replied, "Move every stone (li/qon)!" But the [phrase] "to shake every rope" [comes] from a metaphor of those who set in motion the fitments.[1]
Greek Original:
Panta kinêsô petron: homoia têi panta lithon kinei: tou Mardoniou hêttêthentos en Plataiais, phêmê kateichen, hôs en tôi peribolôi tês skênês thêsauron katoruxas apoleloipei. priamenos oun Polukratês ho Athênaios ton topon polun chronon ezêtei. hôs de ouden eperaine, pempsas eis Delphous epêrôta, pôs an heuroi. ton de Apollôna apokrinasthai phasi, panta lithon kinei. to de, panta kalôn seiein, apo metaphoras tôn ta armena kinountôn.
Notes:
This entry uses pe/tron for "stone" in the phrase of the headword rather than li/qon, used originally in the metaphor for moving the decisive playing-piece in the game of pessoi. See pi 223; cf. pi 1384, with notes on this game.
The source of this story of the search for Mardonius' treasure by one Polycrates (here an Athenian; in the shorter version in pi 223 a Theban) in 479 BC is unidentifiable.
[1] This final sentence has nothing to do with this headword. It is a compression of the two unrelated entries in Photius (Lexicon pi165 and pi166 Theodoridis) immediately preceding his entry "to move every stone". The first Photius entry runs, "To shake every rope: a proverb in reference to those who feel complete enthusiasm; it is derived from those loosening the fitments" (probably tied ropes on a ship, see note on pi 221, but cf. the metaphor from a horse's reins at Plato, Protagoras 338E). The Suda text here omits the definition of the proverb and has kinou/ntwn in the sense of setting in motion things that have been fixed or tied, where other entries have xalw/ntwn.
Reference:
J. Fontenrose, The Delphic Oracle: its responses and operations, with a catalogue of responses (Berkeley 1978) 86-87
Keywords: daily life; history; imagery; proverbs; religion; rhetoric
Translated by: Robert Dyer on 4 November 2001@17:57:50.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (added bibliography and keywords; cosmetics) on 12 September 2002@06:54:42.
Robert Dyer (assimilated entry to pi 221) on 18 January 2003@03:13:51.
Ross Scaife ✝ (put tags around betacode in translation field) on 18 January 2003@21:40:33.
David Whitehead (another keyword; cosmetics) on 18 October 2005@06:41:17.
David Whitehead (another keyword) on 28 November 2005@10:37:47.
David Whitehead (tweaks and cosmetics) on 13 August 2013@08:17:37.
David Whitehead (coding) on 21 May 2016@09:45:24.

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