1.40

From inside the whale they see an incredible sea battle with islands as ships.

τῷ δ᾿ ἐνάτῳ μηνὶ πέμπτῃ ἱσταμένου (sc. μηνός): "in the ninth month on the fifth day from the beginning (of the month)" (S. 1540; G. 527c). The verb ἵστημι is used for marking the beginning of a month or season (see LSJ B III.4).

ἅπαξ...κατὰ τὴν ὥραν: "once an hour." 

ὥστε ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὰς ἀνοίξεις τεκμαίρεσθαι τὰς ὥρας: "so that we could mark time by the openings" (S. 2251 and 2260).

ὥσπερ κελεύσματα: "something like commands."

ταραχθέντες: aor. pass. part. of ταράττω, "becoming excited."

ἀνειρπύσαμεν: aor. of ἀνερπύζω, "we crept up."

αὐτὸ τὸ στόμα: "the mouth itself" (S. 1206b).

στάντες ἐνδοτέρω τῶν ὀδόντων: aor. intr. part. of  ἵστημι, "standing quite within the teeth," i.e. standing in the spaces between the teeth or perhaps just behind them.  ἐνδοτέρω is a comparative adverb formed from the adv. ἔνδον and here governs the genitive. See Jerram ad loc.

καθεωρῶμεν: impf. of καθοράω, "we saw."

ἁπάντων ὧν: "of all the things I saw," the relative pronoun is attracted into the case of its antecedent, producing ὧν instead of the expected οὗς (S. 2522a; G. 613b). For the case of ἁπάντων, see S. 1306 and 1315.

ἄνδρας μεγάλους...προσπλέοντας: giant men...sailing forth," accusative in apposition to and further specifying the very unexpected sight (θέαμα).

ὅσον ἡμισταδιαίους τὰς ἡλικίας: "about 100 yards tall" (S. 1600 and 1601b).  A stade is a measure of length representing about 607 English feet (= 600 Greek feet) and so at half a stade in height, these men were about 100 yards tall. ὅσον with numbers means "approximately, about," (LSJ IV.3). 

οἶδα...ἱστορήσων: "I know that I am about to relate" (S. 2106; G. 586 and 660).

μὲν οὖν...λέγω δὲ ὅμως: "certainly...but Ι say it all the same" (for μὲν οὖν in an affirmation, see S. 2901a and Denniston GP 478).

ὅσον ἑκατὸν σταδίων ἑκάστη τὸ περίμετρον: "each one about 100 stades in its circumference," (100 stades = 11.5 miles), (for the acc. of respect, see S. 1600 and 1601b).

ἐπὶ δὲ αὐτῶν ἔπλεον τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐκείνων ἀμφὶ τοὺς εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατόν: "and around 120 of those men were sailing on them." The partitive genitive serves here as the subject of the verb (S. 928b and 1318).

τούτων οἱ μὲν παρ᾽ ἑκάτερα τῆς νήσου καθήμενοι: "some of these men, while sitting along each side of the island."

ἐκωπηλάτουν impf. of κωπηλατέω, "were rowing."

αὐτοκλάδοις: = κλάδοις αὐτοίς, “with branches and all" (S. 1525).

αὐτοκόμοις: = κόμοις αὐτοίς "with leaves and all" (S. 1525).

ὥσπερ ἐρετμοῖς:  "as if oars" (i.e. using the cypress trees for oars).

ὡς ἐδόκει: "as it seemed" (S. 2992).

εἱστήκει: plupf. of ἵστημι, "he stood."

πεντασταδιαῖον τὸ μῆκος: "five stades in length" (i.e. half a mile long) (S. 1600 and 1601b).

ὡπλισμένοι: perf. part. of ὁπλίζω, "having armed themselves."

πάντα ἐοικότες ἀνθρώποις: "resembling human beings in all things" (S. 1600 and 1601c).

αὕτη δὲ πῦρ ἦν: "and this (i.e. their hair) was fire."

ὥστε οὐδὲ κορύθων ἐδέοντο: "so that they didn't have any need for helmets" (S. 2251 and 2274). Jerram suggests that this is a reference to the scene at the opening of Iliad 5 (Iliad  5.4 uses κόρυθος) where Athena makes flames shoot out from the helmet of Diomedes. Lucian is saying that these island dwellers have fire for hair and so regularly create a spectacle like the one Athena made for Diomedes except that these people don't even need the protection of helmets to keep the fire from harming them.

πολλῇ οὔσῃ ἐν ἑκάστῃ (sc. νήσῳ): "which was vast on each island" (see πολύς LSJ Ι.4). 

ἐκόλπου ταύτην: impf. of κολπόω, "was filling this (i.e., forest) like a sail."

ᾗ ἐθέλοι: past general conditional relative clause with optative after a past tense, "wherever (the pilot) wished" (S. 2568).

ἐφειστήκει αὐτοῖς: plupf. of ἐφίστημι, "he was in command over them."

πρὸς τὴν εἰρέσιαν:  "under the sway of the rowing" (see πρός LSJ C.III.7).

ὥσπερ τὰ μακρὰ τῶν πλοίων: "like war galleys." πλοῖα μακρά is a term for war ships that appears in Herodotus and Thucydides. Lucian seems to be using τὰ μακρὰ τῶν πλοίων as a variation on the term (it only appears here according to the TLG).