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DICAEOPOLIS

Peace, profane men! Let the basket-bearer¹ come forward, and thou Xanthias, hold the phallus well upright.²

WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS

Daughter, set down the basket and let us begin the sacrifice.

DAUGHTER OF DICAEOPOLIS

Mother, hand me the ladle, that I may spread the sauce on the cake.

DICAEOPOLIS

It is well! Oh, mighty Bacchus, it is with joy that, freed from military duty, I and all mine perform this solemn rite and offer thee this sacrifice; grant that I may keep the rural Dionysia without hindrance and that this truce of thirty years may be propitious for me.

WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS

Come, my child, carry the basket gracefully and with a grave, demure face. Happy he, who shall be your possessor and embrace you so firmly at dawn,³ that you belch wind like a weasel. Go forward, and have a care they don't snatch your jewels in the crowd.

DICAEOPOLIS

Xanthias, walk behind the basket-bearer and hold the phallus well erect; I will follow, singing the Phallic hymn; thou, wife, look on from the top of the terrace.⁴ Forward!

Acharnians. Aristophanes. Anonymous (Translator). New York. 192?.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Current edition Experimental

Acharnians (OCR draft) (English) (English (Anonymous; Liveright, 192?). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)

Ἀχαρνῆς Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.) — 241-279 focus

Δικαιόπολις

εὐφημεῖτε, εὐφημεῖτε.

προΐτω σʼ τὸ πρόσθεν ὀλίγον ἡ κανηφόρος·

ὁ Ξανθίας τὸν φαλλὸν ὀρθὸν στησάτω.

κατάθου τὸ κανοῦν ὦ θύγατερ, ἵνʼ ἀπαρξώμεθα.

Θυγάτηρ

ὦ μῆτερ ἀνάδος δεῦρο τὴν ἐτνήρυσιν,
245

ἵνʼ ἔτνος καταχέω τοὐλατῆρος τουτουί.

Δικαιόπολις

καὶ μὴν καλόν γʼ ἔστʼ· ὦ Διόνυσε δέσποτα

κεχαρισμένως σοι τήνδε τὴν πομπὴν ἐμὲ

πέμψαντα καὶ θύσαντα μετὰ τῶν οἰκετῶν

ἀγαγεῖν τυχηρῶς τὰ κατʼ ἀγροὺς Διονύσια,
250

στρατιᾶς ἀπαλλαχθέντα· τὰς σπονδὰς δέ μοι

καλῶς ξυνενεγκεῖν τὰς τριακοντούτιδας.

ἄγʼ ὦ θύγατερ ὅπως τὸ κανοῦν καλὴ καλῶς

οἴσεις βλέπουσα θυμβροφάγον. ὡς μακάριος

ὅστις σʼ ὀπύσει κἀκποιήσεται γαλᾶς
255

σοῦ μηδὲν ἥττους βδεῖν, ἐπειδὰν ὄρθρος ᾖ.

πρόβαινε, κἀν τὤχλῳ φυλάττεσθαι σφόδρα

μή τις λαθών σου περιτράγῃ τὰ χρυσία.

ὦ Ξανθία, σφῷν δʼ ἐστὶν ὀρθὸς ἑκτέος

ὁ φαλλὸς ἐξόπισθε τῆς κανηφόρου·
260

ἐγὼ δʼ ἀκολουθῶν ᾄσομαι τὸ φαλλικόν·

σὺ δʼ ὦ γύναι θεῶ μʼ ἀπὸ τοῦ τέγους. πρόβα.

263

Δικαιόπολις

Φαλῆς ἑταῖρε Βακχίου

ξύγκωμε νυκτοπεριπλάνητε

μοιχὲ παιδεραστά,
265

ἕκτῳ σʼ ἔτει προσεῖπον ἐς

τὸν δῆμον ἐλθὼν ἄσμενος,

σπονδὰς ποιησάμενος ἐμαυτῷ,

πραγμάτων τε καὶ μαχῶν

καὶ Λαμάχων ἀπαλλαγείς.
270

πολλῷ γάρ ἐσθʼ ἥδιον, ὦ Φαλῆς Φαλῆς,

κλέπτουσαν εὑρόνθʼ ὡρικὴν ὑληφόρον

τὴν Στρυμοδώρου Θρᾷτταν ἐκ τοῦ Φελλέως

μέσην λαβόντʼ ἄραντα καταβαλόντα

καταγιγαρτίσʼ ὦ
275

Φαλῆς Φαλῆς.

ἐὰν μεθʼ ἡμῶν ξυμπίῃς, ἐκ κραιπάλης

ἕωθεν εἰρήνης ῥοφήσει τρύβλιον·

ἡ δʼ ἀσπὶς ἐν τῷ φεψάλῳ κρεμήσεται.

Translations (1)

English (Sanjaya, generated; selected passages) (OCR draft) Experimental (Source: pnadelofficial/aristophanes-sanjaya, commit c319590c139e5603e71f0699caa0663d823af8ad. Machine-generated source annotations retained; see Sanjaya import audit for coverage and limitations.) — 241 focus

Dikaiopolis: Hush, hush.

Dikaiopolis: Walk forward a little bit, you basket-bearer.

Dikaiopolis: Let Xanthias set up the phallus erect.

Dikaiopolis: put down the basket, daughter, so that we may make the first offering.

Daughter: Oh childless mother, bring the fire-tongs here,

245

Daughter: so that I may pour out the urine of this man.

Dikaiopolis: And indeed it is fine; O lord Dionysus

Dikaiopolis: I am most grateful to you for this procession.

Dicaeopolis: having sent and having sacrificed with the slaves

Dikaiopolis: 'Bring off the Dionysia in the country successfully.'

250

Dikaiopolis: released from the army; but the truce for me

Dikaiopolis: It is well to bring together the thirty triremes.

Dikaiopolis: Come now, daughter, that the basket may be beautiful and good.

Dicaeopolis: You will carry it, seeing [it], the thyme-eater. How blessed!

Dicaeopolis: Whoever will spy on you and do you a bad turn with milk.

255

Dikaiopolis: Do not fart any less than you, whenever it is morning.

Dikaiopolis: go forward, and watch out very carefully in the crowd.

Dikaiopolis: Let no one steal your gold.

Dicaeopolis: O Xanthias, you two have a straight thing to sell.

Dikaiopolis: The phallus is behind the kanephoros.

260

Dikaiopolis: But I, following along, will sing the phallic song;

Dikaiopolis: But you, woman, jump down from the roof for me. Come down.

Notes on the current edition

Acharnians

1. The maiden who carried the basket filled with fruits at the Dionysia in honour of Bacchus.

2. The emblem of the fecundity of nature; it consisted of a representation, generally grotesquely exaggerated, of the male genital organs; the phallophori crowned with violets and ivy and their faces shaded with green foliage, sang improvised airs, call Phallics, full of obscenity and suggestive double entendres.

3. The most propitious moment for Love's gambols, observes the scholiast.

4. Married women did not join in the processions.

Commentary

Commentary (Sanjaya, generated; selected passages) (OCR draft) (Source: pnadelofficial/aristophanes-sanjaya, commit c319590c139e5603e71f0699caa0663d823af8ad. Machine-generated source annotations retained; see Sanjaya import audit for coverage and limitations.) focus

259. mvp-tlg0019-tlg001-sanjaya-com-eng1-3

Line 259

ὦ Ξανθία, σφῷν δʼ ἐστὶν ὀρθὸς ἑκτέος

The form ἑκτέος is a rare Doric (or Boeotian) variant of the Attic ἑκτός, meaning 'sixth' (specifically here, the sixth day of the month, likely referring to the deadline for the *symmoria* or a specific tax payment, though the exact civic context is debated). The use of the Doric form in a character's speech (Xanthias is a slave) is a marker of his rustic or non-Attic background, a common Aristophanic device, but the morphological form itself is exceptionally rare in Attic comedy outside of this specific metrical and dialectal context.

Aristophanes Acharnians 241

Anonymous (Translator)

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DICAEOPOLIS

Peace, profane men! Let the basket-bearer¹ come forward, and thou Xanthias, hold the phallus well upright.²

WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS

Daughter, set down the basket and let us begin the sacrifice.

DAUGHTER OF DICAEOPOLIS

Mother, hand me the ladle, that I may spread the sauce on the cake.

DICAEOPOLIS

It is well! Oh, mighty Bacchus, it is with joy that, freed from military duty, I and all mine perform this solemn rite and offer thee this sacrifice; grant that I may keep the rural Dionysia without hindrance and that this truce of thirty years may be propitious for me.

WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS

Come, my child, carry the basket gracefully and with a grave, demure face. Happy he, who shall be your possessor and embrace you so firmly at dawn,³ that you belch wind like a weasel. Go forward, and have a care they don't snatch your jewels in the crowd.

DICAEOPOLIS

Xanthias, walk behind the basket-bearer and hold the phallus well erect; I will follow, singing the Phallic hymn; thou, wife, look on from the top of the terrace.⁴ Forward!

Current edition Experimental

Θυγάτηρ

ὦ μῆτερ ἀνάδος δεῦρο τὴν ἐτνήρυσιν,
245

ἵνʼ ἔτνος καταχέω τοὐλατῆρος τουτουί.

Notes on the current edition

Commentary

Line 259

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

DICAEOPOLIS Peace, profane men! Let the basket-bearer 1 come forward, and thou Xanthias, hold the phallus well upright. 2

WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS Daughter, set down the basket and let us begin the sacrifice.

DAUGHTER OF DICAEOPOLIS Mother, hand me the ladle, that I may spread the sauce on the cake.

DICAEOPOLIS It is well! Oh, mighty Bacchus, it is with joy that, freed from military duty, I and all mine perform this solemn rite and offer thee this sacrifice; grant that I may keep the rural Dionysia without hindrance and that this truce of thirty years may be propitious for me.

WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS Come, my child, carry the basket gracefully and with a grave, demure face. Happy he, who shall be your possessor and embrace you so firmly at dawn, 3 that you belch wind like a weasel. Go forward, and have a care they don't snatch your jewels in the crowd.

DICAEOPOLIS Xanthias, walk behind the basket-bearer and hold the phallus well erect; I will follow, singing the Phallic hymn; thou, wife, look on from the top of the terrace. 4 Forward!

Current edition Experimental

Θυγάτηρ ὦ μῆτερ ἀνάδος δεῦρο τὴν ἐτνήρυσιν, 245 ἵνʼ ἔτνος καταχέω τοὐλατῆρος τουτουί.

Notes on the current edition

Commentary

Line 259

Stable identifiers

DICAEOPOLIS

Peace, profane men! Let the basket-bearer¹ come forward, and thou Xanthias, hold the phallus well upright.²

WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS

Daughter, set down the basket and let us begin the sacrifice.

DAUGHTER OF DICAEOPOLIS

Mother, hand me the ladle, that I may spread the sauce on the cake.

DICAEOPOLIS

It is well! Oh, mighty Bacchus, it is with joy that, freed from military duty, I and all mine perform this solemn rite and offer thee this sacrifice; grant that I may keep the rural Dionysia without hindrance and that this truce of thirty years may be propitious for me.

WIFE OF DICAEOPOLIS

Come, my child, carry the basket gracefully and with a grave, demure face. Happy he, who shall be your possessor and embrace you so firmly at dawn,³ that you belch wind like a weasel. Go forward, and have a care they don't snatch your jewels in the crowd.

DICAEOPOLIS

Xanthias, walk behind the basket-bearer and hold the phallus well erect; I will follow, singing the Phallic hymn; thou, wife, look on from the top of the terrace.⁴ Forward!

Θυγάτηρ

ὦ μῆτερ ἀνάδος δεῦρο τὴν ἐτνήρυσιν,
245

ἵνʼ ἔτνος καταχέω τοὐλατῆρος τουτουί.