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καὶ παλαιῷ Λακρατείδῃ τὸ σκέλος βαρύνεται,
The noun Λακρατείδῃ is a patronymic in the dative case, referring to a specific individual, Lacratides, who is identified in the scholia as a notorious Athenian citizen known for his extreme avarice and miserliness. The adjective παλαιῷ (old) likely carries a double meaning here: referring to his advanced age, but more importantly to his long-standing reputation for stinginess. The verb βαρύνεται (is made heavy) functions as a middle/passive form indicating a state of burden; the phrase 'the leg is made heavy' is a colloquial idiom for suffering from a limp or gout, a condition Aristophanes attributes to Lacratides to mock his physical infirmity as a consequence of his miserly lifestyle (e.g., lack of proper exercise or diet). This specific reference relies on contemporary knowledge of Lacratides as a real person, whose name appears in other comedic fragments as a stock character for the 'miserly old man' trope.
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οἷσι παρʼ ἐμοῦ πόλεμος ἐχθοδοπὸς αὔξεται τῶν ἐμῶν χωρίων·
The compound adjective ἐχθοδοπὸς is a hapax legomenon in extant literature, formed uniquely here by Aristophanes from ἐχθρός ('hostile') and δοπέω ('to drive' or 'to lead off'). The coinage creates a vivid, grotesque image of the war 'driving off' or 'leading away' the speaker's land, functioning as a comic hyperbole that personifies the conflict as a thief or herdsman stealing the territory. This lexical innovation exemplifies the poet's tendency to create new compounds for specific satirical effects rather than relying on standard epic or tragic diction.
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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.
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τὴν Στρυμοδώρου Θρᾷτταν ἐκ τοῦ Φελλέως
The phrase identifies a specific historical figure, 'Strymodorus' (Στρυμοδώρου), who is otherwise unknown to us but is here labeled 'the Thracian' (Θρᾷτταν). In the context of the play, this refers to a notorious Thracian archer employed by the Athenians. The genitive 'Στρυμοδώρου' functions as a patronymic, identifying the archer by his father's name, a common convention for identifying mercenaries or non-citizen soldiers in the 5th century. The reference to 'Phelleus' (Φελλέως) is a topographical marker; Phelleus was a deme of Athens located in the coastal region near the sea, which serves to locate where this specific Thracian archer was stationed or recruited from, contrasting with the more inland demes.
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μὴ οὐ καταξαίνειν τὸν ἄνδρα τοῦτον ἐς φοινικίδα;
The verb καταξαίνειν (to cut, tear, or hack) is used here in a comic, hyperbolic sense, referring to the physical mutilation or dismemberment of the character Dikaiopolis (or a specific character depending on the immediate context of the play's action) as a form of punishment or threat. The construction μεν...δε (implied in the rhetorical question's force) or the simple use of the negative particle μεν with the interrogative particle ου creates a strong rhetorical question expecting a negative answer, effectively meaning 'Are we not going to cut this man to pieces?' The use of the preposition ες (instead of the more common εις) with the accusative φοινικίδα (a Phoenician cloak) is notable; it suggests the act of cutting the man *into* the cloak or *into* pieces resembling the cloak, or perhaps a specific reference to the cloak itself being the instrument or target of the violence. The phrase 'cut into a Phoenician cloak' is a metaphorical or literal threat of dismemberment, playing on the idea of reducing a man to the size or shape of a garment, or perhaps a reference to a specific scene where the character is being forced into a ridiculous or humiliating position involving the cloak.
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οἷον αὖ μέλας τις ὑμῖν θυμάλωψ ἐπέζεσεν.
The verb ἐπέζεσεν is the 3rd person singular aorist indicative active of ἐπιζήμεναι (to sit upon), an Attic dialect form of the more common ἐπιζῆν. The form ἐπέζεσεν (with the augment and the -σ- infix characteristic of the aorist of verbs in -ζω) is a clear example of the comic poet's use of archaic or dialectal forms for metrical convenience and comic effect, contrasting with the standard Attic ἐπέζην. This specific aorist form is rare in Attic prose but attested in comedy and epic, and its usage here contributes to the grotesque and slightly archaic tone of the description of the 'thymalōps'.
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† αὐτὸν ὅτι τῷ † τρόπῳ σοὐστὶ φίλος·
The sentence contains two marked textual cruxes indicated by the dagger symbols (†). The first, preceding αὐτὸν, and the second, preceding τρόπῳ, represent gaps or corruptions in the transmitted text that have led to significant scholarly disagreement regarding the original wording. The phrase 'τῷ τρόπῳ' (in what way/manner) is syntactically awkward in this context, and editors have proposed various conjectures to resolve the corruption, ranging from emending the preposition to suggesting a different lexical item entirely. Without resolving these textual issues, the precise semantic force of Dicaeopolis's assertion regarding his friendship with Lamachus remains obscured.
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αὐτός τʼ ἐμαυτὸν ὑπὸ Κλέωνος ἅπαθον
The phrase αὐτός τʼ ἐμαυτὸν presents a rare and emphatic pleonasm (αὐτός + reflexive pronoun) typically found in Aristophanic comedy to underscore the personal agency and victimhood of the speaker against the specific targeting of Cleon. While the reflexive ἐμαυτὸν is standard for the first person, the addition of αὐτός here functions not merely as an intensifier but as a focalizing device, isolating the speaker as the specific object of Cleon's action in a context of political persecution. This construction is syntactically distinct from the more common αὐτὸς ἑαυτόν or simple reflexive usage, highlighting the dramatic irony of the protagonist (Dicaeopolis) claiming personal victimization by the most powerful demagogue in Athens.
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ἀλλʼ ἐξάνοιγε μηχανὰς τὰς Σισύφου,
The imperative ἐξάνοιγε (aorist active, 2nd person singular) is formed with the augment and the -ε ending characteristic of the Attic aorist of verbs in -νυμι (cf. ἄνοιγε). However, the prefix ἐξ- here is not a simple spatial 'out' but implies the 'unveiling' or 'unearthing' of a scheme, a usage reinforced by the genitive object μηχανὰς. The construction relies on the specific semantic range of μηχανή, which here denotes not merely a 'device' but a 'plot' or 'stratagem' (specifically the Sisyphian trick of escaping death or deceiving the gods), a meaning that resonates with the play's broader themes of legal and rhetorical trickery. The reference to Sisyphus is particularly apt in a comedy where the protagonist Dicaeopolis seeks to outwit the state and the chorus through legal loopholes, as Sisyphus was proverbially the 'cleverest' of men, often associated with trickery and evasion of justice.
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The phrase 'τὰ τοῦ τυφλοῦ Φοίνικος' (the things of the blind Phoinikos) alludes to a specific, now lost, comedic scenario or character trait associated with the character Phoinikos in Aristophanes' lost play *The Blind Phoinikos* (or a reference within the extant text to a specific fable or anecdote known to the original audience). While Phoinikos is mentioned elsewhere (e.g., in *The Birds* as a painter), the specific epithet 'blind' and the genitive construction here likely reference a particular joke or plot point where the character's blindness was central to the comedy, possibly involving a misunderstanding of spatial orientation or a trick played upon him. This allusion is not self-evident to modern readers without knowledge of the lost play or the specific comic tradition surrounding this character's disability.
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κεῖται δʼ ἄνωθεν τῶν Θυεστείων ῥακῶν
The phrase ῥακῶν (rakkōn) here refers specifically to the 'rags' of the tragic hero Thyestes, alluding to the mythological scene where he is tricked into eating his own children by his brother Atreus. In the context of the play, this is a satirical reference to the costume worn by the character Dicaeopolis, who has been granted a private peace treaty and is depicted as a tragic figure in rags, ironically comparing his situation to the horrific fate of Thyestes. The reference is not merely to the clothing but to the specific tragic genre and the mythological narrative it evokes, which is central to the comedic inversion Aristophanes is performing.
434.
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The phrase 'μεταξὺ τῶν Ἰνοῦς' presents a syntactic crux regarding the construction of the preposition μεταξὺ. While typically requiring a genitive plural to denote 'among' or 'between' (e.g., μεταξὺ τῶν ἄλλων), the noun Ἰνοῦς is the genitive singular of Ἰνός (a proper name referring to a specific character or perhaps a corrupted form of Ἰνός, the son of Oileus, or a reference to a specific location/person in the play's context). However, the more pressing issue is the identification of the referent: 'Ἰνοῦς' here is widely accepted as a textual corruption or a specific, rare reference to a character named 'Inos' or a topographical marker, but in the context of the Acharnians, it is generally understood as a reference to the 'Ino' (a female figure) or a specific location associated with the Dithyrambic contest or a specific comedic bit. The most significant scholarly debate centers on whether this is a reference to the 'Ino' (a specific character in the play) or a corruption of 'Ἰνούς' (a place name). The phrase is often cited as an example of Aristophanes' playful use of obscure or corrupted proper names for comedic effect, but the exact referent remains a subject of textual criticism, with some scholars suggesting it refers to a specific character or a location that was well-known to the original audience but is now lost to history.
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γλίσχρος προσαιτῶν λιπαρῶν τʼ. Εὐριπίδη
The phrase γλίσχρος προσαιτῶν (stingy beggar) is a deliberate, self-referential pun targeting Euripides, whose tragic characters are famously impoverished or reduced to begging (e.g., Bellerophon, Orestes, or the chorus of the *Suppliants*). Aristophanes exploits the double meaning of γλίσχρος: it describes both the meager nature of the beggar's appeals and the poet's own 'stingy' use of the traditional tragic tropes of poverty, effectively mocking Euripides' alleged tendency to drain the comic stage of its vitality by overusing pathetic, low-status figures.
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ὦ θύμʼ ἄνευ σκάνδικος ἐμπορευτέα.
The noun σκάνδικος (Asparagus) appears here in the genitive without a preposition governing it, functioning as a partitive genitive dependent on the adjective ἐμπορευτέα (to be procured). While the partitive genitive is standard with nouns, its use with an adjective of necessity in this elliptical construction, omitting the implied verb (e.g., 'it is necessary to procure without asparagus'), is a characteristic example of Aristophanic colloquialism that compresses a full predicate into an exclamatory phrase. The text is not transmitted with a significant variant here, but the semantic force relies on understanding the vegetable as a luxury item whose absence defines the speaker's current state of distress or frugality.
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κᾆθʼ οἱ Μεγαρῆς ὀδύναις πεφυσιγγωμένοι
The participle πεφυσιγγωμένοι (perfect middle/passive of πεφυσιγγώ) is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes and a rare formation in the entire corpus, derived from the noun φῦσις (swelling) and the suffix -ιγ- (related to the root of ἴγμι, to swell). Here it functions adjectivally to describe the Megarians as 'swollen with pain' or 'distended by suffering,' a grotesque physical metaphor that characterizes the comic exaggeration of the Megarian famine and the specific rhetorical strategy of depicting them as physically bloated by their misfortunes rather than merely suffering abstractly.
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κἀντεῦθεν ἀρχὴ τοῦ πολέμου κατερράγη
The phrase κατερράγη (aorist middle/passive of καταρράττω) is semantically and syntactically significant here; while the verb typically denotes 'breaking down' or 'crashing' in a physical sense (e.g., waves, walls), its application to the abstract concept of the 'start of the war' (ἀρχὴ τοῦ πολέμου) constitutes a striking metonymy. The verb implies a violent, sudden rupture of the peace, suggesting that the war did not merely begin but was violently inaugurated by the specific action of Dicaeopolis. This usage highlights the comedic distortion of historical causality, where the 'start' is personified as an entity that can be shattered or broken, reflecting the play's central theme of the abrupt and chaotic dissolution of the city's political order.
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τὸ νεώριον δʼ αὖ κωπέων πλατουμένων,
The noun πλατουμένων, a rare future passive participle from πλατύνω (to make broad/widen), is used here with a specific metrical license: the expected future passive participle πλατυσσομένων is replaced by a form that scans as long-short-short, likely a Doric or poetic innovation to accommodate the dactylic rhythm of the parabasis. This construction is attested elsewhere in Aristophanes (e.g., Plutus 463) but remains a distinctive feature of his comic diction, contrasting with the more standard Attic usage.
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βοήθησον ὦ γοργολόφα φανείς,
The epithet γοργολόφα ('swift-footed' or 'swift-eating' depending on interpretation, though in this context almost certainly 'swift-footed' by metonymy or a rare pun on speed) is a striking, non-homeric usage. While Homer regularly uses πόδας ὠκύς or ἴππος ὠκύς, the compound γοργολόφος is unique to this passage in Aristophanes and is widely considered a deliberate comic distortion or a 'barbarism' invented for the specific rhythmic and humorous effect of the scene, where the speaker is likely addressing a character (likely Dikaiopolis or a satyr-figure) in a context of urgent, frantic movement. The word is not attested elsewhere in extant literature, making its morphology and intended sense a crux for understanding Aristophanes' lexical play here.
