Aristophanes Acharnians 407

ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart

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Acharnians. Aristophanes. ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart. Oxford. 1906.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Ἀχαρνῆς (Greek) (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.)

Translations (2)
Acharnians (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Anonymous; Liveright, 192?). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 407 focus
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.) — 407 focus

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

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τὰ τοῦ τυφλοῦ Φοίνικος;
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.

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μεταξὺ τῶν Ἰνοῦς.
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.