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Χορός

τῷ γὰρ εἰκὸς ἄνδρα κυφὸν ἡλίκον Θουκυδίδην

ἐξολέσθαι συμπλακέντα τῇ Σκυθῶν ἐρημίᾳ,

τῷδε τῷ Κηφισοδήμῳ τῷ λάλῳ ξυνηγόρῳ;
705

ὥστʼ ἐγὼ μὲν ἠλέησα κἀπεμορξάμην ἰδὼν

ἄνδρα πρεσβύτην ὑπʼ ἀνδρὸς τοξότου κυκώμενον,

ὃς μὰ τὴν Δήμητρʼ, ἐκεῖνος ἡνίκʼ ἦν Θουκυδίδης,

οὐδʼ ἂν αὐτὴν τὴν Ἀχαίαν ῥᾳδίως ἠνέσχετο,

ἀλλὰ κατεπάλαισε μέντἂν πρῶτον Εὐάθλους δέκα,
710

κατεβόησε δʼ ἂν κεκραγὼς τοξότας τρισχιλίους,

περιετόξευσεν δʼ ἂν αὐτοῦ τοῦ πατρὸς τοὺς ξυγγενεῖς.

ἀλλʼ ἐπειδὴ τοὺς γέροντας οὐκ ἐᾶθʼ ὕπνου τυχεῖν,

ψηφίσασθε χωρὶς εἶναι τὰς γραφάς, ὅπως ἂν ᾖ

τῷ γέροντι μὲν γέρων καὶ νωδὸς ὁ ξυνήγορος,
715

τοῖς νέοισι δʼ εὐρύπρωκτος καὶ λάλος χὠ Κλεινίου.

κἀξελαύνειν χρὴ τὸ λοιπόν, κἂν φύγῃ τις ζημιοῦν,

τὸν γέροντα τῷ γέροντι, τὸν νέον δὲ τῷ νέῳ.

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.) — 703 focus

CHORUS

What an injustice that a man, bent with age like Thucydides, should be brow-beaten by this braggart advocate, Cephisodemus,¹ who is as savage as the Scythian desert he was born in! Is it not to convict him from the outset? I wept tears of pity when I saw an Archer² maltreat this old man, who, by Ceres, when he was young and the true Thucydides, would not have permitted an insult from Ceres herself! At that date he would have floored ten orators, he would have terrified three thousand Archers with his shouts; he would have pierced the whole line of the enemy with his shafts. Ah! but if you will not leave the aged in peace, decree that the advocates be matched; thus the old man will only be confronted with a toothless greybeard, the young will fight with the braggart, the ignoble with the son of Clinias;³ make a law that in the future, the old man can only be summoned and convicted at the courts by the aged and the young man by the youth.

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.) — 703 focus

Chorus: for it is likely that a man like Thucydides, who is hunchbacked,

Chorus: to be utterly destroyed, entangled with the wilderness of the Scythians,

Chorus: To this babbling, talkative citizen of the Cephisus-deme?

705

Chorus: So, I, for my part, pitied him and wiped my tears, seeing it.

Chorus: an old man being encircled by a man with a bow,

Chorus: He, by Demeter, that man, whenever he was Thucydides,

Chorus: nor would he have easily endured even Achaea herself,

Chorus: But first, indeed, he wrestled with Euaethlus ten times,

710

Chorus: he would have shouted out three thousand archers, having cried out,

Chorus: he would have shot him with arrows right there, that father's relatives.

Chorus: but since you do not allow the old men to get some sleep,

Chorus: Vote to be separate the indictments, so that it may be.

Chorus: for the old man there is an old and mute advocate,

715

Chorus: to the young men, moreover, is broad-rumped and talkative, and Cleinius as well.

Chorus: And now we must drive [him] out, and even if someone flees, [we must] fine him.

Chorus: the old man for the old man, but the young man for the young man.

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

704. mvp-tlg0019-tlg001-sanjaya-com-eng1-24

Line 704

ἐξολέσθαι συμπλακέντα τῇ Σκυθῶν ἐρημίᾳ,

The aorist infinitive ἐξολέσθαι functions as a complementary infinitive dependent on an implied verb of desire or command (likely ἤθελεν or ἔφη from the preceding context, where the Chorus or a character urges the Scythian to be destroyed or to destroy himself). The construction combines the middle/passive aorist infinitive of ἐξολέθριω (to destroy utterly) with the perfect participle συμπλακέντα (having been entangled/caught up), creating a dense causal-temporal clause: 'to be utterly destroyed having been entangled in the desolation of the Scythians.' The participle συμπλακέντα is particularly striking here; while its root implies physical entanglement (from πλέκω), in this context it metaphorically suggests being ensnared or overwhelmed by the 'desolation' (ἐρημίᾳ) of the Scythian steppe, a topos of barbarian otherness in Aristophanic comedy. The dative ἐρημίᾳ is not merely instrumental but locative-ablative, emphasizing the environment as the agent of entanglement.

Aristophanes Acharnians 703

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

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Commentary

Line 704

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