Aristophanes Acharnians 799

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.) — 799 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.) — 799 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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τί δαί; φιβάλεως ἰσχάδας;
The genitive singular φιβάλεως is an irregular morphological form of the adjective φιβάλης (derived from φιβαλός, 'flax'), which is otherwise unattested in this specific case ending in extant comedy. The form likely represents a comic distortion or a dialectal variation (possibly Boeotian or Doric influence) employed for metrical convenience or to heighten the absurdity of the proposed 'flax-balls' (ἰσχάδας) as a substitute for the usual Athenian olive oil or figs. This construction challenges the reader to recognize the underlying adjective and its rare declension within the context of Aristophanic wordplay on dietary substitutes.

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τὸ μὲν ἅτερον τούτων σκορόδων τροπαλίδος,
The phrase ἅτερον τούτων functions as a substantive neuter singular ('one of these two'), yet is modified by the genitive plural τροπαλίδος ('of the trophy'), a construction that appears syntactically anomalous unless τροπαλίδος is understood as a specific, perhaps ironic, reference to a particular type of garlic or a pun on the 'trophy' of victory (the garlic bulb) in the context of the comic siege. The genitive τροπαλίδος likely relies on the reader's familiarity with the specific agricultural or military metaphor Aristophanes employs here, where the garlic bulb is humorously compared to a trophy of war, a comparison that would not be immediately obvious without context from the surrounding passage where the character is likely mocking the enemy's provisions or the triviality of the 'victory' sought.

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οὕτω μʼ ἀποδόσθαι τάν τʼ ἐμωυτῶ τʼ ἐμωυτῶ ματέρα.
The phrase 'τάν τʼ ἐμωυτῶ τʼ ἐμωυτῶ' exhibits a rare and emphatic reduplication of the possessive adjective 'ἐμωυτῶ' (my own) modifying the accusative 'τάν ... ματέρα' (the mother). While the reflexive possessive is standard, the repetition of the same word immediately before the noun is an unusual rhetorical device in Aristophanes, likely serving to heighten the speaker's distress or to underscore the specific, personal nature of the sacrifice being threatened (that he must give back his own mother, not just any mother). This construction stands in contrast to the more common 'ἐμὴν μητέρα' and draws attention to the grotesque absurdity of the Dicaeopolis's situation in the play.

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θάρρει Μεγαρίκʼ· ἀλλʼ ἧς τὰ χοιρίδιʼ ἀπέδου
The particle ἧς functions as a relative pronoun in the dative case (feminine singular), yet its antecedent is not explicitly stated in the preceding clause. It refers back to the implied 'woman' or 'household' associated with the Megarian women, a syntactic feature common in comedy where the antecedent is recovered from context rather than text. This elliptical construction relies heavily on the audience's knowledge of the Megarian plot (specifically the smuggling of children) to resolve the reference without a nominal antecedent.

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ὦ χοιρίδια πειρῆσθε κἄνις τῶ πατρὸς
The vocative plural of χοῖρος is regularly χοιρίων in Attic, yet Aristophanes uses the Atticized form χοιρίδια here to maintain the diminutive, playful tone appropriate for the characters' address to the pigs. This morphological variation, while not a crux, reflects the comic poet's deliberate play with register and morphology to characterize the speaker's interaction with the animals, a feature rare in serious prose but characteristic of comic diction.