Aristophanes Acharnians 490-625

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

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

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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.) — 490 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.) — 490 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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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.

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οὗτος τί δράσεις; τῷ πτίλῳ μέλλεις ἐμεῖν;
The verb ἐμεῖν is the aorist infinitive of ἔμειναι (to remain, stay), a form found in Attic prose and tragedy but rare in Old Comedy, where the contracted future ἐμείνω or the present ἔμειν is more typical. Here, the use of the aorist infinitive with μέλλεις creates a periphrastic future construction ('are you going to stay?') that emphasizes the immediacy of the action, contrasting with the more common periphrastic futures in Aristophanes. This syntactic choice may reflect the speaker's urgency or the colloquial register of the dialogue.

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ἤδη πεπρέσβευκας σὺ πολιὸς ὢν † ἓν ἢ; †
The phrase ἓν ἢ (one or?) is a textual crux. The manuscript tradition offers no clear reading here; editors have proposed various conjectures to resolve the sense. The most widely accepted emendation, following the logic of the dialogue (where the character Dicaeopolis is being taunted about his age and diplomatic failures), is to read ἓν ἢν (one, was it?) or to supply a verb like ἦν, interpreting the particle ἢ as introducing an alternative question or a rhetorical hesitation. Alternatively, some editors suggest the text should read ἓν ἢν (one thing, or?) implying a specific count of embassies. The absence of a verb in the received text creates a syntactic gap that requires editorial intervention to make the sentence coherent as a question about the number of times he has served as an envoy.