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Chorus
singing

Demos, you are our all-powerful sovereign lord; all tremble before you, 1115 yet you are led by the nose. You love to be flattered and fooled; you listen to the orators with gaping mouth and your mind 1120 is led astray.

Demos
singing

It's rather you who have no brains, if you think me so foolish as all that; it is with a purpose that I play this idiot's role, 1125 for I love to drink the livelong day, and so it pleases me to keep a thief for my minister. When he has thoroughly gorged himself, 1130 then I overthrow and crush him.

Chorus
singing

What profound wisdom! If it be really so, why! all is for the best. 1135 Your ministers, then, are your victims, whom you nourish and feed up expressly in the Pnyx, so that, the day your dinner is ready, 1140 you may immolate the fattest and eat him.

Demos
singing

Look, see how I play with them, while all the time they think themselves such adepts at cheating me. 1145 I have my eye on them when they thieve, but I do not appear to be seeing them; then 1150 I thrust a judgment down their throat as it were a feather, and force them to vomit up all they have robbed from me.

Knights. Aristophanes. ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.. New York. 1938.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Current edition Experimental

Knights (OCR draft) (English) (English (Anonymous; 1938 compilation). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)

Ἱππῆς Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.) — 1111 focus

Χορός

ὦ Δῆμε καλήν γʼ ἔχεις

ἀρχήν, ὅτε πάντες ἄνθρωποι

δεδίασί σʼ ὥσπερ

ἄνδρα τύραννον.

ἀλλʼ εὐπαράγωγος εἶ,
1115

θωπευόμενός τε χαίρεις

κἀξαπατώμενος,

πρὸς τόν τε λέγοντʼ ἀεὶ

κέχηνας· ὁ νοῦς δέ σου

παρὼν ἀποδημεῖ.
1120

Δῆμος

νοῦς οὐκ ἔνι ταῖς κόμαις

ὑμῶν, ὅτε μʼ οὐ φρονεῖν

νομίζετʼ· ἐγὼ δʼ ἑκὼν

ταῦτʼ ἠλιθιάζω.

αὐτός τε γὰρ ἥδομαι
1125

βρύλλων τὸ καθʼ ἡμέραν,

κλέπτοντά τε βούλομαι

τρέφειν ἕνα προστάτην·

τοῦτον δʼ, ὅταν ᾖ πλέως,

ἄρας ἐπάταξα.
1130

Χορός

χοὔτω μὲν ἂν εὖ ποιοῖς,

εἴ σοι πυκνότης ἔνεστʼ

ἐν τῷ τρόπῳ, ὡς λέγεις,

τούτῳ πάνυ πολλή,

εἰ τούσδʼ ἐπίτηδες ὥσπερ
1135

δημοσίους τρέφεις

ἐν τῇ πυκνί, κᾆθʼ ὅταν

μή σοι τύχῃ ὄψον ὄν,

τούτων ὃς ἂν ᾖ παχύς,

θύσας ἐπιδειπνεῖς.
1140

Δῆμος

σκέψασθε δέ μʼ, εἰ σοφῶς

αὐτοὺς περιέρχομαι

τοὺς οἰομένους φρονεῖν

κἄμʼ ἐξαπατύλλειν.

τηρῶ γὰρ ἑκάστοτʼ αὐτοὺς
1145

οὐδὲ δοκῶν ὁρᾶν

κλέπτοντας· ἔπειτʼ ἀναγκάζω

πάλιν ἐξεμεῖν

ἅττʼ ἂν κεκλόφωσί μου,

κημὸν καταμηλῶν.
1150

Translations (1)

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.) — 1111 focus

Chorus: O Demeas, you have a fine wife.

Chorus: beginning, when all people

Chorus: They fear you just like...

Chorus: A tyrant.

Chorus: But you are easily led.

1115

Chorus: And you rejoice, being flattered.

Chorus: and being deceived,

Chorus: towards the one who always speaks

Chorus: You are astonished; but your mind...

Chorus: He is present but is away on a journey.

1120

Demos: There is no sense in the tresses.

Demus: of you, when I do not think

Demos: Suppose so; but I of my own accord

Demus: I am being foolish about these things.

Demus: for I myself take pleasure

1125

Demos: 'You are full of the daily.'

Demus: I want to steal as well.

Demos: to raise up a single protector;

Demos: but this one, whenever he is full,

Demos: I raised it and struck it.

1130

Chorus: In that case, you would do well,

Chorus: if there is compactness to you,

Chorus: In the manner, as you say,

Chorus: to this man very much,

Chorus: if these [men] on purpose as if

1135

Chorus: You are raising public slaves.

Chorus: in the crowd, and then whenever

Chorus: May it not happen to you that you are a relish,

Chorus: whoever of these is fat,

Chorus: After sacrificing, you dine.

1140

Demos: Consider me, if wisely

Demos: I go around them.

Demos: those who think they are wise

Demos: and he tries to deceive me.

Demos: for I watch them constantly.

1145

Demos: nor do I seem to see

Demos: stealing; then I force

Demos: again vomit

Demos: What they have stolen from me,

Demos: I am making the pumpkin green.

1150

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

1120. mvp-tlg0019-tlg002-sanjaya-com-eng1-92

Line 1120

παρὼν ἀποδημεῖ.

The phrase presents a deliberate paradox (antiphrasis) characteristic of the comic genre, where 'being present' (παρὼν) is juxtaposed with 'going away' (ἀποδημεῖ) to describe the physical absence of the Demos (or the character) from the political stage despite his nominal presence, or conversely, the absurdity of the character's inability to act despite being on stage. In the specific context of the Knights, this likely refers to the Paphlagonian (Cleon) or the Demos himself being metaphorically 'absent' from the reality of the situation due to deception, or it serves as a metatheatrical joke about the actor's temporary exit. The construction relies on the audience understanding the double meaning of 'presence' in the theatrical and political spheres.

Aristophanes Knights 1111

ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.

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Chorus
singing

Demos, you are our all-powerful sovereign lord; all tremble before you, 1115 yet you are led by the nose. You love to be flattered and fooled; you listen to the orators with gaping mouth and your mind 1120 is led astray.

Chorus
singing

What profound wisdom! If it be really so, why! all is for the best. 1135 Your ministers, then, are your victims, whom you nourish and feed up expressly in the Pnyx, so that, the day your dinner is ready, 1140 you may immolate the fattest and eat him.

Current edition Experimental

Commentary

Line 1120

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Chorus singing Demos, you are our all-powerful sovereign lord; all tremble before you, 1115 yet you are led by the nose. You love to be flattered and fooled; you listen to the orators with gaping mouth and your mind 1120 is led astray.

Chorus singing What profound wisdom! If it be really so, why! all is for the best. 1135 Your ministers, then, are your victims, whom you nourish and feed up expressly in the Pnyx, so that, the day your dinner is ready, 1140 you may immolate the fattest and eat him.

Current edition Experimental

Commentary

Line 1120

Stable identifiers

Chorus
singing

Demos, you are our all-powerful sovereign lord; all tremble before you, 1115 yet you are led by the nose. You love to be flattered and fooled; you listen to the orators with gaping mouth and your mind 1120 is led astray.

Chorus
singing

What profound wisdom! If it be really so, why! all is for the best. 1135 Your ministers, then, are your victims, whom you nourish and feed up expressly in the Pnyx, so that, the day your dinner is ready, 1140 you may immolate the fattest and eat him.