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Leader of the Chorus

1300 It is said that the triremes assembled in council and that the oldest spoke in these terms, “Are you ignorant, my sisters, of what is plotting in Athens ? They say that a certain Hyperbolus, a bad citizen and an infamous scoundrel, asks for a hundred of us to take them to sea against Carthage .” 1305 All were indignant, and one of them, as yet a virgin, cried, “May god forbid that I should ever obey him! I would prefer to grow old in the harbor and be gnawed by worms. No! by the gods I swear it, Nauphante, daughter of Nauson, shall never bend to his law; 1310 that's as true as I am made of wood and pitch. If the Athenians vote for the proposal of Hyperbolus, let them! we will hoist full sail and seek refuge by the temple of Theseus or the shrine of the Eumenides. No! he shall not command us! No! he shall not play with the city to this extent! Let him sail by himself for Tartarus, if such please him, 1315 launching the boats in which he used to sell his lamps.”

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

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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.) — 1300 focus

Χορός

φασὶν ἀλλήλαις ξυνελθεῖν τὰς τριήρεις ἐς λόγον,
1300

καὶ μίαν λέξαι τινʼ αὐτῶν ἥτις ἦν γεραιτέρα·

οὐδὲ πυνθάνεσθε ταῦτʼ ὦ παρθένοι τἀν τῇ πόλει;

φασὶν αἰτεῖσθαί τινʼ ἡμῶν ἑκατὸν ἐς Καρχηδόνα

ἄνδρα μοχθηρὸν πολίτην ὀξίνην Ὑπέρβολον·

ταῖς δὲ δόξαι δεινὸν εἶναι τοῦτο κοὐκ ἀνασχετόν,
1305

καί τινʼ εἰπεῖν ἥτις ἀνδρῶν ἆσσον οὐκ ἐληλύθει·

ἀποτρόπαἰ οὐ δῆτʼ ἐμοῦ γʼ ἄρξει ποτʼ, ἀλλʼ ἐάν με χρῇ,

ὑπὸ τερηδόνων σαπεῖσʼ ἐνταῦθα καταγηράσομαι·

οὐδὲ Ναυφάντης γε τῆς Ναύσωνος, οὐ δῆτʼ ὦ θεοί,

εἴπερ ἐκ πεύκης γε κἀγὼ καὶ ξύλων ἐπηγνύμην.
1310

ἢν δʼ ἀρέσκῃ ταῦτʼ Ἀθηναίοις, καθῆσθαί μοι δοκεῖ

ἐς τὸ Θησεῖον πλεούσαις ἢ ʼπὶ τῶν σεμνῶν θεῶν.

οὐ γὰρ ἡμῶν γε στρατηγῶν ἐγχανεῖται τῇ πόλει·

ἀλλὰ πλείτω χωρὶς αὐτὸς ἐς κόρακας, εἰ βούλεται,

τὰς σκάφας, ἐν αἷς ἐπώλει τοὺς λύχνους, καθελκύσας.
1315

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.) — 1300 focus

Chorus: They say that the triremes have come together among themselves for a discussion,

1300

Chorus: And utter one of them which was older;

Chorus: And yet you do not inquire about these things, O maidens, those in the city?

Chorus: They say that one of us is being asked for a hundred [drachmas] to go to Carthage.

Chorus: an evil citizen, a sharp fellow Hyperbolus;

Chorus: and for the reputations, this is terrible and unbearable,

1305

Chorus: and someone to say which of the men had not come closer.

Chorus: They will be far from me, certainly not by me shall they rule ever, but if you wish me to,...

Chorus: Being rotten by the teredo here, I shall grow old in this place.

Chorus: Nor is Nauphantes indeed of the Nausones, by the gods,

Chorus: If indeed I too was grown from a pine and from woods.

1310

Chorus: If these things please the Athenians, I think I ought to sit down.

Chorus: To sail to the Theseion, or upon the solemn gods.

Chorus: For it is not our generals who bore the city.

Chorus: But let him go off alone to the crows, if he wishes,

Chorus: having hauled down the barges, in which he used to sell the lamps.

1315

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

1303. mvp-tlg0019-tlg002-sanjaya-com-eng1-107

Line 1303

φασὶν αἰτεῖσθαί τινʼ ἡμῶν ἑκατὸν ἐς Καρχηδόνα

The use of the middle voice αἰτεῖσθαί (present middle/passive infinitive of αἰτέω) with the preposition ἐς to indicate destination is a marked syntactic feature. While the active αἰτέω typically governs the accusative of the thing asked for and the dative or genitive of the person asked, the middle form here, combined with the directional preposition, suggests a reflexive or self-benefiting nuance: the subject is not merely 'asking for' something to be sent, but is 'seeking for oneself' a passage or a specific outcome directed toward Carthage. This construction is rare in Attic comedy, where the active is standard for simple requests, and it may imply a specific rhetorical stance of the speaker regarding the absurdity or self-interest of the proposed journey.

Aristophanes Knights 1300

ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.

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Line 1303

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