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Χορός

λοιδορῆσαι τοὺς πονηροὺς οὐδέν ἐστʼ ἐπίφθονον,

ἀλλὰ τιμὴ τοῖσι χρηστοῖς, ὅστις εὖ λογίζεται.
1275

εἰ μὲν οὖν ἄνθρωπος, ὃν δεῖ πόλλʼ ἀκοῦσαι καὶ κακά,

αὐτὸς ἦν ἔνδηλος, οὐκ ἂν ἀνδρὸς ἐμνήσθην φίλου.

νῦν δʼ Ἀρίγνωτον γὰρ οὐδεὶς ὅστις οὐκ ἐπίσταται,

ὅστις ἢ τὸ λευκὸν οἶδεν ἢ τὸν ὄρθιον νόμον.

ἔστιν οὖν ἀδελφὸς αὐτῷ τοὺς τρόπους οὐ συγγενής,
1280

Ἀριφράδης πονηρός. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν καὶ βούλεται·

ἔστι δʼ οὐ μόνον πονηρός, οὐ γὰρ οὐδʼ ἂν ᾐσθόμην,

οὐδὲ παμπόνηρος, ἀλλὰ καὶ προσεξηύρηκέ τι.

τὴν γὰρ αὑτοῦ γλῶτταν αἰσχραῖς ἡδοναῖς λυμαίνεται,

ἐν κασωρείοισι λείχων τὴν ἀπόπτυστον δρόσον,
1285

καὶ μολύνων τὴν ὑπήνην καὶ κυκῶν τὰς ἐσχάρας,

καὶ Πολυμνήστεια ποιῶν καὶ ξυνὼν Οἰωνίχῳ.

ὅστις οὖν τοιοῦτον ἄνδρα μὴ σφόδρα βδελύττεται,

οὔ ποτʼ ἐκ ταὐτοῦ μεθʼ ἡμῶν πίεται ποτηρίου.

Knights. 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

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

Translations (2)

Knights (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Anonymous; 1938 compilation). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 1274 focus

Leader of the Chorus

An insult directed at the wicked is not to be censured; 1275 on the contrary, the honest man, if he has sense, can only applaud. Him, whom I wish to brand with infamy, is little known himself; 1280 he's the brother of Arignotus. I regret to quote this name which is so dear to me, but whoever can distinguish black from white, or the Orthian mode of music from others, knows the virtues of Arignotus, whom his brother, Ariphrades, in no way resembles. He gloats in vice, is not merely a dissolute man and utterly debauched —but he has actually invented a new form of vice; for he pollutes his tongue with abominable pleasures 1285 in brothels, befouling all of his body. Whoever is not horrified at such a monster shall never drink from the same cup with me.

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.) — 1274 focus

Chorus: To revile the wicked is nothing enviable,

Chorus: But honor belongs to the good, whoever thinks well.

1275

Chorus: if, then, a man, who must hear many evils,

Chorus: He was manifest; I would not have remembered a friend.

Chorus: for now no one who does not know Aeginetus,

Chorus: whoever knows either the white or the upright law.

Chorus: So he is indeed a brother to him in character, but not in kinship,

1280

Chorus: Ariphrades is wicked. But this he does indeed wish to do:

Chorus: For he is not only wicked, for I would not even have noticed him,

Chorus: Not at all base, but he has even discovered something.

Chorus: for he corrupts his own tongue with shameful pleasures,

Chorus: licking the execrable dew in the ovens,

1285

Chorus: both defiling the buttocks and roasting the griddles,

Chorus: and making Poly mnesteia and associating with Oionichos.

Chorus: whoever, then, does not hate such a man very much,

Chorus: Never will he drink from the same cup with us.

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

1279. mvp-tlg0019-tlg002-sanjaya-com-eng1-103

Line 1279

ὅστις ἢ τὸ λευκὸν οἶδεν ἢ τὸν ὄρθιον νόμον.

The phrase τὸν ὄρθιον νόμον is a specific political idiom referring to the 'straight' or 'upright' law, a term of art in Athenian democracy that contrasted with the 'crooked' laws of demagoguery or private interest. Here, it specifically alludes to the legal reforms of Ephialtes and Pericles which stripped the Areopagus of its powers, a central theme in the play's satire of the demagogue Cleon. The juxtaposition of 'knowing the white' (a likely reference to the white stone used for acquittal or the white robes of the judges, though the exact referent is debated) with this specific legal terminology creates a riddle-like challenge to the audience's knowledge of the current political climate.

1285. mvp-tlg0019-tlg002-sanjaya-com-eng1-104

Line 1285

ἐν κασωρείοισι λείχων τὴν ἀπόπτυστον δρόσον,

The participle λείχων (licking) is used here with a specific comic grotesqueness to describe the Demagogue's servile consumption of the 'dew' (dross or refuse) of the state, echoing the imagery of a dog or beast. This verb is rarely used in such a visceral, degrading context in high tragedy, marking a deliberate Aristophanic choice to collapse the boundary between the political elite and the lowest animalistic instincts.

1287. mvp-tlg0019-tlg002-sanjaya-com-eng1-105

Line 1287

καὶ Πολυμνήστεια ποιῶν καὶ ξυνὼν Οἰωνίχῳ.

The phrase 'καὶ Πολυμνήστεια ποιῶν καὶ ξυνὼν Οἰωνίχῳ' presents a significant crux regarding the identity and grammatical function of the proper nouns. While 'Οἰωνίχῳ' is the dative of 'Οἰωνίχης' (a known figure, often identified as a comic poet or a specific type of seer), 'Πολυμνήστεια' is problematic. It appears to be a coined adjective or a proper noun in the accusative, yet it lacks clear attestation in standard lexica outside this specific Aristophanic context. The construction 'ποιῶν ... ξυνὼν' (doing/making ... and being together with) suggests a parallel action, but the semantic link between 'Poly Mnesteia' (perhaps 'much wooing' or a pun on the name 'Poly' and 'Mnesteia') and the dative 'Oionichō' is obscure. Some editors have conjectured 'Πολυμνήστει' (dative) to match 'ξυνὼν', while others argue for 'Πολυμνήστεια' as a substantive (e.g., 'the Poly Mnesteia' or a specific type of dance or ritual). The lack of parallel usage and the potential for a pun on 'μνᾶ' (weight) or 'μνᾶ' (memory) versus 'μνᾶ' (wooing) makes this a genuine lexical and syntactical difficulty requiring specific commentary on the textual variants and the intended wordplay.

Aristophanes Knights 1274

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