Aristophanes Knights 1390

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

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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.) — 1390 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.) — 1390 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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Line 1391

ἔξεστιν αὐτῶν κατατριακοντουτίσαι;
The verb κατατριακοντουτίσαι is a hapax legomenon, a coined compound formed from κατά, τρία (three), and the suffix -οντουτίσαι (related to τούτεις, 'to throw out' or 'to expel', itself a rare formation). In this context, the Knight asks whether the Demos is allowed to 'throw out three times' (i.e., ostracize or exile) the current leaders. The formation is a comic neologism, typical of Aristophanes' linguistic inventiveness, combining a numerical intensifier with a verb of expulsion to create a hyperbolic sense of repeated expulsion. The term is not attested elsewhere in the corpus and serves as a satirical exaggeration of the democratic practice of ostracism or political purging.

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τὰ κύνεια μιγνὺς τοῖς ὀνείοις πράγμασιν,
The participle μιγνὺς (from μιγνύω) is used with the dative to denote mixing things together, a construction that is less common than the accusative with a preposition (e.g., μετὰ + genitive) in later Attic prose but attested in comedy. More significantly, the phrase presents a deliberate juxtaposition of the 'dog-like' (κύνεια, likely referring to the vulgar or aggressive style of the demagogue or his followers) with the 'donkey-like' (ὀνείοις, suggesting stubbornness or dullness) matters, creating a satirical compound insult characteristic of Aristophanic invective where abstract political behaviors are reduced to animalistic traits.

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Line 1405

ἐς τὴν ἕδραν θʼ, ἵνʼ ἐκεῖνος ἦν ὁ φαρμακός.
The construction ἵν' ἐκεῖνος ἦν (or ἵν' ἐκεῖνος εἴη) with the indicative (or optative) to express purpose is a notable syntactic feature in Aristophanic comedy, diverging from the standard Attic usage where ἵνα strictly governs the subjunctive (or optative in indirect discourse) to denote purpose. Here, the indicative (or potentially an optative form depending on the specific manuscript reading of the verb, though the meaning remains 'in order that he was there') reflects a colloquial or dialectal usage often found in the speech of lower-class characters or in the rapid, colloquial rhythm of the comedy, effectively treating the clause as a statement of fact rather than a pure purpose clause, or perhaps indicating a 'final' sense that has bleached into a causal or explanatory sense ('so that he was the scapegoat').