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Χορός

εἰ μέν τις ἀνὴρ τῶν ἀρχαίων κωμῳδοδιδάσκαλος ἡμᾶς

ἠνάγκαζεν λέξοντας ἔπη πρὸς τὸ θέατρον παραβῆναι,

οὐκ ἂν φαύλως ἔτυχεν τούτου· νῦν δʼ ἄξιός ἐσθʼ ὁ ποιητής,

ὅτι τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἡμῖν μισεῖ τολμᾷ τε λέγειν τὰ δίκαια,
510

καὶ γενναίως πρὸς τὸν τυφῶ χωρεῖ καὶ τὴν ἐριώλην.

ἃ δὲ θαυμάζειν ὑμῶν φησιν πολλοὺς αὐτῷ προσιόντας

καὶ βασανίζειν ὡς οὐχὶ πάλαι χορὸν αἰτοίη καθʼ ἑαυτόν,

ἡμᾶς ὑμῖν ἐκέλευε φράσαι περὶ τούτου. φησὶ γὰρ ἁνὴρ

οὐχ ὑπʼ ἀνοίας τοῦτο πεπονθὼς διατρίβειν, ἀλλὰ νομίζων
515

κωμῳδοδιδασκαλίαν εἶναι χαλεπώτατον ἔργον ἁπάντων·

πολλῶν γὰρ δὴ πειρασάντων αὐτὴν ὀλίγοις χαρίσασθαι·

ὑμᾶς τε πάλαι διαγιγνώσκων ἐπετείους τὴν φύσιν ὄντας

καὶ τοὺς προτέρους τῶν ποιητῶν ἅμα τῷ γήρᾳ προδιδόντας·

τοῦτο μὲν εἰδὼς ἅπαθε Μάγνης ἅμα ταῖς πολιαῖς κατιούσαις,
520

ὃς πλεῖστα χορῶν τῶν ἀντιπάλων νίκης ἔστησε τροπαῖα·

πάσας δʼ ὑμῖν φωνὰς ἱεὶς καὶ ψάλλων καὶ πτερυγίζων

καὶ λυδίζων καὶ ψηνίζων καὶ βαπτόμενος βατραχείοις

οὐκ ἐξήρκεσεν, ἀλλὰ τελευτῶν ἐπὶ γήρως, οὐ γὰρ ἐφʼ ἥβης,

ἐξεβλήθη πρεσβύτης ὤν, ὅτι τοῦ σκώπτειν ἀπελείφθη·
525

εἶτα Κρατίνου μεμνημένος, ὃς πολλῷ ῥεύσας ποτʼ ἐπαίνῳ

διὰ τῶν ἀφελῶν πεδίων ἔρρει, καὶ τῆς στάσεως παρασύρων

ἐφόρει τὰς δρῦς καὶ τὰς πλατάνους καὶ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς προθελύμνους·

ᾆσαι δʼ οὐκ ἦν ἐν ξυμποσίῳ πλὴν Δωροῖ συκοπέδιλε,

καὶ τέκτονες εὐπαλάμων ὕμνων· οὕτως ἤνθησεν ἐκεῖνος.
530

νυνὶ δʼ ὑμεῖς αὐτὸν ὁρῶντες παραληροῦντʼ οὐκ ἐλεεῖτε,

ἐκπιπτουσῶν τῶν ἠλέκτρων καὶ τοῦ τόνου οὐκέτʼ ἐνόντος

τῶν θʼ ἁρμονιῶν διαχασκουσῶν· ἀλλὰ γέρων ὢν περιέρρει,

ὥσπερ Κοννᾶς, στέφανον μὲν ἔχων αὖον δίψῃ δʼ ἀπολωλώς,

ὃν χρῆν διὰ τὰς προτέρας νίκας πίνειν ἐν τῷ πρυτανείῳ,
535

καὶ μὴ ληρεῖν ἀλλὰ θεᾶσθαι λιπαρὸν παρὰ τῷ Διονύσῳ.

οἵας δὲ Κράτης ὀργὰς ὑμῶν ἠνέσχετο καὶ στυφελιγμούς,

ὃς ἀπὸ σμικρᾶς δαπάνης ὑμᾶς ἀριστίζων ἀπέπεμπεν,

ἀπὸ κραμβοτάτου στόματος μάττων ἀστειοτάτας ἐπινοίας·

χοὖτος μέντοι μόνος ἀντήρκει, τοτὲ μὲν πίπτων τοτὲ δʼ οὐχί.
540

ταῦτʼ ὀρρωδῶν διέτριβεν ἀεί, καὶ πρὸς τούτοισιν ἔφασκεν

ἐρέτην χρῆναι πρῶτα γενέσθαι πρὶν πηδαλίοις ἐπιχειρεῖν,

κᾆτʼ ἐντεῦθεν πρῳρατεῦσαι καὶ τοὺς ἀνέμους διαθρῆσαι,

κᾆτα κυβερνᾶν αὐτὸν ἑαυτῷ. τούτων οὖν οὕνεκα πάντων,

ὅτι σωφρονικῶς κοὐκ ἀνοήτως ἐσπηδήσας ἐφλυάρει,
545

αἴρεσθʼ αὐτῷ πολὺ τὸ ῥόθιον, παραπέμψατʼ ἐφʼ ἕνδεκα κώπαις

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.) — 507 focus

Chorus
The Chorus moves forward and faces the audience.

Had one of the old authors asked me to mount this stage to recite his verses, he would not have found it hard to persuade me. But our poet of to-day is likewise worthy of this favour; 510 he shares our hatred, he dares to tell the truth, he boldly braves both waterspouts and hurricanes. Many among you, he tells us, have expressed wonder, that he has not long since had a piece presented in his own name, and have asked the reason why. This is what he bids us say in reply to your questions; 515 it is not without grounds that he has courted the shade, for, in his opinion, nothing is more difficult than to cultivate the comic Muse; many court her, but very few secure her favours. Moreover, he knows that you are fickle by nature and betray your poets when they grow old. 520 What fate befell Magnes, when his hair went white? Often enough had he triumphed over his rivals; he had sung in all keys, played the lyre and fluttered wings; he turned into a Lydian and even into a gnat, daubed himself with green to become a frog. All in vain! When young, you applauded him; 525 in his old age you hooted and mocked him, because his genius for raillery had gone. Cratinus again was like a torrent of glory rushing across the plain, up-rooting oak, plane tree and rivals and bearing them pell-mell in his wake. The only songs at the banquet were, 530 “Doro, shod with lying tales” and “Adepts of the Lyric Muse,” so great was his renown. Look at him now! he drivels, his lyre has neither strings nor keys, his voice quivers, but you have no pity for him, and you let him wander about as he can, like Connas, his temples circled with a withered chaplet; the poor old fellow is dying of thirst; 535 he who, in honor of his glorious past, should be in the Prytaneum drinking at his ease, and instead of trudging the country should be sitting amongst the first row of the spectators, close to the statue of Dionysus and loaded with perfumes. Crates, again, have you done hounding him with your rage and your hisses? True, it was but meagre fare that his sterile Muse could offer you; a few ingenious fancies formed the sole ingredients, 540 but nevertheless he knew how to stand firm and to recover from his falls It is such examples that frighten our poet; in addition, he would tell himself, that before being a pilot, he must first know how to row, then to keep watch at the prow, after that how to gauge the winds, and that only then would he be able to command his vessel. If then you approve 545 this wise caution and his resolve that he would not bore you with foolish nonsense,

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.) — 507 focus

Chorus: If indeed any man of the ancient comic teachers [were to accuse] us

Chorus: He compelled them to speak verses, breaking away to the theater,

Chorus: He would not have happened upon this poorly; but now the poet is worthy,

Chorus: that he dares to hate the same men as us and to speak the just things,

510

Chorus: And nobly it advances against the whirlwind and the storm.

Chorus: which things, however, he says many approach him with wonder

Chorus: and he is tormenting us, as if not long ago he had asked a chorus by itself,

Chorus: He ordered us to tell you about this. For the man says

Chorus: He does not linger having suffered this out of folly, but believing

515

Chorus: to be a comic trainer is the most difficult of all tasks;

Chorus: for indeed many have tried to win her, but few have succeeded;

Chorus: recognizing you for a long time as being by nature annual

Chorus: and those of the poets who betray their former selves with old age;

Chorus: knowing this, Magnes, you suffered nothing along with the descending gray hairs,

520

Chorus: He who has set up the most trophies of victory from the opposing choruses;

Chorus: casting every voice at you, and singing, and fluttering

Chorus: both playing the lyre and roasting and dipping in frogs.

Chorus: it was not enough, but ending at old age, for not at youth,

Chorus: He was expelled while being a old man, because he was left without the ability to mock;

525

Chorus: then, remembering Cratinus, who once flowed with great praise

Chorus: It flowed through the open fields, dragging the crowd along.

Chorus: they were wearing the oaks and the plane trees and the enemies as frontlets;

Chorus: It was not possible to sing at the symposium except for Doron, the fig-peeler,

Chorus: and carpenters of sweet-sounding hymns; thus that one flourished.

530

Chorus: Now, seeing him raving, you do not pity him,

Chorus: while the earrings are falling out and the string is no longer present

Chorus: when the nine harmonies yawn; but being old, I flowed around,

Chorus: like Conna, having a wreath, but perished by thirst,

Chorus: He who ought to have been drinking in the Prytaneion because of his previous victories,

535

Chorus: and do not chatter, but look at the fat man near Dionysus.

Chorus: what kinds of rages and insults Crates endured from you,

Chorus: who, feasting you from a small expense, sent you away,

Chorus: from a most cabbagey mouth, they devise the wittiest ideas;

Chorus: And he, however, alone withstood it, at one time falling, at another time not.

540

Chorus: This he always avoided, and besides this he used to say

Chorus: One ought first to become an oarsman before attempting to handle the rudders,

Chorus: And then from here, lead the ship by the prow and lament the winds,

Chorus: And then to steer it for himself. For all these reasons, therefore,

Chorus: that, having acted with sound sense and not foolishly, he prattled,

545

Chorus: take the rudder from him, and row him off to the Eleven with oars

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

529. mvp-tlg0019-tlg002-sanjaya-com-eng1-23

Line 529

ᾆσαι δʼ οὐκ ἦν ἐν ξυμποσίῳ πλὴν Δωροῖ συκοπέδιλε,

The vocative form Δωροῖ is irregular; the standard vocative of the proper name Δῶρος is Δῶρε. This form is attested elsewhere in Attic comedy (e.g., Aristophanes, *Knights* 1333) as a deliberate metrical adjustment or a colloquialism, though some editors have conjectured Δῶρε or treated it as a corruption. The adjective συκοπέδιλε (sycopede) is a rare compound, literally 'fig-shoe,' functioning as a pejorative epithet for a thief or informer who steals figs (a common small-time crime in Athens) or, more broadly, a low-class swindler. The term is highly specific to the social satire of the period, targeting the informer Hyperbolus (or a type of informer) with a pun on his alleged lowly origins or criminal past.

546. mvp-tlg0019-tlg002-sanjaya-com-eng1-24

Line 546

αἴρεσθʼ αὐτῷ πολὺ τὸ ῥόθιον, παραπέμψατʼ ἐφʼ ἕνδεκα κώπαις

The phrase ἐφ' ἕνδεκα κώπαις is a specific idiom for the death penalty by the paddle (or oar), referring to the method of execution carried out by the Eleven (οἱ ἕνδεκα), the Athenian magistrates responsible for executions. The number 'eleven' functions as a metonym for the officials themselves, and 'paddles' (κώπαις) refers to the instrument of torture used to beat the condemned to death, often by drowning or beating on the floor, distinguishing this from the more common 'hemlock' (σικύνη) or the sword. This specific formulation highlights the brutal, bureaucratic nature of the state's violence, contrasting the 'paddle' with the more 'honorable' death by poison.

Aristophanes Knights 507

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

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Commentary

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