Aristophanes Clouds 1000

William James Hickie (Translator)

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Clouds. Aristophanes. William James Hickie (Translator). London. 1853.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Clouds (English) (Aristophanes. The Comedies of Aristophanes, Vol. I. Hickie, William James, translator. Bohn: London, 1853.)

Editions (1)
Νεφέλαι Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.) — 1105-1112 focus
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.) — 1000 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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τοῖς Ἱπποκράτους υἱέσιν εἴξεις καὶ σε καλοῦσι βλιτομάμμαν.
The noun βλιτομάμμαν is a hapax legomenon (or at least an extreme rarity in this specific form) formed from βλίτον (chickpea) and μάμμαν (a colloquial suffix often implying 'lover of' or 'eater of,' comparable to σιτομάμμαν). The term serves as a biting insult in the context of the play, where the character Strepsiades is being mocked for his association with the intellectual pursuits of the Sophists, specifically those who might be seen as feeding on the 'common food' of the populace or, more likely, a play on the 'chickpea-eating' diet of the poor or a specific reference to the dietary habits of a particular group. The suffix -μάμμαν is particularly noteworthy for its colloquial, almost onomatopoeic quality, which contrasts sharply with the high-flown philosophical language of the Clouds, highlighting the play's satirical edge.

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οὐ στωμύλλων κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν τριβολεκτράπελʼ οἷάπερ οἱ νῦν,
The word τριβολεκτράπελ is a compound coinage unique to this passage, constructed by Aristophanes from τρίβω (to rub/wear out), λέκτρον (bed), and ἄπελ (a colloquial or dialectal form of ἄπειμι, to go). The term functions as a vivid, derogatory neologism for a 'bed-wearer' or 'idler' who 'wears out the bed' through idleness, satirizing the specific type of sophist or idle citizen Aristophanes associates with the agora. The morphology is irregular for standard Attic, blending a verbal root with a substantive and a dialectal verb form to create a grotesque, rhythmic insult.