Aristophanes Clouds 1105

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.) — 1105 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

1109. mvp-tlg0019-tlg003-sanjaya-com-eng1-82

Line 1109

οἷον δικιδίοις, τὴν δʼ ἑτέραν αὐτοῦ γνάθον
The phrase οἷον δικιδίοις presents a crux of textual transmission and morphological interpretation. The dative plural δικιδίοις is not a standard Attic form; the expected form for the diminutive of δίκη (δίκιδιον) would typically be δίκιδιοις (with a smooth breathing) or δίκιδιοις. The form here, with the rough breathing implied by the initial delta (if read as δι- rather than δίκι-) or the specific spelling, suggests a corruption or a highly colloquial rendering of the word. More significantly, the syntactic construction οἷον... γνάθον (such [is it]... jaw) is elliptical, requiring the reader to supply the implied predicate (e.g., 'is like' or 'resembles') from the context of the preceding lines where the character is likely mocking a specific physical deformity or legal concept. The use of the diminutive δικιδίοις in a context of mockery is characteristic of Aristophanic comedy, where the diminutive form often carries a tone of derision or belittlement, transforming the serious concept of 'justice' (δίκη) into a trivial object. This specific morphological variant and the elliptical construction challenge the reader to reconcile the grammatical form with the satirical intent.