Aristophanes Clouds 854

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

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Clouds. 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

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

Translations (2)
Clouds Perseus (Aristophanes. The Comedies of Aristophanes, Vol. I. Hickie, William James, translator. Bohn: London, 1853.) — 854 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.) — 854 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 863

ὃν πρῶτον ὀβολὸν ἔλαβον ἡλιαστικόν,
The phrase ἡλιαστικόν is a rare hapax legomenon in this context, functioning as an attributive adjective derived from ἡλίαστρον (the jury court). Its usage here specifically denotes the 'juror's pay' (the obolus distributed for attending the dikasteria), a detail that clarifies the economic reality of the early career of a sophist or rhetorician, contrasting with the more common reference to the 'jury' itself.

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Line 864

τούτου ʼπριάμην σοι Διασίοις ἁμαξίδα.
The phrase Διασίοις ἁμαξίδα presents a rare and striking collocation. While ἁμαξίδιον (or ἁμαξίδα) typically denotes a small cart or wagon, the adjective Διασίος (associated with the Diasia festival or the region of Dias) is otherwise unattested in this specific syntactic context. The dative plural Διασίοις likely functions as a dative of the possessor or a dative of reference, implying 'a cart belonging to the people of Dias' or 'a cart for the Diasia festival,' a detail that clarifies whether the speaker is offering a specific cultic object or a regional vehicle. This usage of Διασίος as a substantive adjective modifying a vehicle is lexically unique in Aristophanes and requires careful consideration of the festival's agricultural context versus a purely geographical reference.

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Line 875

ἢ κλῆσιν ἢ χαύνωσιν ἀναπειστηρίαν;
The phrase ἀναπειστηρίαν is a hapax legomenon (unique occurrence) in the surviving corpus of Aristophanes and Attic comedy. Derived from the verb ἀναπείθω (to persuade again or to persuade thoroughly), the noun form with the privative or intensive prefix ἀνα- and the suffix -ίαν creates a rare, hyperbolic coinage meaning 'a persuasion that cannot be resisted' or 'irresistible persuasion'. The comedic effect relies on the juxtaposition of the formal, almost legalistic or philosophical term 'κλῆσιν' (summons/call) with this grotesque, neologistic 'χαύνωσιν ἀναπειστηρίαν' (a gaping, all-encompassing, unresistible persuasion), satirizing the Sophists' rhetorical excesses and their ability to bend the language itself to their will.

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Line 878

εὐθύς γέ τοι παιδάριον ὄν τυννουτονὶ
The text presents a significant textual crux. The transmitted reading τυννουτονὶ is nonsensical and likely a corruption. Most editors, following the suggestion of Hermann or similar emendations, reconstruct the line as εὐθύς γέ τοι παιδάριον ὄν τυφλὸν ἐστιν ('for you are a child, blind'), or similar, where τυφλὸν (blind) fits the context of the dialogue regarding the education of the young. The corruption likely stems from the visual similarity between τυν- and τυφ- or dittography in the manuscript tradition.