Aristophanes Clouds 510-626

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.) — 510 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.) — 510 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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τἀληθῆ νὴ τὸν Διόνυσον τὸν ἐκθρέψαντά με.
The oath 'νὴ τὸν Διόνυσον' is a distinctive feature of this passage, as Dionysus is rarely invoked as a primary oath-god in Aristophanic comedy compared to Zeus or Heracles. More critically, the epithet 'τὸν ἐκθρέψαντά με' ('who reared me') identifies the speaker as a character who claims to have been raised by the god, a specific biographical detail relevant to the characterization of the 'Clouds' or the specific persona of the speaker (often debated as either Strepsiades' son Pheidippides or the personification of the Clouds themselves in the parabasis context). In the context of the parabasis, the Clouds speak as the chorus of the play, claiming a divine origin and upbringing by Dionysus, which serves to elevate their status and assert their authority over the audience's reception of the play's arguments.

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οὐδὲν ἦλθε ῥαψαμένη σκυτίον καθειμένον
The verb σκυτίον καθειμένον is a technical reference to the specific construction of the 'skyton' (a leather pouch or bottle), which was suspended by a strap (καθειμένον) and used by the wealthy to carry wine or oil. The phrase describes a leather skin that has been stitched up (ῥαψαμένη) and hung down, a detail that contrasts with the 'clouds' of the play who are depicted as doing mundane, domestic tasks like sewing, thereby satirizing the Socratic tendency to naturalize the mundane or to treat abstract concepts with the precision of material goods. The use of the perfect participle ῥαψαμένη emphasizes the completed state of the object, while καθειμένον highlights its suspended position, a specific visual detail relevant to the physical comedy of the scene where the clouds are described as performing household chores.

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ἐρυθρὸν ἐξ ἄκρου παχύ, τοῖς παιδίοις ἵνʼ ᾖ γέλως·
The phrase ἵνʼ ᾖ γέλως ('so that there may be laughter') utilizes the subjunctive ᾖ with ἵνα to express purpose, but the construction is elliptical and idiomatic in Aristophanic comedy. The noun γέλως functions predicatively here, a usage that requires the reader to supply the implied verbal force (e.g., 'to be a source of laughter' or 'to cause laughter'). This specific elliptical construction, where the purpose clause relies entirely on a substantive noun to convey the intended effect without an explicit verb of causing, is a distinctive feature of Aristophanes' comic syntax that distinguishes it from the more explicit purpose clauses found in high tragedy or prose.

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Εὔπολις μὲν τὸν Μαρικᾶν πρώτιστον παρείλκυσεν
The proper name Μαρικᾶν is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanic comedy, referring to the obscure or possibly fictional character associated with the poet Eupolis (or perhaps a specific victim of satire). The form is accusative singular, but the specific identification of 'Marikas' as a character or target of Eupolis is a matter of scholarly reconstruction, as he does not appear in surviving fragments of Eupolis with this name. This likely represents a specific, perhaps lost, play of Eupolis where Marikas was a central figure, or a punning allusion to a contemporary figure whose identity is now obscured. The commentary must address the uncertainty surrounding this figure and the specific play being referenced.

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Φρύνιχος πάλαι πεποίηχʼ, ἣν τὸ κῆτος ἤσθιεν.
The relative pronoun ἣν refers to Φρύνιχος, the male playwright, which is syntactically irregular as Attic Greek typically employs the masculine ὃν for male antecedents. This usage of the feminine form ἣν likely reflects either a dialectal feature of Phrynichus's own style (or the specific dialect of the fragment being quoted), a scribal error influenced by the following neuter noun κῆτος, or a deliberate rhetorical effect by Aristophanes to mock the perceived effeminacy or 'softness' of the playwright's tragic style, a common trope in Old Comedy against older tragedians.

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ἄλλοι τʼ ἤδη πάντες ἐρείδουσιν εἰς Ὑπέρβολον,
The verb ἐρείδουσιν, literally 'lean' or 'rely upon', here carries the specific political connotation of 'supporting' or 'aligning with' a political faction or leader, a usage frequent in Old Comedy but requiring attention to the metaphorical shift from physical support to political allegiance. The construction εἰς Ὑπέρβολον (accusative of direction with εἰς) emphasizes the active movement of these citizens toward Hyperbolus as a focal point, reflecting the volatile, personality-driven nature of Athenian demagogy in the late 5th century.

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τόν τε μεγασθενῆ τριαίνης ταμίαν,
The phrase τριαίνης ταμίαν is a rare and highly specific periphrasis for Zeus. While the epithet μεγασθενῆ ('of great strength') is standard for Zeus, the genitive τριαίνης ('of the trident') is an unusual metonymy in this context. The 'trident' (τριαῖνα) is the distinctive weapon of Poseidon, not Zeus, whose primary attributes are the thunderbolt and aegis. Aristophanes employs this synecdoche here likely for metrical convenience to fit the iambic trimeter or to create a deliberate, slightly jarring comic effect by conflating the attributes of the two major Olympians, or perhaps to allude to a specific local cult or variant tradition where Zeus and Poseidon were associated with the same chthonic or maritime power (e.g., at Athens, where Poseidon and Zeus were sometimes linked in the context of the earth-shaker). However, the most plausible explanation is that the poet is using 'trident' as a generic symbol of 'sea-power' or 'storm-power' to describe the storm Zeus is about to unleash, or it represents a textual corruption where the original might have been related to a more standard Zeus-attribute. The ambiguity of attributing a Poseidonic weapon to Zeus in a serious context, juxtaposed with the comic setting of the Clouds, invites scrutiny of whether this is a deliberate stylistic blunder for humor or a rare, attested syncretism.

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τῇδε τῇ πόλει προσεῖναι, ταῦτα μέντοι τοὺς θεοὺς
The sentence presents a crux regarding the syntactic construction of the infinitive phrase 'προσεῖναι' with the dative 'τῇδε τῇ πόλει'. While the dative of advantage is standard, the specific verbal construction here, coupled with the abrupt particle 'μέντοι' and the ellipsis of the main verb or subject (likely 'δοκεῖ' or 'ἐστίν' implied from the preceding context of the Clouds' speech), creates a syntactic ambiguity characteristic of Aristophanic colloquialism. The phrase functions as a gnomic or rhetorical assertion where the 'μέντοι' introduces a concessive or adversative turn that is syntactically loose, suggesting the speaker is interrupting a formal argument to pivot to divine will, a feature often debated in the transmission of the text where some editors emend the case of 'πόλει' or the position of 'μέντοι' to clarify the intended logical relationship.

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Βάκχαις Δελφίσιν ἐμπρέπων,
The phrase 'Βάκχαις Δελφίσιν' presents a specific textual crux regarding the dative plural forms. While the dative of the noun Βάκκαι (Bacchae) is regularly Βάκχαις, the form Δελφίσιν is a unique poetic contraction or variation of Δελφίσι (from Δελφίς, 'Delphian' or 'Delphic'), where the sigma of the standard dative plural ending -σι(ν) is dropped or assimilated in the metrical context. This construction is not found in standard prose and requires careful attention to the metrical constraints of Aristophanic iambic trimeter versus the Doric or poetic dialectal features often preserved in choral or comic invocations. The epithet 'Delphic' applied to the 'Bacchae' is also semantically complex, as it conflates the Thyiads (Bacchic followers) with the Delphic priestesses or the oracle itself, suggesting a specific allusion to the syncretism of Dionysiac and Apolline worship at Delphi, a theme particularly relevant in the context of the play's critique of Socratic innovation and traditional piety.

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σπένδεθʼ ὑμεῖς καὶ γελᾶτʼ· ἀνθʼ ὧν λαχὼν Ὑπέρβολος
The phrase ἀνθ' ὧν functions as a causal particle meaning 'in return for this' or 'consequently', introducing the specific example of Hyperbolos as the object of the preceding command to 'pour libations and laugh'. The construction relies on the anaphoric neuter plural pronoun ὧν referring back to the collective situation of the chorus's mockery, a usage typical of Aristophanic comedy where the chorus directly addresses the audience or the stage action to validate the satire. The abrupt ellipsis of the verb (e.g., 'he is the one') following Hyperbolos is a deliberate dramatic device, leaving the name hanging to emphasize the absurdity of sacrificing to a man who has become the butt of the joke, thereby reinforcing the comic inversion of religious ritual.

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κατὰ σελήνην ὡς ἄγειν χρὴ τοῦ βίου τὰς ἡμέρας.
The phrase 'κατὰ σελήνην' (according to the moon) is a crucial crux here: it likely represents a corrupt or idiosyncratic reading for 'κατὰ τὴν σελήνην' or, more plausibly in the context of the Clouds' mockery of Socrates, a deliberate absurdity where the moon is personified as a guide. The construction 'ὡς ἄγειν χρὴ' (as one must lead) with the accusative and infinitive following the prepositional phrase creates a syntactic ambiguity: does 'ὡς' introduce a comparative clause of manner ('as one leads') or a result clause ('so as to lead')? In the context of the play, this ambiguity reinforces the Clouds' presentation of Socrates' teachings as a bizarre, pseudo-scientific regimen that treats celestial bodies as navigational instruments for daily life, a point of contention that aligns with the historical caricature of Socrates' alleged 'daimonion' and his focus on natural philosophy.