Aristophanes Clouds 889-1104

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.) — 889 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.) — 889 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 911b

καὶ πατραλοίας.
The term πατραλοίας (patraloias) is a hapax legomenon in the surviving corpus of Aristophanes, appearing only here in Clouds (line 1027). Derived from πατήρ (father) and ἄλοχος (wife/mistress), it denotes a specific type of parricide or the act of killing one's father, often with the connotation of a son usurping the father's authority or position. In the context of the play, where the Unjust Argument is corrupting the young Strepsiades, this word functions as a concise, shocking label for the ultimate moral inversion being taught: the son's rebellion against the patriarchal order. Its rarity and the compound's structure warrant noting that it encapsulates the play's central anxiety about the breakdown of traditional family hierarchy under the influence of sophistry.

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Line 922

Τήλεφος εἶναι Μυσὸς φάσκων,
The sentence presents a crux in textual transmission regarding the attribution of the participle φάσκων. While the majority of manuscripts (e.g., codex A) read φάσκων ("claiming"), some scholia and earlier editors have suggested φάσας or an emendation to φάσκοντος to align with the expected genitive absolute or nominative construction depending on the preceding context. However, in this specific fragment from the parabasis or a dialogue, the nominative φάσκων functions as a direct appositive to Τήλεφος, creating a compressed narrative style where the participle carries the weight of a reported speech act without an explicit verb of saying. This usage of the present participle φάσκων as a narrative device to introduce a character's self-identification is distinct from the more common aorist or imperfect forms found in similar biographical introductions in Old Comedy.

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Line 923

ἐκ πηριδίου
The form πηριδίου is a rare Attic dialectal variant of πηριδίου (genitive of πηρίδιον, 'little pitcher'), often appearing in Aristophanic comedy to reflect colloquial or rustic speech. While the standard Attic form is πηρίδιον, the variant with -ρι- (instead of -ρι-) is attested in several comic texts and reflects a specific phonological feature of the period, possibly indicating a Doric or Boeotian influence in the character's speech or a deliberate comic distortion.

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Line 924

γνώμας τρώγων Πανδελετείους.
The phrase γνώμας τρώγων is a striking metaphorical usage where 'gnōmai' (maxims, opinions, or legal decisions) are treated as food. This reflects the Aristophanic caricature of the Sophists, specifically the character of Socrates in the play, as someone who consumes and digests abstract intellectual concepts rather than engaging in traditional civic or physical activities. The verb τρώγω (to gnaw, bite) suggests a voracious, perhaps undigested, or superficial consumption of these ideas, aligning with the play's satire of the new education.
The adjective Πανδελετείους refers to the people of Pandelea, a small deme or locality. In this context, it is likely a specific reference to a group of Sophists or intellectuals associated with that place, or potentially a pun on the name 'Pandeleus' (all-seeing or all-giving) if the text is corrupted or punning. However, the primary significance is the allusion to the specific circle of thinkers Aristophanes is targeting, possibly linking them to a specific geographical or social origin to mock their foreign or unconventional nature.

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Line 938

ἀντιλεγόντοιν κρίνας φοιτᾷ.
The verb φοιτᾷ (third person singular) appears with two dative agents, ἀντιλεγόντοιν, which is an unusual construction for this verb. While φοιτᾷ usually takes a simple dative of place or a prepositional phrase, the presence of two dative pronouns in the dual form suggests a specific syntactic pattern where the subject is the one who goes back and forth between two opposing parties. This construction is rare in Aristophanes and may reflect a colloquial or comedic usage to emphasize the dual nature of the debate.

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Line 949

νῦν δείξετον τὼ πισύνω τοῖς περιδεξίοισι
The sentence exhibits the distinctive Doric dialect of the Chorus of Clouds, specifically the dual number forms (τὼ, περιδεξίοισι) and the Doric genitive plural ending (-οισι) instead of the Attic -οις. While the dual is used for the 'right and left' hands (or wings), the use of the Doric dative plural ending -οισι for the instrumental case (or dative of respect) is a marked metrical and dialectal feature consistent with Aristophanes' imitation of the high, archaic style of Pindaric odes for this supernatural chorus, distinguishing it from the Attic Greek of the characters.

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Line 962

ὅτʼ ἐγὼ τὰ δίκαια λέγων ἤνθουν καὶ σωφροσύνη ʼνενόμιστο.
The verb ἤνθουν (aorist of ἀνθέω) is used here in a specialized metaphorical sense to describe the flourishing or blooming of the speaker's reputation and rhetorical success, a usage characteristic of the comic genre's hyperbolic personification of abstract qualities. While the verb literally means 'to flower,' its application to the abstract concept of speaking 'just things' (τὰ δίκαια) creates a synesthetic image of moral argumentation taking visible, organic form, distinct from standard prose usage where such a metaphor would be more restrained.

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Line 970

οἵας οἱ νῦν τὰς κατὰ Φρῦνιν ταύτας τὰς δυσκολοκάμπτους,
The phrase 'τὰς κατὰ Φρῦνιν' is a specific topographical reference to the Phrynion, a deme of Attica (sometimes identified with the hill or the precinct of Phryne, though here likely the deme itself). In the context of the *Clouds*, this reference serves as a pointed geographical allusion to the location where the 'New Academy' or the circle of Socrates was active, or perhaps more specifically to the 'Phrygian' or 'foreign' elements associated with the deme's reputation for unorthodox teaching. The use of 'κατὰ' here implies 'in the vicinity of' or 'belonging to,' grounding the abstract critique of 'difficult-to-bend' (duskolakaptous) individuals in a concrete, locally understood setting that would have been immediately recognizable to an Athenian audience as a hub for the intellectual ferment Aristophanes is satirizing.

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Line 971

ἐπετρίβετο τυπτόμενος πολλὰς ὡς τὰς Μούσας ἀφανίζων.
The participle ἀφανίζων ('destroying' or 'causing to vanish') is a future active participle functioning with a causal or consequential force, yet it lacks an explicit subject in the main clause. While τυπτόμενος ('being beaten') clearly refers to Socrates, the subject of ἀφανίζων is ambiguous: it could theoretically refer to the blows themselves or, more likely in the context of the play's satire, to Socrates' rhetorical methods which the chorus suggests are so powerful they 'destroy' the Muses. This ambiguity is characteristic of Aristophanic irony, where the physical violence and the intellectual 'destruction' are conflated.

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Line 985

καὶ Κηκείδου καὶ Βουφονίων.
The text presents a crux regarding the identity of these two figures. 'Kek[e]idous' is almost certainly a corruption of 'Kek[e]idous', referring to the comic poet Cephisodorus (or potentially a confusion with the tragic poet Cephisodorus, son of Euphorion), but the manuscript tradition here is notoriously unstable, with some editors conjecturing 'Kephisodorus' or 'Cephisodorus' to make sense of the pairing. 'Bouphonion' is not a standard name but likely a corruption or a rare epithet; some scholars suggest it refers to the 'Bouphonia' (the ox-slaying festival) as a metonym for a specific priest or participant, while others argue it is a corruption of a name like 'Boupalos' or 'Boupalos'. The pairing of a comic poet with a festival name or obscure figure suggests a specific, lost context within the play's satire of intellectual fads, possibly mocking the absurdity of naming conventions in the 'Thinkery' or the pretensions of specific contemporary figures. The lack of clear identification for 'Bouphonion' makes this a genuine textual and historical puzzle requiring conjecture.

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Line 986

ἐξ ὧν ἄνδρας Μαραθωνομάχας ἡμὴ παίδευσις ἔθρεψεν.
The phrase ἄνδρας Μαραθωνομάχας serves as a specific historical synecdoche, referring not merely to 'men who fought at Marathon' but to the generation of Athenians born before the Persian Wars (c. 490 BCE) who were the direct victors of that conflict and the subsequent defenders of the city. By contrasting these men with the 'new education' (παίδευσις) of the Sophists and Socrates which the Clouds satirize, Aristophanes creates a sharp generational polemic: the old, natural education produced the defenders of the empire, while the new, artificial education (represented by the Stranger's arguments) produces the rhetorical sophists and corrupt youth of the 420s BCE.

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Line 997

μήλῳ βληθεὶς ὑπὸ πορνιδίου τῆς εὐκλείας ἀποθραυσθῇς·
The phrase ὑπὸ πορνιδίου ('by a little whore') is a striking example of Aristophanic grotesque humor and semantic degradation, where the abstract concept of εὐκλείας ('reputation' or 'glory') is personified or associated with a lowly prostitute to depict the fall of the wise man. The construction βληθεὶς ὑπὸ πορνιδίου functions as a causal participle modifying the subject of the optative ἀποθραυσθῇς, suggesting a violent, almost mythological assault where the abstract 'glory' is the agent of the physical 'breaking' (ἀποθραυσθῇς) caused by the mundane and shameful 'little whore'. This specific combination of high abstract noun and low concrete noun, mediated by a violent passive participle, is a hallmark of the play's satirical attack on the Sophists, reducing their intellectual pursuits to a farcical scene of physical and moral corruption.

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Line 999

μνησικακῆσαι τὴν ἡλικίαν ἐξ ἧς ἐνεοττοτροφήθης.
The compound verb μνησικακῆσαι (to bear a grudge) is a hapax legomenon in the surviving corpus of Attic comedy, formed with the prefix μνησ- (from μνάομαι, to remember) and κακ- (from κακός, evil/bad). Its formation mirrors the Homeric μνησικακία (grudge-holding), but the verbal form here represents a specific Aristophanic coinage that emphasizes the active, volitional nature of holding a grudge against one's 'age' or 'generation' (τὴν ἡλικίαν). The accusative τὴν ἡλικίαν is personified, functioning as the object of the grudge, while the relative clause ἐξ ἧς ἐνεοττοτροφήθης (from which you were recently nurtured) employs the rare and archaic verb ἐνεοττοτρέφω (to be newly nurtured), a compound of ἐν- and τρέφω with the intensifying prefix ἐ- and the root νεο-, suggesting a fresh or recent upbringing. This construction highlights the irony of the character resenting the very generation that raised him, a thematic device common in Aristophanes' satire of the Sophistic generation.

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Line 1001

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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Line 1003

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.

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Line 1022

καὶ πρὸς τούτοις τῆς Ἀντιμάχου
The genitive construction τῆς Ἀντιμάχου is elliptical, relying on the implied noun (likely ὁμολογία, 'agreement' or 'pact', or perhaps a reference to a specific text or decree) rather than the explicit noun 'Antimachus'. This usage reflects the colloquial, compressed style of Aristophanic dialogue where the specific legal or contractual term is omitted because the context of the preceding argument (likely involving a dispute or a reference to a specific legal document) makes the meaning clear to the audience. The reference is to Antimachus of Colophon, a figure whose name might evoke a specific legal precedent or a well-known literary work in the Athenian cultural memory, though the exact nature of the 'agreement' or 'document' is left for the reader to infer from the immediate dramatic context.

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Line 1030

τῶν προτέρων†· πρὸς τάδε σʼ ὦ κομψοπρεπῆ μοῦσαν ἔχων,
The text presents a significant crux at the end of the first hemistich: τῶν προτέρων†. The critical symbol (†) indicates that the transmitted text is corrupt or incomplete at this point. The phrase 'of the former' lacks a governing verb or clear syntactic connection to the following address to the Muse, creating a logical gap. Scholars have proposed various conjectures to fill the lacuna, ranging from emending the text to restoring a lost verb of comparison or attribution, as the current reading leaves the thought hanging and syntactically disjointed from the imperative 'ἔχων' (having) that follows.

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Line 1061

ἐπεὶ σὺ διὰ τὸ σωφρονεῖν τῷ πώποτʼ εἶδες ἤδη
The construction πώποτ' εἶδες ἤδη presents a notable semantic tension: the negative indefinite pronoun πώποτε (never) is reinforced by the negative prefix in the compound πώποτ' (a crasis of πώποτε), yet it is immediately modified by ἤδη (already). This creates an ironic hyperbole where Strepsiades claims he has 'never yet' seen something, while the particle ἤδη suggests the event is on the verge of happening or is being presented as a culmination of a long wait. The syntax relies on the colloquial intensification common in Old Comedy, where the 'never' is not absolute negation but a rhetorical device to heighten the absurdity of the situation (that he has never seen a cloud before despite living in Athens).

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Line 1099

τοὺς εὐρυπρώκτους· τουτονὶ
The phrase τοὺς εὐρυπρώκτους is a notorious crux at Clouds 960. The adjective εὐρυπρώκτους (wide-hipped) is unique to this passage in Aristophanes, though it alludes to a known comic stereotype of the 'broad-hipped' Socratics or philosophers, contrasting with the 'thin-hipped' (συνωπώκτους) of the preceding line in some manuscripts. The textual tradition is divided: some mss. read εὐρυπρώκτους, others εὐρυπρωκτίους or even εὐρυπρωκτίοις, and the scholia suggest a possible corruption from εὐρυπρωκτίους (wide-hipped ones) to a form that might have been misread or emended. The demonstrative τοῦτονὶ (this one here) refers to the specific figure being mocked, likely Strepsiades or a generic philosopher, but the exact referent is debated due to the surrounding context of the trial scene. The phrase is syntactically anomalous as a direct address or exclamation without a clear verb, suggesting a dramatic interruption or a fragmentary delivery.