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ἀδελφὸς ὦλεξίκακε τὴν ὁμομητρίαν ἀδελφήν.
The compound verb ὤλεξεν (aorist of ὀλλύναι, 'to destroy') is used here with a double accusative object: the direct object τὴν ὁμομητρίαν ἀδελφήν and the subject of the infinitive clause implied in the context of the speaker's curse. However, the syntax is more specifically an instance of the 'double accusative' construction where the verb ὀλλύναι takes two accusatives, one of the person destroyed and the other of the thing destroyed (or in this case, the relationship itself), though the latter is often elided or absorbed. More critically, the word ὁμομητρίαν is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes and a rare compound (ὁμός + μήτηρ) meaning 'having the same mother', here used substantively to mean 'sister'. The phrase τὴν ὁμομητρίαν ἀδελφήν is thus a pleonasm or emphatic apposition, stressing the specific type of sisterhood (uterine) in a context where the speaker is cursing a brother for destroying his own uterine sister. The construction is syntactically dense and relies on the audience's understanding of the specific familial relationship being targeted.
Clouds. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.