Aristophanes Clouds 437

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Clouds. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.

Current edition Experimental

English (Sanjaya, generated; selected passages) (OCR draft) (English) (Source: pnadelofficial/aristophanes-sanjaya, commit c319590c139e5603e71f0699caa0663d823af8ad. Machine-generated source annotations retained; see Sanjaya import audit for coverage and limitations.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Νεφέλαι Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.) — 478-509 focus
Translations (1)
Clouds Perseus (Aristophanes. The Comedies of Aristophanes, Vol. I. Hickie, William James, translator. Bohn: London, 1853.) — 437 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 438

διὰ τοὺς ἵππους τοὺς κοππατίας καὶ τὸν γάμον ὅς μʼ ἐπέτριψεν.
The phrase τοὺς ἵππους τοὺς κοππατίας is a specific, satirical reference to the 'Koppas' horses, a notorious group of young Athenian aristocrats (including the son of the poet Sophocles, Sophocles the Younger, and others) who rode in the procession of the Panathenaia but were known for their extravagant, ostentatious behavior and association with the 'new education' (sophistry). The term κοππατίας is a rare, comic coinage, likely derived from κόππος (a type of horse or a slang term for a horseman), used here to mock their pretension and the specific social faction they represented. This is not a generic reference to horses but a pointed allusion to the political and cultural tensions of the late 5th century BCE regarding the education of the youth and the influence of the sophists, a central theme in the play's critique of Socrates and the 'new learning.'

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αὐχμεῖν ῥιγῶν ἀσκὸν δείρειν,
The verb δείρειν here functions as a present infinitive of purpose or result following αὐχμεῖν (to be frozen), but its specific meaning in this context is technical: it denotes the action of 'churning' or 'working' a wineskin to force air into it, a necessary step in the physical comedy of the Clouds' lesson on natural philosophy where the protagonist must physically manipulate the skin to demonstrate the power of air. This usage is distinct from the more common sense of 'wringing' or 'breaking' a neck or limb, and the combination with the genitive ῥιγῶν (being frozen) creates a vivid, almost grotesque image of the physical exertion required to maintain the illusion of the 'air' within the skin.

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ματιολοιχός·
The term μαιόλοχος (here written μαιολοιχός due to the scribe's confusion of the diphthong -οι- with -οιχ- or a corruption of the initial compound element) is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes, appearing only in this scholia to Clouds 325 as a gloss for the verb μαλακίζεσθαι (to be soft/luxurious) or the adjective μαλακός. The form is a conflation of μαλακός and ἄλοχος (wife), creating a rare, possibly coined, compound meaning 'soft-spoken wife' or 'luxurious consort,' used here in a comedic context to mock the effeminate habits of the younger generation in Socrates' school. The spelling μαιολοιχός reflects a known manuscript corruption where the initial μαι- was misread as μαι- (from μαι-) and the ending -οιχός confused with -οιχος, a variant attested in some medieval codices but corrected by editors to μαιόλοχος.