Aristophanes Wasps 1060

ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.

Wasps. Aristophanes. ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.. New York. 1938.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Current edition Experimental

Wasps (OCR draft) (English) (English (Anonymous; 1938 compilation). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Σφῆκες Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.) — 1009-1121 focus
Translations (1)
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.) — 1060 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

1070. mvp-tlg0019-tlg004-sanjaya-com-eng1-55

Line 1070

σχῆμα κεὐρυπρωκτίαν.
The phrase σχῆμα κεὐρυπρωκτίαν presents a crux of textual transmission and comic morphology. The first word σχῆμα (form/appearance) is standard, but κεὐρυπρωκτίαν is a hapax legomenon (or near-hapax) in this specific orthography. The form is a compound of εὐρύς (wide) and πρῶκτος (rump/anus), a grotesque physical description typical of Aristophanic caricature. However, the prefix κε- is highly irregular; it likely represents a corruption of the particle καί (and) due to the following vowel, or a dialectal/colloquial intensifier, though some editors have conjectured the text should read simply εὐρυπρωκτίαν or a related form like εὐρυπρωκτῆς. The syntactic construction functions as an accusative of exclamation or description directed at a character (likely Philocleon), where the adjective is nominalized. The combination of the abstract noun σχῆμα with the obscene, compound adjective creates a jarring comic effect, highlighting the absurdity of the character's physical transformation or behavior.