Aristophanes Wasps 420

ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart

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Wasps. Aristophanes. ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart. Oxford. 1906.

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Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Σφῆκες (Greek) (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.)

Translations (2)
Wasps (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Anonymous; 1938 compilation). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 420 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.) — 420 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

421. mvp-tlg0019-tlg004-sanjaya-com-eng1-12

Line 421

οἷς γʼ ἀπώλεσαν Φίλιππον ἐν δίκῃ τὸν Γοργίου.
The sentence contains a crux regarding the identity of 'Philip' (Φίλιππον). While the dative plural article οἷς suggests a relative clause referring to a group previously mentioned (likely the jurors or the 'Wasps'), the verb ἀπώλεσαν (they destroyed/lost) combined with the accusative Φίλιππον presents a historical difficulty. There is no record of a 'Philip, son of Gorgias' being lost in a legal proceeding in the context of Aristophanes' *Wasps* (422 BCE). This has led some scholars to conjecture a textual corruption, suggesting the name might be a later interpolation or that the name refers to a figure whose historical attestation is obscure or the name is a pun on a different figure (e.g., Philip of Amphipolis, though chronologically problematic for the play's original performance, or a reference to a lost play by Aristophanes). Alternatively, some propose that Φίλιππον is a corruption of a different name, possibly related to the historical figure Gorgias himself or a specific defendant in a known case, but the phrase 'lost Philip, son of Gorgias' in a trial context remains a significant unexplained anomaly in the text's transmission and interpretation.