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Φιλοκλέων

εἶά νυν ὦ ξυνδικασταὶ σφῆκες ὀξυκάρδιοι,
430

οἱ μὲν ἐς τὸν πρωκτὸν αὐτῶν ἐσπέτεσθʼ ὠργισμένοι,

οἱ δὲ τὠφθαλμὼ κύκλῳ κεντεῖτε καὶ τοὺς δακτύλους.

Βδελυκλέων

ὦ Μίδα καὶ Φρὺξ βοήθει δεῦρο καὶ Μασιντύα,

καὶ λάβεσθε τουτουὶ καὶ μὴ μεθῆσθε μηδενί·

εἰ δὲ μή, ʼν πέδαις παχείαις οὐδὲν ἀριστήσετε.
435

ὡς ἐγὼ πολλῶν ἀκούσας οἶδα θρίων τὸν ψόφον.

Χορός

εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῦτον μεθήσεις, ἔν τί σοι παγήσεται.

Φιλοκλέων

ὦ Κέκροψ ἥρως ἄναξ τὰ πρὸς ποδῶν Δρακοντίδη,

περιορᾷς οὕτω μʼ ὑπʼ ἀνδρῶν βαρβάρων χειρούμενον,

οὓς ἐγὼ ʼδίδαξα κλάειν τέτταρʼ ἐς τὴν χοίνικα;
440

Χορός

εἶτα δῆτʼ οὐ πόλλʼ ἔνεστι δεινὰ τῷ γήρᾳ κακά;

δηλαδή· καὶ νῦν γε τούτω τὸν παλαιὸν δεσπότην

πρὸς βίαν χειροῦσιν, οὐδὲν τῶν πάλαι μεμνημένοι

διφθερῶν κἀξωμίδων, ἃς οὗτος αὐτοῖς ἠμπόλα,

καὶ κυνᾶς· καὶ τοὺς πόδας χειμῶνος ὄντος ὠφέλει,
445

ὥστε μὴ ῥιγῶν ἑκάστοτʼ· ἀλλὰ τούτοις γʼ οὐκ ἔνι

οὐδʼ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖσιν αἰδὼς τῶν παλαιῶν ἐμβάδων.

Φιλοκλέων

οὐκ ἀφήσεις οὐδὲ νυνί μʼ ὦ κάκιστον θηρίον,

οὐδʼ ἀναμνησθεὶς ὅθʼ εὑρὼν τοὺς βότρυς κλέπτοντά σε

προσαγαγὼν πρὸς τὴν ἐλάαν ἐξέδειρʼ εὖ κἀνδρικῶς,
450

ὥστε σε ζηλωτὸν εἶναι; σὺ δʼ ἀχάριστος ἦσθʼ ἄρα.

ἀλλʼ ἄνες με καὶ σὺ καὶ σύ, πρὶν τὸν υἱὸν ἐκδραμεῖν.

Χορός

ἀλλὰ τούτων μὲν τάχʼ ἡμῖν δώσετον καλὴν δίκην,

οὐκέτʼ ἐς μακρὰν ἵνʼ εἰδῆθʼ οἷός ἐστʼ ἀνδρῶν τρόπος

ὀξυθύμων καὶ δικαίων καὶ βλεπόντων κάρδαμα.
455

Βδελυκλέων

παῖε παἶ ὦ Ξανθία τοὺς σφῆκας ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκίας.

Ξανθίας

ἀλλὰ δρῶ τοῦτʼ· ἀλλὰ καὶ σὺ τῦφε πολλῷ τῷ καπνῷ.

Σωσίας

οὐχὶ σοῦσθʼ; οὐκ ἐς κόρακας; οὐκ ἄπιτε; παῖε τῷ ξύλῳ.

Ξανθίας

καὶ σὺ προσθεὶς Αἰσχίνην ἔντυφε τὸν Σελλαρτίου.

ἆρʼ ἐμέλλομέν ποθʼ ὑμᾶς ἀποσοβήσειν τῷ χρόνῳ.
460

Wasps. 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

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.) — 430 focus

Philocleon

430 Come, my dear companions, wasps with relentless hearts, fly against him, animated with your fury. Sting him in the arse, eyes, and fingers.

Bdelycleon
opening the door and trying to shove his struggling father in

Midas, Phryx, Masyntias, here! Come and help. Seize this man and hand him over to no one, 435 otherwise you shall starve to death in chains. Fear nothing, I have often heard the crackling of fig-leaves in the fire.

Leader of the Chorus

If you won't let him go, I shall bury this sting in your body.

Philocleon

Oh, Cecrops, mighty hero with the tail of a dragon! Seest thou how these barbarians ill-use me — 440 me, who have many a time made them weep a full bushel of tears?

Leader of the Chorus

Is not old age filled with cruel ills? What violence these two slaves offer to their old master! they have forgotten all bygones, the fur-coats and the jackets and the caps he bought for them; 445 in winter he watched that their feet should not get frozen. And only see them now; there is no gentleness in their look nor any recollection of the slippers of other days.

Philocleon
to Xanthias

Will you let me go, you accursed animal? Don't you remember the day when I suprised you stealing the grapes; 450 I tied you to an olive-tree and I cut open your bottom with such vigorous lashes that folks thought you had been raped. Get away, you are ungrateful. But let go of me, and you too, before my son comes up.

Leader of the Chorus

You shall repay us for all this, and that soon. 455 Tremble at our ferocious glance; you shall taste our just anger.

Bdelycleon

Strike! strike! Xanthias! Drive these wasps away from the house.

Xanthias

That's just what I am doing. Blind them with smoke too!

Sosias

You will not go? The plague seize you! Will you not clear off? Hit them with your stick!

Xanthias

And you, to smoke them out better, throw Aeschines, the son of Sellartius, on the fire. as the Chorus retires from the unequal conquest 460 There, we were bound to drive you off sooner or later!

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.) — 430 focus

Philocleon: Come now, fellow jurymen, sharp-hearted wasps,

430

Philocleon: Let them go to their own anus, angry,

Philocleon: But you, go around and jab at the eyes, and [jab] the fingers.

Bdelycléon: Oh Midas and Phryx, come here and help, and Masintys,

Bdelycleon: 'And take hold of this fellow and do not let him go to anyone.'

Bdelycleon: but if not, in thick fetters you will not dine at all.

435

Bdelucleon: As I have heard from many, I know the noise of the wasps.

Chorus: But if you do not release this man, where will a boot stick to you?

Philocleon: O Cecrops, hero, lord of the things near the feet of Draco,

Philocleon: You watch me being handled in this way by barbarian men,

Philocleon: Those whom I taught to weep four into the choinix?

440

Chorus: Then surely there are not many terrible evils for old age?

Chorus: that is; and now indeed, this [one], the old master

Chorus: they handle it by force, remembering nothing of the past.

Chorus: of leather and of ox-hide sandals, which this man bought for them,

Chorus: And the dogs; and the feet are useful even when winter is present,

445

Chorus: So that he does not shiver at every turn, but these men have no power.

Chorus: Nor is there any shame even in the eyes of the old matrons.

Philocleon: Will you not even now let me go, you most wicked beast,

Philocleon: nor when you were reminded, having found the grapes, that you were stealing them?

Philocleon: drawing it towards the olive, he drew it off well and manfully,

450

Philokleon: So you are to be envied? And so you were ungrateful.

Philocleon: But let me go, both of you, before my son runs out.

Chorus: But these men will quickly give us a fine trial,

Chorus: No longer far, so that he may be seen what kind of way of men it is.

Chorus: sharp-witted and just and seeing chard.

455

Bdelycleon: hit, hit, oh Xanthias, the wasps from the house.

Xanthias: But I do that; but you too are blinded by the great smoke.

Sosias: Won't you beat him? Won't you go to the crows? Won't you go away? Strike him with the stick.

Xanthias: and you, adding Aeschines, burn Sellarcius.

Xanthias: Were we ever going to stop you with time?

460

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

433. mvp-tlg0019-tlg004-sanjaya-com-eng1-13

Line 433

ὦ Μίδα καὶ Φρὺξ βοήθει δεῦρο καὶ Μασιντύα,

The address to 'Midas and Phryx' is a specific allusion to the myth of the Phrygian king Midas, whose wife and daughter (sometimes identified as Phrygia or a personification thereof) were transformed into a mule and a wolf, or in other versions, whose court was filled with absurdity. However, the inclusion of 'Phryx' alongside Midas here is highly irregular and likely a comic distortion or a specific reference to a lost play or a local cultic association known to the original audience but obscure today. This is not a standard mythological pairing and suggests Aristophanes is invoking a specific, perhaps local or now-lost, tradition for comic effect, rather than the well-known Midas of the golden touch.

438. mvp-tlg0019-tlg004-sanjaya-com-eng1-14

Line 438

ὦ Κέκροψ ἥρως ἄναξ τὰ πρὸς ποδῶν Δρακοντίδη,

The vocative ἄναξ is metrically unusual in this position for the iambic trimeter of the parabasis, where a disyllabic form like κέκροπες would be expected; the hypermetric elision or synizesis required to accommodate ἄναξ as a single metrical unit suggests a deliberate archaizing or emphatic address, possibly invoking the specific ritual tone of the 'Kekropid' invocation found in other tragic and comedic parodies of civic identity.

Aristophanes Wasps 430

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

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Χορός

εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῦτον μεθήσεις, ἔν τί σοι παγήσεται.

Φιλοκλέων

ὦ Κέκροψ ἥρως ἄναξ τὰ πρὸς ποδῶν Δρακοντίδη,

περιορᾷς οὕτω μʼ ὑπʼ ἀνδρῶν βαρβάρων χειρούμενον,

οὓς ἐγὼ ʼδίδαξα κλάειν τέτταρʼ ἐς τὴν χοίνικα;
440

Χορός

ἀλλὰ τούτων μὲν τάχʼ ἡμῖν δώσετον καλὴν δίκην,

οὐκέτʼ ἐς μακρὰν ἵνʼ εἰδῆθʼ οἷός ἐστʼ ἀνδρῶν τρόπος

ὀξυθύμων καὶ δικαίων καὶ βλεπόντων κάρδαμα.
455

Βδελυκλέων

παῖε παἶ ὦ Ξανθία τοὺς σφῆκας ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκίας.

Ξανθίας

ἀλλὰ δρῶ τοῦτʼ· ἀλλὰ καὶ σὺ τῦφε πολλῷ τῷ καπνῷ.

Σωσίας

οὐχὶ σοῦσθʼ; οὐκ ἐς κόρακας; οὐκ ἄπιτε; παῖε τῷ ξύλῳ.

Ξανθίας

καὶ σὺ προσθεὶς Αἰσχίνην ἔντυφε τὸν Σελλαρτίου.

ἆρʼ ἐμέλλομέν ποθʼ ὑμᾶς ἀποσοβήσειν τῷ χρόνῳ.
460

Current edition Perseus

Philocleon

430 Come, my dear companions, wasps with relentless hearts, fly against him, animated with your fury. Sting him in the arse, eyes, and fingers.

Bdelycleon
opening the door and trying to shove his struggling father in

Midas, Phryx, Masyntias, here! Come and help. Seize this man and hand him over to no one, 435 otherwise you shall starve to death in chains. Fear nothing, I have often heard the crackling of fig-leaves in the fire.

Leader of the Chorus

If you won't let him go, I shall bury this sting in your body.

Philocleon

Oh, Cecrops, mighty hero with the tail of a dragon! Seest thou how these barbarians ill-use me — 440 me, who have many a time made them weep a full bushel of tears?

Leader of the Chorus

You shall repay us for all this, and that soon. 455 Tremble at our ferocious glance; you shall taste our just anger.

Bdelycleon

Strike! strike! Xanthias! Drive these wasps away from the house.

Xanthias

That's just what I am doing. Blind them with smoke too!

Sosias

You will not go? The plague seize you! Will you not clear off? Hit them with your stick!

Xanthias

And you, to smoke them out better, throw Aeschines, the son of Sellartius, on the fire. as the Chorus retires from the unequal conquest 460 There, we were bound to drive you off sooner or later!

Commentary

Line 433

Line 438

Stable identifiers

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Χορός εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῦτον μεθήσεις, ἔν τί σοι παγήσεται.

Φιλοκλέων ὦ Κέκροψ ἥρως ἄναξ τὰ πρὸς ποδῶν Δρακοντίδη, περιορᾷς οὕτω μʼ ὑπʼ ἀνδρῶν βαρβάρων χειρούμενον, οὓς ἐγὼ ʼδίδαξα κλάειν τέτταρʼ ἐς τὴν χοίνικα; 440

Χορός ἀλλὰ τούτων μὲν τάχʼ ἡμῖν δώσετον καλὴν δίκην, οὐκέτʼ ἐς μακρὰν ἵνʼ εἰδῆθʼ οἷός ἐστʼ ἀνδρῶν τρόπος ὀξυθύμων καὶ δικαίων καὶ βλεπόντων κάρδαμα. 455

Βδελυκλέων παῖε παἶ ὦ Ξανθία τοὺς σφῆκας ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκίας.

Ξανθίας ἀλλὰ δρῶ τοῦτʼ· ἀλλὰ καὶ σὺ τῦφε πολλῷ τῷ καπνῷ.

Σωσίας οὐχὶ σοῦσθʼ; οὐκ ἐς κόρακας; οὐκ ἄπιτε; παῖε τῷ ξύλῳ.

Ξανθίας καὶ σὺ προσθεὶς Αἰσχίνην ἔντυφε τὸν Σελλαρτίου. ἆρʼ ἐμέλλομέν ποθʼ ὑμᾶς ἀποσοβήσειν τῷ χρόνῳ. 460

Current edition Perseus

Philocleon 430 Come, my dear companions, wasps with relentless hearts, fly against him, animated with your fury. Sting him in the arse, eyes, and fingers.

Bdelycleon opening the door and trying to shove his struggling father in Midas, Phryx, Masyntias, here! Come and help. Seize this man and hand him over to no one, 435 otherwise you shall starve to death in chains. Fear nothing, I have often heard the crackling of fig-leaves in the fire.

Leader of the Chorus If you won't let him go, I shall bury this sting in your body.

Philocleon Oh, Cecrops, mighty hero with the tail of a dragon! Seest thou how these barbarians ill-use me — 440 me, who have many a time made them weep a full bushel of tears?

Leader of the Chorus You shall repay us for all this, and that soon. 455 Tremble at our ferocious glance; you shall taste our just anger.

Bdelycleon Strike! strike! Xanthias! Drive these wasps away from the house.

Xanthias That's just what I am doing. Blind them with smoke too!

Sosias You will not go? The plague seize you! Will you not clear off? Hit them with your stick!

Xanthias And you, to smoke them out better, throw Aeschines, the son of Sellartius, on the fire. as the Chorus retires from the unequal conquest 460 There, we were bound to drive you off sooner or later!

Commentary

Line 433

Line 438

Stable identifiers

Χορός

εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῦτον μεθήσεις, ἔν τί σοι παγήσεται.

Φιλοκλέων

ὦ Κέκροψ ἥρως ἄναξ τὰ πρὸς ποδῶν Δρακοντίδη,

περιορᾷς οὕτω μʼ ὑπʼ ἀνδρῶν βαρβάρων χειρούμενον,

οὓς ἐγὼ ʼδίδαξα κλάειν τέτταρʼ ἐς τὴν χοίνικα;
440

Χορός

ἀλλὰ τούτων μὲν τάχʼ ἡμῖν δώσετον καλὴν δίκην,

οὐκέτʼ ἐς μακρὰν ἵνʼ εἰδῆθʼ οἷός ἐστʼ ἀνδρῶν τρόπος

ὀξυθύμων καὶ δικαίων καὶ βλεπόντων κάρδαμα.
455

Βδελυκλέων

παῖε παἶ ὦ Ξανθία τοὺς σφῆκας ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκίας.

Ξανθίας

ἀλλὰ δρῶ τοῦτʼ· ἀλλὰ καὶ σὺ τῦφε πολλῷ τῷ καπνῷ.

Σωσίας

οὐχὶ σοῦσθʼ; οὐκ ἐς κόρακας; οὐκ ἄπιτε; παῖε τῷ ξύλῳ.

Ξανθίας

καὶ σὺ προσθεὶς Αἰσχίνην ἔντυφε τὸν Σελλαρτίου.

ἆρʼ ἐμέλλομέν ποθʼ ὑμᾶς ἀποσοβήσειν τῷ χρόνῳ.
460

Philocleon

430 Come, my dear companions, wasps with relentless hearts, fly against him, animated with your fury. Sting him in the arse, eyes, and fingers.

Bdelycleon
opening the door and trying to shove his struggling father in

Midas, Phryx, Masyntias, here! Come and help. Seize this man and hand him over to no one, 435 otherwise you shall starve to death in chains. Fear nothing, I have often heard the crackling of fig-leaves in the fire.

Leader of the Chorus

If you won't let him go, I shall bury this sting in your body.

Philocleon

Oh, Cecrops, mighty hero with the tail of a dragon! Seest thou how these barbarians ill-use me — 440 me, who have many a time made them weep a full bushel of tears?

Leader of the Chorus

You shall repay us for all this, and that soon. 455 Tremble at our ferocious glance; you shall taste our just anger.

Bdelycleon

Strike! strike! Xanthias! Drive these wasps away from the house.

Xanthias

That's just what I am doing. Blind them with smoke too!

Sosias

You will not go? The plague seize you! Will you not clear off? Hit them with your stick!

Xanthias

And you, to smoke them out better, throw Aeschines, the son of Sellartius, on the fire. as the Chorus retires from the unequal conquest 460 There, we were bound to drive you off sooner or later!