Aristophanes Wasps 1265-1291

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

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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.) — 1265 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.) — 1265 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 1267

ἀλλʼ Ἀμυνίας ὁ Σέλλου μᾶλλον οὑκ τῶν Κρωβύλων,
The phrase οὑκ τῶν Κρωβύλων relies on a specific comic convention where the genitive plural of a deme name (Κρωβύλων, from Κρωβύλος) functions as a shorthand for 'a man from the deme of Kroboulos.' This construction is standard in Old Comedy for identifying characters by their deme (a form of prosopographical shorthand), but the elision of the preposition ἐκ or the article οἱ before the genitive is a metrical necessity here, not a generic grammatical feature. The reference to Amynias, son of Sello, specifically contrasts his identity with the notorious Krobouloi, a deme known in Aristophanic comedy for producing litigious or unruly characters (cf. Lysistrata 126, where the Krobouloi are mentioned in a similar context of civic friction). This is not merely a geographical tag but a loaded allusion to the specific social reputation of the Krobouloi within the Athenian political imagination of the 5th century BCE.

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δειπνοῦντα μετὰ Λεωγόρου·
The participle δειπνοῦντα ('dining') is in the accusative case, functioning as a supplement to the implied subject of the surrounding context (likely a participle of perception or a verb of motion/state in the missing antecedent clause). This construction, where the accusative participle denotes an action simultaneous with the main verb's subject, is standard for Aristophanic dialogue but requires attention to the elided verb of the main clause to identify the actor. The specific pairing with Λεωγόρου (the genitive 'of Leogoras') indicates a meal shared with this prominent Athenian, whose political career and subsequent trial for impiety (c. 415 BCE) provide a sharp satirical edge to the scene, contrasting the domestic intimacy of the dinner with the public danger Leogoras faced.

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πεινῇ γὰρ ᾗπερ Ἀντιφῶν·
The name Ἀντιφῶν (Antiphon) is the crucial crux here. The text likely refers to Antiphon of Rhamnus (the orator and sophist, executed in 411 BCE), whose reputation for extreme frugality and rigorous self-denial was proverbial in Athens. The comedy relies on the audience recognizing that the character Philocleon (the 'old man' suffering from his obsession with jury duty) is being compared to a man known for his severe, almost pathological, poverty and hunger. This identification is essential because the joke is not merely that someone is hungry, but that they are hungry in the specific, notorious manner associated with this specific historical figure, whose very name had become a byword for ascetic deprivation.

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εἶτʼ Ἀριφράδην πολύ τι θυμοσοφικώτατον,
The adjective θυμοσοφικώτατον is a hapax legomenon in extant Greek literature, coined by Aristophanes to describe the character Aritophanes. The compound combines θύμος (passion/spirit) and σοφία (wisdom) with the adjectival suffix -ικός, forming a satirical neologism that characterizes Aritophanes as a 'passionate wise man' or one whose wisdom is driven by fiery temper. This lexical invention serves the play's comic purpose by mocking the pretensions of the Sophists and the legal eagerness of the older generation, particularly in the context of the character's role as a juror.

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Line 1286

† καί με κακίσταις † ἔκνισε· κᾆθʼ ὅτʼ ἀπεδειρόμην,
The text exhibits a clear crux at the beginning of the sentence. The transmitted reading is corrupted by the inclusion of the dagger symbol (†) in many critical editions, indicating a lacuna or a severe textual corruption. The verb ἔκνισε (he crushed/bruised) requires a direct object, which is missing if we take the text literally as 'and he crushed me with the worst things.' The most widely accepted conjecture, proposed by scholars such as Dindorf and adopted by most modern editors (e.g., K. J. Dover, A. M. Dale), is that the text should be restored as καί με κακίστ' ἔκνισε (and he crushed me with the worst [words/acts]), where κακίστ' is an adverbial accusative of quality or a shortening of κακίστοις λόγοις. However, some editors, noting the parallel with the later clause, suggest the corruption might involve the omission of a noun like 'words' or 'blows'. The presence of the dagger in the prompt indicates a recognized textual uncertainty that requires critical resolution before syntactic analysis can proceed with certainty.