Aristophanes Wasps 1516-1537

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.) — 1516 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.) — 1516 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

1521. mvp-tlg0019-tlg004-sanjaya-com-eng1-91

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καὶ θῖνʼ ἁλὸς ἀτρυγέτου,
The phrase ἀτρυγέτου (genitive singular of ἀτρυγέτος) is a hapax legomenon in the surviving corpus of Aristophanes and a rare poetic adjective elsewhere, literally meaning 'unharvested' or 'unreaped.' Here it functions as a substantive metaphor for the sea, characterizing it as a field that yields no crops. This oxymoronic usage relies on the metaphorical equation of the sea with a fertile plain (a common motif in the play's depiction of the jury's insatiable appetite), but the specific formation and application to the sea in this context are unique enough to warrant noting its lexical singularity and the specific metaphorical logic it employs within the parabasis.

1531. mvp-tlg0019-tlg004-sanjaya-com-eng1-92

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καὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ ποντομέδων ἄναξ πατὴρ προσέρπει
The epithet 'ποντομέδων' (pontomedōn, 'ruler of the sea') is applied here to Zeus, a usage that, while attested in other contexts (e.g., Aeschylus), is striking in Aristophanic comedy. It reflects the poet's tendency to conflate the Olympian hierarchy with the archaic, Homeric theogony, specifically echoing the Iliadic description of Zeus as 'ruler of the sea' (Iliad 1.398, 15.194) to heighten the absurdity of the old man's delusion that he is presiding over a trial of cosmic proportions. This specific epithet is not a generic synonym for Zeus but a deliberate archaizing allusion that underscores the character's confusion between the mundane Athenian legal system and the primordial order.