Aristophanes Wasps 334-402

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.) — 334 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.) — 334 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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μέμνησαι δῆθʼ, ὅτʼ ἐπὶ στρατιᾶς κλέψας ποτὲ τοὺς ὀβελίσκους
The phrase ὀβελίσκους refers specifically to the small skewers used for roasting meat, which in this context function as a metonymy for the meat itself or, more likely given the comedic context of the trial, the small rations of food distributed to jurors. The joke relies on the absurdity of the character being accused of stealing such trivial items, thereby satirizing the tendency of the old generation to view the younger generation's corruption through the lens of petty theft rather than grand political crimes.

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ἵεις σαυτὸν κατὰ τοῦ τείχους ταχέως, ὅτε Νάξος ἑάλω.
The phrase ὅτε Νάξος ἑάλω ('when Naxos fell') is a proverbial locution in Old Comedy referring to the Athenian siege of Naxos in 469/8 BCE, which ended in a humiliating Athenian defeat and the subsequent loss of the island to the Persians. In this context, the phrase functions as an elliptical temporal clause meaning 'immediately' or 'right away,' a usage attested in Aristophanes (e.g., *Acharnians* 514) and other comic poets to denote sudden action, though the specific historical allusion to the failed siege adds a layer of irony or dark humor to the command to fall against the wall.

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ἡ δέ μοι Δίκτυννα συγγνώμην ἔχοι τοῦ δικτύου.
The word Δίκτυννα is a rare poetic epithet for the goddess Dike (Justice), here functioning as a pun on the noun δίκτυον (net). This wordplay relies on the mythological association of Dike with justice and the metaphorical use of 'net' to describe the legal traps or entanglements of the law, a theme central to the play's satire of the legal system.

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ταῦτα μὲν πρὸς ἀνδρός ἐστʼ ἄνοντος ἐς σωτηρίαν.
The participle ἄνοντος (genitive singular present active of ἀνέω) here functions adverbially with the sense of 'pulling' or 'drawing' (specifically of a rope or sail), a usage distinct from the more common 'loosing' or 'opening' of the verb in other contexts. The phrase πρὸς ἀνδρός ἐστʼ ἄνοντος ἐς σωτηρίαν constitutes a rare syntactic construction where the preposition πρὸς governs the dative of the agent (ἀνδρός) in a periphrastic sense of 'in the presence of/under the direction of' a man who is actively hauling towards safety, rather than the more standard accusative of respect or simple dative of advantage. This specific nautical metaphor, likely alluding to the 'pulling of the ship' to safety, is contextually vital for understanding the chorus's description of the jurors' precarious position.

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ὥσπερ φωνή μέ τις ἐγκεκύκλωται.
The phrase ὥσπερ φωνή μέ τις ἐγκεκύκλωται contains a textual crux regarding the particle μέ. While the manuscript tradition is divided, most editors (following the reading of the Codex A) accept μέ as an emphatic particle attached to τις ('some kind of voice'), but others argue for a corruption of μέν ('on the one hand'), suggesting an elided counterpart clause that is missing. The verb ἐγκεκύκλωται (perfect middle/passive of ἐγκεκλω) is rare in this exact form, appearing only here in the extant corpus, and is used metaphorically to describe a voice that has 'encircled' or 'enveloped' the speaker, a usage that blurs the boundary between auditory perception and physical enclosure, characteristic of Aristophanes' comic hyperbole in this scene.

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οὐ ξυλλήψεσθʼ ὁπόσοισι δίκαι τῆτες μέλλουσιν ἔσεσθαι,
The clause ὁπόσοισι δίκαι τῆτες μέλλουσιν ἔσεσθαι contains a striking instance of a relative clause of result (or content) dependent on the negative future οὐ ξυλλήψεσθʼ (you will not gather). The verb ξυλλήψομαι, here used transitively with an accusative of the thing gathered, takes a relative clause introduced by ὁπόσοισι (dative plural of ὅσος) to express the extent or quantity of the 'laws' (δίκαι) that will be brought before the court. This construction, where a relative clause of quantity functions as the object of a verb of gathering or collecting, is rare in Attic comedy and mirrors the syntax of Herodotean or epic usage, here repurposed for the comic exaggeration of the jury's future workload. The dative ὁπόσοισι is not a standard dative of advantage but a dative of reference within a relative clause of extent, creating a syntactic ambiguity that requires the reader to parse the relative pronoun as governing the future passive participle ἔσεσθαι rather than as a simple relative of identity.