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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.
Wasps. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.