Aristophanes Wasps 674

Wasps. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.

Current edition Experimental

Commentary (Sanjaya, generated; selected passages) (OCR draft) (English) (Source: pnadelofficial/aristophanes-sanjaya, commit c319590c139e5603e71f0699caa0663d823af8ad. Machine-generated source annotations retained; see Sanjaya import audit for coverage and limitations.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Σφῆκες Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.) — 729-759 focus
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.) — 696 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.) — 696 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

674. mvp-tlg0019-tlg004-sanjaya-com-eng1-31

Line 674

ἐκ κηθαρίον λαγαριζόμενον καὶ τραγαλιζοντα τὸ μηδέν,
The adjectives λαγαριζόμενον and τραγαλιζοντα are coined by Aristophanes to satirize the pretensions of the new 'poetic' diction and the affectations of the Sophistic movement. They are formed from the nouns κηθαρίον (a small lyre) and τραγῳδία (tragedy), functioning as present participles with the suffix -ίζω to denote 'acting like a lyre-player' or 'acting like a tragedian.' The phrase mocks the chorus of the play, the Wasps, for being distracted by trivial, performative distractions ('playing at lyre' and 'playing at tragedy') while neglecting their actual duty of judging the legal cases, a central theme of the satire on the Athenian jury system.