Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous

Chorus: whirl, advance in a circle and make your belly fat,

Chorus: Throw a celestial leg; let the beetles come to life.

1530

Chorus: For even the lord who rules the sea, the father himself, approaches.

Chorus: rejoicing over his own sons, the trierarchs.

Chorus: But bring him out, if you like dancing, outside.

1535

Chorus: Quickly, us; for no one before this has done this,

Chorus: whoever has relieved the chorus of satyrs while dancing.

Wasps. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.

Current edition Experimental

English (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.

Translations (1)

Wasps (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Anonymous; 1938 compilation). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 1528 focus

Twist, twirl, tap your bellies, 1530 kick your legs to the sky. Here comes your famous father, the ruler of the sea, delighted to see his three lecherous kinglets. 1535 Go on with your dancing, if it pleases you, but as for us, we shall not join you. Lead us promptly off the stage, for never a comedy yet was seen where the Chorus finished off with a dance.

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

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

Line 1531

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.

Aristophanes Wasps 1528

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Experimental

Commentary

Line 1531

Stable identifiers