Aristophanes Peace 385

ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.

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Peace. Aristophanes. ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.. New York. 1938.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Current edition Experimental

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

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Εἰρήνη Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.) — 346-656 focus
Translations (1)
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.) — 385 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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Line 344

†συβαρίζειν†
The form συβαρίζειν is a textual crux in this passage of Aristophanes' Peace. While the majority of manuscripts read συβαρίζειν (to act like a Sybarite, i.e., to indulge in luxury), some editors and scholars have proposed emending it to σιβαρίζειν or analyzing it as a hapax legomenon with a different etymological root, arguing that the context of the play (which satirizes the war and the restoration of peace) might call for a term related to the specific political faction or a different dialectal usage. The standard interpretation, however, treats it as a derivative of Συβάρις, playing on the contemporary reputation of Sybaris as the epitome of decadence, which Aristophanes uses to mock the Tragedy's perceived softness or the Athenian desire for comfort over war.

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†μὴ γένῃ παλίγκοτος ἀντιβολοῦσιν ἡμῖν,†
The text is corrupt at the beginning of the clause; the transmitted reading μὴ γένῃ is metrically impossible in this position and syntactically awkward as a future subjunctive with this specific particle combination in Aristophanic comedy. Editors (e.g., Kock, Thackeray) generally propose a conjecture such as μὴ γένοιτο or μὴ γένησθε to fit the iambic trimeter and restore the sense of a warning against becoming a 'counter-pleader' (παλίγκοτος) who 'meets us' (ἀντιβολοῦσιν). The verb ἀντιβολοῦσιν is plural, yet the subject of the warning (implied 'you') is singular in the transmitted text, creating a number agreement issue that further supports textual corruption.

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εἴ τι Πεισάνδρου βδελύττει τοὺς λόφους καὶ τὰς ὀφρῦς.
The verb βδελύττει (from βδελύττω) is a rare hapax legomenon in Aristophanes and Attic comedy generally, appearing here as a denominative formation from βδέλυγμα ('disgust' or 'offense'). While the root βδελυσ- is common, the specific transitive verbal usage meaning 'to disgust' or 'to offend' with the direct object τοὺς λόφους ('the mounds' or 'the hills') is syntactically and semantically distinctive. The phrase likely alludes to the physical appearance of the hills of Pisanthros (a reference to the character's name, often associated with the 'mounds' of his body or perhaps a specific topographical feature of his hometown) being so repulsive that they cause disgust. The construction βδελύττει + accusative is not the standard pattern for this root, which typically appears in middle/passive forms or with abstract objects, making this a unique syntactic instance of the verb's transitive application to physical topography.