Aristophanes Peace 1063

ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart

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Peace. Aristophanes. ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart. Oxford. 1906.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Εἰρήνη (Greek) (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.)

Translations (2)
Peace (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Anonymous; 1938 compilation). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 1063 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.) — 1063 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

1067. mvp-tlg0019-tlg005-sanjaya-com-eng1-37

Line 1067

καὶ κέπφοι τρήρωνες ἀλωπεκιδεῦσι πέπεισθε,
The verb κέπφοι is a rare, archaic form of κέπφομαι (or κέπφομαι) meaning 'to be filled' or 'to be stuffed,' often associated with comic exaggeration of physical fullness. Its use here, combined with τρήρωνες (literally 'sieve-like' or 'hollow'), creates a vivid, grotesque image of the judges being stuffed with bribes, a recurring theme in Aristophanes' critique of the Athenian legal system. The form κέπφοι is notable for its archaic flavor, possibly evoking older epic or tragic diction for comic effect.

1077. mvp-tlg0019-tlg005-sanjaya-com-eng1-38

Line 1077

καὶ πῶς ὦ κατάρατε λύκος ποτʼ ἂν οἶν ὑμεναιοῖ;
The form οἶν is a rare, dialectal contraction of οἶνον (accusative singular of ὄινος, 'wine') found in comic poetry to fit the meter. While standard Attic would expect οἶνον, the elision of the final -ν before the vowel ὑμεναιοῖ and the subsequent contraction with the preceding syllable create the form οἶν. This is not merely a metrical license but reflects the colloquial, often rough, linguistic register of the character Hermes, who here mocks Trygaeus's attempt to retrieve Peace. The form is attested in this specific line in the Aristophanic tradition and highlights the playwright's manipulation of phonological reduction for comic effect.

1078a. mvp-tlg0019-tlg005-sanjaya-com-eng1-39

Line 1078a

†χἠ κώδων† ἀκαλανθὶς ἐπειγομένη τυφλὰ τίκτει,
The text as transmitted in the manuscripts presents a syntactic and semantic crux: 'χἠ κώδων' (the bell) is the subject of 'ἐπειγομένη' (hastening), yet the predicate 'τυφλὰ τίκτει' (brings forth blind things) is nonsensical for a bell. This corruption likely stems from a conflation of two different textual traditions or a severe scribal error, possibly involving the loss of a negation or the corruption of the subject. The most plausible reconstruction, supported by the context of the play where the character Trygaeus is discussing the state of the world, is that the subject is not 'κώδων' (bell) but a corruption of 'ἡ κώμη' (the village) or a similar term, or that the verb 'τίκτει' is a metaphor for producing bad outcomes. However, the specific corruption 'χἠ κώδων' is not attested in any other source and represents a genuine textual difficulty requiring conjecture. The phrase 'ἀκαλανθὶς' (unclad) modifies the subject, adding to the confusion, as a bell cannot be 'unclad' in a literal sense, suggesting a metaphorical or allegorical meaning that is obscured by the corruption. This passage is a prime example of a textual crux where the transmitted text is unintelligible and requires scholarly intervention to restore a coherent reading.