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Χορός

Μοῦσα σὺ μὲν πολέμους ἀπωσαμένη μετʼ ἐμοῦ
775

τοῦ φίλου χόρευσον,

κλείουσα θεῶν τε γάμους ἀνδρῶν τε δαῖτας

καὶ θαλίας μακάρων· σοὶ γὰρ τάδʼ ἐξ ἀρχῆς μέλει.
780

ἢν δέ σε Καρκίνος ἐλθὼν

ἀντιβολῇ μετὰ τῶν παίδων χορεῦσαι,

μήθʼ ὑπάκουε μήτʼ ἔλθῃς
785

συνέριθος αὐτοῖς,

ἀλλὰ νόμιζε πάντας

ὄρτυγας οἰκογενεῖς γυλιαύχενας ὀρχηστὰς

ναννοφυεῖς σφυράδων ἀποκνίσματα μηχανοδίφας.
790

καὶ γὰρ ἔφασχʼ ὁ πατὴρ ὃ παρʼ ἐλπίδας

εἶχε τὸ δρᾶμα γαλῆν τῆς ἑσπέρας ἀπάγξαι.
795

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.) — 775 focus

First Semi-Chorus
Singing.

Oh, Muse! drive the war far from our city 775 and come to preside over our dances, if you love me; come and celebrate the nuptials of the gods, the banquets of us mortals 780 and the festivals of the fortunate; these are the themes that inspire thy most poetic songs. And should Carcinus come to beg thee for admission with his sons to thy chorus, 785 refuse all traffic with them; remember they are but gelded birds, stork-necked dancers, 790 mannikins about as tall as a goat's turd, in fact machine-made poets. Contrary to all expectation, the father 795 has at last managed to finish a piece, but he admits that a cat strangled it one fine evening.

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.) — 775 focus

Chorus: Muse, you having repelled wars with me

775

Chorus: dance for your friend,

Chorus: closing the weddings of the gods and the banquets of men

Chorus: and the feasts of the blessed ones; for this is your concern from the beginning.

780

Chorus: And if Cancer comes to you,

Chorus: may I dance with the children,

Chorus: Do not obey, nor come.

785

Chorus: a fellow traveler with them,

Chorus: but think that everyone...

Chorus: quails, domestic, with necks that glisten, dancers

Chorus: dwarf-born scraps of the bellows-smiths.

790

Chorus: For the father used to say that, beyond expectation,

Chorus: The play should have strangled the polecat in the evening.

795

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

795. mvp-tlg0019-tlg005-sanjaya-com-eng1-22

Line 795

εἶχε τὸ δρᾶμα γαλῆν τῆς ἑσπέρας ἀπάγξαι.

The phrase τῆς ἑσπέρας (genitive of time) functions adverbially with the infinitive ἀπάγξαι, indicating the specific time of the action ('at evening'). While the genitive of time is common, its use here with an infinitive in a comic context, where the subject 'the drama' is personified as the agent of strangling the polecat, creates a syntactic ambiguity: is the drama the agent performing the action at evening, or is the drama the object being acted upon? The context of Aristophanes' play suggests the former, with the drama itself as the absurd agent, a rare instance of personification in this syntactic construction.

Aristophanes Peace 775

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

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Line 795

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