Aristophanes Peace 346-656

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.) — 346 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.) — 346 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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†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.

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ἐκ τῶν ὀλεκράνων ἀκίδας ἐξαιρούμενον.
The phrase ἐκ τῶν ὀλεκράνων ἀκίδας ἐξαιρούμενον describes the action of pulling thorns or spikes out of the 'olekranoi'. While ὀλεκράνιον literally means 'elbow' (from ὀλένη + κράνος), in this comic context it is used metaphorically for the 'spurs' or 'thorns' of the shield (or perhaps the shield itself in a grotesque metonymy), creating a visual pun on the physical act of disarming a warrior by removing the protruding spikes that made them dangerous. This usage relies on the audience recognizing the anatomical term being repurposed for a military object, a characteristic Aristophanic device that conflates bodily anatomy with the mechanics of warfare.

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† κόλπου † γυναικῶν διατρεχουσῶν εἰς ἀγρόν,
The transmitted text here is corrupt. The phrase † κόλπου † (genitive of κόλπος, 'bosom' or 'lap') is syntactically incoherent with the participle διατρεχουσῶν ('running through') modifying γυναικῶν ('women'). A running woman does not run 'of the bosom'. Scholars have long recognized this as a textual crux. The most widely accepted conjecture, supported by the context of the play where the chorus of women is fleeing to the fields, is to read ὁλκῶν (genitive of ὁλκός, 'drawing' or 'dragging') or perhaps to emend κόλπου to a word indicating the direction or manner of their flight, such as κολυμβῶν (diving/swimming) in a metaphorical sense, though the exact emendation remains debated. The corruption likely stems from a visual confusion between similar-looking letters in the archetype or a scribal gloss that entered the main text.

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κατέπαρδεν ἄρτι τοῦ ξιφουργοῦ ʼκεινουί.
The phrase τοῦ ξιφουργοῦ refers to the 'sword-maker' or 'armorer,' a term that appears in Aristophanic comedy to denote a specific type of artisan often associated with the chaotic mobilization of the citizenry or the absurdity of war production. In this context, the verb κατέπαρδεν (aorist active indicative of καταπαρδάω, 'to make a pounce upon' or 'to pounce down on') suggests a sudden, predatory action by the subject (likely Hermes or a similar divine figure in the immediate context of the play) against the sword-maker. The construction with the genitive τοῦ ξιφουργοῦ is notable for its directness and the use of the verb in a metaphorical sense, highlighting the dramatic tension between the divine intervention and the human figure of the armorer.

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ὡς ἅπαντʼ ἤδη ʼστὶ μεστὰ τἀνθάδʼ εἰρήνης σαπρᾶς.
The phrase σαπρᾶς εἰρήνης ('rotten peace') is a sharp ironic inversion of the standard heroic or diplomatic ideal of εἰρήνη. Aristophanes uses σαπρός, typically describing decaying food or moral corruption, to characterize the peace as not merely imperfect, but actively putrid and useless, suggesting a peace that has ceased to provide sustenance or order. This lexical choice is deliberate satire, contrasting the audience's expectation of a 'good' peace with the reality of a corrupt settlement.

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ἥπερ ἡμῶν τοὺς λόφους ἀφεῖλε καὶ τὰς Γοργόνας·
The phrase 'τὰς Γοργόνας' functions as a comic hyperbole for the Aeginetans. In the context of the play, Aristophanes is satirizing the Aeginetans' martial reputation and their historical piracy; by equating them with the Gorgons (monstrous female figures whose gaze turned men to stone), the poet suggests they are not merely dangerous enemies but mythical monsters. This identification relies on the specific historical rivalry between Athens and Aegina, where Aegina was often depicted as a thorn in the side of the city, and the 'lophous' (crests of enemies) refers to the spoils of war or the heads of defeated foes. The use of the plural 'Gorgons' rather than a singular is a deliberate rhetorical choice to emphasize the collective threat and the monstrous nature of the Aeginetan fleet.

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εἶθʼ ὅπως Λιταργιοῦμεν οἴκαδʼ ἐς τὰ χωρία,
The verb Λιταργιοῦμεν is a comic neologism coined by Aristophanes, derived from the name of the minor god Litaios (or a corruption of Lityerses, a figure associated with threshing). It functions as a verb meaning 'to thresh' or 'to trample grain,' here used humorously to suggest returning home to thresh grain in the fields, playing on the agricultural context of the play's conclusion. This is a rare example of Aristophanic wordplay where a proper name is verbalized for comic effect.

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ἐμπολήσαντές τι χρηστὸν εἰς ἀγρὸν ταρίχιον.
The phrase ταρίχιον (tarichion) is a diminutive of τάρῑχος (salted fish), here used with a specific comedic effect to describe a meager purchase ('a little salted fish') that the characters have managed to acquire for the farm, contrasting sharply with the grandiose agricultural aspirations implied by the context of the play. This usage highlights the economic desperation of the setting and the triviality of the 'good' (χρηστὸν) they can afford.

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πρῶτα μὲν γὰρ †αὐτῆς ἦρξεν† Φειδίας πράξας κακῶς·
The text presents a significant crux: the phrase 'αὐτῆς ἦρξεν' (he began it) is transmitted in some manuscripts with the particle 'μὲν' following the verb, while the critical edition (following Wilamowitz and others) brackets 'αὐτῆς' as a corruption or dittography, or emends 'ἦρξεν' to 'ἦρξε' with 'αὐτῆς' referring to the Parthenon. The most serious issue, however, is the presence of the dagger symbol (†) in the prompt's text, indicating a lacuna or a word deemed spurious by editors. The standard reading, supported by the context of the 'Peace' (421 BCE) and the historical timeline of Phidias, requires identifying what 'αὐτῆς' refers to. If 'αὐτῆς' refers to the war, it is a bold irony, as Phidias is the sculptor of the statue of Athena Promachos, not a general. The scholia suggest the text might be corrupt, possibly reading 'πρῶτα μὲν γὰρ αὐτῆς ἔργον ἦρξεν' (he began her work) or referring to the statue's construction. The phrase 'πράξας κακῶς' (having done badly) is also problematic; Phidias was accused of embezzlement and died in prison, but the connection to 'beginning' (ἦρξεν) is syntactically tight yet historically opaque without resolving the textual corruption regarding the object of the verb. The critical edition (e.g., Kock, Arnott) often treats 'αὐτῆς' as an interpolation or emends the verb to 'ἔθηκεν' (placed), making the sentence 'Phidias first placed it, having done badly,' which is a clumsy but possible reading, or accepts the emendation 'ἔφθειρεν' (he ruined) or similar. The dagger in the prompt likely signals the word 'αὐτῆς' or the entire clause as suspect. A robust commentary must address the textual instability: does Phidias 'begin' the war (ironic?), the statue, or is the text simply corrupted? The most accepted scholarly view (e.g., by Dover or Arnott) is that the text is corrupt and that the intended meaning is likely that Phidias was the first to be accused or punished, or that the statue's construction was the 'beginning' of his troubles. The specific crux here is the identity of 'αὐτῆς' (her) and the verb 'ἦρξεν' (began), which together create a historical and grammatical puzzle that cannot be resolved without textual criticism. The phrase 'πράξας κακῶς' is a standard idiom for 'doing badly' or 'failing', but its connection to the 'beginning' of the action is the core issue.

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τὰς φύσεις ὑμῶν δεδοικὼς καὶ τὸν αὐτοδὰξ τρόπον,
The term αὐτοδὰξ (auto-dax) is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes, formed from αὐτός and the rare adjective δακτός (biting/aggressive). In this context, it functions as a substantive noun referring to the Athenians' 'inherently biting' or 'self-biting' character—specifically their tendency toward internal strife (stasis) and litigation. The compound's rarity and the specific semantic nuance of 'biting' (associated with both physical aggression and the sharpness of legal rhetoric) require the reader to recognize it as a pointed critique of Athenian civic pathology rather than a generic description of temperament.

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ἐμβαλὼν σπινθῆρα μικρὸν Μεγαρικοῦ ψηφίσματος,
The phrase 'Μεγαρικοῦ ψηφίσματος' (a Megarian decree) refers specifically to the famous decree attributed to the Megarians, which, according to the scholia and the broader context of the play, prohibited the export of Megarian goods to Athens and barred Megarian women from entering the Athenian marketplace (or forced them to leave). This is a direct allusion to the 'Megarian Decree,' a major diplomatic incident often cited by ancient sources (e.g., Plutarch, *Life of Pericles*) as a primary cause of the Peloponnesian War. In this context, Aristophanes uses the 'spark' (σπινθῆρα) of this specific decree to ignite the larger fire of the war, metaphorically treating the diplomatic sanction as a literal ignition source for the conflict. The use of the genitive 'Μεγαρικοῦ' with 'ψηφίσματος' is standard, but the specific historical weight of the decree is the crux here, as it is the precise historical event Aristophanes is mocking as the trivial 'spark' that started the war.

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ὡς δʼ ἅπαξ †τὸ πρῶτον ἄκουσʼ† ἐψόφησεν ἄμπελος
The text contains a textual crux marked by Bekker's dagger (†) in the phrase '†τὸ πρῶτον ἄκουσʼ†'. While the transmitted text reads 'ὡς δʼ ἅπαξ τὸ πρῶτον ἄκουσʼ ἐψόφησεν ἄμπελος', scholars such as Meineke and later editors have noted the redundancy and metrical awkwardness of 'ἅπαξ' (once) combined with 'τὸ πρῶτον' (for the first time). The dagger indicates a suspected interpolation or corruption; some conjectures suggest the removal of 'τὸ πρῶτον' to yield 'ὡς δʼ ἅπαξ ἄκουσʼ ἐψόφησεν ἄμπελος' ('when the vine had once rustled'), which aligns better with the comic hyperbole of the vine reacting immediately to the sound of the chariot wheels. The variant reflects the difficulty in establishing the precise moment of the vine's personified reaction in the comic narrative.

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οὐδʼ ὅπως αὐτῇ προσήκοι Φειδίας ἠκηκόη.
The construction οὐδʼ ὅπως... ἠκηκόη (aorist of ἀκούω with the particle ὅπως in a negative clause) is a rare and idiomatic usage meaning 'not even so that he might have heard' or, more naturally in this context, 'not even [had] Phidias heard'. The use of the aorist indicative ἠκηκόη (a contracted form of ἠκήκοα) within a clause introduced by ὅπως, following the negative οὐδʼ, creates a specific syntactic tension: ὅπως typically introduces a final or potential clause requiring the subjunctive or optative, yet here it introduces a factual statement in the indicative to express a hypothetical counterfactual scenario ('even if Phidias had heard'). This construction is characteristic of Aristophanic comedy, where the poet often bends standard Attic syntax for comic effect or metrical necessity, creating a crux for the reader expecting a standard optative of potentiality.

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ἐν δίκῃ μὲν οὖν, ἐπεί τοι τὴν κορώνεών γέ μου
The phrase ἐπεί τοι τὴν κορώνεών γέ μου presents a syntactic crux. While ἐπεί (since/since then) typically introduces a causal clause, the particle τοι here functions as an emphatic address to the preceding interlocutor (the judge or the chorus), while the genitive κορώνεών (of the 'crow-like' or 'sly' ones) lacks an explicit governing noun, forcing the reader to supply a concept such as 'account' or 'charge' from the context of legal proceedings. The particle γέ adds a restrictive or emphatic force to the pronoun μου, suggesting 'my share of the crow-like ones' (i.e., my portion of the blame or accusation), a construction that is highly elliptical and dependent on the specific satirical context of the trial scene in the parabasis or the character's defense.

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αἰτίας ἂν προστιθέντες, ὡς φρονεῖ τὰ Βρασίδου.
The phrase ὡς φρονεῖ τὰ Βρασίδου is a strikingly elliptical and idiomatic construction. While φρονέω typically governs a dative or takes a prepositional phrase with εἰς/ἐπί to indicate the object of one's thoughts or intentions, here it takes a direct accusative object (τὰ Βρασίδου) meaning 'to have the same intentions as Brasidas' or 'to be of Brasidas' mind.' This usage, particularly the neuter plural accusative functioning as the object of mental state, is rare in Aristophanes and reflects a specific colloquialism or perhaps a metrical necessity that obscures the standard syntactic expectation. The construction implies a shared political or military mindset, likely alluding to Brasidas' aggressive expansionist policies in the north, which the Chorus or characters are accusing the Athenians of emulating through their current diplomatic posturing ('adding reasons'). The phrase τὰ Βρασίδου is not a standard genitive of possession but a substantive neuter plural meaning 'the things/intentions of Brasidas,' a usage that requires careful parsing to avoid misinterpreting it as a simple attribute.