Aristophanes Peace 922-1126

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.) — 922 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.) — 922 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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τένθαις πολλοῖς· κᾆτα Μελάνθιον
The text presents a significant crux regarding the reading of the first word. While the transmitted text reads τένθαις (tenthais, 'with many tenons/pegs'), some scholars, following the logic of the context (a discussion of a trap or mechanism), have conjectured τένθαις (with the accent on the first syllable) or even questioned the lexical identity entirely, as the plural dative of τέθνη (a rare form or variant of τέθνη/τένθη meaning a peg or pin) is exceptionally rare in Attic comedy. The phrase likely refers to the mechanism of the 'Trap' (ἡ παγίς) in the play's allegory, where the number of pegs is a specific detail of the trap's construction that Melanthius (the goatherd) is meant to operate or inspect. The ambiguity of the noun's form and the specific mechanical reference warrants scrutiny against the manuscript tradition.

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τὰς δὲ πεπρᾶσθαι, τὸν δʼ ὀτοτύζειν,
The construction τὰς δὲ πεπρᾶσθαι (feminine plural accusative participle) followed by τὸν δʼ ὀτοτύζειν (masculine singular accusative participle) presents a striking case of the 'sympathetic' or 'attracted' accusative in indirect discourse or a dependent clause where the subjects differ in gender and number from the implied governing verb (likely ἔφη or ἔλεγον, 'he/she said'). Here, Aristophanes juxtaposes the fate of the women (ἔθνεσι τῶν Ἑλλήνων πεπρᾶσθαι, 'to be sold') with that of the man (ὀτοτύζειν, 'to be beaten'), compressing two distinct accusative subjects into a single syntactic frame. While the accusative + infinitive is standard, the attraction of the participle to the gender/number of the object it describes (the women being sold, the man being beaten) without a clear governing verb in the immediate context is a marked rhetorical device, emphasizing the parallel suffering of the two groups. This is not a routine accusative-infinitive but a deliberate syntactic compression to heighten the comic contrast.

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ἡ σχίζα γοῦν ἐνημμένη τὸν Στιλβίδην πιέζει,
The verb πιέζει ('presses') is used here with the accusative object τὸν Στιλβίδην, while the agent of the pressure is the subject of the participle ἐνημμένη ('being fitted'). This construction, where the instrument or force (the wedge) is the grammatical subject of the verb of pressure, is a notable feature of Aristophanic comedy, reflecting the physical absurdity of the situation where the wedge itself is personified as the active agent crushing Stilbides, a reference to the tragic poet Stilbides who was reportedly crushed by a wedge in a metaphorical sense regarding his style or a literal incident in a play.

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Line 1046b

οὐ μὰ Δίʼ ἀλλʼ Ἱεροκλέης
The phrase οὐ μὰ Δίʼ is a standard oath formula, but the elision of the final vowel of Διός to Δίʼ before the following vowel of ἀλλʼ (which itself is elided from ἀλλά) creates a specific crasis-like contraction often found in comic meter to preserve the dactylic or iambic rhythm. More significantly, the abrupt shift from a solemn oath to the naming of Hierocles functions as a comedic anticlimax (bathos), where the speaker's indignation is immediately deflated by invoking a specific, likely notorious, individual, a rhetorical device characteristic of Aristophanic parody of tragic oratory.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Line 1123

ἁλάμβανʼ αὐτὸς ἐξαπατῶν, ἐκβολβιῶ.
The imperative ἁλάμβανʼ (from ἁλίσκομαι, 'to catch' or 'to take') is here used in a middle voice form with an active sense of 'take for yourself,' a usage common in comedy but syntactically notable given the verb's typical middle-passive morphology. The compound verb ἐκβολβιῶ is a comic coinage, likely derived from βόλος ('ball' or 'clod') with the prefix ἐκ-, suggesting 'to throw out' or 'to expel' in a grotesque or exaggerated manner. This neologism reflects Aristophanes' characteristic invention of vocabulary to evoke the absurdity of the situation, where Trygaeus, the protagonist, is urging his companion to seize the goddess Peace while deceivingly acting out a role. The phrase thus combines a rare syntactic usage with a lexical invention typical of Old Comedy's linguistic play.