Aristophanes Birds 737

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

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Birds. 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

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

Translations (3)
Birds Perseus (Aristophanes. The Complete Greek Drama, Vol. 2. Anonymous, translator. O'Neill, Eugene; Oates, Whitney Jennings, editors. New York: Random House, 1938 (printing).)

No corresponding passage available

Birds (OCR draft) Experimental (Anonymous translation, 1938 compilation; legacy Perseus source migration. Preserved separately from the revised canonical perseus-eng2 at the project owner's request.) — 737 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.) — 737 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 737

Μοῦσα λοχμαία,
The epithet λοχμαία (lokhmaia), meaning 'hairy' or 'shaggy,' is a rare and deliberately incongruous application to the Muse. It appears to be a comic distortion of the Homeric epithet λωτοφόρος (lotophoros) or a playful reference to the shaggy hair of the satyrs or wild nature, contrasting sharply with the conventional image of the polished, divine Muse. This specific adjective is otherwise unattested in the canon of Greek literature prior to this passage, marking it as a unique Aristophanic coinage designed to evoke the rustic, chaotic energy of the bird-society.

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Line 745

Πανὶ νόμους ἱεροὺς ἀναφαίνω
The verb ἀναφαίνω, here meaning 'I bring to light' or 'I promulgate' (specifically of laws or divine ordinances), is a hapax legomenon in this specific compound sense within Aristophanic comedy. While the simple φαίνω is common, the compound with the prefix ἀνα- in the sense of making laws 'appear' or 'come forth' into public view is rare in the comic corpus and reflects a specific legal-religious register that Aristophanes is parodying or adopting for the bird-chorus's legislative authority. The construction with νόμους as the direct object and ἱεροὺς as an attributive adjective emphasizing the sacred nature of these newly revealed statutes is syntactically straightforward but semantically charged, marking a shift from the birds' previous role as mere creatures to that of divine lawgivers.