618.
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Line 618
καὶ μάλιστʼ ὀσφραίνομαι τῆς Ἱππίου τυραννίδος·
The genitive phrase τῆς Ἱππίου τυραννίδος is an idiom of scent perception where the genitive denotes the object of the odor (the thing smelled) rather than the source. This construction parallels other sensory verbs in the sense of 'smelling of' or 'scenting the presence of,' here functioning metaphorically to suggest the imminent or palpable return of the tyranny of Hippias.
The reference to 'Hippias' alludes to the last tyrant of Athens (r. 527–510 BCE), whose expulsion by the Alcmaeonidae and the Spartan intervention of Cleomenes I was a foundational myth for Athenian democracy. In the context of the play (411 BCE), the speaker uses this specific historical figure to evoke the fear of oligarchic restoration following the recent coup of the Four Hundred, drawing a direct parallel between the current political crisis and the pre-democratic era.
621.
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Line 621
δεῦρο συνεληλυθότες ἄνδρες ἐς Κλεισθένους
The phrase ἐς Κλεισθένους refers specifically to the temple of Athena Chalkioikos in Sparta, named after the legendary lawgiver Cleisthenes of Sparta (not the Athenian reformer), where the Spartan ephors traditionally met to deliberate on matters of state. Aristophanes uses this specific location to satirize the ephors' actual role in organizing the Spartan army, contrasting their real political function with the absurdity of the women's assembly.
634.
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Line 634
ὧδέ θʼ ἑστήξω παρʼ αὐτόν· †αὐτὸσ† γάρ μοι γίγνεται
The text contains the corruption †αὐτὸσ†, where the final sigma (σ) is an erroneous spelling of the nominative masculine singular article or pronoun, which should be αὐτός. The critical edition of the text (e.g., Kock, Thummer) restores this to αὐτός (or in some contexts, the scribe may have conflated the form with the accusative or a dialectal variant, but here it is clearly a scribal error for the nominative subject of the clause). The phrase γίγνεται with a dative of interest (μοι) followed by a nominative subject is a standard construction, but the corruption obscures the syntactic relationship between the subject and the verb.
642.
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Line 642
εἶτʼ ἀλετρὶς ἦ δεκέτις οὖσα τἀρχηγέτι·
The construction ἀλετρὶς ἦ δεκέτις οὖσα (having been a mill-girl of ten years) employs the genitive of age (δεκέτις) with the participle οὖσα, a usage where the numeral functions as an adjective of age in the genitive to denote duration or extent of time, here emphasizing the extreme youth of the speaker. This is distinct from the more common accusative of duration (e.g., δεκαέτην) and reflects the specific syntactic flexibility of Aristophanic comedy in characterizing the speaker's humble and precocious background.
653.
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Line 653
τὸν ἔρανον τὸν λεγόμενον παππῷον ἐκ τῶν Μηδικῶν
The phrase ὁ ἔρανος ὁ λεγόμενος παππῷος (the so-called 'grandfather's fund') refers to a specific, historically attested levy. While the term ἔρανος typically denotes a voluntary subscription or contribution among peers, here it designates the extraordinary tax levied on the wealthy Athenians in 428 BCE during the Peloponnesian War. The epithet 'grandfather's' is satirical; it implies the money was being wrung from the old, the wealthy, and the 'ancestral' assets of the city, or perhaps alludes to the fact that these were the resources of the generation that fought the Persian Wars (the 'grandfathers' of the current youth), which the comic poet implies are being squandered on a war that has outlasted their original purpose. This specific nomenclature and the satirical weight of 'παππῷος' in this context are unique to Aristophanes' parody of the financial desperation of the late 5th century.
665.
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Line 665
ἀλλʼ ἄγετε λευκόποδες, οἵπερ επὶ Λείψύδριον ἤλθομεν ὅτʼ ἦμεν ἔτι,
The phrase λευκόποδες (white-footed) is a specific epithet here for the chorus of women, evoking the purity of their feet as they have marched to the Acropolis, but more crucially, it alludes to the mythological tradition of the Lemnian women or the specific ritual purity required for the procession to the Acropolis, contrasting with the 'dirty' feet of the men. The use of οἵπερ (who indeed/as you who) creates a restrictive relative clause that identifies the audience not just as 'women' but specifically as those who have made the journey to Leipsydrion, anchoring the present moment in a shared, recent past event. The reference to Leipsydrion (Λείψύδριον) is geographically specific: a fountain or spring located near the Acropolis, traditionally associated with the women of Athens who came to fetch water, and its mention here serves as a precise marker of the chorus's origin and the immediate context of their arrival at the sanctuary of Zeus Acraeus. The temporal marker ὅτʼ ἦμεν ἔτι (when we were still) implies a contrast with the present state, suggesting that the 'stillness' or 'purity' of that earlier moment is now threatened or has changed, a thematic tension central to the play's plot regarding the women's siege of the Acropolis.
673.
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Line 673
οὐδὲν ἐλλείψουσιν αὗται λιπαροῦς χειρουργίας,
The construction ἐλλείψουσιν with the genitive λιπαροῦς χειρουργίας (literally 'will not lack of greasy surgery') represents a rare and distinctive usage of the verb ἐλλείπω. While typically governing a genitive of the thing lacking (e.g., ἐλλείπειν τινός), the combination with the abstract noun χειρουργίας in this context—referring to sexual activity via a grotesque medical metaphor—is a deliberate comic inversion. Aristophanes exploits the ambiguity of χειρουργία (which can mean 'surgery' but here puns on manual/sexual manipulation) and the genitive construction to suggest that the women possess all the necessary 'tools' or 'grease' for their campaign, a syntactic choice that heightens the absurdity of the medical analogy applied to erotic warfare.
678.
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Line 678
κοὐκ ἂν ἀπολίσθοι τρέχοντος· τὰς δʼ Ἀμαζόνας σκόπει,
The construction ἀπολίσθοι τρέχοντος employs the present participle with the aorist optative in a periphrastic sense, where the participle τρέχοντος (genitive absolute or genitive of the object of the verb of fearing/avoiding) indicates the simultaneous action. The verb ἀπολίσθοι, from ἀπολισθάνω, literally means 'to slip away' or 'to slide off,' but here carries the metaphorical sense of 'to escape' or 'to get away from.' The use of the genitive with ἀπολίσθοι is unusual, as this verb typically takes a direct object or is used intransitively; the genitive τρέχοντος likely functions as a genitive of separation or source, emphasizing the active pursuit from which one cannot escape. This syntactic choice highlights the inevitability of capture or failure, a common theme in Aristophanic comedy where characters often try to evade their fates.
695.
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Line 695
αἰετὸν τίκτοντα κάνθαρός σε μαιεύσομαι.
The verb μαιεύσομαι (I will deliver/midwife) is used here in a metaphorical sense, extending the literal meaning of 'to assist in childbirth' to 'to bring to light' or 'to produce from concealment.' This metaphorical usage is characteristic of Aristophanic comedy, where the imagery of midwifery (μαιευτική) is frequently employed to describe the extraction of truth or the revelation of hidden plots, as seen in the Socratic method in the *Theaetetus* but here applied to the comic context of exposing an eagle (αἰετός) hatched from a thistle (κάνθαρος). The phrase 'τίκτοντα' (giving birth) modifies 'αἰετόν' in the accusative, creating a syntactic construction where the object of the midwifery is simultaneously the subject of the participle, a structure that emphasizes the immediacy and inevitability of the revelation.
721.
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Line 721
κατέλαβον ᾗ τοῦ Πανός ἐστι ταὐλίον,
The phrase ᾗ τοῦ Πανός ἐστι ταὐλίον contains a crux regarding the location of the 'sheepfold' (ταὐλίον). While the genitive τοῦ Πανός suggests a location associated with Pan, the specific identification of this sheepfold has been debated. Some scholars, following the scholia, identify it as a specific spot on the Acropolis or near the Pnyx associated with a cult of Pan, while others argue it is a generic reference to a sheepfold in the vicinity of the theater where the assembly is held. The construction ᾗ (dative of place) combined with the genitive of the deity is syntactically straightforward but semantically hinges on whether this refers to a specific topographical feature known to the original audience or a more generalized sacred space.
723.
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Line 723
τὴν δʼ αὐτομολοῦσαν, τὴν δʼ ἐπὶ στρούθου †μίαν†
The text presents a significant crux at the end of the sentence: the word †μίαν† is marked with dagger symbols in critical editions, indicating it is a corruption or conjecture. The phrase ἐπὶ στρούθου (upon the sparrow) is an idiom for a trivial or petty offense, yet the adjective μίαν (one, feminine accusative) is syntactically and semantically problematic here. Most editors follow the conjecture of Hermann (or similar readings like τὴν ἐπὶ στρούθου [περὶ] τὴν σποῦδαν or similar) to resolve the sense, as the literal reading 'the one upon the sparrow' lacks a clear antecedent or logical predicate in the context of Lysistrata's list of offenses against the state. The corruption likely stems from the difficulty of the idiom or a scribal error in transmitting the specific noun or adjective required to complete the phrase.
735.
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Line 735
τάλαινʼ ἐγώ, τάλαινα τῆς Ἀμοργίδος,
The adjective τάλαινα agrees with ἐγώ in gender (feminine) and number (singular), a standard construction for a female speaker, but the genitive phrase τῆς Ἀμοργίδος is syntactically elliptical for τῆς Ἀμοργίδος [πολιτείας] or [γῆς]. This construction, where the adjective of lamentation governs a genitive of the place or state of affairs, is a specific feature of Attic comedy to evoke a personal connection to a specific political entity. Here, 'Amorgian' refers to the island of Amorgos, a small Cycladic island, but in the context of the play, it likely alludes to a specific Amorgian woman or a figure associated with that locale who is the cause of Lysistrata's distress, or it is a metonymy for the Amorgian state's policies. The phrase is not merely 'I am wretched of Amorgos' but 'I am wretched because of the Amorgian (situation/person)'. This requires knowledge of the specific historical or dramatic context of Amorgos in the late 5th century BC, which is not immediately obvious to the reader.
754.
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Line 754
ὁ τόκος ἔτʼ ἐν πόλει, τέκοιμʼ ἐς τὴν κυνῆν
The line relies on a pun between the noun τόκος (interest on money, birth) and the verb τέκοιμι (I might give birth). The humor hinges on the syntactic shift from a statement of fact regarding the city's financial state to a subjunctive wish for a specific, grotesque mode of delivery ('into the dog's hide/bag'), transforming the abstract concept of 'interest' into a physical, comic birth. This is a classic Aristophanic 'comic etymology' where the semantic field of 'birth' and 'profit' are conflated through morphological resemblance.
757.
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Line 757
οὐ τἀμφιδρόμια τῆς κυνῆς αὐτοῦ μενεῖς;
The phrase τἀμφιδρόμια τῆς κυνῆς is a specific reference to the 'double-running' or 'crossing' of a dog's harness (the straps that go around the neck and chest), a metaphor for the entanglements or constraints of domestic life. In this context, Lysistrata is using the image of a dog's harness to describe the inescapable and irritating nature of her husband's domestic obligations or perhaps his stubbornness, implying that he cannot escape the 'straps' of his household duties. This metaphor is rooted in the everyday life of Athenian households and reflects the play's broader theme of domestic strife and the constraints of marriage.
759.
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Line 759
ἐξ οὗ τὸν ὄφιν εἶδον τὸν οἰκουρόν ποτε.
The adjective οἰκουρόν (oikouron) is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes, formed from οἶκος (house) and ἔρρω (I run), meaning 'house-running' or 'household-running'. In this context, it is a comic neologism referring to the household snake, a creature traditionally believed to bring good fortune and protect the home, which Lysistrata invokes to symbolize the domestic sphere she seeks to reclaim. The construction is a rare example of Aristophanes creating a compound adjective to describe a mythological or folkloric entity for satirical effect, playing on the snake's role as a guardian of the household oikos.
