Aristophanes Lysistrata 306

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

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Lysistrata. Aristophanes. ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart. Oxford. 1907.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Λυσιστράτη (Greek) (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 2. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.)

Translations (2)
Lysistrata (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Jack Lindsay). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 306 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.) — 306 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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τίς ξυλλάβοιτʼ ἂν τοῦ ξύλου τῶν ἐν Σάμῳ στρατη γῶν;
The phrase τῶν ἐν Σάμῳ στρατηγῶν refers to the Athenian generals stationed at Samos following the expedition of 440/439 BCE. While the specific individuals are not named here, the reference relies on the audience's knowledge of the political tension between the democratic faction in Athens and the oligarchic sympathizers among the army at Samos, a context that became explosive during the Peloponnesian War. The genitive construction τῶν στρατηγῶν depends on the implied context of the 'wood' (ξύλου), likely a reference to the timber used for building ships or fortifications, or metaphorically to the 'wooden wall' of the fleet, though the specific crux here is the genitive of the generals as the possessor or subject of the action regarding the wood. The syntax τῶν στρατηγῶν is a genitive of the persons concerned, a construction that requires the reader to infer the relationship between the generals and the 'wood' without an explicit preposition, a nuance that is not immediately obvious without knowledge of the specific historical situation at Samos.

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τοῦ νῦν παρεστῶτος θράσους θέσθαι τροπαῖον ἡμᾶς.
The construction θέσθαι τροπαῖον (to set up a trophy) with τοῦ παρεστῶτος θράσους (of the present boldness) is a striking metonymic inversion: the abstract quality of 'boldness' is treated as the enemy force defeated, rather than a physical army. In standard military usage (e.g., Thucydides), trophies mark the defeat of a specific opposing army or fleet; here, the 'trophy' is erected against the audacity of the Peloponnesians themselves. This reflects the play's comic logic where the 'war' is sexual and domestic, yet Aristophanes employs high-register military terminology to elevate the stakes of the women's strike, effectively treating the 'boldness' (θράσος) as the tangible enemy entity to be vanquished.