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ἐς τὼς Ἀσαναίως τε † καὶ ἐς ἡμᾶς ἅμα †.
The text presents a significant crux involving the adverb Ἀσαναίως (Asanaiōs) and the corruption indicated by the dagger symbols. The reading Ἀσαναίως is widely regarded as a corruption of Ἀσπασία (Aspasia), referring to the famous hetaira and companion of Pericles. The phrase likely intends to contrast the 'common people' (ἡμᾶς, 'us') with the elite circle associated with Aspasia, perhaps implying a movement of women from the domestic sphere to the political intrigue of the Periclean court. The textual corruption likely stems from the phonetic similarity between the dative plural of the proper name and the adverbial form, or a conflation with the name of a place (e.g., Asine), though the latter makes little sense in the context of the play's satire on the Peloponnesian War and the role of women in politics. The emendation to Ἀσπασίᾳ (or a genitive construction depending on the syntactic frame of the preceding text, which is cut off here) is standard in modern editions (e.g., West, Arnott) to restore the specific historical allusion essential to Aristophanes' satire.
Lysistrata. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.