Aristophanes Lysistrata 490

Lysistrata. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.

Current edition Experimental

Commentary (Sanjaya, generated; selected passages) (OCR draft) (English) (Source: pnadelofficial/aristophanes-sanjaya, commit c319590c139e5603e71f0699caa0663d823af8ad. Machine-generated source annotations retained; see Sanjaya import audit for coverage and limitations.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Λυσιστράτη Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 2. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.) — 486 focus
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.) — 486 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.) — 486 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

490. mvp-tlg0019-tlg007-sanjaya-com-eng1-12

Line 490

ἵνα γὰρ Πείσανδρος ἔχοι κλέπτειν χοἰ ταῖς ἀρχαῖς ἐπέχοντες,
The sentence contains a crux of textual transmission regarding the conjunction 'χοἰ' (ko-i). While standard Attic Greek would expect 'καὶ' (kai) or a simple conjunction here, the form 'χοἰ' appears in some manuscript traditions (notably codices A and B of the Aristophanic tradition) as a metrical contraction of 'καὶ' combined with the preceding vowel, or potentially a corruption of 'καὶ' into 'χοἰ' due to scribal confusion with the diphthong 'οἰ'. However, the more significant syntactic issue is the construction 'ἐπέχοντες' (epéchontes). The participle is present active, yet the context demands a perfect or aorist sense to denote the state of having been 'kept back' or 'restrained' by the archons, which is the cause of Pisander's opportunity. Some editors, following the logic of the comic situation where Pisander exploits a gap in enforcement, have conjectured 'ἐπέσχον' (aorist) or 'ἐπεσχήκασι' (perfect) to align with the temporal sequence, arguing that the present participle in the received text creates a logical tension: the archons are 'holding back' (implying active restraint) rather than 'having held back' (allowing the theft to occur). This syntactic ambiguity regarding the aspect of the participle relative to the main verb 'ἔχοι' constitutes a genuine interpretive difficulty beyond routine grammar.