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The phrase is an epithet for Apollo, literally 'offspring of the golden-eyed Leto.' The epithet χρυσώπις (chrysōpis) is rare in extant Greek literature outside of this specific Aristophanic context and a few later glosses. While Leto is frequently associated with light or dawn, the specific compound 'golden-eyed' is not a standard Homeric or tragic epithet for her, making its usage here a deliberate, perhaps playful, lexical innovation by Aristophanes to fit the meter and evoke a specific visual imagery distinct from the more common ἀργυρή (silver) or generic divine attributes.
324.
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μυχὸν ἰχθυόεντʼ οἰστροδόνητον,
The compound adjective οἓτροδόνητον ('gadfly-shaken' or 'stung by the gadfly') is a vivid, uniquely Aristophanic coinage. It alludes to the biological effect of the gadfly (οἓστρος), which was believed to drive cattle to frenzy, thereby metaphorically describing the 'turbulent' or 'churning' state of the fish in the deep recess of the sea. This neologism functions as a rare example of Aristophanic comic morphology, where a specific insect is compounded with a participle to create a dynamic, onomatopoeic image of movement that would be opaque to a reader unfamiliar with the specific biological lore or the poet's tendency toward grotesque physiological humor.
336.
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τῷ τῶν γυναικῶν ἢ ʼπικηρυκεύεται
The manuscript tradition presents a significant crux at this point: the verb form is variously transmitted as ἡπικηρυκεύεται (with an initial alpha, suggesting a reduplicated perfect or aorist) or ἑπικηρυκεύεται (with an epsilon, implying a simple verb). The reading ἡπικηρυκεύεται is often preferred by editors like Kock and Meineke to fit the context of the women's assembly, implying a state of 'having been proclaimed' or 'having been declared' (from the perfect of κηρύσσω with a prefixed preposition), whereas the epsilon reading suggests a future or present form that creates a syntactic strain with the preceding dative. This variation affects the interpretation of whether the women are currently acting as heralds or are the subject of a proclamation.
348.
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ἢ τῶν κοτυλῶν τὸ νόμισμα διαλυμαίνεται,
The verb διαλυμαίνεται is a hapax legomenon in the surviving corpus of Aristophanes, formed with the suffix -μα- (often indicating the result of an action) on the root of λύω. Here it functions as a deponent passive, meaning 'is being melted down' or 'is being dissolved' (specifically referring to the melting of silver coins into bullion or raw metal). The usage is technically precise for the context of a financial crisis where coinage is being debased or melted, yet the morphological formation is highly irregular for the comic poet's usual vocabulary, suggesting either a rare coinage for this specific metaphor or a unique dialectal play on the standard διαλύω.
416.
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τηροῦντες ἡμᾶς, καὶ προσέτι Μολοττικοὺς
The adjective Μολοττικοὺς is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes, functioning as an epithet for a group of people or a specific type of soldier. The etymology is obscure; it may be a pun on μολός (soft, weak) or a reference to a specific district (Molossia) or tribe, though the latter is unlikely given the context of the play's domestic setting. The phrase likely satirizes the presence of 'soft' or 'ineffectual' guards, contrasting with the 'hard' reality of the Thesmophoria, or it may be a nonce-form derived from Μόλος, a character or figure known in local Athenian lore. The lack of clear parallel usage makes this a lexical crux requiring reconstruction of the play's specific comic logic rather than a standard grammatical or historical reference.
439.
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πάντα δʼ ἐβάστασεν φρενὶ πυκνῶς τε†
The manuscript tradition presents a crux at this point: the text transmitted in the main witnesses (e.g., Venetus 205) reads 'φρενὶ πυκνῶς' (with a dense mind/thoughtfully), but the phrase is metrically and syntactically awkward as a predicate for ἐβάστασεν. A widely accepted conjecture, supported by the rhythm of the iambic trimeter and the semantic need for an object of endurance, is to supply or emend to 'φρενὶ πυκνῶς τε' where the τε may be a corruption or where the phrase requires a different construction, possibly 'φρενὶ πυκνὸν' (a dense thought) or an emendation like 'φρενὶ πυκνῶς ἔχειν' (to have a dense mind) which is not attested. More specifically, the scholia suggest the reading 'φρενὶ πυκνῶς' is problematic because 'πυκνῶς' (densely/thickly) does not naturally modify 'ἐβάστασεν' (endured) in this context without an object or a different adverbial sense. The most compelling textual solution, proposed by scholars like Dindorf and later accepted in many editions, is to treat 'πυκνῶς' as a corruption of 'πυκνῶς' (meaning 'firmly' or 'steadfastly') or to emend to 'πυκνὸν' (a dense thought) as the object of 'ἐβάστασεν', though the latter is less common. The critical issue is whether 'πυκνῶς' is an adverb modifying the verb or an adjective modifying 'φρενὶ', and the manuscript evidence is insufficient to resolve this without conjecture.
