Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 312

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

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Thesmophoriazusae. 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

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

Translations (2)
Thesmophoriazusae (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Anonymous; 1938 compilation). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 312 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.) — 312 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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Λατοῦς χρυσώπιδος ἔρνος,
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.

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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.