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Κηρύκαινα

εὔχεσθε τοῖς θεοῖσι τοῖς Ὀλυμπίοις

καὶ ταῖς Ὀλυμπίαισι καὶ τοῖς Πυθίοις

καὶ ταῖσι Πυθίαισι καὶ τοῖς Δηλίοις

καὶ ταῖσι Δηλίαισι τοῖς τʼ ἄλλοις θεοῖς,

εἴ τις ἐπιβουλεύει τι τῷ δήμῳ κακὸν
335

τῷ τῶν γυναικῶν ἢ ʼπικηρυκεύεται

Εὐριπίδῃ Μήδοις τʼ ἐπὶ βλάβῃ τινὶ

τῇ τῶν γυναικῶν, ἢ τυραννεῖν ἐπινοεῖ

ἢ τὸν τύραννον συγκατάγειν, ἢ παιδίον

ὑποβαλλομένης κατεῖπεν, ἢ δούλη τινὸς
340

προαγωγὸς οὖσʼ ἐνετρύλλισεν τῷ δεσπότῃ

ἢ πεμπομένη τις ἀγγελίας ψευδεῖς φέρει,

ἢ μοιχὸς εἴ τις ἐξαπατᾷ ψευδῆ λέγων

καὶ μὴ δίδωσιν ἃν ὑπόσχηταί ποτε,

ἢ δῶρά τις δίδωσι μοιχῷ γραῦς γυνή,
345

ἢ καὶ δέχεται προδιδοῦσʼ ἑταίρα τὸν φίλον,

κεἴ τις κάπηλος ἢ καπηλὶς τοῦ χοῶς

ἢ τῶν κοτυλῶν τὸ νόμισμα διαλυμαίνεται,

κακῶς ἀπολέσθαι τοῦτον αὐτὸν κᾠκίαν

ἀρᾶσθε, ταῖς δʼ ἄλλαισιν ὑμῖν τοὺς θεοὺς
350

εὔχεσθε πάσαις πολλὰ δοῦναι κἀγαθά.

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.) — 331 focus

Woman Herald

Address your prayers to the gods and goddesses of Olympus , of Delphi , Delos and all other places; 335 if there be a man who is plotting against the womenfolk or who, to injure them, is proposing peace to Euripides and the Medes, or who aspires to usurping the tyranny, plots the return of a tyrant, or 340 unmasks a supposititious child; or if there be a slave who, a confidential party to a wife's intrigues, reveals them secretly to her husband, or who, entrusted with a message, does not deliver the same faithfully; if there be a lover who fulfils naught of what he has promised a woman, whom he has abused on the strength of his lies; 345 if there be an old woman who seduces the lover of a maiden by dint of her presents and treacherously receives him in her house; if there be a host or hostess who sells false measure, pray the gods that they will overwhelm them with their wrath, 350 both them and their families, and that they may reserve all their favours for you.

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.) — 331 focus

Cry: Pray to the Olympian gods!

Kerykaina: and to the Olympian games and to the Pythian games

Cryer-woman: and to the Pythian women and to the Delians.

Cryer-woman: and to the Delian women and to the other gods,

Herald-woman: if anyone plots any harm against the people.

335

Herald-woman: either she is a heraldess of the women or she is not.

Cryer-woman: To Euripides, in the Medes, on some damage.

Crykeia: for the women, or she plots to tyrannize

Herald-woman: 'Either to lead the tyrant away, or a child.'

Cryceina: She said it by suggestion, or by some slave.

340

Kerykaina: since she was a procuress, she enticed her master.

Herald-woman: Or does someone being sent bring false news,

Herald-woman: Or is an adulterer anyone who deceives by speaking falsely?

Kerykeina: and she does not give what she once promised,

Kērykaina: 'Or does an old woman give gifts to an adulterer?'

345

Cry: Or does she even accept a hetaira who betrays beforehand her lover,

Cryer-woman: If any seller or female seller of the wine-jar

Cryce: Is the currency of the cups being destroyed?

Herald-woman: May this very man be destroyed miserably with a cock's crow!

Herald-woman: Pray, and the other gods for you.

350

Herald-woman: Pray that you may give to all great and good things.

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

336. mvp-tlg0019-tlg008-sanjaya-com-eng1-3

Line 336

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. mvp-tlg0019-tlg008-sanjaya-com-eng1-4

Line 348

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.

Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 331

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

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Commentary

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Line 348

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