Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 846

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.) — 846 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.) — 846 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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Line 857

λευκῆς νοτίζει μελανοσυρμαῖον λεών.
The adjective λεών (leōn) is a hapax legomenon in this specific form, appearing here as a substantive masculine noun meaning 'lion' or 'lion-like creature' (referring to a man). It is derived from λέων (leon) but appears in a rare dialectal or poetic inflection, potentially influenced by the comedic meter or a pun on 'lion' as a metaphor for a fierce or prominent figure. The phrase λεών here likely refers to a specific character or a metaphorical 'lion' in the context of the play's plot, possibly alluding to a man's fierce nature or a specific role in the narrative.

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Line 864

ψυχαὶ δὲ πολλαὶ διʼ ἔμʼ ἐπὶ Σκαμανδρίαις
The phrase 'ἐπὶ Σκαμανδρίαις' presents a crux of textual transmission and geographical allusion. While the standard scholia and many editions read Σκαμανδρίαις (dative plural, 'on the Scamanders'), some manuscript traditions and conjectures (e.g., by Hermann and later editors) suggest Σκαμανδρίαις might be a corruption of Σκαμανδρίοις or, more likely in the context of the play's parody of Euripides' *Trojan Women*, a deliberate metatheatrical pun on the river Scamander's personification. However, the more significant issue is the use of the plural 'Σκαμανδρίαις' (the Scamanders) rather than the singular river name. In Euripidean tragedy, the river is often addressed in the singular; the plural here may reflect a comic distortion of the tragic topos, or it could be a reference to the multiple tributaries or a specific, now lost, local cultic reference that Aristophanes is mocking. The dative case 'ἐπὶ' with the plural suggests 'on the banks of the Scamanders' or 'at the place of the Scamanders,' which is geographically ambiguous and syntactically unusual for a single river, pointing to a deliberate comic exaggeration of the tragic setting.

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Line 872

ὅστις ξένους δέξαιτο ποντίῳ σάλῳ
The phrase ποντίῳ σάλῳ ('Pontic brine') is a specific metonymy for a type of fish sauce (garum) produced in the Black Sea region, distinct from the standard Mediterranean varieties. In this comedic context, the reference relies on the contemporary Greek perception of Pontic cuisine as distinctively pungent or 'strong,' serving as a humorous justification for the 'stranger's' potential to be overwhelmed or 'saved' by the intensity of the flavor, a detail that anchors the joke in specific culinary geography rather than generic seasoning.

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Line 898

εἰ μὴ Κρίτυλλά γʼ Ἀντιθέου Γαργηττόθεν·
The patronymic 'Ἀντιθέου' is a standard genitive construction, but the specific identification of Kritylla as the daughter of Antitheos of Gargettus is a crucial prosopographical detail. Gargettus was a deme in the Attic tribe of Aiantis, and while Aristophanes frequently uses deme names for comic effect, the explicit linking of a character's name, father, and deme here serves to ground the character in a specific social and geographic reality, likely alluding to a known family or a specific type of local figure (perhaps a priestess or a woman of the lower classes associated with the Thesmophoria). The use of the particle 'γάρ' (implied in the context of the previous line's condition) and the specific naming convention suggests a reference to a real person or a very specific local type rather than a generic 'some woman'.