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Line 1007

πέρʼ ἐγὼ ʼξινίγκι πορμός, ἴνα πυλάξι σοι.

The sentence presents a notorious crux of textual criticism and dialectal phonology. The text as transmitted in the manuscripts (often cited as 'πέρ' ἐγὼ ʼξινίγκι πορμός, ἴνα πυλάξι σοι') is widely regarded as corrupt or heavily distorted by comic distortion. The phrase 'ἐγὼ ʼξινίγκι πορμός' (literally 'I am an ox-nickel stone' or similar nonsense) has no coherent meaning in standard Attic or the expected Doric of the chorus. Scholars such as Kock, Mastronarde, and others have proposed various emendations, including readings involving 'ξυλίνγην' (wooden) or 'ἐξινίγκω' (I am driven out), but the exact wording remains a subject of debate due to the heavy comic distortion of the Doric dialect used by the chorus of women. The phrase 'ἴνα πυλάξι σοι' similarly suffers from dialectal compression and potential corruption, with 'πυλάξι' possibly representing a Doric form of 'πυλῶν' (gates) or a metaphorical 'locks', but the syntactic connection to the preceding clause is obscured by the textual corruption.

Thesmophoriazusae. 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)

Θεσμοφοριάζουσαι Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 2. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.) — 1001 focus

Τοξότης

ἐνταῦτα νῦν οἰμῶξι πρὸς τὴν αἰτρίαν.

Μνησίλοχος

ὦ τοξόθʼ ἱκετεύω σε.

Τοξότης

μή μʼ ἰκετεῦσι σύ.

Μνησίλοχος

χάλασον τὸν ἧλον.

Τοξότης

ἀλλὰ ταῦτα δρᾶσʼ ἐγώ.

Μνησίλοχος

οἴμοι κακοδαίμων, μᾶλλον ἐπικρούεις σύ γε.

Τοξότης

ἔτι μᾶλλο βοῦλις;
1005

Μνησίλοχος

ἀτταταῖ ἰατταταῖ·

κακῶς ἀπόλοιο.

Τοξότης

σῖγα κακοδαίμων γέρον.

πέρʼ ἐγὼ ʼξινίγκι πορμός, ἴνα πυλάξι σοι.

Μνησίλοχος

ταυτὶ τὰ βέλτιστʼ ἀπολέλαυκʼ Εὐριπίδου.

ἔα· θεοί, Ζεῦ σῶτερ, εἰσὶν ἐλπίδες.

ἁνὴρ ἔοικεν οὐ προδώσειν, ἀλλά μοι
1010

σημεῖον ὑπεδήλωσε Περσεὺς ἐκδραμών,

ὅτι δεῖ με γίγνεσθʼ Ἀνδρομέδαν· πάντως δέ μοι

τὰ δέσμʼ ὑπάρχει. δῆλον οὖν τοῦτʼ ἔσθʼ ὅτι

ἥξει με σώσων· οὐ γὰρ ἂν παρέπτετο.
1015

Εὐριπίδης

φίλαι παρθένοι φίλαι, πῶς ἂν οὖν

ἐπέλθοιμι καὶ

τὸν Σκύθην λάθοιμι;

κλύεις; ὦ πρὸς αἰδοῦς σὲ τὰν ἐν ἄντροις,

κατάνευσον, ἔασον ὡς
1020

τὴν γυναῖκά μʼ ἐλθεῖν.

Μνησίλοχος

ἄνοικτος ὅς μʼ ἔδησε τὸν

πολυστονώτατον βροτῶν·

μόλις δὲ γραῖαν ἀποφυγὼν

σαπρὰν ἀπωλόμην ὅμως.
1025

ὅδε γὰρ ὁ Σκύθης πάλαι μοι φύλαξ

ἐφεστὼς ὀλοὸν ἄφιλον ἐκρέμασεν

κόραξι δεῖπνον. ὁρᾷς; οὐ

χοροῖσιν οὐδʼ ὑφʼ ἡλίκων νεανίδων
1030

κημὸν ἕστηκʼ ἔχουσʼ,

ἀλλʼ ἐν πυκνοῖς δεσμοῖσιν ἐμπεπλεγμένη

κήτει βορὰ Γλαυκέτῃ πρόκειμαι,

γαμηλίῳ μὲν οὐ ξὺν

παιῶνι δεσμίῳ δὲ
1035

γοᾶσθέ μʼ ὦ γυναῖκες, ὡς

μέλεα μὲν πέπονθα μέλεος,

ὦ τάλας ἐγὼ τάλας,

ἀπὸ δὲ συγγόνων τάλανʼ ἄνομα πάθεα,

φῶτά τε λιτομέναν, πολυδάκρυτον Ἀίδα
1040

γόον †φεύγουσαν†

αἰαῖ αἰαῖ ἒ ἒ,

ὃς ἔμʼ ἀπεξύρησε πρῶτον,

ὃς ἐμὲ κροκόεντʼ ἐνέδυσεν·

ἐπὶ δὲ τοῖσδʼ ἐς τόδʼ ἀνέπεμψεν
1045

ἱερόν, ἔνθα γυναῖκες.

ἰώ μοι μοίρας ἄτεγκτε δαίμων·

ὦ κατάρατος ἐγώ·

τίς ἐμὸν οὐκ ἐπόψεται

πάθος ἀμέγαρτον ἐπὶ κακῶν παρουσίᾳ;

εἴθε με πυρφόρος αἰθέρος ἀστὴρ—
1050

τὸν βάρβαρον ἐξολέσειεν.

οὐ γὰρ ἔτʼ ἀθανάταν φλόγα λεύσσειν

ἐστὶν ἐμοὶ φίλον, ὡς ἐκρεμάσθην,

λαιμότμητʼ ἄχη δαιμόνων αἰόλαν

νέκυσιν ἐπὶ πορείαν.
1055

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.) — 1001 focus

Scythian Archer
He speaks with a heavy foreign accent

You shall stay here in the open air to wail.

Mnesilochus

Archer, I adjure you.

Scythian Archer

You're wasting your breath.

Mnesilochus

Loosen the wedge a little.

Scythian Archer

Aye, certainly.

Mnesilochus

Oh! by the gods! why, you are driving it in tighter.

Scythian Archer

1005 Is that enough?

Mnesilochus

Oh! Oh! Ow! Ow! May the plague take you!

Scythian Archer

Silence! you cursed old wretch! I am going to get a mat to lie upon, so as to watch you close at hand at my ease.

Mnesilochus

Ah! what exquisite pleasures Euripides is securing for me! But, oh, ye gods! oh, Zeus the Deliverer, all is not yet lost! 1010 I don't believe him the man to break his word; I just caught sight of him appearing in the form of Perseus, and he told me with a mysterious sign to turn myself into Andromeda. And in truth am I not really bound? It's certain, then, that 1015 he is coming to my rescue; for otherwise he would not have steered his flight this way.

Euripides
As Andromeda, singing

Oh Nymphs, ye virgins who are so dear to me, how am I to approach him? how can I escape the sight of this Scythian? And Echo, thou who reignest in the inmost recesses of the caves, 1020 oh! favour my cause and permit me to approach my spouse.

Μνησίλοχος

A pitiless ruffian has chained up the most unfortunate of mortal maids. Alas! I had barely escaped the filthy claws of an old fury, 1025 when another mischance overtook me! This Scythian does not take his eye off me and he has exposed me as food for the crows. Alas! what is to become of me, alone here and without friends! I am not 1030 seen mingling in the dances nor in the games of my companions, but heavily loaded with fetters I am given over to the voracity of a Glaucetes. Sing no bridal hymn for me, oh women, 1035 but rather the hymn of captivity, and in tears. Ah! how I suffer! great gods! how I suffer! Alas! alas! and through my own relatives too! My misery would make Tartarus dissolve into tears! Alas! in my terrible distress, 1040 I implore the mortal who first shaved me and depilated me, then dressed me in this long robe, 1045 and then sent me to this Temple into the midst of the women, to save me. Oh! thou pitiless Fate! I am then accursed, great gods! Ah! who would not be moved at the sight of the appalling tortures under which I succumb? 1050 Would that the blazing shaft of the lightning would wither ... this barbarian for me! The immortal light has no further charm for my eyes since I have been descending 1055 the shortest path to the dead, tied up, strangled, and maddened with pain.

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.) — 1001 focus

Archers: now here, groan towards the female goat!

Mnesilochus: O archer, I beg you.

Archers: Don't beg me, woman.

Mnesilochus: loosen the peg.

Bowman: But I do these things.

Mnesilochus: Alas, wretch, you are indeed hitting me all the harder.

Bowman: Even more of a bull?

1005

Mnesilochus: Alas, alas!

Mnesilochus: May you perish miserably.

Archers: Silence, wretched old man.

Archers: I will indeed strike you on the head, so that you will be a pillar for you.

Mnesilochus: These are the very best things I have enjoyed from Euripides.

Mnesilochus: Let it be; gods, Zeus savior, there are hopes.

Mnesilochus: The man seems not to betray, but rather me.

1010

Mnesilochus: Perseus, running out, has given a sign.

Mnesilochus: that I must become Andromeda; but I must certainly...

Mnesilochus: The bonds are there. It is clear, then, that this is so.

Mnesilochus: He will come to save me; for he would not have flown away.

1015

Euripides: dear friends, dear maidens, how then...

Euripides: 'May I come and'

Euripides: "Might I hide the Scythian?"

Euripides: Do you hear? O by modesty, you in the caves,

Euripides: nod, let it be as

1020

Euripides: to have come, me, the woman.

Mnesilochus: The lock that bound me is unopened,

Mnesilochus: the most groaning of mortals;

Mnesilochus: only after escaping an old woman

Mnesilochus: I have lost a rotten one, however.

1025

Mnesilochus: For this Scythian has long been my guard.

Mnesilochus: hanging, he hung a wretched, friendless man.

Mnesilochus: a feast for crows. Do you see? No.

Mnesilochus: neither with choruses nor by girls of my age.

1030

Mnesilochus: She is standing with her head covered.

Mnesilochus: but [she is] entangled in close bonds

Mnesilochus: I am set before as a meal for Glaucete the whale,

Mnesilochus: I am not yet married.

Mnesilochus: and to a bound paean

1035

Mnesilochus: Lament for me, women, how

Mnesilochus: I have suffered limbs for limbs,

Mnesilochus: Oh wretched me, wretched me,

Mnesilochus: and from kinsmen, untold sufferings, a talent,

Mnesilochus: a light I beg for, a tearful Hades.

1040

Mnesilochus: A lament for one fleeing!

Mnesilochus: Alas, alas, ah, ah,

Mnesilochus: 'who first shaved me,'

Mnesilochus: He who dressed me in saffron.

Mnesilochus: and in addition to these, she sent me here.

1045

Mnesilochus: A sanctuary, where there are women.

Mnesilochus: Alas! my cruel and inexorable fate!

Mnesilochus: Woe is me, cursed that I am;

Mnesilochus: Who will not look at me?

Mnesilochus: an unceasing suffering in the presence of evils?

Mnesilochus: If only the star of the fire-bearing aether—

1050

Mnesilochus: May he destroy the barbarian.

Mnesilochus: for he no longer sees an immortal flame

Mnesilochus: "It is dear to me, as I was hanged,"

Mnesilochus: the throat-cutting ills of the fated spirits,

Mnesilochus: For the dead, a journey.

1055

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

1007. mvp-tlg0019-tlg008-sanjaya-com-eng1-30

Line 1007

πέρʼ ἐγὼ ʼξινίγκι πορμός, ἴνα πυλάξι σοι.

Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 1007

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Line 1007

Current edition Experimental

Τοξότης

ἐνταῦτα νῦν οἰμῶξι πρὸς τὴν αἰτρίαν.

Μνησίλοχος

ὦ τοξόθʼ ἱκετεύω σε.

Τοξότης

μή μʼ ἰκετεῦσι σύ.

Μνησίλοχος

χάλασον τὸν ἧλον.

Τοξότης

ἀλλὰ ταῦτα δρᾶσʼ ἐγώ.

Μνησίλοχος

οἴμοι κακοδαίμων, μᾶλλον ἐπικρούεις σύ γε.

Τοξότης

ἔτι μᾶλλο βοῦλις;
1005

Μνησίλοχος

ἀτταταῖ ἰατταταῖ·

κακῶς ἀπόλοιο.

Τοξότης

σῖγα κακοδαίμων γέρον.

πέρʼ ἐγὼ ʼξινίγκι πορμός, ἴνα πυλάξι σοι.

Scythian Archer
He speaks with a heavy foreign accent

You shall stay here in the open air to wail.

Mnesilochus

Archer, I adjure you.

Scythian Archer

You're wasting your breath.

Mnesilochus

Loosen the wedge a little.

Scythian Archer

Aye, certainly.

Mnesilochus

Oh! by the gods! why, you are driving it in tighter.

Scythian Archer

1005 Is that enough?

Mnesilochus

Oh! Oh! Ow! Ow! May the plague take you!

Scythian Archer

Silence! you cursed old wretch! I am going to get a mat to lie upon, so as to watch you close at hand at my ease.

Euripides
As Andromeda, singing

Oh Nymphs, ye virgins who are so dear to me, how am I to approach him? how can I escape the sight of this Scythian? And Echo, thou who reignest in the inmost recesses of the caves, 1020 oh! favour my cause and permit me to approach my spouse.

Commentary

Line 1007

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Line 1007

Current edition Experimental

Τοξότης ἐνταῦτα νῦν οἰμῶξι πρὸς τὴν αἰτρίαν.

Μνησίλοχος ὦ τοξόθʼ ἱκετεύω σε.

Τοξότης μή μʼ ἰκετεῦσι σύ.

Μνησίλοχος χάλασον τὸν ἧλον.

Τοξότης ἀλλὰ ταῦτα δρᾶσʼ ἐγώ.

Μνησίλοχος οἴμοι κακοδαίμων, μᾶλλον ἐπικρούεις σύ γε.

Τοξότης ἔτι μᾶλλο βοῦλις; 1005

Μνησίλοχος ἀτταταῖ ἰατταταῖ· κακῶς ἀπόλοιο.

Τοξότης σῖγα κακοδαίμων γέρον. πέρʼ ἐγὼ ʼξινίγκι πορμός, ἴνα πυλάξι σοι.

Scythian Archer He speaks with a heavy foreign accent You shall stay here in the open air to wail.

Mnesilochus Archer, I adjure you.

Scythian Archer You're wasting your breath.

Mnesilochus Loosen the wedge a little.

Scythian Archer Aye, certainly.

Mnesilochus Oh! by the gods! why, you are driving it in tighter.

Scythian Archer 1005 Is that enough?

Mnesilochus Oh! Oh! Ow! Ow! May the plague take you!

Scythian Archer Silence! you cursed old wretch! I am going to get a mat to lie upon, so as to watch you close at hand at my ease.

Euripides As Andromeda, singing Oh Nymphs, ye virgins who are so dear to me, how am I to approach him? how can I escape the sight of this Scythian? And Echo, thou who reignest in the inmost recesses of the caves, 1020 oh! favour my cause and permit me to approach my spouse.

Commentary

Line 1007

Stable identifiers

Τοξότης

ἐνταῦτα νῦν οἰμῶξι πρὸς τὴν αἰτρίαν.

Μνησίλοχος

ὦ τοξόθʼ ἱκετεύω σε.

Τοξότης

μή μʼ ἰκετεῦσι σύ.

Μνησίλοχος

χάλασον τὸν ἧλον.

Τοξότης

ἀλλὰ ταῦτα δρᾶσʼ ἐγώ.

Μνησίλοχος

οἴμοι κακοδαίμων, μᾶλλον ἐπικρούεις σύ γε.

Τοξότης

ἔτι μᾶλλο βοῦλις;
1005

Μνησίλοχος

ἀτταταῖ ἰατταταῖ·

κακῶς ἀπόλοιο.

Τοξότης

σῖγα κακοδαίμων γέρον.

πέρʼ ἐγὼ ʼξινίγκι πορμός, ἴνα πυλάξι σοι.

Scythian Archer
He speaks with a heavy foreign accent

You shall stay here in the open air to wail.

Mnesilochus

Archer, I adjure you.

Scythian Archer

You're wasting your breath.

Mnesilochus

Loosen the wedge a little.

Scythian Archer

Aye, certainly.

Mnesilochus

Oh! by the gods! why, you are driving it in tighter.

Scythian Archer

1005 Is that enough?

Mnesilochus

Oh! Oh! Ow! Ow! May the plague take you!

Scythian Archer

Silence! you cursed old wretch! I am going to get a mat to lie upon, so as to watch you close at hand at my ease.

Euripides
As Andromeda, singing

Oh Nymphs, ye virgins who are so dear to me, how am I to approach him? how can I escape the sight of this Scythian? And Echo, thou who reignest in the inmost recesses of the caves, 1020 oh! favour my cause and permit me to approach my spouse.