Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 1160

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Thesmophoriazusae. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.

Current edition Experimental

English (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.) — 1160 focus
Translations (1)
Thesmophoriazusae (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Anonymous; 1938 compilation). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 1160 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 1175

σὺ δʼ ὦ Τερηδὼν ἐπαναφύσα Περσικόν.
The imperative ἐπαναφύσα (from ἐπαναφυῶ) is a rare poetic and comic formation meaning 'burst forth again' or 'spring up anew,' here used as a command to the chorus member playing the Persian woman to re-adopt her foreign persona. The verb is not attested in prose and its usage here relies on the comic inversion of the typical root φυ- (to grow, spring) in a context of theatrical disguise and the sudden, explosive nature of the Persian character's entrance, contrasting with the more common φυτεύω or φύω.

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Line 1184

κάτησο κάτησο, ναῖκι ναῖκι τυγάτριον.
The imperative κάτησο (from κατάω) is a rare Attic form meaning 'go down' or 'get down,' often used in the context of leading an animal or person downward; here it is part of a rhythmic chant likely mimicking the sound of a child's game or a ritual invocation, as suggested by the onomatopoeic repetition of ναῖκι ναῖκι and the diminutive τυγάτριον ('little goat').
The term τυγάτριον is a diminutive of τύγος (goat), and its usage here, combined with the imperative κάτησο, may allude to a specific ritual or folk practice involving goats, possibly linked to fertility rites or children's games, which would be lost without context.

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Line 1190b

οὐκὶ πιλῆσι πρῶτά με;
The particle οὐκὶ (from οὐκί) introduces a question expecting an affirmative answer, functioning here as a rhetorical challenge to the interlocutor's assertion. The form is an Attic contraction of οὐκ ἐπί, where ἐπί is used with the dative πρῶτά (the adverbial accusative of πρότερον) to mean 'against' or 'in opposition to'. This construction, οὐκί + dative + adverbial accusative, is a specific syntactic feature of Aristophanic comedy that relies on the colloquial and often compressed speech patterns of the stage, distinguishing it from the more regular Attic prose usage.

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Line 1198

ἔπειτα † κομίζεις αὐτοῖς.†
The sentence contains a textual crux marked by the dagger symbols (†), indicating a gap or corruption in the transmitted text. While some editions attempt to supply a verb or phrase to complete the thought, the manuscript tradition itself is defective here, making the precise syntax and intended meaning of the line uncertain.

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Line 1213a

Ἀρταμουξία.
This is a coined word (hapax legomenon in this context) constructed by Aristophanes from ἄρτος (bread) and a suffix suggesting a woman's name or a specific role, likely functioning as a pun on 'Artamis' or a similar name, satirizing the pretensions of the Thesmophoria festival participants or a specific character's attempt at a grandiose title.

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Line 1215

ὀρτῶς δὲ συβήνη ʼστί· καταβηνῆσι γάρ.
The form συβήνη (subēnē) is an Atticizing spelling of the Doric/Chian συβόνη (subōnē), referring to the wild boar or the boar-hunting dog, reflecting the comic poet's characteristic mixture of dialects to mock the pretensions of the character speaking. The verb καταβηνῆσι is a Doric form of the aorist subjunctive καταβῆναι (katabēnai), meaning 'to go down' or 'to descend,' here used in a technical sense of a dog following a scent trail downwards or into a den, a usage attested in hunting treatises but rendered here with a dialectal flavor to emphasize the rustic, boorish nature of the speaker's argument.

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Line 1223

Ἀρταμουξία.
This is a hapax legomenon (a word occurring only once in the extant corpus) appearing as the name of a specific, fictitious deity or spirit in the play. The term is a compound of ἄρτος (bread) and the suffix -ουξία (related to οἶνος or perhaps a play on ὀξύς), likely referring to a 'Bread-fermenting' or 'Bread-keeping' ritual spirit, satirizing the domestic religious practices of the women. Its obscurity and unique formation mark it as a deliberate comic invention by Aristophanes rather than a reference to an established cult figure.