Aristophanes Frogs 1309

Matthew Dillon (Translator)

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Frogs. Aristophanes. Matthew Dillon (Translator). . 2026-09-08.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Current edition Experimental

Frogs (OCR draft) (English) (English (Matthew Dillon). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Βάτραχοι Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 2. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.) — 1309 focus
Translations (1)
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.) — 1309 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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καὶ λαβομένω τὸ ῥῆμʼ ἑκάτερος εἴπατον,
The form εἴπατον is a dual aorist indicative active of λέγω, used here to indicate that the two speakers (Dionysus and Xanthias) spoke in unison or simultaneously. This dual form is rare in Attic comedy, where the plural is more common even for pairs, but it serves a specific dramatic function here to emphasize the coordinated action of the two characters as they take the turn to speak.

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κόκκυ, μέθεσθε· καὶ πολύ γε κατωτέρω
The imperative 'μέθεσθε' (let go) is addressed to the chorus, who in performance are likely representing the birds or the underworld spirits accompanying the descent, while 'κόκκυ' functions as an interjection mimicking the cuckoo's cry or a specific call to the bird-characters. This line occurs during the descent into Hades, where the chorus sings of the underworld's sounds; the adverb 'κατωτέρω' (lower down) signals the physical progression of the characters' movement in the staging, emphasizing the verticality of the journey into the depths of Hades, a motif central to the play's comic geography.

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σὺ δʼ εἰσέθηκας τοὔπος ἐπτερωμένον.
The phrase ἐπτερωμένον modifies τοὔπος (τὸ ὄψος) in the accusative, yet the verb εἰσέθηκας (you brought in) takes a direct object. This construction relies on the accusative of respect (or accusative of the predicate) where the participle describes the state of the object upon its arrival, rather than a standard accusative of the thing brought. The imagery of 'speech' (ὄψος, here meaning 'report' or 'news') being 'winged' is a direct allusion to the Homeric motif of winged words (e.g., *Iliad* 2.340), but Aristophanes applies it ironically to the arrival of a specific, perhaps trivial or scandalous, report in the context of the play's satire on contemporary Athenian politics and the recent execution of generals.

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αὐτὸς τὰ παιδίʼ ἡ γυνὴ Κηφισοφῶν
The phrase 'ἡ γυνὴ Κηφισοφῶν' is a standard nominative appositive construction identifying the wife of the character Kallias (the 'Cleisthenes' of the play is his father, but the wife is Kallias's wife, Kallipides's wife, or simply a reference to the wife of Kallias). The specific name 'Kephisophon' refers to the wife of Kallias, a prominent Athenian general and politician during the Peloponnesian War. The phrase is not a grammatical anomaly but a clear identification of a specific historical figure, which is crucial for understanding the satirical context of the play, where Aristophanes mocks the political and social elite of Athens. The use of the definite article 'ἡ' before the noun 'γυνὴ' and the name 'Κηφισοφῶν' is typical for such appositional constructions, where the name is in apposition to the noun, clarifying the identity of the person being referred to.

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εἴ τις πτερώσας Κλεόκριτον Κινησίᾳ,
The participle πτερώσας (aorist active participle of πτερόω) is a rare and vivid metaphorical usage, literally meaning 'to wing' or 'to give wings to,' employed here to denote the act of slapping or striking someone on the backside (a common euphemism for a beating). The syntax relies on the participle functioning adverbially with the implied subject of the conditional clause, creating a compact, colloquial idiom characteristic of Aristophanic comedy that would be obscure to a reader relying solely on standard grammatical paradigms.

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τὰ δʼ ὄντα πίστʼ ἄπιστα.
The sentence presents a gnomic antithesis relying on the polysemy of πίστ(α). Here, the first πίστ refers to 'security' or 'guarantee' (derived from πίστις as a pledge), while the second refers to 'trustworthiness' or 'reliability' (derived from the adjective πιστός). This wordplay, contrasting the objective fact of a 'pledge' with the subjective failure of 'faith', is a hallmark of Aristophanic irony regarding the instability of political alliances and human nature in the play.

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καὶ σκαριφησμοῖσι λήρων
The dative plural λήρων ('of nonsense' or 'of foolish things') is an irregular morphological form; the standard Attic genitive plural of ἄληθων (or the noun ἄληθων used substantively) would typically be ἄληθων, but here the form λήρων reflects a Doric or poetic variant often found in comedy, specifically a contraction of λήρων from λήρων (from λήρ, 'nonsense') with a Doric dative plural ending -οισι preceding it. The phrase σκαριφησμοῖσι λήρων uses a rare and vivid metaphor: σκαριφησμός (literally 'scratching' or 'nibbling') is used metaphorically for 'chatter' or 'trivial talk,' a usage attested elsewhere in Aristophanes but not common in other authors. The construction itself, with the dative of means or manner (σκαριφησμοῖσι) modifying an implied verbal idea of 'being filled with' or 'consisting of' λήρων, is syntactically elliptical but typical of the comic style, where such compression relies on the audience's familiarity with the metaphorical extension of physical actions to speech.

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καὶ δὸς τουτὶ Κλεοφῶντι φέρων
The imperative δὸς (doce) is followed by the present participle φέρων (pherōn), creating a syntactic construction where the participle expresses the manner of the action rather than a distinct temporal sequence. While the dative Κλεοφῶντι is the indirect object of δὸς, the participle φέρων agrees with the implied subject of the imperative, functioning as a 'manner participle' (participium modale) which is less common than the more frequent 'circumstantial' or 'temporal' uses in Attic comedy, here emphasizing the simultaneity of the giving and the carrying. This construction avoids the potential ambiguity of an aorist participle, which might suggest the carrying preceded the giving.

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Μύρμηκί θʼ ὁμοῦ καὶ Νικομάχῳ,
The vocative Μύρμηκί is a humorous nickname for the tragic poet Aeschylus, derived from his famous opening line in the *Phrygians* ('I was a man of the mountain...') where he describes himself as 'a mole' (or ant-like in his digging of deep thoughts), or more likely a reference to the character's association with the earthy, subterranean world of the dead in this play. The juxtaposition with Nicomachus, a contemporary comic poet (son of the famous comedian Phrynichus), creates a deliberate contrast between the 'old' tragic style and the 'new' comic one, a central theme of the agon in this play.

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τόδε δʼ Ἀρχενόμῳ·
The phrase functions as a speaker tag (titulus) indicating the character addressing Archonome, a figure who is otherwise silent in this scene. The construction uses the dative of the person addressed with the demonstrative τόδε ('this [thing/speech]'), a standard convention in Aristophanic comedy for introducing a character's line, though the specific choice of the dative here rather than a vocative or nominative construction with a verb of speaking reflects the script's convention for attributing lines in the manuscript tradition.

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ἀργαλέων τʼ ἐν ὅπλοις ξυνόδων. Κλεοφῶν δὲ μαχέσθω
The genitive plural 'ἀργαλέων' (difficult/hard) modifies 'ξυνόδων' (meetings/encounters) in the phrase 'ἐν ὅπλοις' (in arms). While 'ἀργαλέος' is a common adjective, its specific collocation with 'ξυνόδων' to denote the arduous nature of military assemblies or the hardships of war is a distinctive Aristophanic usage that contrasts with the more abstract or political 'συνόδους' found in oratory. The phrase sets up a hyperbolic contrast for the immediate command to Kleophon, who is being urged to fight despite the inherent difficulty ('ἀργαλέων') of such military engagements.
Kleophon (Κλεοφῶν) is a specific historical figure, a prominent democratic orator and general in Athens during the later stages of the Peloponnesian War, known for his aggressive stance against Sparta and his opposition to peace negotiations. In the context of the *Frogs* (405 BCE), Aristophanes is satirizing Kleophon's political rhetoric and his push for continued war, ironically suggesting that he should personally engage in the very 'difficult meetings in arms' that he has been advocating for, while the city suffers. This reference relies on the audience's knowledge of the specific political climate of 405 BCE and Kleophon's reputation as a warmonger.

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κἄλλος ὁ βουλόμενος τούτων πατρίοις ἐν ἀρούραις.
The construction κἄλλος ὁ βουλόμενος functions as an elliptical comparative clause where the comparative adjective ὁ βουλόμενος ('whoever wishes') stands in apposition to the implied subject of the main clause, effectively meaning 'and let the one who wishes [do so]'. This usage of the definite article with a participle to create a substantive subject in a hortatory or gnomic context, combined with the elision of the predicate verb (understood as 'is' or 'shall be'), is a characteristic Aristophanic feature of compressed, colloquial syntax that demands reconstruction of the omitted verbal element from the context of the preceding lines.