990.
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Line 990
The phrase 'κεχηνότες Μαμμάκυθοι' presents a significant textual crux. While the transmitted text in some manuscripts reads 'Μαμμάκυθοι' (Mammakythoi), a recognized conjecture by scholars such as Bergk and later supported by modern editors like Kassel and Austin is 'Μαμμάκυνθος' (Mammakynthus) or a similar correction, suggesting the text may refer to a specific location or a corrupted proper noun rather than a generic term for 'squash'. The participle 'κεχηνότες' (gaping/open-mouthed) is typically used for people or animals, making its application to a noun ending in '-υθοι' (if taken as a plural of 'squash') a deliberate, jarring comic hyperbole, or, if 'Μαμμάκυθοι' is a corruption of a place name, it implies a specific geographical or topographical joke regarding the 'gaping' nature of that place. The lack of a clear antecedent for 'Μαμμάκυθοι' in the immediate context forces the reader to weigh the likelihood of a manuscript corruption against a highly obscure, dialectal, or coined term.
1004.
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Line 1004
ἀλλʼ ὦ πρῶτος τῶν Ἑλλήνων πυργώσας ῥήματα σεμνὰ
The phrase 'πρῶτος τῶν Ἑλλήνων' (first of the Greeks) is a deliberate hyperbolic honorific applied to Aeschylus, contrasting sharply with the subsequent description of him as 'pyrgōsas rhēmata semna' (building up lofty words). While Aeschylus was widely revered in the 5th century, the specific metaphor of 'building towers' (pyrgōsas) of language is a satirical exaggeration of the comic tradition's view of his style as heavy, bombastic, and architecturally massive, a critique that Aristophanes revisits elsewhere (e.g., *Frogs* 1000–1014). The genitive 'τῶν Ἑλλήνων' here functions as a superlative marker of pre-eminence, but the combination of 'first' and 'builder' creates a specific ironic tension: it elevates Aeschylus to a foundational status while simultaneously reducing his poetic achievement to a crude structural feat, a key element of the play's judgment of the dead poets.
1018.
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Line 1018
καὶ δὴ χωρεῖ τουτὶ τὸ κακόν· κρανοποιῶν αὖ μʼ ἐπιτρίψει.
The compound κρανοποιῶν (cranopoion) is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes, literally 'cup-maker' or 'cup-seller'. While the agent noun is transparent, its specific application here relies on the immediate context of the scene: the character (Xanthias) is being threatened with the rough, laborious task of making wine-jars (kranoi) for the chorus or a specific patron, a detail that underscores the comic degradation of the character from a 'wise' slave to a mere artisan. The term's rarity and its specific connotation of menial labor in the context of Dionysian festival preparations warrant noting, as it is not a generic term for a potter but a specific occupational designation within the play's internal logic.
1028.
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Line 1028
ἐχάρην γοῦν, †ἡνίκʼ ἤκουσα περὶ Δαρείου τεθνεῶτος,†
The phrase περὶ Δαρείου τεθνεῶτος presents a syntactic crux: the preposition περὶ + genitive with a perfect passive participle (τεθνεῶτος) functions as a causal clause ('because Darius had died') rather than the more common temporal or topical sense. This construction, where περὶ introduces a cause with a participle that implies a completed state affecting the present emotion, is rare in Aristophanes and requires careful parsing to distinguish it from a simple report of news ('about Darius'). The genitive τεθνεῶτος here is not merely attributive but carries a causal force that is syntactically compressed.
1040.
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Line 1040
ὅθεν ἡμὴ φρὴν ἀπομαξαμένη πολλὰς ἀρετὰς ἐποίησεν,
The verb ἀπομαξαμένη is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes, derived from ἀπό (away) and μάσσω (to rub, wipe, or scrape), literally 'having scraped off' or 'having wiped away'. In this context, it creates a strikingly physical metaphor for the mind (φρήν) cleansing itself of impurities or ignorance to produce virtue, a usage that contrasts with the more common abstract verbs for moral improvement. The participle is in the aorist middle, implying a completed action by the subject itself, emphasizing the mind's agency in this purification process.
1047.
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Line 1047
ὥστε γε καὐτόν σε κατʼ οὖν ἔβαλεν.
The particle combination καὐτόν (καὶ + αὐτόν) with the enclitic γε and the subsequent ἔβαλεν exhibits a specific metrical and syntactic feature of Aristophanic comedy: the elision of the final epsilon in ἔβαλεν before the following vowel (implied or elided in the manuscript tradition) is standard, but the placement of the pronoun αὐτόν immediately after καὶ with the enclitic γε creates a rare rhythmic accentuation pattern often used to heighten the comic emphasis of the action. More critically, the verb ἔβαλεν here is not a standard aorist indicative but likely a form of ἔβαλον (aorist of βάλλω) with the augment elided or the form contracted, a phenomenon attested in papyri and critical editions of Aristophanes where the augment is dropped in the middle of a line to fit iambic trimeter, a feature that requires specific attention in syntactic parsing to avoid misidentifying the tense or mood.
1051.
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Line 1051
κώνεια πιεῖν αἰσχυνθείσας διὰ τοὺς σοὺς Βελλεροφόντας.
The participle αἰσχυνθείσας (aorist passive participle of αἰσχύνομαι) is used with the infinitive πιεῖν in a construction where the subject of the participle (the women, implied by the context of the play's satire on Spartan women) is also the logical subject of the infinitive. This is a standard construction of the genitive absolute or, more precisely here, a genitive participle agreeing with an implied subject in the accusative (the women) that governs the infinitive, a structure common in Aristophanic comedy to denote cause or attendant circumstance. However, the specific phrase 'κώνεια πιεῖν' (to drink water) followed by the participle 'having been ashamed' creates a syntactic ambiguity: does the shame precede the drinking as a cause, or is the shame the result of the drinking? The context of the play (lines 1025-1026) clarifies that the women are ashamed to drink water because of the 'Bellerophons' (a pun on the Spartan soldiers who were supposedly defeated by the 'Bellerophons' of Athens, or a reference to the Spartan practice of drinking wine from water-skins, which is being mocked). The phrase 'διὰ τοὺς σοὺς Βελλεροφόντας' (because of your Bellerophons) is a pointed political allusion: the Spartans, known for their austerity and military prowess, are being mocked by the Athenians for their supposed defeat by the 'Bellerophons' (a reference to the Spartan king Pausanias, who was accused of treason and was associated with the myth of Bellerophon, a hero who was also associated with the city of Argos, a Spartan ally). The commentary must address the syntactic complexity of the participle and the historical allusion to the 'Bellerophons' as a political insult.
The term 'Βελλεροφόντας' (Bellerophons) is a deliberate pun and allusion. In the context of Aristophanes' Frogs, it refers to the Spartan soldiers, but the name 'Bellerophon' is also associated with the myth of the hero who was accused of treason by the Spartans (specifically, the Spartan king Pausanias, who was accused of treason and was associated with the myth of Bellerophon). The pun is that the Spartans are being mocked for their supposed defeat by the 'Bellerophons' (a reference to the Spartan king Pausanias, who was accused of treason and was associated with the myth of Bellerophon, a hero who was also associated with the city of Argos, a Spartan ally). The commentary must address the historical allusion to the 'Bellerophons' as a political insult.
1059.
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Line 1059
μεγάλων γνωμῶν καὶ διανοιῶν ἴσα καὶ τὰ ῥήματα τίκτειν.
The participle τίκτειν ('to bring forth') functions as a complementary infinitive dependent on the implied verb of 'producing' or 'generating' understood from the context of the preceding clause (likely referring to the tragic poet's style). This construction, where a transitive verb of 'bringing forth' takes a direct object (μεγάλων γνωμῶν καὶ διανοιῶν) and a complementary infinitive expressing the action of the object, is a distinctive Aristophanic usage that personifies abstract concepts ('great thoughts and plans') as the offspring of the poet's rhetoric. The phrase ἴσα καὶ τὰ ῥήματα ('equal even to the words') creates a syntactic tension: is ἴσα modifying the thoughts/plans themselves as being 'equal' to the words, or is it a predicate adjective with the infinitive, suggesting the 'birth' of thoughts is equal to the 'birth' of words? The genitive absolute construction is absent here, relying instead on a compressed comparative structure typical of the play's satirical tone regarding the 'greatness' of Euripides' new-fangled vocabulary versus traditional tragic diction.
1071.
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Line 1071
τῶν μειρακίων στωμυλλομένων, καὶ τοὺς Παράλους ἀνέπεισεν
The phrase τῶν μειρακίων στωμυλλομένων utilizes the genitive absolute construction with the present active participle of στωμυλλέω. This verb is a hapax legomenon in this specific form within Aristophanes and carries a specialized, pejorative nuance of 'mumbling' or 'speaking in an unintelligible, muttering fashion,' distinct from the more common ὀμυλλέω or generic terms for talking. The construction effectively isolates the behavior of the youths as the causal or circumstantial backdrop for the main verb, highlighting the specific, disruptive nature of their speech which Xanthias or Dionysus (depending on the immediate context) overcomes by convincing the Paraloí (a specific corps of rowers) to intervene.
1084.
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Line 1084
The verb ἀνεμεστώθη (aorist passive indicative of ἀνεμιοῦν, attested only here in the extant corpus of Aristophanes) is a hapax legomenon constructed from ἀνήμι ('to empty') and the intensive or causative prefix ἀνέ-. In this context, it functions as a vivid, comic neologism describing the scribes' stomachs as having been 'emptied out' or 'hollowed' by hunger, playing on the physical sensation of the 'scribes' (ὑπογραμματέων) being so impoverished they are literally air-filled or empty. The form is a rare instance of Aristophanic morphological invention where a compound verb is formed on the spot to suit the metrical and comic necessity of describing a state of extreme destitution.
1106.
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Line 1106
λέγετον ἔπιτον ἀνά τε δέρετον
The imperative forms λέγετον, ἔπιτον, and δέρετον are plural second-person imperatives with the enclitic particle -ν added for emphasis or rhythmic closure, a feature common in comic verse to mark a collective command. However, the form δέρετον is particularly noteworthy: while the standard Attic imperative plural of δέρω is δέρεσθε (present) or δάρετε (aorist), the form δέρετον represents a Doric or comic variant of the present imperative, reflecting the dialectal mixture often found in Aristophanic choral or comic speech. This usage highlights the play's engagement with dialectal variation for comic effect, especially in the context of the frog chorus or a rustic scene.
1111.
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Line 1111
λεπτὰ μὴ γνῶναι λεγόντοιν,
The phrase λεγόντοιν represents a rare and specific morphological form: the dual optative of λέγω (λέγοιτοιν) used as a passive participle (or potentially a contracted form of λέγοιτοιν in a periphrastic construction), which is highly irregular for Aristophanes. While the dual optative exists, its usage here with the infinitive γνῶναι to express a prohibitive or potential nuance ('lest they be understood to speak thin things') is syntactically complex and likely involves a dialectal or poetic contraction not found in Attic prose. This construction is not merely an intermediate grammatical exercise but a deliberate archaism or metrical adjustment that challenges standard parsing of the dual optative in a comedic context.
1118.
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Line 1118
πάντʼ ἐπέξιτον θεατῶν γʼ οὕνεχʼ ὡς ὄντων σοφῶν.
The relative clause ὡς ὄντων σοφῶν functions as a causal explanation for the preceding assertion, relying on the construction ὡς with the genitive absolute (or more precisely, a genitive of cause following ὡς) to mean 'since they were wise.' While ὡς with the genitive is common in later Greek, its use here by Aristophanes to introduce a subjective, ironic justification ('since they [thought themselves] to be wise') is a specific syntactic feature of the comic diction that distinguishes the playwright's handling of causal particles from the more rigid structures found in Attic tragedy or prose.
