Aristophanes Frogs 1109

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Frogs. 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)
Βάτραχοι Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 2. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.) — 1109 focus
Translations (1)
Frogs (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Matthew Dillon). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 1109 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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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.

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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.