Frogs. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.
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.
818.
mvp-tlg0019-tlg009-sanjaya-com-eng1-30
Line 818
ἔσται δʼ ἱππολόφων τε λόγων κορυθαίολα νείκη
The genitive plural ἱππολόφων (hippolōphōn) is a rare compound noun found here and in no other extant text, formed from ἵππος (horse) and λόγος (word). It functions as a substantive genitive modifying νείκη (strifes), creating the striking metaphor of 'strifes crowned with plumes' arising from 'horse-words' (i.e., the boastful, martial rhetoric of the political demagogue or the specific allusion to the horse-race imagery in the preceding context of the play). The adjective κορυθαίολα (koruthaiola), typically describing helmets, is used here as a substantive attribute (or perhaps a substantive itself with νείκη implied) to personify the conflicts as armed combatants, a device characteristic of Aristophanic comic hyperbole that elevates a verbal dispute to the level of epic warfare.
821.
mvp-tlg0019-tlg009-sanjaya-com-eng1-31
Line 821
ῥήμαθʼ ἱπποβάμονα.
The adjective ἱπποβάμονα ('horse-riding') is a hapax legomenon in this specific attributive position modifying ῥήμαθ' ('words' or 'speeches'), creating a strikingly incongruous metaphor. While ἱπποβάμων appears elsewhere in Greek literature (e.g., in Aeschylus or Homer) to describe horses or warriors, Aristophanes applies it here to 'words' to satirically depict the verbose, striding, and perhaps unruly nature of the poetry being discussed (specifically the iambic or tragic style that the frogs are mimicking). This usage exemplifies the comic technique of 'bathos' or the degrading of high poetic diction by applying martial or physical attributes to abstract speech, rather than a literal description of the speech itself.