Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae 389

ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart

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Ecclesiazusae. Aristophanes. ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart. Oxford. 1907.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Ἐκκλησιάζουσαι (Greek) (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 2. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.)

Translations (2)
Ecclesiazusae (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Anonymous; 1938 compilation). Migrated from Perseus legacy XML; source wording and notes retained. See TEI header and migration inventory.) — 389 focus
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.) — 389 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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τιθύμαλλον ἐμβαλόντα τοῦ Λακωνικοῦ
The phrase 'τοῦ Λακωνικοῦ' functions as a substantive adjective referring to a specific cut of meat, a detail that has been the subject of scholarly debate regarding whether it denotes a specific breed of pig, a specific preparation style, or simply a high-quality cut imported from Laconia. The term 'τιθύμαλλον' is itself rare and likely a technical culinary term for a specific type of pork or a specific part of the pig, possibly a 'tithe-pig' or a specific cut associated with sacrificial rites, which Aristophanes uses here for its comic potential in the context of the 'Assemblywomen' preparing a feast. The combination of these two terms creates a specific culinary image that relies on contemporary Athenian knowledge of Spartan foodstuffs and their perceived quality.

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ἢν γὰρ παρέχωσι τοῖς δεομένοις οἱ κναφῆς
The form κναφῆς is a Doric contraction of the Attic κναφεύς (fuller); this dialectal shift signals the comic setting of the play (or the specific dialectal flavor Aristophanes assigns to this character/group), while the genitive plural τοῖς δεομένοις functions as a dative of advantage/disadvantage with the verb παρέχωσι, indicating the provision of goods or services to those in need.

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τοὺς ἀλφιταμοιβοὺς τοῖς ἀπόροις τρεῖς χοίνικας
The noun ἀλφιταμοιβοί (literally 'barley-exchangers' or 'barley-distributors') is a hapax legomenon in the extant corpus of Aristophanes, and arguably in the entire surviving corpus of Attic comedy outside this passage. While the compound is transparent (ἀλφιτα- from ἄλφιτα 'barley-meal' + -μοιβός from μοιβῶ 'to exchange/distribute'), its specific technical application here refers to the officials responsible for the state's grain dole (sitōn) to the impoverished citizens (ἀπόροι). The term highlights the bureaucratic reality of the assembly's proposed radical redistribution of property and resources, transforming a general concept of charity into a specific, albeit invented, administrative office within the play's utopian fiction.

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ἵνα τοῦτʼ ἀπέλαυσαν Ναυσικύδους τἀγαθόν.
The phrase τἀγαθόν functions as a substantive neuter adjective meaning 'the good' or 'the benefits,' serving as the direct object of ἀπέλαυσαν. In Aristophanic comedy, this construction is frequently employed to refer satirically to the material gains or political spoils distributed by the state, here specifically the 'good' associated with the politician Nausicydes. The elision of the article (τἀγαθόν for τὸ ἀγαθόν) is standard in Attic comedy for metrical convenience, but the substantive usage itself requires recognition to distinguish the object from an adjectival modification of an implied noun.

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λευκός τις ἀνεπήδησʼ ὅμοιος Νικίᾳ
The phrase ὅμοιος Νικίᾳ relies on the specific historical context of the character's appearance; the audience would recognize this as a reference to Nicias, the prominent Athenian general, whose physical likeness to the character (likely a disguise or a visual gag) serves as the punchline. This is not merely a comparison to a generic person but a specific prosopographical allusion to a real political figure whose reputation for caution and piety (or perhaps his distinctive appearance) is being invoked for comedic effect. The use of the dative Νικίᾳ without a verb of 'being' or 'looking' is a standard Greek construction for resemblance, but the force of the joke depends entirely on the audience's immediate recognition of Nicias, a figure whose political stance and personal traits were central to the contemporary Athenian discourse.

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ἀνεβορβόρυξαν.
The verb ἀνεβορβόρυξαν is a rare, compound formation found only here in Aristophanes, combining the prefix ἀνα- with the reduplicated root of βορβόρυζω (to rumble, as of the stomach or sea). The reduplication (βεβορβόρυζον) is preserved in the imperfect but appears contracted in the aorist (ἀνεβορβόρυξαν), a morphological feature that complicates the scansion and parsing for the reader. This hyper-technical verb is used to describe the simultaneous, chaotic noise of the female assembly, creating a sound-effect that is both onomatopoeic and semantically specific to the 'rumbling' of the collective body politic, a motif central to the play's satire of the assembly's disorder.