Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae 1049

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.) — 1049 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.) — 1049 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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ἑλκόμενον ὑπὸ τῆσδʼ ἀντιβολῶ σʼ.
The verb ἑλκόμενον (present middle/passive participle of ἕλκω) functions here with a passive force ('being dragged'), yet the subject of the participle is the implied 'you' (σέ) of the main verb ἄντιβολῶ, creating a syntactic construction where the addressee is described as being physically dragged by the authority of the assembly (τῆσδʼ ἀντιβολῶ, literally 'I stand against you' or 'I oppose you', but here likely a pun on 'standing against' and 'dragging'). The participle ἑλκόμενον is in the accusative case, agreeing with the implied direct object of ἄντιβολῶ, which is unusual because ἄντιβολῶ typically takes a dative of person opposed. This construction may reflect a colloquial or comic usage where the speaker conflates the act of opposing someone with the physical act of dragging them, a rhetorical device typical of Aristophanic satire. The phrase 'ὑπὸ τῆσδʼ ἀντιβολῶ' is also a crux: the dative τῆσδʼ (feminine singular) agrees with ἀντιβολῶ (a feminine noun in the dative), but ἀντιβολῶ is typically a verb, not a noun. This suggests either a textual corruption (perhaps ὑπὸ τῆσδʼ ἀντιβολῆς) or a deliberate wordplay by Aristophanes, exploiting the ambiguity between the verb and a hypothetical noun form to mock the bureaucratic language of the assembly.

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ἐξ αἵματος φλύκταιναν ἠμφιεσμένη.
The phrase ἐξ αἵματος ('from blood') modifies φλύκταιναν (a 'blister' or 'pustule'), creating a grotesque, literalized metaphor for the character Praxagora's disguise. In the context of the play's central satire on the inversion of social norms, this describes a costume element where a garment is made to look as if it has been stitched together from bloodied skin or is covered in blood-blisters, emphasizing the visceral, anti-aesthetic nature of the 'women's' new regime. The construction relies on the genitive of source/origin (ἐξ + genitive) to indicate the material composition of the disguise, a usage that heightens the absurdity of the costume description in the parabasis.

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ἀξιόχρεως.
This hapax legomenon in the Aristophanic corpus is a compound adjective, literally 'worthy of trust' (from ἄξιος + χρέως, the genitive of χρεών 'debt' or 'obligation', functioning here as a synonym for πίστις). While the sense is transparent, its formation as a substantive or predicate adjective in this specific metrical context is rare, reflecting Aristophanes' tendency to coin or revive compounds to fit the iambic trimeter while maintaining a colloquial or bureaucratic tone appropriate for the assembly setting.