Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae 796

Ecclesiazusae. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.

Current edition Experimental

Commentary (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)
Ἐκκλησιάζουσαι Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 2. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.) — 805 focus
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.) — 805 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.) — 805 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

796. mvp-tlg0019-tlg010-sanjaya-com-eng1-26

Line 796

θάρρει, καταθήσεις, κἂν ἔνης ἔλθῃς.
The phrase κἂν ἔνης ἔλθῃς presents a syntactic crux. While κἂν (κἄν) typically introduces a concessive clause ('even if') followed by the subjunctive (which ἔλθῃς is), the verb ἔνειν (to be) appears here in the aorist subjunctive ἔνης. This is an irregular formation; the standard aorist subjunctive of εἰμί is ἐγὼ ἔνῃμι (or contracted forms like ἔνῃ) in Attic prose, but the form ἔνης is attested in comedy as a metrical contraction of ἔνῃς or a dialectal variant of the aorist, distinct from the present subjunctive εἶναι. The usage creates a rare instance where the aorist subjunctive of 'to be' functions as a condition for the future action 'you will deposit' (καταθήσεις), implying 'even if you should happen to come' (with the aorist subjunctive suggesting a simple, factual condition rather than a repeated or general one). This construction is often debated in textual criticism regarding whether ἔνης is a corruption of ἔνῃ or a deliberate comic license for meter, as the aorist of εἰμί is exceptionally rare in the subjunctive mood in this position.