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Notes on Aristophes' Wasps

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

A. H. Sommerstein
A. H. Sommerstein
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Extract

An ambiguity in this passage apperas to have gone unnoticed. The ambiguity in line 27 ( ═ ‘arms’ or ‘genitals’) is well known; and when Xanthias at once continues ‘But you tell me about yours’, many a listener might well not immediately realize that the noun to be supplied was from 25 rather than from 27, and might therefore momentarily suppose that Xanthias was saying ‘Tell me about your penis’; a supposition that would be temporarily confirmed when Sosias replied ‘It's a big one’. The reaction of such a listener would be the same as that of Kalonike at Lys. 23. She has been told (14) that the women have been summoned to deliberate . Now she asks and on receiving the answer at once jumps to the conclusion that Lysistrata is using in its phallic sense and asks .

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , December 1977 , pp. 261 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1977

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References

page 261 note 1 For which see Henderson, J.J., The Maculate Muse (New Haven and London, 1975), p.116.Google Scholar

page 261 note 2 This passage of Wasps tells neither for nor against W. M. Calder's contention (CP 65 (1970), 257; cf. M. Marcovich's reply and Calder's rejoinder, CP 66 (1971), 262) that can be used of a person to mean ‘having a big penis’-though I have not seen any convincing evidence that this sense ever existed. See now Renehan, R., Studies in Greek Texts (Gottingen, 1976), pp.92–8.Google Scholar

page 261 note 3 Aristophanes: Wasps, ed. D. M. MacDowell (Oxford, 1971).

page 261 note 4 In his review of MacDowell's edition, CR 23 (1973), 133.

page 262 note 1 (R, which continually omits or abridges scholia, has the first two words only).

page 262 note 2 Eos 50 (1959–60). 43–5.

page 262 note 3 Not at 259 (as Mastromarco, G., Storia di una commedia di Atene (Florence, 1974), pp.74–5), which would leave them in the middle of a mud-patch.Google Scholar

page 263 note 1 See the masterly discussion of the Acbamians passage by Dover, K. J., Aristopbanic Comedy (London, 1972), pp.63–5.Google Scholar

page 263 note 2 The metre is predominantly ionic; this metre, used in Aeschylus' Persians (65–114) ‘like the Oriental robes to reinforce the impression of an un-Greek culture and code of behaviour’ (Dale, A. M., The Lyric Metres of Greek Drama 2(Cambridge, 1968), p.124), may well have been used in Phrynichos' Pboinissai for the same purpose, and it is specifically from Pboinissai that the jurors' melodies come, for they are ‘Sidonian’ (220). The very scanty fragments of that play contain no ionics, but Phrynichos is known to have used the metre (fr. 14 Nauck).Google Scholar

page 263 note 3 Cf. Dale, , Lyric Metres 2, p.87, who asserts that the trochaic metre ‘cannot run to a pause except by catalexis’; note that there is pause after 407 (there follow two tetrameters, beginning with ).Google Scholar

page 264 note 1 The same result would be achieved by , proposed by D. M. Jones in an unpublished paper.

page 264 note 2 The evidence that it can do so consists of in 1418: very shaky evidence, considering the of 1417 and the constant confusion of second-person , in manuscripts.

page 264 note 3 There is other evidence for a wandering of scribal eyes between 483 and 488: the scholion on 483 (V Aid.: om. R), , would be more apposite as a note on 488, and may well originally have belonged there.

page 264 note 4 Cf. also Eq. 628, where Paphlagon-Kleon, in a speech to the boule, denounces the knights ‘calling them conspirators’ or ‘using the word “conspirators”’: the denunciation of Bdelykleon by the will follow the same pattern.

page 264 note 5 This note takes up and adds to the arguments already given by Austin (cf. n.4, p.261 above).

page 265 note 1 Aristophanes: The Wasps, The Poet and the Women, The Frogs, trans. David, Barrett (Harmondsworth, 1964). He translates the lines thus: ‘Speed, speed, my soul! [He strikes, but the sword becomes entangled in his clothing, and then in his beard.] Where is my soul? It must be under here. Part, part, ye shady thickets, let me pass!’Google Scholar

page 265 note 2 Phoenix 29 (1975), 107 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 265 note 3 He speaks (Arist. I.c.) of .

page 265 note 4 Barrett, indeed, succeeds in making his translation convey that meaning, by exploiting the ambiguity of the English expression ‘if he's advised by you’-an ambiguity we can hardly posit for Greek.

page 265 note 5 Of emendations that do remove the conditional, the best is that of Kirchhoff, who places a question mark after and ends the line , ‘give that bit of advice!’ (cf. the reading of the pre-Triclinian manuscripts).

page 266 note 1 Cf. Acb. 397 (it is not the statement made that is conditional on Dikaiopolis' having understanding, but the successful making of it); Eccl. 22 (it is not Phyromachos' having made an error that is conditional on the audience's remembering it, but the success of Praxagora's joke).

page 266 note 2 The passages are Lys. 1025 ( codd., Dobree); Thesm. 842 ( R, Brunck); Ra. 533 ( V, el cett.); Pl. 65 ( APCM, RVAacU). The reverse corruption has occurred at Eq. 272 (Suda); Nu. 348 (VU); Ra. 594 (RVM); Eccl. 655 (Λ); Pl. 216 (AMU). At Eq. 698–700 R thrice has against of the other manuscripts, and editors are divided on which to accept. In addition, the of all manuscripts at Eq. 805 and their at Lys. 580 have often been emended to (Dobree) and ( Boissonade) respectively.

page 266 note 3 This form of expression is approximated in one or two passages of Attic, notably Pl. Rep. 370 b, 375 a; the clearest cases, however, occur in Herodotos, where the periphrastic future is of frequent occurrence in conditional clauses. Cf. Hdt. 9. 89. 2: Similar are Hdt. 1. 32. 3: 1. 109.4: 2. 14. 1: 2.99.3: 2. 173. 4: 7. 49. 4. This periphrastic use is the ultimate ancestor of the 66. of modern Greek.

page 267 note 1 When, as is the case here, the parenthetic precedes the verb which represents, the sentence is always a conditional, and the occurrence which is deprecated is always the same as that which is hypothesized in the protasis of the conditional (Aesch. Seven 5 ). In the present passage, the occurrence hypothesized is this therefore should also be the occurrence deprecated.

page 267 note 2 In the critical appendix to his edition, ad vers. 535.

page 267 note 3 I have restored the names of the characters, whom Barrett calls Anticleon and Procleon. I had arrived at the form of the text given above before I realized that Barrett's translation virtually presupposed it.

page 268 note 1 Cf. the frequent use of without expressed object ( being understood), e.g. Nu. 1499, Eccl. 775, Pl. 390.

page 269 note 1 M. Platnauer (CQ 3 (1953), 54) criticizes Starkie's text and punctuation on the ground that it ‘makes Bdelycleon approve of his father's imposition of small fines …, which is the last thing he would do’. Actually he does not so much approve of it as say it is logical; which is the least he could do, con sidering that the imposition of small fines is his own suggestion (769).

page 269 note 2 The entries are:

page 269 note 3 See Pokorny, J., Indogermaniscbes etymologisches Worterbuch (Bern, 1959), 1045.Google Scholar

page 269 note 4 Herodotos, by contrast, seems to reckon as part of the day and to mean by it the first part of the morning from daybreak to : see Hdt. 2. 173. 1; 4.181. 3; 7. 188.2.

page 269 note 5 Thus is the time of cockcrow (Ar.Av. 489, 496; Eccl. 741); it is too dark to see people (Thuc. 3. 112. 3–4) unless they carry lanterns (Ar. Eccl. 20–9); people are normally in bed (Ar. Ach. 256, Lys. 966), including even soldiers in camp (Thuc. loc. cit.); the nightingale sings then (Eur. Pbaethon 69 Diggle); cf. also Ar. Eccl. 283, 290 ( ≐ ), Thuc. 5. 58. 4 with Andrewes's note ( contrasted with ), Thuc. 6. 101. 3 ( earlier than ).

Phrynichos . 341 notes that in his time was commonly used to mean the time before sunrise and says that to ‘the ancients’ (i.e. the Attic writers) it meant ‘the time before daybreak, when one can still use a lamp: what the many wrongly call was called by the ancients’. The evidence leaves no doubt that he was right. Cf. also Phryn. Sophistic Preparation 93. 13–94. 8 Borries. I am grateful to John Chadwick for prompting me to make certain of the meaning of .

page 270 note 1 It was conjectured by van Leeuwen.

page 270 note 2 Hermes 95 (1967), 53–6.Google Scholar

page 270 note 3 REG 49 (1936), 408 n.5.Google Scholar

page 270 note 4 Hermes 95 (1967), 59–63.Google Scholar

page 270 note 5 The same objection applies with even more force to the proposal of Wilamowitz (Sitzungsb. Preuss. Ak. Wiss. (1911), 519 ═ Kl. Scbr. i. 338), accepted by Coulon in his edition, to give to Bdelykleon and the preceding and following clauses to Philokleon, thus taking away from Philokleon the only clause that can be taken in a sense favourable to the Kleon-dog. Lowe defends his attribution of 903b-904 to Philokleon by comparing 596, but 596 is not disparaging (as MacOowell says ‘shouting is regarded by Philokleon as a merit’) whereas 903b-904 is; nor is the implication of 758–9 that Kleon is a thief decisive: Philokleon was then in a distraught state; now he has recovered his composure, his devotion to Kleon, and his determination to convict every defendant, as is made quite clear by his attitude throughout the trial scene and his collapse (995) when he realizes he has been tricked into acquitting Labes.Google Scholar

page 271 note 1 In his commentary ad loc: ‘The observation which follows is given by some to Bdelycleon, and by others to Philocleon, but seems rather to be a saucy interpellation of Xanthias.’

page 271 note 2 For what it is worth, Xanthias at the start of the play cordially detests the real Kleon (38, 41, 62–3).

page 271 note 3 Ignoring the parts of children, and of barbarians with only a line or two to speak (cf. Dover, K. J., Aristophanes: Clouds (Oxford, 1968), p.lxxviii), there are at least four other Aristophanic plays in which four actors are required: Achamians 129 ff. (Dikaiopolis, Herald, Amphitheos' exit directly followed by Theoros' entrance); Clouds 889–1104 (Strepsiades, Pheidippides, and the two Logoi); Lysistrata 81–244 (Lysistrata, Kalonike, Myrrhine, Lampito) and probably also 439 ff.; Frogs 549–78 (Dionysos, Xanthias, and the two innkeepers) and 1414–81 (Dionysos, Aeschylus, Euripides, and Pluto who may well have been a silent presence since 830). In the present scene, since the parts of Philokleon, Bdelykleon, and Xanthias are major ones running right through the play, the fourth actor will presumably have had the part of the dog; this amounts to fifteen and a half lines-a good deal shorter than the part of Lampito, to say nothing of the two Logoi in Clouds.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 271 note 4 See Lipsius, J. H., Die attiscbe Recbt und Rechtsverfabren (Leipzig, 1905–15), pp.370–3, 791–3.Google Scholar

page 272 note 1 Complaints about would likewise be made to the polemarch (Arist. Ath. Pol. 58. 2).

page 272 note 2 Wendel, T., Die Gesprachsanrede im griechiscben Epos und Drama der Blutezeit (Stuttgart, 1929), p.108.Google Scholar

page 272 note 3 Otherwise in Aristophanes it is used in addressing a father (Nu. 38, 816, before Pheidippides receives his sophistic education), a brother (Ra. 44), a wife (Lys. 883, 945), a neighbour (Eccl. 564, 784), a creditor (Nu. 1138), the audience (V. 1052, in an appeal for their favour); Paphlagon uses it to Demos when insisting that he is Demos' ‘best friend’ (Eq. 860), two men seeking gifts use it to the ruler of Cloudcuckooville (Av. 961, 1436), Herakles to his uncle Poseidon (Av. 1638), Lysistrata in rallying her wavering comrades (Lys. 762), Dionysos to the Corpse when trying to hire him/it as porter (Ra. 175) and to Euripides while still apparently feeling favourable to him (Ra: 835, 1227; note how in 1228 Dionysos identifies himself, for the moment, with Euripides' cause by speaking of ‘our prologues’).

page 273 note 1 Cf. Wendel, , Gesprächsanrede, p.106. Examples of its non-respectful use in Aristophanes are Eq. 722, 843; Pax 1238; Av. 846; pl. 360.Google Scholar

page 273 note 2 Typical uses are Pax 721 (explanatory, god to mortal); Lys. 501 (Lysistrata has the whip-hand, and treats the Proboulos as a troublesome pupil); Lys. 1178 (Lysistrata ought to know better than to suppose that the allies' attitude can possibly be in doubt); Pl. 377 (an honest friend wishing to help a supposedly dishonest friend in trouble). Apart from Pl. 66 (where the assignment of rav and its point are alike doubtful) the only Aristophanic passages where rap is used without apparent assumption of superiority on the part of the user are V. 373, Av. 12 (a curse), and Ra. 1243 (where Euripides appears impatient with Dionysos' buffooning interruption).Wendel, , Gesprächsanrede, p. 116,Google Scholar cites Eq. 1036 as showing that can be used by a social inferior to a superior; but its use there may very well be intended to suggest that Kleon, though affecting to love and serve the people, in reality despised them (cf. V. 666, where Bdelykleon makes the same suggestion by slipping the word into an imaginary politician's protestation of loyalty to the people).

page 273 note 3 Aristophanes implies, and the scholiasts on Wasps and Lys. state, that Theogenes was an this does not entail that he lived at Acharnai, and no ancient source says he did.

page 273 note 4 The former uses the expression in schol. Av. 822 the impossible of the tradition is emended by MacDowell to , but (which is not a demotic) is a less drastic alteration.

page 273 note 5 RhM 104 (1961), 229–36.Google Scholar

page 273 note 6 MacDowell, op. cit., p.233.

page 274 note 1 (schol. Av. 822).

page 274 note 2 e.g. by Kirchner, J., Prosopographia Attica (Berlin, 1901–3); our Theogenes is no. 6703, Idiotes 7445.Google Scholar

page 274 note 3 Op. cit., pp.234–5.

page 274 note 4 Dover, K. J., Aristophanic Comedy (London, 1972), p.61.Google Scholar

page 275 note 1 In the nine other Aristophanic passages where ‘A B’ is used in this sense of succession (Nu. 381, 796; V. 509, 878, 1404; Lys. 1155; Ra. 694; Pl. 634; fr. 569. 15), A always refers to the later state of affairs, B to the earlier; and I have not found any passage anywhere where this relation is reversed. In the present passage A is ‘dining with Leogoras’, B ‘an apple and a pomegranate’.

page 275 note 2 Plato com., fr. 106, couples Leogoras with Morychos and Glauketes, for whom cf. Acb. 887, Pax 1008, Thesm. 1033.

page 276 note 1 The normal meaning of (‘aber das tut nichts: denn …’, Denniston, J. D., The Greek Particles 2 (Oxford, 1954), p.101, following Wilamowitz).Google Scholar

page 276 note 2 And probably also in fr. 63 (from Anagyros), where the speaker is afraid lest Ariphrades it is tempting to suggest that the speaker is a prostitute, that here denotes the female, as elsewhere the male, genitals (cf. p.261 and n. 1), and that she is worried about Ariphrades scratching her with his moustache (just as contrariwise, in Eq. 1286, Ariphrades' sexual activities are said to result in his dirtying his moustache). Some confirmation that a prostitute was a character in Anagyros may come from fr. 44, in which she might be naming her fee (with ═ ‘demand payments’):

Speaker B is wondering why A insists on the money being put under the headrest of the bed; is it because a client once stole it back from her (cf. Ra. 148)?

page 277 note 1 Cf. the following passages (which are, I think, all those in the three tragedians and Aristophanes in which this idiom is used): Aesch. Prom. 221, 1047; Soph. Aj. 27; Eur. Kykl. 705, Med. 164, Hipp. 1341, Supp. 927, Herakles 1306, Tro. 986, Or. 1515, Ba. 946, 134; Ar. Eq. 3, 7, 849, Nu. 1302, V. 119, 170, Pax 1288, Av. 1257, Thesm. 825, Ra. 226, 476, 560, Eccl. 691; Ar. fr. 287 is of obscure meaning, but gives no sign of conflicting with the generalization in the text.