Ἡνιόχου

[jeidsath]

I'm having some trouble with this:

Ἐγὼ δ’ ὄνομα τὸ μὲν καϑ’ ἑκάστην αὐτίκα
λέξω• συνάπασαι δ’ εἰσὶ παντοδαπαὶ πόλεις,
αἳ νῦν ἀνοηταίνουσι πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον.
τάχ’ ἄν τις ὑποκρούσειεν ὅτι ποτ’ ἐνϑάδε
νῦν εἰσι, κἀνέροιτο, παρ’ ἐμοῦ πεύσεται•
τὸ χωρίον μὲν γὰρ τόδ’ ἐστὶ πᾶν κύκλῳ
Ὀλυμπία, τηνδὶ δὲ τὴν σκηνὴν ἐκεῖ
σκηνὴν ὁρᾶν ϑεωρικὴν νομίζετε.
εἶεν• τί οὖν ἐνταῦϑα δρῶσιν αἱ πόλεις;
ἐλευϑέρι’ ἀφίκοντο ϑύσουσαί ποτε,
ὅτε τῶν φόρων ἐγένοντ’ ἐλεύϑεραι σχεδόν.
κἄπειτ’ ἀπ’ ἐκείνης τῆς ϑυσίας διέφϑορεν
αὐτὰς ξενίζουσ’ ἡμέραν ἐξ ἡμέρας
ἀβουλία κατέχουσα πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον.
γυναῖκε δ’ αὐτὴν δύο ταράττετόν τινε
ἀεὶ συνοῦσαι, δημοκρατία ϑατέρᾳ
ὄνομ’ ἐστί, τῇ δ’ ἀριστοκρατία ϑατέρᾳ,
δι’ ἃς πεπαρῳνήκασιν ἤδη πολλάκις.

My best effort at a translation:

I, myself, would immediately tell the names one by one, but it’s all the various cities gathered together who have now been foolish for a great while. Perhaps someone will interrupt, when are they now here?, and if he asks he shall learn from me: For the land they all encircle is Olympia, the very stage there, a stage you all think is for seeing a show. Well. What indeed are the cities doing here? They come when they would sacrifice the festival of freedom, when they have almost become free of the tributes. And after that sacrifice they have been destroyed, unreason entertaining them day after day, restrained already for a long time. These two particular women always make trouble. Democracy is the name of one, the other Aristocracy, against whom [the cities] they [the women] have been in a drunk rage already many times.

ἐλευθέρια for the liberty festival, but it could be ἐλευθερίᾳ.
ὑποκρούσειεν -> moveable-nu
ξενίζουσ’ -> ξενίζουσα

[C. S. Bartholomew]

Did you see this?

I will presently tell you the name of each and every one.
In short, all of them are cities from various places,
which have been acting like fools for a long time now.
Perhaps now someone would like to interrupt me and ask
for what reason they are here. I shall disclose this as well.
All this place around is Olympia,
and as for our scenery back there, imagine that it is
the tent of the official representatives to the festival.
Fine: What business then do the cities have here?
They came once to offer thanksgiving sacrifice
for their liberty, as soon as they were freed from taxes.
And then, after that sacrifice, they were destroyed
by irresolution, which hospitably feeds them day after day
and has them in her grasp for a long time now.
Besides, two women are always in the cities’ company
and keep them in unrest. One of them is named
Democracy, the other one Aristocracy.
Because of those two ladies, the cities
often behave madly as though they are drunk.
16. IG

Ioannis M. Konstantakos
Aristophanes, comic fantasy and political satire in the fourth century B.C., page 27

https://www.academia.edu/7947574/_Arist ... elphi_2014

[jeidsath]

I hadn't been able to find a translation. Thank you! That clears up a few of my questions.

[Qimmik]

I was going to translate but Stirling beat me to it. Ι'll offer some notes. This is a quotation from an anthology compiled in late antiquity by Stobaeus. It's a fragment of a comedy by Heniochus, Ηνιοχοσ, found in Kock's Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta, vol. II pp. 433-4. The title of the comedy is unknown. Heniochus is classified as "New Comedy" (i.e., probably 4th century BCE) but his date is uncertain. This is obviously the prologue, but what else is going on here isn't clear. This is all there is of this play, and nearly all that remains of Heniochus. I laboriously found all of this out in an effort to see whether there was more context to clarify this passage, but there isn't.

"taxes" should probably be "tribute" paid by one city to another, φοροσ.

οτι should probably be written ο τι.



https://archive.org/stream/comicorumatt ... 4/mode/2up

[jeidsath]

The text was a reading exercise from Rouse's Greek course. I thought it was rather hard. Here's the entry on Heniochus from the classical dictionary.

http://i.imgur.com/KHfh0ne.jpg

On my phone, so I can't resize the image to hotlink it.

[Qimmik]

κἄπειτ’ ἀπ’ ἐκείνης τῆς ϑυσίας διέφϑορεν
αὐτὰς ξενίζουσ’ ἡμέραν ἐξ ἡμέρας
ἀβουλία κατέχουσα πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον.
γυναῖκε δ’ αὐτὴν δύο ταράττετόν τινε
ἀεὶ συνοῦσαι, δημοκρατία ϑατέρᾳ
ὄνομ’ ἐστί, τῇ δ’ ἀριστοκρατία ϑατέρᾳ,
δι’ ἃς πεπαρῳνήκασιν ἤδη πολλάκις.

A more literal translation:

And then, since that sacrifice, thoughtlessness, entertaining them from one day to the next, has ruined them/deprived them of their wits, prevailing [or "occupying/holding them"] for a long time now. And a certain pair of women have been stirring it [thoughtlessness] up, being constantly in their midst--democracy is the name of one of them and aristocracy that of the other--on account of whom they have often behaved foolishly as if drunk.

There is a problem with this part of the translation given above:

ταράττετόν probably means "stir up"; its object is not the πόλεις, but rather αὐτὴν, which can only refer to ἀβουλία. If ἀβουλία is the antecedent of the object of ταράττετόν, it strikes me that it doesn't make sense to take ταράττετόν in its usual meaning of "frighten," "disturb".

I'm really not sure what ἀβουλία means here. "Lack of resolution" doesn't seem right. The rest of the passage seems to suggest that the cities are behaving stupidly, not that they are lacking in resolution. But maybe what the author means is that they can't make up their minds between democracy and aristocracy. It's hard to tell without more context. Incidentally, in Thucydides, at least in Pericles' conception as Thucydides presents it, "aristocracy" meant "government by the best", not "oligarchy", and was not incompatible with democracy. Here it seems to mean "oligarchy," as in English.

I

I. stir up, metaph., τ. νεῖκος, πόλεμον, S.Ant.794 (lyr.), Pl.R.567a; “φόνον” E.Ba. 797; “ἡλίκα πράγματα ταράξασα” D.18.153, cf. X.An.5.10.9; “τ. δίκας τινὶ πρός τινας” Plu.Them.5:—Pass., “πόλεμος ἐταράχθη” D.18.151; “γόος . . ταραχθείς” A.Ch.331 (lyr.).

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... tara%2Fssw

διέφϑορεν here may mean "deprive of one's wits" rather than "destroy", but perhaps it could mean "ruined".

III. pf. διέφθορα intr., to have lost one's wits, “διέφθορας” Il. 15.128; also in Hp., διεφθορὸς αἷμα corrupted blood, Mul.2.134; freq. in later Prose, “γάλα δ. ἤδη” J.AJ5.5.4; “τὰ δ. σώματα” Plu.2.87c, cf. 128e, Luc.Sol.3, etc.; but,
2. in Trag. and Com. always trans. (cf. Ammon.42, Moer.127), “τὰς . . ἐλπίδας διέφθορεν” S.El.306; “τὰς φρένας διέφθορε . . μοναρχία” E.Hipp.1014; “τὸν λόγον δ.” Cratin. 292, cf. Eup. l.c., Pherecr.145.15, Ar.Fr.490, Men.3.

It se

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... afqei%2Frw