Aristophanes
The Reconciliation
Χορὸς Γερόντων
οὐδέν ἐστι θηρίον γυναικὸς ἀμαχώτερον,
1015 οὐδὲ πῦρ, οὐδʼ ὧδʼ ἀναιδὴς οὐδεμία πόρδαλις.
Χορὸς Γυναικῶν
ταῦτα μέντοι σὺ ξυνιεὶς εἶτα πολεμεῖς ἐμοί,
ἐξὸν ὦ πόνηρε σοὶ βέβαιον ἔμʼ ἔχειν φίλην;
Χορὸς Γερόντων
ὡς ἐγὼ μισῶν γυναῖκας οὐδέποτε παύσομαι.
Χορὸς Γυναικῶν
ἀλλʼ ὅταν βούλῃ σύ· νῦν δʼ οὖν οὔ σε περιόψομαι
1020 γυμνὸν ὄνθʼ οὕτως. ὁρῶ γὰρ ὡς καταγέλαστος εἶ.
ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐξωμίδʼ ἐνδύσω σε προσιοῦσʼ ἐγώ.
Χορὸς Γερόντων
τοῦτο μὲν μὰ τὸν Δίʼ οὐ πονηρὸν ἐποιήσατε·
ἀλλʼ ὑπʼ ὀργῆς γὰρ πονηρᾶς καὶ τότʼ ἀπέδυν ἐγώ.
Χορὸς Γυναικῶν
πρῶτα μὲν φαίνει γʼ ἀνήρ, εἶτʼ οὐ καταγέλαστος εἶ.
1025 κεἴ με μὴ ʼλύπεις, ἐγώ σου κἂν τόδε τὸ θηρίον
τοὐπὶ τὠφθαλμῷ λαβοῦσʼ ἐξεῖλον ἂν ὃ νῦν ἔνι.
Χορὸς Γερόντων
τοῦτʼ ἄρʼ ἦν με τοὐπιτρῖβον, δακτύλιος οὑτοσί·
ἐκσκάλευσον αὐτό, κᾆτα δεῖξον ἀφελοῦσά μοι·
ὡς τὸν ὀφθαλμόν γέ μου νὴ τὸν Δία πάλαι δάκνει.
1020–1029

It makes me realize how silly you are. Look, I’ll come over and put your shirt on.

[The Leader of the Women’s Chorus picks up a tunic, goes over to the Leader of the Men’s Chorus, and helps him put it on.]

LEADER OF MEN’S CHORUS

By god, what you’ve just done is not so bad. I took it off in a fit of stupid rage.

LEADER OF WOMEN’S CHORUS

Now at least you look like a man again. And people won’t find you ridiculous. If you hadn’t been so nasty to me, I’d grab that insect stuck in your eye and pull it out. It’s still in there.

LEADER OF MEN’S CHORUS

So that’s what’s been troubling me. Here’s a ring. Scrape it off. Get it out and show it to me. God, that’s been bothering my eye for ages.

[The Leader of the Women’s Chorus takes the ring and inspects the Leader of the Men’s Chorus in the eye.]

LEADER OF WOMEN’S CHORUS

I’ll do it. You men are born hard to please.

Χορὸς Γυναικῶν
1030 ἀλλὰ δράσω ταῦτα· καίτοι δύσκολος ἔφυς ἀνήρ.
ἦ μέγʼ ὦ Ζεῦ χρῆμʼ ἰδεῖν τῆς ἐμπίδος ἔνεστί σοι.
οὐχ ὁρᾷς; οὐκ ἐμπίς ἐστιν ἥδε Τρικορυσία;
Χορὸς Γερόντων
νὴ Δίʼ ὤνησάς γέ μʼ, ὡς πάλαι γέ μʼ ἐφρεωρύχει,
ὥστʼ ἐπειδὴ ʼξῃρέθη, ῥεῖ μου τὸ δάκρυον πολύ.
Χορὸς Γυναικῶν
1035 ἀλλʼ ἀποψήσω σʼ ἐγώ, καίτοι πάνυ πονηρὸς εἶ,
καὶ φιλήσω.
μὴ φιλήσῃς.
ἤν τε βούλῃ γʼ ἤν τε μή.
Χορὸς Γερόντων
ἀλλὰ μὴ ὥρασʼ ἵκοισθʼ· ὡς ἐστὲ θωπικαὶ φύσει,
κἄστʼ ἐκεῖνο τοὔπος ὀρθῶς κοὐ κακῶς εἰρημένον,
οὔτε σὺν πανωλέθροισιν οὔτʼ ἄνευ πανωλέθρων.
1030–1039

My god, you picked up a monstrous insect. Have a look. That’s a Tricorynthus bug!

LEADER OF MEN’S CHORUS

By Zeus, you’ve been a mighty help to me. That thing’s been digging wells in me a while. Now it’s been removed, my eyes are streaming.

LEADER OF WOMEN’S CHORUS

I’ll wipe it for you, though you’re a scoundrel. I’ll give you a kiss.

LEADER OF THE MEN’S CHORUS

I don’t want a kiss.

LEADER OF WOMEN’S CHORUS

I’ll will, whether it’s what you want or not.

[She kisses him]

LEADER OF MEN’S CHORUS

O you’ve got me. You’re born to flatter us. That saying got it right—it states the case quite well, “These women—one has no life with them and cannot live without them.” But now I’ll make a truce with you. I won’t

1040 ἀλλὰ νυνὶ σπένδομαί σοι, καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν οὐκέτι
οὔτε δράσω φλαῦρον οὐδὲν οὔθʼ ὑφʼ ὑμῶν πείσομαι.
ἀλλὰ κοινῇ συσταλέντες τοῦ μέλους ἀρξώμεθα.
1040–1049

insult you any more in days to come, and you won’t make me suffer. So now, let’s make a common group and sing a song.

[The Men’s and Women’s Choruses combine.]
COMBINED CHORUS [addressing the audience]

You citizens, we’re not inclined with any of you to be unkind. Just the reverse—our words to you will be quite nice. We’ll act well, too. For now we’ve had enough bad news. So if a man or woman here

Translation by Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University
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An open-access project
Hall 1907
OCT
Hall & Geldart, OCT, 1907 · 1907
The Editor

Frederick William Hall (1865–1948) was a classical scholar and Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. Together with William Martin Geldart, he produced the Oxford Classical Text of several authors. Hall was a careful editor known for his thorough collation of manuscripts and his conservative approach to textual criticism.

About This Edition

The Hall–Geldart editions in the Oxford Classical Texts series provide reliable critical texts with selective apparatus criticus. The OCT series, established in 1894 as the Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, aims to present the best available Greek and Latin texts in a format suitable for both scholarly use and teaching. Each volume provides a clean text with the most significant manuscript variants recorded at the foot of each page.

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