Section Eleven

Grammar
Present and imperfect passive Genitive absolute
Comparative adverbs and two-termination adjectives Optative of ^npt
Neither the present nor the imperfect passive (p. 134.4ff.) presents any problem to students who have done Latin, but those who have learnt modern languages by oral active methods usually have very hazy notions (if any at all) about the difference between active and passive. Explain the passive as being another way of articulating the active, and give plenty of easy English examples on the board. Then write up five ‘active’ sentences (in English) for conversion into the passive.
Some students may have been taught that ‘absolute’ phrases (e.g. ‘the day being clement, I had instructed my chauffeur to open my landaulette’) are wrong in English - as they are in German. Encourage students to watch out for noun + participle in genitive. Translate ‘with X-ing’ or ‘with X being-ed’ as a first shot, then retranslate more smoothly.
Much of Section 11 A-C is very close to Aristophanes; again, keep a text handy.
Section Eleven A
Background
Solon, Kleisthenes and beginnings of democracy 1.20, 25
Democracy 6.1-22
ayopa, 2.29, 33-5; 3.39
Aristophanes and politics 8.77-9
Kupva EKKAnaia 6.10, 69
a%oiviov 6.10 rcpuT&veic; 6.7-9, 21
Countryman’s love of his demos 2.21; 3.55 K^pu^ 6.33
‘Who wishes to speak?’ 6.11 p^Trap 6.14-17 Scythian archer 5.63; 6.10, 31 npeaPeic 6.35-7 Persians 1.27; 9.4
Commentary
p. 132 line
1 K^a ^KK^nma: see on p. 91.25.
2 iipi'iM't;: cf. eremite, hermit: two-termination adjectives are dealt with in this section. Pnyx: see the map on p. 92 and the drawing on p. 130.
1 o/omov [^e^iArw^£vov]: a rope with vermilion dye was swept across the agora to push people towards the Pnyx. The Assembly itself was proclaimed by a trumpet call; any citizen arriving with vermilion dye and therefore touched by the rope could be fined for late arrival at the Assembly. Aristophanes makes it fairly easy to dodge the rope!
7 Another farmer’s lament is preserved in a fragment from Aristophanes’ Georgoi (PCG iii.11 1):
eip'qvq Pa0wnA,oux8 Kai ^suyapiov PoeiKov, ei yap not’ spoi rcauaapsvffl xofi noAepou ysvoixo aKayai KanoKAaaai xe Kai Aouaapevffl SieAxuaai Tqc xpuyoc apxov Ainapov Kai pa^avov ^epovxi.
8 Prytaneis: ‘presidents’, fifty per ‘month’ (c. 36 days), drawn from the 500- strong PouA^, and responsible for receiving business for the PouA^ to prepare before laying it before the Assembly. They also ran the Assembly. 
8 Ka0ap^aTo^: cf. catharsis: a purification ceremony, involving the sacrifice of pigs, whose blood was used to cleanse the area. This ceremony was performed before every meeting of both eKKlna^a and Poul^.
9 Genitive absolutes occur only in stage directions in this section: it may be best to translate them with a brief explanation, leaving a more detailed treatment to Section 12 (where they are thoroughly revised).
25ff. Amphitheos claims to be a demigod, yet proceeds to claim travelling expenses!
29 To^OTai: Scythian mercenaries, one of whose duties was keeping order in the eKKlna^a. Here and elsewhere Aristophanes uses the nominative as a vocative.
37 In this line the herald summons envoys back from Persia to give their report. The incident is worth reading in translation, but in our text this episode is omitted and Dikaiopolis muses to himself.
Section Eleven B
Background
Freedom and democracy l.26, 77-8, 80; 5.53; 8.15
Debate and democracy 6.3-5
Citizen power 6.6; l.59
Trade and manufacture 5.53-60
Commentary
p. 134 line
1 ol- (and anol-, line 2) should be stressed: the (an) ol- stem is very commonly used.
4ff. Take these lines carefully: they lead to the first passive usage, and if students follow closely both sense and sentence structure, they will have translated the passive before they know they have done so! To avoid any confusion with the middle, all passives in the section are used either with vno + genitive or the dative of instrument.
11 £OTM may have to be given - cf. English ‘So be it.’
12 Periclean policy again - see on pp. 34.23, 42.8, and below on p. 136.3.
17 The horses and mules argument is from Plato, Republic 563. ‘For although they are free, they are not completely free; the Law is set over them as their master.’ Cf. Herodotus vii.104 = WoH, Herodotus, Section 23. The paradox there, as here, is that laws (= restrictions on personal freedom) are essential to preserve freedom.
22 f^iOTa^£voi<;: once more stress the ara- stem (especially to those deriving it from enaaTapai), and ask for the force of p^.
14 This is the first genitive absolute in the text. It is a useful check on how well the genitive absolutes in the stage directions were understood.
15 ^ou ethic dative ‘(and this is a matter of some concern) to me’.
Section Eleven C
Background
Akharnians 2.22 Mapa0ravopa%ai 1.30 Peace 7.4 Festivals 3.55 City Dionysia 3.42-4
Commentary
p. 136 line
1 Explain here that Amphitheos has been to Sparta and back during the last six lines.
3 Akharnians: the eponymous chorus of the play - angry old men anxious to prosecute the war because of the destruction of their vineyards. Yet another reaction to the war: Dikaiopolis, a farmer, is anxious to get back to the farm by ending the war, whereas these farmers wish to continue it for vengeance.
7 Another proud epithet, cf. p. 26.10.
aioOo^voi: because, as we shall see, peace treaties were presented as being samples, perhaps in leather wineskins (but cf. picture on p. 136), hence giving a pun on anovSav = treaty = libations. The Akharnians ‘smelt’ (raa^povTo) the samples and so gave chase.
11 ‘Sample bottles’ - make sure no one thinks of glass jars!
23 o^vTaTa: the superlative adverb may need to be given here if it was not explained thoroughly earlier. Use it to revise adverbs if it is mistranslated.
p. 137 line
26, 28 Rural Dionysia: held in the month Poseideon (roughly December). The central feature was the phallos procession, to promote the fertility of autumn-sown crops during the dormant period. In Akharnians Dikaiopolis emerges from his house leading his family in a mini-procession of the Rural Dionysia.
30 Immediately after this line, the chorus burst in with their exciting trochaic- cretic-resolved cretic ode. Read the translation, then the original - it is a very exciting chorus rhythmically.
Test Exercise
More explanation is needed before tackling this: (a) explain its context in the play (Dikaiopolis has wrested from the angry chorus an agreement that they should listen to his anti-war argument, and now proceeds to ‘explain’ its origins); (b) Kleon had previously indicted Aristophanes for abusing the Athenian people publicly when there were foreigners in the audience.