Sunday, September 17, 2023
Happy Farts?
Aristophanes, Wealth 176 (tr. Jeffrey Henderson):
It's true that a character in Aristophanes can fart out of cheerful exuberance, as at Peace 335 (tr. Alan H. Sommerstein): "I'm glad, I'm happy, I fart, I laugh" (ἥδομαι γὰρ καὶ γέγηθα καὶ πέπορδα καὶ γελῶ), but to introduce the notion of happiness into Wealth 176 is to mislead the Greekless reader, however slightly.
The ancient scholia explain the farting thus: a wealthy person is able to eat his full, and someone who eats to repletion is prone to fart. See M. Chantry, ed., Scholia Vetera in Aristophanis Plutum (Groningen: Egbert Forster, 1994), p. 39.
On Agyrrhius, who may have been in the audience, see Sommerstein ad loc.:
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And isn't he the source of Agyrrhius' happy farts?There is no "happy" in the Greek. Literally the line means, "And doesn't Agyrrhius fart because of him (sc. Wealth)?"
Ἀγύρριος δ᾿ οὐχὶ διὰ τοῦτον πέρδεται;
It's true that a character in Aristophanes can fart out of cheerful exuberance, as at Peace 335 (tr. Alan H. Sommerstein): "I'm glad, I'm happy, I fart, I laugh" (ἥδομαι γὰρ καὶ γέγηθα καὶ πέπορδα καὶ γελῶ), but to introduce the notion of happiness into Wealth 176 is to mislead the Greekless reader, however slightly.
The ancient scholia explain the farting thus: a wealthy person is able to eat his full, and someone who eats to repletion is prone to fart. See M. Chantry, ed., Scholia Vetera in Aristophanis Plutum (Groningen: Egbert Forster, 1994), p. 39.
On Agyrrhius, who may have been in the audience, see Sommerstein ad loc.:
Labels: noctes scatologicae
