6-11
Clouds 6-11 · Damn this war6-11Damn this war
Strepsiades cannot punish his slaves, and his grown son sleeps through the night in a heap of blankets.
· · ·
Strepsiades
ἀπόλοιο1🎭1
apóloio
Damn youmay you perish
δῆτʼ2
dêt’
—
ὦ3
ô
—
πόλεμε4
póleme
war
, οὕνεκα5
hoúneka
for
πολλῶν6
pollôn
many reasonsmany things
, ὅτʼ7
hót’
when
μοι8
moi
I
ἔξεστί9
éxestí
canit is allowed
οὐδὲ10
oudè
not even
κολάσʼ11
kolás’
punish
τοὺς12
toùs
my
οἰκέτας13
oikétas
slaves
! ἀλλʼ14
all’
And
οὐδʼ15
oud’
not even
οὑτοσὶ16
houtosì
this
ὁ17
ho
—
χρηστὸς18🎭2
chrēstòs
finegood, useful
νεανίας19
neanías
young man
ἐγείρεται20
egeíretai
wakes up
τῆς21
tês
—
νυκτός22
nyktós
in the night
, ἀλλὰ23
allà
but
πέρδεται24🎭3
pérdetai
farts
ἐν25
en
in
πέντε26
pénte
five
σισύραις27
sisýrais
blanketsshaggy goatskin cloaks
, ἐγκεκορδυλημένος28
enkekordylēménos
all bundled uprolled up in a ball
. ἀλλʼ29
all’
Well
εἰ30
ei
if
δοκεῖ31
dokeî
that is the wayit seems good
, ῥέγκωμεν32
rhénkōmen
let us snore
ἐγκεκαλυμμένοι33
enkekalymménoi
under the coverswrapped up
. Strepsiades
Damn you, war, for many reasons, when I can not even punish my slaves! And not even this fine young man wakes up in the night, but farts in five blankets, all bundled up. Well, if that is the way, let us snore under the covers. 🎭 The jokes here
1Why the war spoils the slaves· Athenian dig In wartime a beaten slave could run away to the Spartan raiders camped in Attica, so masters did not dare punish them. Strepsiades curses the war for the most selfish reason possible.Source: Starkie 1911, note on line 5
2"This fine young man"· pun χρηστός means "good" and also "useful". An ancient commentator already saw the joke: he calls the boy "useful" and means useless, a son who sleeps all night and costs a fortune.Source: ancient scholion on line 8, quoted in Starkie 1911
3The word you did not expect· rude The sentence sets up "he does not wake in the night, but sleeps". Aristophanes swaps the last verb for "farts". Comic poets loved this surprise ending, and an Athenian audience would have laughed at the switch as much as at the word.
Strepsiades: Damn you, war, for many reasons, when I can not even punish my slaves! And not even this fine young man wakes up in the night, but farts in five blankets, all bundled up. Well, if that is the way, let us snore under the covers.
Interpretation
Damn you, war, for so many reasons, when I can not even punish my own slaves! And this fine young man does not wake up in the night either. He farts, bundled up in five blankets. Well, if that is how it is, let us snore under the covers too.
The war is the Peloponnesian War, eight years old when the play was staged in 423 BC. Strepsiades blames it for his snoring slaves: with Spartan raiders in the countryside, a slave who was beaten could simply run off to the enemy, so masters went easy on them. A farmer's complaint becomes a joke the whole audience had lived through.
Then we meet the son, without his name yet, only as "this fine young man", said with a sideways look. He sleeps the sleep of the untroubled rich, rolled up in five goatskin blankets, and the verb that tells us what he is doing in there is not the one we expect. Strepsiades gives up and pulls the covers over his own head.
12-18
Clouds 12-18 · Bitten by debts12-18Bitten by debts
Strepsiades explains why he cannot sleep: his son's passion for horses is ruining him, the end of the month is coming, and he calls for a lamp.
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Strepsiades: But I can not sleep, poor me, being bitten by the bills and the stable and the debts, because of this son. And he, with his long hair, rides horses and drives chariots and dreams of horses. And I am dying watching the moon bring on the twenties. For the interest mounts up. Boy, light a lamp!