Page:The Termination -κός, as used by Aristophanes for Comic Effect.djvu/15

Rh the anapaestic verse excludes. , on the other hand, suits iambic and trochaic rhythms, and to these it is confined with one exception, Ach. 696.

occurs twice (1077, 1090) in the epirrhema of the parabasis of the Wasps which precedes the scene of preparation for the banquet referred to above, and serves to prepare us for the fashionable use of the termination in this scene (cf. especially  1199 over against  1200), but an additional reason for its use here was the opportunity it afforded to play on the double meaning, 'manlike' (applied to the wasps) and 'manly', 'brave'. Compare the play on  1080 and   1082. Elsewhere is the word that Aristophanes always employs in the case of persons (about a dozen examples).

A certain amount of incongruity results from attaching the suffix, which belonged originally to the high sphere of scientific thought and philosophic inquiry, to words that stand on a much lower level, that is, words that denote the common things of daily life, colloquial words, and comic coinages. Such forms were put together by Aristophanes in consequence of the free and no doubt indiscriminate use of the suffix that was made by the fashionables of the time and men of the Phaeax type who affected words with this termination because of their learned sound. To ridicule the practice, Aristophanes both multiplied forms and added the suffix to words that were not suited to receive it. Although it is true that when forms once began to pour into the language the suffix was added to a variety of words without much restraint or discrimination, yet the incongruity of some of the comic poet's formations remains and is felt in proportion as one keeps in mind the high sphere to which the suffix properly belongs.

Vesp. 1294, Eccl. 441, Cratin. jun. 7. 'cram', 'stuff', 'plug', 'bung', and its compounds are found chiefly in the comic poets and Lucian, and belong to a low sphere. = 'crammed full of sense'. In Eccl. 441 Praxagora is quoted as saying that woman is a.

Ran. 128. 'trudge' is "almost confined to comedy and prose" (Liddell and Scott).

Eupol. 130, Ar. Ach. 1016, Anaxip. 1, 36, Eccl. 1153, Ach. 1015, Eq. 216, 376, Pac. 1017, fr. 138, Pherecr. 32