ARISTOPHANES THESMOPHORIAZUSAE
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ARISTOPHANES THESMOPHORIAZUSAE EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY
COLIN AUSTIN and S. D O U G L A S OLSON
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0x2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Colin Austin and S. Douglas Olson 2004 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data applied for ISBN 0-19-926527-5 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddies Ltd, King's Lynn
For Annapurna
C.A.
For Andrea S.D.O.
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PREFACE In December 1965 I obtained my D.Phil, -with a commentary on Thesmophoriasusae 1—530. I -was confident at the time that the full edition -would be ready -within three years. Dis aliter visum.1 For over three decades the play, though never completely lost sight of, found itself relegated to the sidelines, as first Euripides, then Menander and the comic fragments, and more recently Posidippus, all took precedence over my original project. In September 2001, after months of ill-health and disruption caused by unstable angina, I joined forces -with Douglas Olson, -who had just completed his edition of Acharnians. We met in Cambridge and I handed over to him everything relevant I had collected till then. Combining this -with material of his own, he prepared a fresh draft, -which -we have repeatedly scrutinized and emended on both sides of the Atlantic. The end result, -we hope, is a harmonious blend of the old and the new. The original thesis had been supervised by Hugh (now Sir Hugh) Lloyd-Jones in Oxford and Rudolf Kassel in Berlin. To both I owe an immense debt of gratitude. Sir Hugh's formidable learning and razor-sharp intellect kept me on my toes from day one, and I am still struggling to cope -with the first of his ten commandments: 'Learn by heart the -whole of Greek Comedy.' In Berlin, thanks to Kassel, the spirit of Wilamowitz ( 1931) was still very much alive, even in the brave new world of the Freie Universitat. Some 50 years earlier my maternal uncle Paul Etard ( 1962), himself a disciple of Hermann Diels ( 1922)2 and later Librarian of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, had met the great man and his circle in the golden years before the First World War. I -was happy to follow in his footsteps, and it -was at de Gruyter's that the genial charm of Heinz Wenzel ( 1998) laid the firm foundation of the future 'K—A' partnership. Ihr naht euch wieder, schwankende Gestalten, Die friih sich einst dem truben Blick gezeigt. Versuch ich wohl, euch diesmal festzuhalten? 1
'The gods decided otherwise' (Verg. Aen. ii. 428). Diels had asked my uncle to prepare a new edition of Aristotle's Physics for Teubner, but the project fell through after the outbreak of hostilities. 2
viii
PREFACE
FuhlichmeinHerznochjenem Wahngeneigt? . . . Ihr bringt mit euch die Bilder froher Tage, Und manche liebe Schatten steigen auf; Gleich einer alten, halbverklungnen Sage Kommt erste Lieb und Freundschaft mit herauf; Der Schmerz wird neu, es wiederholt die Klage Des Lebens labyrinthisch irren Lauf Und nennt die Guten, die, um schone Stunden Vom Gliick getauscht, vor mir hinweggeschwunden.3
As a young research student I came under the spell and influence of many teachers, colleagues, and friends, all alas now long departed. It is -with nostalgic admiration that I mention here the Olympian brilliance of Denys (later Sir Denys) Page (f 1978), -who first explained to a novice some of the metrical eccentricities of Agathon's song; the Erasmian -wisdom of Harry Sandbach ( 1991);4the irreverent bonhomie of Tony Andrewes ( 1990); the austere perfectionism of Spencer Barrett ( 2001); and the trenchant petulance of Eduard Fraenkel ( 1970).5 All these scholars followed my Aristophanic pursuits with lively interest, especially Eduard Fraenkel, who generously made available to me the unpublished lecture notes left by Georg Kaibel ( 1901).6 In Berlin, two of Kassel's 'Doktoranden', the talented but short-lived Armin Schafer ( 1965)7 and the incomparable Volkmar Schmidt ( 1998), were ready at all times to discuss with me matters both great and small, whether it be Euripidean misogyny or how to print + - in crasis. Eric Handley and Kenneth (later Sir Kenneth) Dover had examined the thesis in 1965. They very kindly agreed, nearly 40 years later, to cast a fresh and critical eye on the penultimate typescript. Besides saving us from errors, they have enriched the edition 3 From the Dedicatory poem to Goethe's Faust: 'Once again you draw near, you uncertain shapes that long ago appeared before my clouded vision. Shall I try this time to take possession of you? Does that folly still move me to longing?... You bring with you the images of happy days, and many a well-loved shade comes back to life: first love and friendship rise again with them, like an old half-forgotten legend; pain is renewed, and grief once more retraces life's labyrinthine erring course, and names those dear ones whom Fortune has cheated of hours of joy and who have vanished from sight before me' (translated by David Luke). 4 See PEA 84 (1994) 500-2. 5 See Q (70063(1999)40. 6 See Austin (1987) 67-8. 7 See CRNS 16(1966) 291-3.
PREFACE
ix
with many new references and acute observations. Douglas j oins me here in warmly thanking them for their invaluable help. C. A. Trinity Hall, Cambridge
In February 2001, I wrote to Sir Kenneth Dover, the general editor of the OUP Aristophanes series, to ask if he would approach Colin Austin for me about the possibility of Austin's and my collaborating to produce the edition of Thesmophoriasusae on which I knew he had been working for many years. Austin replied through Dover that he would need to meet me first, and we eventually settled on a date in late September. In the meantime I got Acharnians off to press and produced a sample text and commentary on the opening scene of Thesmophoriasusae as a-way of providing a sense of the contribution I might make to the project. I arrived at the train station in Cambridge deeply ill at ease, expecting hard questions, difficult negotiations, and perhaps an abrupt and unhappy end to my trip. But the next day after lunch, after Colin had spent the morning reading through what I had given him and we were sitting together in his upstairs study, he turned to me and said simply: 'Well, how shall we go about doing this?' Our partnership has been easy and cordial ever since. When I left Cambridge a few days later, I took with me the original copy of Austin's dissertation ( which includes introductory chapters on the festival and the date and historical background to the play); handwritten drafts of an updated but much-abbreviated version of the commentary on the opening sections of the play, and of new material on 531—670, along with bibliographical notes on all the rest; Austin's extensive Cambridge lecture notes on the text; and an immense pile of offprints, learned correspondence, and the like. I spent most of that academic year and the next reworking and combining this material with ideas of my own and with further insights and parallels furnished by Colin. We had originally agreed that I should visit Cambridge every three to six months to make sure that the process of collaboration proceeded smoothly. After I had made an additional trip or two, it became clear that we could work together just as efficiently and effectively via fax and express courier. But I recall with great fondness Colin and Mishtu's hospitality to me in their wonderful home full of books, children and grandchildren, students, fine wine, and Mishtu's beautiful batiks and the smell of her
X
PREFACE
extraordinary cooking. Some readers may be tempted to try to prize this volume apart so as to discover Austin here and Olson there. We encourage them to put their critical abilities to other uses. The edition has been a joint effort from the very first, and we take mutual credit and responsibility for everything it contains. As regards secondary literature, we have tried to be helpful and comprehensive, although not exhaustive. In metrical matters we have been far more selective but always refer to L. P. E. Parker's recent book, which is now the standard reference work on Aristophanic lyric. We regret that Andreas Willi, The Languages of Aristophanes (Oxford, 2003) and Kannicht's edition of the fragments of Euripides in TrGF had not yet appeared as we went to press. John Gibert read the entire Introduction and commentary, and Benjamin Millis read the entire commentary, and both offered countless helpful comments and suggestions. Alexander Sens provided advice and support on a day-to-day—and often hour-to-hour—basis. Anna Stelow was a good-humoured and efficient Research Assistant and a keen and critical reader. Bruce Swann of the Classics Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offered crucial bibliographical support. Oliver Taplin kindly provided details of modern productions of Thesmophoriazusae from the Oxford Archive, and Erika Zwierlein-Diehl furnished excellent colour slides of the 'Telephos' krater in Wurzburg. John Traill cheerfully offered unpublished PAA numbers. Our copy-editor, Leofranc HolfordStrevens, scrutinized our typescript with meticulous care, and we have benefited greatly from his copious notes and illuminating comments. My own work on this project was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, and the Graduate School at the University of Minnesota. I would also like to extend thanks to Steven J. Rosenstone, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, and to the former and current chairs of my department, William Malandra and George Sheets, for their continuing support of my research. S. D.O. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 26 July 2003
CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION I Aristophanes and his Play II Date and Political Background III The Festival IV Euripides and the City's Women V Staging VI Thesmophoriazusae II VII The Manuscript Tradition VIII Modern Work on the Text METRICAL SYMBOLS SIGLA
ARISTOPHANES, THESMOPHORIAZUSAE
xiii
xxxi xxxiii xlv li Ixviii Ixxvii Ixxxix xcix CV Cvii
i
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
2
TEXT
3
COMMENTARY
51
GREEK INDEX
353
GENERAL INDEX
359
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ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY We abbreviate the names of ancient authors as in LSJ, except that we use 'H.' for Homer and 'Bacch.' for Bacchylides. Our numbering of fragments follows Bernabe for epic; PMGF for Alkman, Stesichoros, and Ibykos; PMG's continuous numbering (supplemented by SLG) for other lyric poets; Voigt for Sappho and Alkaios; IEG2 for elegy and iambos except Hipponax, for -whom we cite Degani; Maehler for Pindar and Bacchylides; Diels—Kranz 10 for the pre-Socratic philosophers; TrGF for Aeschylus, Sophocles, and minor or unidentified tragic poets; Nauck2 for Euripides, except -where indicated otherwise; PCG for fragments of the comic poets, and Arnott's Loeb for Menander's substantially preserved plays; Olson—Sens for Archestratos and Matro; Rose3 for Aristotle; Wehrli for other representatives of Aristotle's school; Fortenbaugh for Theophrastos; Pfeiffer for Callimachus; Austin—Bastianini for Posidippus; Gow for Macho; and CA and SH for other late classical and Hellenistic poets. For epigrams, we give equivalent numbers in HE, GPh, or FGE wherever possible. We cite Harpokration from Keaney; Hippocrates from Littre; Hesychius a—o from Latte; Hesychius — from Schmidt; Moeris from Hansen; Photios — , from Theodoridis; Photios — from Parson; Pollux from Bethe; and the Suda from Adler. For the numbering of lines in lyric sections of tragedy, we generally follow the OCTs of Page (for Aeschylus), Lloyd-Jones—Wilson (for Sophocles), and Diggle (for Euripides). All seventh- to first-century dates are BC unless specified otherwise. We refer to editions of Thesmophoriasusae and commentaries on it, as well as to standard commentaries on other ancient texts, by the editor's or commentator's name only. We abbreviate periodicals as in L'Annee philologique, except that we use 'AJP' instead of 'AJPh', 'CP' instead of'CPh','HSCP instead of 'HSCPh', 'PCPS' instead of 'PCPhS', 'TAPA instead of 'TAPhA, and 'YCS' instead of ' YCIS'. We refer to the foliowing books and articles by the author's or editor's last name or abbreviated name only, with a date
xiv
ABBREVIATIONS AND
BIBLIOGRAPHY
or abbreviated title added where ambiguity is possible, or simply by an abbreviated title: Aerts
W. J. Aerts, Periphrastica (Amsterdam,
Agora
The Athenian Agora: Results of Excavations Conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (31 vols.;
1965)
Allen Amyx Anderson Anredeformen
Princeton, 1953— )
D. Allen, The World of Prometheus (Princeton, 2000) D. A. Amyx, 'The Attic Stelai: Part III', Hesperia 27 (1958) 163—310 C. A. Anderson, Athena's Epithets (Beitrage zur Altertumskunde 67: Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1995) J. Svennung, Anredeformen (Acta Societatis Litterarum Humaniorum Regiae Upsaliensis 42: Uppsala and Wiesbaden, 1958)
Apagoge
Ar. and Athens ARV2 Athenian Religion Athens and Persia Ausfeld Austin (1987) Austin (1990)
M. H. Hansen, Apagoge, Endeixis and Ephegesis against Kakourgoi, Atimoi and Pheugontes (Odense University Classical Studies 8: Odense, 1976) D. M. MacDowell, Aristophanes and Athens (Oxford, 1995) J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure VasePainters2 (Oxford, 1963) R. Parker, Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford, 1996) M. C. Miller, Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century B.C. (Cambridge, 1997) C. Ausfeld, De Graecorum Precationibus Quaestiones, in fb. cl. Ph. Suppl. 28 (1903) 503-47 C. Austin, 'Textual Problems in Ar. Thesm.', Dodone 16. 2 (1987) 61—92 'Observations critiques sur les Thesmophories d'Aristophane', Dodone 19.2 (1990)9-29
ABBREVIATIONS AND
Bain, Actors Bain, 'Verbs' Bakhuyzen Beavis Bechtel, AF Beobachtungen Bers Bezantakos Bierl Blech
Blumner
Bobrick
Bonner and Smith
BIBLIOGRAPHY
XV
D. Bain, Actors and Audience: A Study of Asides and Related Conventions in Greek Drama (Oxford, 1977) 'Six Greek Verbs of Sexual Congress C0NS 4 I (1991)51-77 W. H. van de Sande Bakhuyzen, De parodia in comoedus Aristophanis (Utrecht, 1877) I. C. Beavis, Insects and Other Invertebrates in Classical Antiquity (Exeter, 1988) F. Bechtel, Die attischen Frauennamen nach ihrem. Systeme dargestellt (Gottingen, 1902) E. Fraenkel, Beobachtungen zu Aristophanes (Rome, 1962) V. Bers, Greek Poetic Syntax in the Classical Age (Yale Classical Monographs 5: New Haven and London, 1984) N. P. Bezantakos,
(Athens, 1987) A. Bierl, Der Chor in der Alien Komodie (Beitrage zur Altertumskunde 126: Leipzig, 2001) M. Blech, Studien sum Kranz bet den Griechen (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten xxxviii: Berlin and New York, 1982) H. Blumner, Technologic und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Kunste bet Griechen und Roniern (4 vols.: vol. i2 Leipzig and Berlin, 1912, vols. ii—iv Leipzig, 1879—87) E. Bobrick, 'The Tyranny of Roles: Playacting and Privilege in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae', in G. W. Dobrov (ed.), The City as Comedy (Chapel Hill and London,1997)177—97 R. J. Bonner and G. Smith, The Administration of Justice from Homer to Aristotle (2 vols.: Chicago, 1930, 1938)
xvi
ABBREVIATIONS AND
Boule Bowie Brandenburg
Bruhn, Anhang Brumfield Bryant Buitron-Oliver
Burkert Butrica CA CAR2
Cairns Garden Casson CEG
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P. J. Rhodes, The Athenian Boule (Oxford, 1972) A. M. Bowie, Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy (Cambridge, 1993) H. Brandenburg, Studienzur Mitra: Beitrage zur Waffen- und Trachtgeschichte der Antike (Fontes et Commentationes, Schriftenreihe des Instituts fur Epigraphik an der Universitat Munster 4: Munster, 1966) F. W. Schneidewin and A. Nauck (eds.), Sophokles viii Anhang, zusammengestellt von E. Bruhn (Berlin, 1899) A. C. Brumfield, The Attic Festivals of Demeter and their Relation to the Agricultural Year (New York, 1981) A. A. Bryant, 'Greek Shoes in the Classical Period', HSCP 10 (1899) 57-102 D. Buitron-Oliver, Douris: A MasterPainter of Athenian Red-Figure Vases (Forschungen zur antiken Keramik ii. 9: Mainz am Rhein, 1995) W. Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge, Mass., 1985) J. Butrica, 'The lost Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes', Phoenix 55 (2001) 44—76 see Powell The Cambridge Ancient History2 (14 vols. in 18: Cambridge, 1970—2000) D. L. Cairns, Aidos (Oxford and New York, 1993) R. Garden, The Papyrus Fragments of Sophocles (Texte und Kommentare 7: Berlin and New York, 1974) L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Baltimore and London, 1971) P. A. Hansen (ed.), CarminaEpigraphica Graeca (Texte und Kommentare 12 and 15: Berlin and New York, 1983, 1989)
ABBREVIATIONS
CGFPR Chadwick Chantraine, Formation Clinton Cohen, Law Cohen, Theft Collard, Cropp, and Lee Coulon, Essai Cropp and Fick Csapo Daremberg—Saglio Davidson Davies and Kathirithamby Deubner DFA
AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
xvii
C. Austin (ed.), Comicorum Graecorum fragmenta inpapyris reperta (Berlin and New York, 1973) J. Chadwick, Lexicographica Graeca: Contributions to the lexicography of Ancient Greek (Oxford, 1996) P. Chaintraine, La Formation des noms en grec ancien (Paris, 1933) K. Clinton, Myth and Cult: The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Stockholm, 1992) D. Cohen, Law, Sexuality, and Society: The Enforcement of Morals in Classical Athens (Cambridge and New York, 1991) Theft in Athenian Law (Munchener Beitrage zur Papyrusforschung und antiken Rechtsgeschichte 74: Munich, 1983) C. Collard, M. J. Cropp, and K. H. Lee (eds.), Euripides: Selected Fragmentary Plays i (Warminster, 1995) V. Coulon, Essai sur la methode de la critique conjecturale appliquee au texte d'Aristophane (Paris, 1933) M. Cropp and G. Pick, Resolutions and Chronology in Euripides: The Fragmentary Tragedies (BICS Suppl. 43: London, 1985) E. Csapo, 'A Note on the Wiirzburg BellCrater 115697 ("Telephus Travestitus")', Phoenix 40(1986)379—92 C. Daremberg and E. Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquites grecques et romaines (6 vols. in 10: Paris, 1877—1919) J. Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (New York, 1997) M. Davies and J. Kathirithamby, Greek Insects (New York and Oxford, 1986) L. Deubner, Attische Feste (Berlin, 1932) A. Pickard-Cambridge, The Dramatic Festivals of Athens2 , rev. J. Gould and
xviii
A B B R E V I A T I O N S AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dickey Dillon Dover, AC Dover, EGPS Dover, G&G Dover, GH Dover, G L Dover, GPM Dubois Ehrenberg Fehling
FGE FGrHist
FHG Forbes ERA
Fraenkel, Horace
D. M. Lewis (Oxford, 1968; reissued -with supplement and corrections, 1988) E. Dickey, Greek Forms of Address from. Herodotus to Lucian (Oxford Classical Monographs: Oxford, 1996) M. Dillon, Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion (London and New York, 2002) K. J. Dover, Aristophanic Comedy (London, 1972) The Evolution of Greek Prose Style (Oxford, 1997) Greek and the Greeks: Collected Papers, i (Oxford and New York, 1987) Greek Homosexuality2 (Cambridge, Mass., 1989) The Greeks and their Legacy: Collected Papers, ii (Oxford and New York, 1988) Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle (Oxford, Berkeley, and Los Angeles, 1974) L. Dubois, Inscriptions grecques dialectales de Sidle (Paris/Rome, 1989) V. Ehrenberg, The People of Aristophanes2 (Oxford, 1951) D. Fehling, Die Wiederholungsfigurenund ihr Gebrauch bet den Griechen vor Gorgias (Berlin, 1969) D. L. Page (ed.), Further Greek Epigrams (Cambridge, 1981) F. Jacoby (ed.), Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Leiden, 1923—69) C. and T. Mueller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum (5 vols.: Paris, 1841—70) R. J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology2 (9 vols.: Leiden, 1964) M. J. Osborne and S. G. Byrne, The Foreign Residents of Athens (Studia Hellenistica 33: Leuven, 1996) E. Fraenkel, Horace (Oxford, 1957)
ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fraenkel, KIB Furley and Bremer Gallant Garland
Gildersleeve
Ginouves GMAW22
Goodwin
Gordziejew
GP
GPh Green Gygli-Wyss
Hagg
Haldane
xix
Kleine Beitrage zur klassischen Philologie (2 vols.: Rome, 1964) D. Furley and J. Bremer, Greek Hymns (2 vols.: Tubingen, 2001) T. W. Gallant, Risk and Survival in Ancient Greece (Stanford, 1991) R. S. J. Garland, 'Religious Authority in Archaic and Classical Athens', BSA 79 (1984)75-123 B. L. Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek (New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago, 1900: repr. Groningen, 1980) R. Ginouves, Balaneutike: Recherches sur le bain dans I'antiquite grecque (Paris, 1962) E. G. Turner, Greek Manuscripts of the Ancient World2 (ed. P. J. Parsons) (BIOS Suppl. 46: London, 1987) W. W. Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb3 (Boston, 1890; repr. New York, 1965) V. Gordziejew, 'DePrologo Thesmophoriazusarum', Eos 38 (1937) 296-324 J. D. Denniston, The Greek Particles2 (rev. K. J. Dover) (Oxford, 1954) A. S. F. Gow and D. L. Page (eds.), The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip (Cambridge, 1968) J. R. Green, Theatre in Ancient Greek Society (London, 1994) B. Gygli-Wyss, Das nominale Polyptoton im. alteren Griechisch (Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiet der indogermanischen Sprachen, Erganzungsheft 18: Gottingen, 1966) R. Hagg (ed.), The Role of Religion in the Early Greek Polis (Acta Instituti Atheniensis Regni Sueciae 8°, 14: Stockholm,1996) J. A. Haldane, 'A Scene in the
XX
A B B R E V I A T I O N S AND B I B L I O G R A P H Y
Hall
Handley, 'Nouns' Handley, 'Words'
Handley and Rea Hansen (1983) Hansen (1987)
Hanson (1989)
Hanson (1991)
Harrison HCT
HE
Horn
Hubbard
ID
Thesmophoriasusae (295—371)', Philologus 109(1965)39-46 E. M. Hall, 'The Archer Scene in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae', Philologus 133 (1989) 38-54 E. W. Handley, '-sis Nouns in Aristophanes', Eranos 51 (1953) 129—42 'Words for "soul", "heart" and "mind" in Aristophanes', RhMNFgg (1956) 206—25 E. W. Handley and J. Rea, The Telephus of Euripides (BICS Suppl. 5: London, 1957) M. H. Hansen, The Athenian Ecclesia (Copenhagen,1983) The Athenian Assembly in the Age of Demosthenes (Black-well's Classical Studies: Oxford and New York, 1987) V. D. Hanson, The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece (New York, 1989) (ed.), Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience (London and New York, 1991) A. R. W. Harrison, The Law of Athens (2 vols.: Oxford, 1968, 1971) A. W. Gomme, A. Andrewes, and K. J. Dover, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides (5 vols.: Oxford, 1945—81) A. S. F. Gow and D. L. Page (eds.), The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams (Cambridge, 1965) W. Horn, Gebet und Gebetsparodie in den Komodien des Aristophanes (Erlanger Beitrage zur Sprach- und Kunstwissenschaft 38: Nurnberg, 1970) T. K. Hubbard, The Mask of Comedy: Aristophanes and the Intertextual Parabasis (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology LI: Ithaca and London, 1991) Inscriptions de Delos
A B B R E V I A T I O N S AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 2
IEG
IG Jackson Judeich Kaimio
Kassel, KS K-A KB
KG
Kilmer, Erotica Kleinknecht
Klimek-Winter Kloss
Kraus
xxi 2
M. L. West (ed.), Iambi et Elegi Graeci (Oxford, 1989-92) Inscriptiones Graecae J. Jackson, Marginalia Scaenica (Oxford Classical and Philosophical Monographs: Oxford, 1955) W. Judeich, Topographic vonAthen2 (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft iii. 2. 2: Munich, 1931) M. Kaimio, The Chorus of Greek Drama within the Light of the Person and Number Used (Commentationes Humanarum Litteraruni46: Helsinki, 1970) R. Kassel, Kleine Schriften (Berlin and New York, 1991) see PCG R. Kiihner, Ausfuhrliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache3 i ElementarundFormenlehre (rev. F. Blass) (2 vols.: Hannover, 1890, 1892) Ausfuhrliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache3 ii Satzlehre (rev. B. Gerth) (2 vols.: Hannover and Leipzig, 1898,1904) M. F. Kilmer, Greek Erotica on Attic RedFigure Vases (London, 1993) H. Kleinknecht, Die Gebetsparodie in der Antike (Tiibinger Beitrage zur Altertumswissenschaft 28: Stuttgart, 1937; repr. Hildesheim, 1967) R. Klimek-Winter, Andromedatragodien (Beitrage zur Altertumskunde 21: Stuttgart, 1993) G. KAoss,Erscheinungsformen komischen Sprechens bei Aristophanes (Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte 59: Berlin and New York, 2001) W. Kraus, Testimonia Aristophanea cum scholiorum lectionibus (Vienna and Leipzig, 1934)
xxii
ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
La Cite Labiano Ilundain
Lange Larson Latte Lautensach
Leveque
Lewis
LfgrE LGPN
LIMC Lopez Eire Lourengo Lyric Metres2 LSAM
Studia Aristophanea viro Aristophaneo, W. J. W. Koster, in honorem (Amsterdam, 1967) La Cite des Images (Lausanne, 1984) J. M. Labiano Ilundain, Estudio de las Interjecciones en las Comedias de Aristofanes (Classical and Byzantine Monographs 48: Amsterdam, 2000) G. Lange, Quaestiones in Aristophanis Thesmophoriazusas (Diss. Gottingen, 1891) J. Larson, Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore (Oxford, 2001) K. Latte, Kleine Schriften (Munich, 1968) O. Lautensach, Die Aoriste bet den attischen Tragikern und Komikern (Forschungen zur griechischen und lateinischen Grammatik I: Gottingen, 1911) P. Leveque, Agathon (Annales de 1'Universite de Lyon III, Lettres 26: Paris, 1955) S. Lewis, The Athenian Woman: An Iconographic Handbook (London and New York, 2002) B. Snell et al., Lexikon des fruhgriechischen Epos (Gottingen, 1955—) P. M. Fraser and E. Matthews (eds., vols. i, iiiA—B), and M. J. Osborne and S. G. Byrne (eds., vol. ii), A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names (Oxford, 1994— ) Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (Zurich and Munich, 1981—99) A. Lopez Eire, La Lengua coloquial de la Comedia aristofdnica (Murcia, 1996) F. Lourengo, 'Metrical Notes on "Andromeda's Lament" in Thesmophoriazusae', Euphrosyne 28 (2000) 321—4 A. M. Dale, The Lyric Metres of Greek Drama1 (Cambridge, 1968) F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrees de I'Asie mineure (Paris, 1955)
ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
LSCG LSCG Suppl. LSJ
Maas Maas and Snyder
xxiii
- Lois sacrees des cites grecques (Paris,
1969) Lois Sacrees des cites grecques.
Supplement (Paris, 1962) H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, A GreekEnglish Lexicon9 (rev. H. S. Jones and R. McKenzie, rev. supp. by P. G. W. Glare) (Oxford, 1996) P. Maas, Greek Metre (trans. H. LloydJones; Oxford, 1962; originally published in German in 1923) M. Maas and J. M. Snyder, Stringed Instruments of Ancient Greece (New Haven and London,1989)
McClure
L. McClure, SpokenLike a Woman: Speech and Gender in Athenian Drama (Princeton,
Miasma
R. Parker, Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Oxford, 1983) M. M. Miles, The Athenian Agora xxi The City Eleusinion (Princeton, 1998) H. W. Miller, 'Some Tragic Influences in the Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes', TAP A 77(1946) 171-82 R. Meiggs and D. Lewis, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the End of the Fifth Century BC (rev. edn.: Oxford, 1988) J. Henderson, The Maculate Muse: Obscene Language in Attic Comedy2 (New York and Oxford, 1991)
Miles Miller
M-L
MM
Moorhouse Morrison and Williams Muecke Miiller
1999)
A. C. Moorhouse, The Syntax of Sophocles (Mnemosyne Suppl. 75: Leiden, 1982) J. S. Morrison and R. T. Williams, Greek Oared Ships 900-322 B.C. (Cambridge, 1968) F. Muecke, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman', CQ NS 32 (1982) 41—55 D. Miiller, Handwerk und Sprache: Die sprachlichen Bilder aus dem Bereich des Handwerks in der griechischen Literatur
xxiv
ABBREVIATIONS AND
NAGP
NCI
Norden Oakley and Sinos Oeri Olson, 'Names' Ostwald O'Sullivan 'Owls to Athens'
PA
PAA Page, S Paquette
A
BIBLIOGRAPHY
bis 400 . Chr. (Beitrage zur klassischen Philologie 51: Meisenham am Glan, 1974) A. Rijksbaron (ed.), New Approaches to Greek Particles (Festschrift C. J. Ruijgh; Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology 7: Amsterdam, 1997) B. Cohen (ed.), Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art (Leiden, Boston, and Cologne, 2000) E. Norden, Agnostos Theos: Untersuchungen zur Formengeschichte religioser Rede (Leipzig, 1913) J. H. Oakley and R. H. Sinos, The Wedding in Ancient Athens (Wisconsin Studies in Classics: Madison and London, 1993) H. G. Oeri, Der Typ der komischen Alien in der griechischen Komodie (Diss. Basel, 1948) S. D. Olson, 'Names and Naming in Aristophanic Comedy', CQ NS 42 (1992) 304-19 M. Ostwald, Nomos and the Beginnings of the Athenian Democracy (Oxford, 1969) N. O'Sullivan, Alcidamas, Aristophanes and the Beginnings of Greek Stylistic Theory (Hermes Einzelschriften 60: Stuttgart, 1992) E. Craik (ed.), 'Owls to Athens': Essays on Classical Subjects Presented to Sir Kenneth Dover (Oxford, 1990) J. Kirchner, Prosopographia Attica (Berlin, 1901—3; reprint Chicago, 1981) J. Traill (ed.), Persons of Ancient Athens (Toronto, 1994—) D. Page, Sappho andAlcaeus (Oxford, 1955) D. Paquette, L'Instrument de musique dans la cer antique de la Grece antique: Etudes d'Organologie (Universite de Lyon, Publications de la Bibliotheque Salomon Reinach iv: Paris, 1984)
A B B R E V I A T I O N S AND B I B L I O G R A P H Y
Parke Parker PCG Peek, GVI Peppier Petersen PMG PMGF Policing Poultney Powell Pritchett Quad. Torino Rau RE Renehan Rijksbaron
XXV
H. W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians (Aspects of Greek and Roman Life: Ithaca, NY, 1977) L. P. E. Parker, The Songs of Aristophanes (Oxford, 1997) R. Kassel and C. Austin (eds.), Poetae Cornici Graeci (Berlin and New York, 1983- ) W. Peek, Griechische Vers-Inschriften i (Berlin, 1955) C. W. Peppier, 'Comic Terminations in Aristophanes: Part V, AJP 42 (1921) 152— 61 W. Petersen, Greek Diminutives in -LOV (Weimar, 1910) D. L. Page (ed.), Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford, 1962) M. Davies (ed.), Poetarum Melicorum Graecorum Fragmenta i (Oxford, 1991) V. J. Hunter, Policing Athens: Social Control in the Attic Lawsuits, 420—320 B.C. (Princeton, 1994) J. W. Poultney, The Syntax of the Genitive Case in Aristophanes (Baltimore, 1936) J. U. Powell (ed.), Collectanea Alexandrina (Oxford, 1925; repr. Chicago, 1981) W. K. Pritchett, 'The Attic Stelai: Part IF, Hesperiazs, (1956) 178—317 Quaderm del Dipartimento difilologia, linguistica e tradizione classica deirUniversitd degli studi di Torino P. Rau, Paratragodia: Untersuchung einer komischen Form, des Aristophanes ((Zetemata 45: Munich, 1967) Real-Encyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1893— 1970; Munich, 1972—) R. Renehan, Studies in Greek Texts (Hypomnemata43: Gottingen, 1976) A. Rijksbaron, The Syntax and Semantics
xxvi
Rivals Roscher, Lexikon Russo Rutherford Sansone Schwyzer
Scodel SH
SIG3 Sifakis Silk Simon
ABBREVIATIONS AND
BIBLIOGRAPHY
of the Verb in Classical Greek (Amsterdam, 1994) D. Harvey and J. Wilkins (eds.), The Rivals of Aristophanes (London, 2000) W. H. Roscher, Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie ((6 vols.: Leipzig and Berlin, 1884—1937) C. F. Russo, Aristophanes: An Author for the Stage (London and New York, 1994; originally published in Italian in 1962) W. G. Rutherford, The New Phrynichus (London, 1881) D. Sansone, 'Socrates' "Tragic" Definition of Color (PI. Meno76D-E)',CP91 (1996) 339-45 E. Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik (4 vols.: Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft 2. i) i Lautlehre. Wortbildung. Flexion (Munich, 1939), ii Syntax und syntaktische Stilistik (ed. A. Debrunner: Munich, 1950), iii Register (ed. D. J. Georgacas: Munich, 2 ig6o), iv Stellenregister (ed. F. and S. Radt: Munich, ^994) R. Scodel, The Trojan Trilogy of Euripides (Hypomnemata6o: Gottingen, 1980) H. Lloyd-Jones and P. Parsons (eds.), Supplementum Hellenisticum (Texte und Kommentare 11: Berlin and New York, 1983) W. Dittenberger (ed.), Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum3 (Leipzig, 1915— 24; repr. Hildesheim, 1960) G. M. Sifakis, Parabasis and Animal Choruses (London, 1971) M. S. Silk, Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy (Oxford, 2000) E. Simon, Festivals of Attica: An Archaeological Commentary (Wisconsin Studies in Classics: Madison and London, 1983)
ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
SLG Small Objects
Snodgrass Snyder Sommerstein, 'Naming' Sparkes Stehle
Stephanis Stevens
Stone
Taillardat
Taplin (1977) Taplin (1987)
xxvii
D. Page (ed.), Supplementum Lyricis Graecis (Oxford, 1974) G. Davidson and D. Thompson, Small Objects from the Pnyx I (Hesperia Suppl. vii: Baltimore, 1943) A. M. Snodgrass, Arms and Armor of the Greeks2 (Baltimore and London, 1999) J. M. Snyder, 'Aristophanes' Agathon as Anacreon', Hermes 102 (1974) 244—6 A. H. Sommerstein, 'The Naming of Women in Greek and Roman Comedy', QS II (1980) 393-418 B. A. Sparkes, 'Illustrating Aristophanes', f H S 9 5 ( 1 9 7 5 ) 122-35 E. Stehle, 'The Body and its Representations in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriasousai: Where Does the Costume End?', AJP 123 (2002) 369-406 I. E. Stephanis, (Iraklio, 1988) P. T. Stevens, Colloquial Expressions in Euripides (Hermes Einzelschriften 38: Wiesbaden, 1976) L. M. Stone, Costume in Aristophanic Comedy (New York, 1981) I. C. Cunningham (ed.), Synagoge. (Sammlung griechischer und lateinischer Grammatiker 10: Berlin and New York, 2003) J. Taillardat, Les Images d'Aristophane: Etudes de langue et de style (Annales de 1'Universite de Lyon III, Lettres 36: Paris, 1962) O. Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford, 1977) ——'ClassicalPhallology, Iconographic Parody and Potted Aristophanes', Dioniso 57 (1987) 95—109 (a slightly revised version
xxviii
ABBREVIATIONS
Taplin (1993) Thesleff
Thompson Threatte Tichy
Tod Todd Traill TrGF Tzanetou
Usener van Straten
AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
of an article originally published in PC PS NS33 (1987)92-104) ——ComicAngels and other Approaches to Greek Drama through Vase-Paintings (Oxford, 1993) H. Thesleff, Studies on Intensification in Early and Classical Greek (Societas Scientarum Fennica, Commentationes humanarum litterarum 21.1: Helsingfors [—Helsinki], 1954) D. W. Thompson, A Glossary of Greek Birds2 (Oxford,.1936) L. Threatte, The Grammar of Attic Inscriptions (2 vols.: Berlin and New York, 1980,1996) E. Tichy, Onomatopoetische Verbalbildungen des Griechischen (Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 409: Vienna, 1983) M. N. Tod (ed.), A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions2 (2 vols.: Oxford, 1946,1949) S. C. Todd, The Shape of Athenian Law (Oxford, 1993) J. S. Traill, The Political Organisation of Attica (Hesperia Suppl. 14: Princeton, 1975) B. Snell et al. (eds.), Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Gottingen, 1971–) A. Tzanetou, 'Something to Do -with Demeter: Ritual and Performance in Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria', AJP 123 (2002) 329—67 H. Usener, Gotternamen: Versuch einer Lehre von der religiosen Begriffsbildung (Bonn,1896) F. T. van Straten, HIERA KALA: Images of Animal Sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece (Leiden, New York, and Cologne, 1995)
A B B R E V I A T I O N S AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Vos Waanders Wackernagel, KS War Webster Wegner Werres West, AGM West, GM Wilamowitz Willi Zeitlin
xxix
M. F. Vos, Scythian Archers in Archaic Attic Vase-Painting(Archaeologica Traiectina VI: Groningen, 1963) F. M. J. Waanders, The History of and in Ancient Greek (Amsterdam, 1983) J. Wackernagel, Kleine Schriften (3 vols.: Gottingen, 1955, 1979) W. K. Pritchett, The Greek State at War (5 vols.: Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1971-91) T. B. L. Webster, The Tragedies of Euripides (London, 1967) M. Wegner, Das Musikleben der Griechen (Berlin, 1949) J. Werres, Die Beteuerungsformeln in der attischen Komodie (Diss. Bonn, 1936) M. L. West, Ancient Greek Music (Oxford, 1992) Greek Metre (Oxford, 1982) U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Kleine Schriften iv (Berlin, 1962) A. Willi (ed.), The Language of Greek Comedy (Oxford, 2002) F. I. Zeitlin, 'Travesties of Gender and Genre in Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae', in Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature (Women in Culture and Society: Chicago and London, 1996) 375—416 (a revised version of a piece originally published in H. Foley (ed.), Reflections of Women in Antiquity (London, 1981) 169— 217)
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INTRODUCTION I. A R I S T O P H A N E S AND HIS PLAY
'Je passe actuellement toutes mes matinees avec Aristophane. Voila qui est beau et verveux et bouillant. Mais ce n'est pas decent, ce n'est pas moral, cen'estmemepas convenable, c'est tout bonnement sublime.'1 So wrote Gustave Flaubert to his mistress Louise Colet in September 1847.2 His 'sublime' is no exaggeration,3 and Aristophanes' eleven surviving comedies—one-fourth of the poet's output—have lost none of their appeal since Flaubert's time. No doubt the range and originality of Aristophanes' genius had been factors that ensured that the best of his work was preserved for posterity even when the lights slowly went out during the dark ages before the rebirth of learning in ninth-century Byzantium. In this respect he was more fortunate than all his rivals, 'Eupolis, Cratinus . . . and the other exponents of Old Comedy'.4 The selection we have falls neatly into three distinct chronological groups:5 (i) five early plays, produced while the poet was still most likely in his twenties, and covering the second half of the 'Archidamian' War (the name given to the first 10-year phase of the Peloponnesian War of 431—404):6 Acharnians (425), Knights (424), Clouds (423),7 Wasps (422), and Peace (421); 1 'I now spend all my mornings with Aristophanes. Here's something that's beautiful, spirited, and fiery. But it's indecent, it's immoral, it isn't even proper; it's simply sublime.' 2G. Flaubert, Correspondance i (Paris, 1973) 470.
3 Cf. 'Plato' FGR 626—7 = Ar. test. 130: ('The Graces, seeking to find a sanctuary
that could not fall, discovered the soul of Aristophanes'). 4 Cf. Hor. Sat. i. 4. 1-2 Eupolis atque Cratinus Aristophanes-que poetae / atque alii, quorum comoediaprisca virorum est (= Ar. test. 62). 5 The ancient testimonia are collected in PCGiii. 2. 1—33. For recent introductory surveys, see Dover, Frogs, pp. 1—5; Olson, Peace, pp. xxi—xxiv, and Acharnians, pp. xxvii-xxxi; as well as the entries under'Aristophanes' in OCD3 (1996) 163-5 (Dover) and Brill's New Pauly i (2002) 1125-32 (Nesselrath). See also P. von Mollendorff, Aristophanes (Hildesheim, Zurich, and New York, 2002: in German). 6 We do not know when Aristophanes was born, but Nu. 530 ('I was still a virgin and not yet allowed to give birth') implies that he was a precocious young man in 427, the year of his earliest play, Banqueters (A airaXf/s). 7 Aristophanes partially rewrote Clouds after its defeat by Cratinus' Wine-Flask
xxxii
INTRODUCTION
(ii) four mature masterpieces, Birds (414), Lysistrata and Thesmophoriazusae (both 411), and Frogs (405), which eerily illuminate Athens' darkest decade, as the city lurched from crisis to crisis, from the catastrophic Sicilian expedition (415—413) to the final defeat at Aigospotamoi (405); (iii) two 'twilight' productions, Ecclesiazusae (392 or 391) and Plutus (388), both paving the way to the 'Middle Comedy' of the fourth century.8 Thesmophoriazusae (hereafter '77z.') is arguably the jewel in the crown. The play is less concerned with city politics than most of the other surviving comedies, and instead takes up the problem of the relationship between men and women, which it explores with a mix of wild transvestite farce and glorious and extended parody of Euripidean tragedy. Lysistrata in the same year also focuses on the 'battle of the sexes', but from a daring and unusual angle, although Euripides is mentioned there as well (at 283 and 368). There was clearly something in the air to make 411 a year about 'women', as 423 had been a year about 'thinkers' and 414 one about 'escapism', and as 405 was to become one about 'tragic poets'.9 The virtues of the piece have not gone unnoticed by modern critics in Europe and North America. Long ago Arthur Palmer in Dublin called Th. 'by far the most diverting of all the plays of Aristophanes' ;10 Gilbert Norwood in Toronto wrote 'For dazzling wit and irresistibly laughable farce combined this ... is perhaps the world's finest masterpiece';11 more recently Froma Zeitlin in Princeton and Michael Silk in London have both described it as 'brilliant'. 12 Th. is carefully structured, side-splittingly funny, and concerned with problems likely to strike a twenty-first-century reader or audience as remarkably contemporary. It is none the less also, as Jeffrey Henderson notes, 'of Arisand Ameipsias' Konnos. Only the revised second version survives: see Dover, C/oz«fe,pp.lxxx-xcviii. For the first version, seePCGiii. 2. 214-19 (frr. 392-401); for additional bibliography, Storey, in Rivals 542-3. 8 Aristophanes probably died in or shortly before 386. His last two plays, Aiolosikon and Kokalos, were produced by his son Araros; see Aiol. test, iv (PCG iii. 2. 33).9 423: Socrates mocked in both JVw. and Arneipsias'_Kojzjzos(fr. 9); 414: withdrawal from Athenian society as a theme in both Av. and Phrynichos' Recluse 405: tragedians discussed in both Ra. and Phrynichos' Muses (Movaai; see Harvey, in Rivals 91—134). 10 The Quarterly Review 158 (1884) 354. 11 Greek Comedy (London, 1931) 253. 12 Zeitlin 378; Silk 320; so already D. Barrett (594 n.) 97.
A R I S T O P H A N E S AND HIS PLAY
xxxiii
tophanes' extant plays . . . the most precariously attested . . . and least explored by scholars, editors, and translators'. 13 This edition is intended as a contribution to the vigorous emerging effort to reevaluate this neglected literary gem by one of Athens' most famous and important poets. II. DATE AND POLITICAL
BACKGROUND
A. The Year No explicit notice of the year in -which Th. -was performed has been preserved.14 The play can none the less be firmly assigned to 411 on the basis of the folio-wing items of evidence (cited in descending order of significance): (i) At 1060—i, Echo (played by the disguised Euripides) tells Inlaw that she performed 'last year in this same spot', and 2R identifies this as a reference to Euripides' Andromeda and notes that that play '-was staged the previous year' Ra. 53 reports that 'Andromeda had been put on in the 13 AJP 12,3 (2002)501. This entire issue of Af P is devoted to Th., to mark the 2001 production of Mary-Kay Camel's version of the play at Case Western Reserve University ('The Julie Thesmo Show'). The first revival of Th. known to us was around 370 BC in Southern Italy, as reflected in the Wiirzburg 'Telephos' krater (discussed in Section V.E). The Oxford A rchive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama has at present details of 39 productions (since 1955) listed on its database. For the Modern Greek adaptations of Solomos (1958) and Koun (1985) at Athens and Epidauros, see G. Van Steen, Venom in Verse (Princeton, 2000) 159, 175, 202-3. In England there have been lively presentations in Oxford by the Magdalen Players (May 1965) and at the Oxford Playhouse (December 1996) and in London by the Classical Societies at King's College (1965, 1974, 1985) and University College (1989, 1995). The first King's performance was favourably reviewed in the Times of 3 March 1965 under the heading 'Riotous Greek Play'. There have also been productions in Australia, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Italy (Syracuse), New Zealand, and the United States. The most recent translations of all the plays are the French Pleiade of Pascal Thiercy (Paris, 1997) and the new 4-volume Loeb of Jeffrey Henderson (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1998—2002; Th. in vol. iii (2000)). Alan Sommerstein's edition in the Aris and Phillips series (Warminster, 1980— ; Th. in vol. viii (1994)) was successfully completed in 2002 with a volume of Indexes (including an index of Persons, pp. 87-126). 14 The fundamental discussion of the question remains U. von WilamowitzMoellendorff, Aristoteles und Athen ii (Berlin, 1893) 343-55. Cf. more recently Dover, AC 168-72; Sommerstein, jfHS 97 (1977) 112-26, and in the introduction to his edition of the play (pp. 1-4); Andrewes, HCTv. 184-93; Henderson, Lysistrata, pp. xv—xxv; Hubbard 187—9, 343~5-
xxxiv
INTRODUCTION
eighth year before this' i.e. before the performance of Frogs at the Lenaia in 405 (Ra. Hyp. I. c). This places Andromeda (on inclusive reckoning) in 413/12 (along •with Helen) and Th. in 412/11. 15 (ii) 804 patently refers to an incident described by Thucydides (viii. 41. 3—43. i) in which the Athenian general Charminos lost six ships near Rhodes some time in -winter 412/11. Th. can thus be no earlier than 411. As Wilamowitz noted, moreover, this -was a relatively minor defeat, -which -was completely overshadowed by the victory at Kynossema some time in summer 411 (Th. viii. 104—6), and it is difficult to believe that it -would have merited mention in a comedy of 410 or later, particularly since the Athenians could by then no longer be accused of incompetence in naval affairs. 16 (iii) At 808—9, the chorus, in the course of drawing a series of punning comparisons bet-ween the city's -women and its men, ask •whether 'any member of last year's Council is better than Euboule' —a name that means literally 'Giving Good Counsel'—'after having surrendered his authority to another man'. This can scarcely be a reference to the putsch conducted against the Council of 412/11 by the 400 in June 411 (see B, below), since that -was an example of neither evfiovXia nor its opposite but a violent seizure of power. The allusion must be instead to the appointment near the end of summer 413 of aboard of ten probouloi (cf. B, below), one of-whom is mocked mercilessly on stage in Lys., to share some of the powers of the Council. This places Th. once again in 412/11. (iv) R 190 reports that Euripides died 'in the sixth year' after Th. -was staged. The Marmor Parium (FGrHist 239 A. 63) dates Euripides' death to 407/6, and this finds support in the plot of Frogs (•which-was staged at the Lenaia in 405 (Ra. Hyp. I. c) and must have been conceived -well before that), as -well as in the anonymous Life of Euripides § 2 (— S. T 54), -which reports that Sophocles responded to news of his rival's death by appearing in mourning -with his actors at 15 identifies that verse as an allusion to E. Andromeda fr. 116 But the supposed allusion is not compelling (cf. Henderson ad loc.) and thus provides no additional evidence for the date of Euripides' play. 16 Wilamowitz (n. 14) 346. R 804 notes that 'Charminos was serving as one of the generals around Samos in this period along with Phrynichos'—who was assassinated in July 411 (Th. viii. 92. 2)—'and his colleagues' but is referring to the time when the battle took place rather than the date of the play.
DATE AND P O L I T I C A L BACKGROUND
XXXV
aproagon, i.e. before one of the contests in 406, since he too-was dead bythebeginningof4O5 (Ra. 76—7; Phryn. Com. fr. 32; cf. Marm. Par. FGrHist 239 A. 64). The sixth year before 407/6 -would on inclusive reckoning be 412/11. But R might have followed Timae. FGrHist 566 F 105; Eratosth. FGrHist 241 F 12; and Apollod. FGrHist 244 F 35, in error in placing Euripides' death in 406/5 (which -would put Th .in 411/10), and this evidence therefore cannot be given the same •weight as that discussed above. (v) R 841 notes that Lamachos 'had died in Sicily in the fourth year before this' Unfortunately, Thucydides (vi. 101. 6) dates Lamachos' death only to some time in summer 414 -without specifying -whether it came at the end of 415/14 (-which -would put Th. in 412/11, as appears on all other counts to be right) or the beginning of 414/13 (-which -would put Th. in4i i/io). 17 The evidence thus overwhelmingly supports a date of 411 for Th. WeknowfromZyys. Hyp. I. 33—4 that that play too-was staged in 411. It may have been possible for a poet to present two comedies at a single festival, -with one at least nominally assigned to someone else, although the only example of this phenomenon generally adduced is at the Lenaia in 422, -where Ar. -was placed second -with Wasps but is sometimes thought to have -written Philonides' Proagon (-which took the prize) as -well. But this is a hypothesis of last resort and it is far more likely that one of Ar.'s comedies of 411 -was staged at the Lenaia (probably celebrated that year in February), the other at the City Dionysia (early to mid-April). 18 Assignment of the plays to 17 D.S. xiii. 8. i places the death in 414, but it is unclear that he had any evidence for this beyond the text of Thucydides. (Dover points out that D.S. dates Athenian events as if the archon-year began, like the Roman consular year, in midwinter rather than midsummer. His '414' is thus the second half of the Athenian 415/14 and the first half of the Athenian 414/13.) Nothing can be deduced from R 32, which reports that Agathon began to produce plays 'three years earlier' We know from PI. Snip. I73a that Agathon won the prize with his first production and Athenaeus (5. 2i7a), apparently drawing on official records, dates this to the Lenaia in 416; and rpiaiv must therefore be corrupt; the numeral F (= 6) was misread as F (= 3). 18 B. D. Meritt, The Athenian Year (Sather Classical Lectures 32: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961) 218, puts the first day of 412/11 on 5 August of the Julian calendar. This is relatively late and pushes the dates of the City Dionysia and Lenaia back further in 411 than would be normal, which is a matter of some significance (cf. below). But the evidence is flimsy and controversial, and little should be built upon it; cf. Wenskus, Hermes 126 (1998) 383—5 (on the problem of the date of Lys.).
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INTRODUCTION
their individual festivals is more difficult and requires some discussion of the political events of 412/11. B. Historical Background When, near the end of summer 413, news reached Athens of the defeat of the expedition sent out against Sicily two years earlier, the people at first refused to believe what they were told. After they accepted the truth, they were filled both with anger against those who had encouraged them in their undertaking and with fear (Th. viii. i. 1-2). The city was short of money and ships and crews to fill them; their enemies in the West might well follow up on their victory by sailing against the Piraeus; the Spartans and their allies would certainly redouble their efforts to defeat them; and revolts among the subject-allies seemed all but inevitable (Th. viii. i. 2; cf. viii. 24. 5). The Athenians accordingly adopted a number of emergency measures, including cutting expenses wherever possible, gathering supplies to build new ships, and appointing a board of probouloi to exercise some sort of supervisory power over state finances and war-preparations (Th. viii. i. 3-4, 4). Much of the rest of the Greek world, meanwhile, took it for granted that the great war that had been going on intermittently for almost two decades was about to come to a final, decisive end. The Spartans began a crash programme of shipbuilding and ordered their allies to do the same (Th. viii. 3); Euboia and Lesbos sent ambassadors to the Spartan king Agis at Dekeleia (a fort in Attica he had been occupying since the spring (Th. vii. 19. i-2)), seeking his support if they were to revolt from the Athenian empire (Th. viii. 5. 1-3); and representatives of oligarchic factions on Chios and in Erythrai came to Sparta itself with similar requests (Th. viii. 5. 4; for the Chians' initially limited political base at home, Th. viii. 9. 3, 14. 1-2). Two Persian satraps, Tissaphernes and Pharnabazos, sent envoys to Sparta around the same time, offering to support naval operations in Asia Minor and the Hellespont, respectively (Th. viii. 5. 4, 6. i); Pharnabazos' agents actually brought 25 talents in cash with them to help fit out and man the ships (Th. viii. 8. i). Both satraps were concerned primarily with redirecting the tribute currently being paid to Athens into their own coffers, but they also hoped to gain credit with the Great King, Darius II, by winning him new allies (Th. viii. 5. 5, 6. i; cf. the treaty-terms at viii. 18. i, 37. 2). The Spartans were thus confronted with many
DATE AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND
XXXvii
attractive options for doing the Athenians mischief; but Alcibiades, •who -was living in exile among them as a result of having been implicated in the religious scandals that broke out in Athens on the eve of the Sicilian expedition, and -who -was now doing his best to injure his own people in any -way he could, convinced them to accept the proposals of the Chians and Tissaphernes (Th. viii. 6. 3). Even after this decision had been reached, the Peloponnesian powers behaved in a typically dilatory fashion, creating problems for the Chians, most of -whom -were not yet in on the plot but -who fell under Athenian suspicion before matters could advance any further (Th. viii. 9. 2, 10. 1—3). Indeed, the -war in Ionia might never have got under -way (cf. Th. viii. 11.3) had it not been for Alcibiades, -who goaded the ephor Endios into action and eventually sailed to Chios himself along -with the Spartan general Chalcideus and a fleet of five ships (Th. viii. 12). Chios then revolted, followed by Erythrai and Klazomenai (Th. viii. 14; Klazomenai -was recovered by the Athenians shortly thereafter (Th. viii. 23. 6)), and later by Miletos (Th. viii. 17. 1—3), Lesbos (quickly crushed by the Athenians) (Th. viii. 22—3), and numerous other cities; and Chalcideus and Tissaphernes concluded a formal alliance between Sparta and the Persian king (Th. viii. 17. 4—18). The Athenians responded to the revolt of Chios by tapping the i,ooo-talent reserve fund set up at the beginning of the -war (Th. ii. 24. i) and using it to build and man new ships (Th. viii. 15. i). A year of disjointed war followed along the coast and on the islands just off Asia Minor. Much of the expense for the Spartans •was offset by subsidies paid by Tissaphernes and by plunder taken from cities that remained loyal to Athens. The Athenians, on the other hand, -were forced to pay for everything themselves, and the financial desperation this produced was a major contributing cause to the eventual collapse of the democracy (below). Both sides built up large fleets in the area; the centre of Athenian operations -was the large island of Samos. The exact chronology and course of events leading up to the oligarchic coup in Athens in late 412/11 are difficult to reconstruct, in part because Book viii of Thucydides' History is in an unfinished condition. At some point at the end of summer 412 or the beginning of-winter 412/11, the Spartans grew suspicious of Alcibiades, and he fled to the court of Tissaphernes (Th. viii. 45. i). As Thucydides tells the story, Alcibiades gained Tissaphernes' confidence and got him to reduce his financial support for the Spartan fleet (Th. viii.
xxxviii
INTRODUCTION
45. 2—6); he also -worked to convince the satrap that Persia's advantage lay in allowing the two Greek powers to -wear one another out, •while maintaining that the Athenians -would make better allies in the long run (Th. viii. 46. 1—4). What Alcibiades -wanted now -was to get back to Athens, but on his own terms; and he therefore found means to communicate -with the 'most powerful' —i.e. the richest and most influential—Athenians on Samos, expressing his eagerness to return from exile if the democracy -were replaced by an oligarchy, and promising that, should that change occur, he could detach Tissaphernes from the Spartans and make him an Athenian ally instead (Th. viii. 47, cf. 48. i). But Thucydides also makes it clear that the oligarchic movement on Samos -was not Alcibiades' creation. Some of the -wealthier individuals among the Athenian forces there had grown tired of paying (via trierarchies and the like) for a war waged by a state dominated by the poor, and after a secret meeting with Alcibiades, they set about forming a conspiracy (Th. viii. 47. 2—48. 2; cf. viii. 63. 4). It must be seen as a measure of the times that, when these men publicized Alcibiades' proposals, the troops generally acquiesced in them, even if with no great enthusiasm, recognizing that an alliance with Persia would mean that their daily pay was secure (Th. viii. 48. 2—3). Some time probably around mid-December 412, Peisandros (who had been active in Athenian politics since the mid-42os (cf. Olson on Pax 395) and was currently a general and a leading member of the oligarchic faction on Samos) and a number of other men were dispatched to Athens to begin negotiations about putting an end to the democracy, bringing Alcibiades back from exile, and forging an alliance with Tissaphernes and the Persians (Th. viii. 49). On the most straightforward reading of Thucydides' account of events in Athens, Peisandros and his companions went more or less directly to the Assembly, where they put the conspirators' case to the people. The historian (who was in exile at this point and did not witness the scene himself) reports that they received an initially very hostile reception, but that Peisandros overcame the opposition by asking anyone who spoke against his proposals what clever new idea he himself had for preserving the state. As no one had a convincing answer to this, and as Peisandros insisted that any constitutional changes that did not work out could be reversed later, the oligarchs' programme-was approved in principle (Th. viii. 53—54. 2). Peisandros then made the rounds of the city's hetaireiai (small-scale
DATE AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND
xxxix
political groups organized to get control of offices or to influence the outcome of trials), urging them to combine forces to overthrow the democracy; and 'after settling whatever else the situation required, in order that there might be no further delay', he and the ten men chosen to accompany him sailed off for their meeting with Tissaphernes (Th. viii. 54. 4-5). The negotiations that followed seem not to have been completed until the beginning of summer, meaning that Peisandros must have spent a month or more in Athens; and the question of how he carried out his business there and in what order has important implications for our understanding of Ar.'s comedies of 411 (C, below). According to Thucydides, Tissaphernes had now grown convinced of the wisdom of allowing Sparta and Athens to damage one another militarily, and also felt that the Spartans were at this point the more formidable force and therefore better kept on his own side (Th. viii. 5 6.2). He was accordingly unreceptive to the Athenian offer of an alliance, a stance that placed Alcibiades—who had assured the oligarchic conspirators on Samos that he could deliver the Persians, if they agreed to his recall from exile and a more restricted form of government—in a difficult position. He responded by deliberately scuttling the talks, presenting ever more outrageous demands for the Persian side until Peisandros and his companions finally gave up in disgusted anger and left (Th. viii. 56. 3-5). Tissaphernes—whose demands Alcibiades may in fact (despite Thucydides) have been communicating all along—then patched up his relations with the Spartans, which had deteriorated as a result of his grudging recent treatment of them (Th. viii. 57-9). The actual overthrow of the democracy occurred some time around the beginning of June 411 (Th. viii. 63. 3, cf. viii. 61. i; [Arist.] Ath. 32. i). The oligarchs on Samos, having concluded that Alcibiades was not to be trusted, decided to proceed without him— and without Persian help as well. Peisandros and five of the men who had accompanied him on his mission to Tissaphernes were accordingly sent back to the city and told to overthrow the democracies in any allied states they visited along the way (Th. viii. 64. i). But by the time Peisandros arrived in Athens in early June, the revolution was already well underway. Androkles, a leading democrat and an enemy of Alcibiades, had been assassinated by a group of young men, who then disposed of a number of other politically inconvenient individuals in a similar fashion (Th. viii. 65. 2); a proposal for
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INTRODUCTION
the abolition of pay for public office (a key characteristic of the late fifth-century democracy) and for a form of government restricted to 5,000 'competent' individuals had been floated publicly, although Thucydides claims that this was a sham put forward by the oligarchs in the hope of concealing their true intentions (Th. viii. 65. 3-66. i); the Council and the Assembly continued to meet, but the discussions that took place in them were controlled by the conspirators, who murdered anyone who attempted to oppose them (Th. viii. 66. 1-2); and a sense that the conspiracy was far more widespread than it was and that resistance was therefore futile had reduced the populace at large to silent terror and mutual suspicion (Th. viii. 66. 2-5). How long this state of affairs prevailed is unclear, although the most natural reading of Thucydides' account is that Peisandros set it in motion during his visits to the city' s hetaireiai toward the end of that winter (Th. viii. 54. 4-5) and that the killings, at least, began shortly after he left for Tissaphernes' court. Peisandros' arrival in Athens none the less marked a decisive final stage in the coup. The Assembly was convened and approved a motion appointing a board of ten men to draft a new constitution (Th. viii. 67. i). For reasons that are unclear, the board failed to fulfil its charge and on the day that had been fixed for its report merely proposed that all legal restraints on debate be removed (Th. viii. 67. 2); the simplest explanation of this would seem to be that the members were too deeply divided to put together a proposal, despite Thucydides' repeated implication that the oligarchic movement was a unified political whole. In the end, it was decided that a group of 400 men should replace the Council and produce a roster of 5,000 to serve as a new Assembly (Th. viii. 67. 3). Shortly after this, the 400, armed with daggers and accompanied by a gang of 120 young toughs, invaded the Council's chambers and expelled the Councilmembers (Th. viii. 69-70. i); this marked the decisive formal end of the democracy. The new government then executed a small number of opponents, made unsuccessful overtures to King Agis, and sent envoys to Samos to justify their behaviour to the troops there (Th. viii. 70. 2, 72). But in the meantime fighting had broken out within the fleet, and after the democrats prevailed there, they formed what amounted to a government in exile. The 400 held power for only a few months, after which they were replaced by a much less restricted oligarchy of 5,000 hoplites (Th. viii. 97; [Arist.] Ath. 33. i). Full democracy was restored some time in summer 410.
DATE AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND
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C. The Festivals Neither Lys. nor Th. refers to any event or individual that can be dated after the Lenaia in February 411. Lys. is today more or less universally taken to have been performed at the Lenaia, Th. at the City Dionysia, on the basis of the different assumptions they appear to make about the political situation in the city. This is probably correct, but the question is more complex than it has been made out to be. Henderson characterizes Lys. as marked by 'a general attitude of guarded optimism about Athenian chances' of a sort better suited to February 411 than to two months later (Lysistrata, p. xviii). It might be more accurate to say that the play takes a military and political crisis for granted but declines to counsel despair. Athens' manpower is stretched exceedingly thin (Lys. 99—104), Miletos has revolted (Lys. 108), and the reserve fund on the Acropolis is being called upon to fit out ships (Lys. 421—2); but the city's -women are none the less able to bring the situation to a happy conclusion. Lysistrata's specific prescription for curing Athens' ills includes breaking up the hetaireiai (Lys. 577—8), re-enfranchising public debtors (Lys. 581), and regaining control of the subject-allies (with this presented, in accord -with normal Athenian imperial propaganda, as a reconciliation between mother-state and colonies) so as to provide for the -welfare of average citizens (Lys. 582—6), i.e. via resumption of payment of the tribute. This is a lovely vision but no more realistic than the patently pie-in-the-sky scheme for dividing up control of a post-war Greek -world bet-ween Athens and Sparta outlined metaphorically at Lys. 1161—75, and the play's apparent 'optimism' is better treated as a generic feature of Old Comic fantasy than as an index of the political atmosphere in Athens at the time it -was performed (or composed; cf. below). The most significant specific political allusion in Lys. occurs at 489—91, -where the heroine mockingly insists to the Proboulos that the -war is being fought 'so that Peisandros can have something to steal' This is a typical comic slander (cf. Th. 811—13 n -)> 1 9 but by Lenaia-time Peisandros must already 19 Andrewes, HCTv. 189 (cf. Woodhead, AfP 75 (1954) 138), rightly points out that the passage refers to the ordinary democratic scramble for office; note the use of aei in Lys. 491. Dover adds that 'corruption, in one form or another, is part of the small change of comic vilification, whereas an accusation of plotting to overthrow the democracy could easily have put Ar.'s name on a hit-list'.
xlii
INTRODUCTION
have been in Athens for amonth or moremakingpreliminary arrangements for the oligarchic coup, and economic corruption seems a bland charge to bring against someone -who might instead have been pilloried for -working to overthrow the democracy. Andrewes, HCT v. 189 (followed by Henderson, Lysistrata, pp. xxii f.), deals •with this problem by suggesting that Peisandros did not argue in the Assembly for recalling Alcibiades and instituting an oligarchy immediately upon his arrival in Athens, as Th. viii. 53—4 implies. Instead, he -will have begun by insisting only that money must (or could) be got out of the Persians, after -which he made the rounds of the hetaireiai and finally told the Assembly -what he -was up to only after he knew he had enough support for his proposals. Ar. therefore made no allusion to the oligarchs' plans in Lys.; but had the festival fallen a little later or Peisandros tipped his hand a little earlier, he •would undoubtedly have done so. This interpretation seems unlikely on several counts. Thucydides reports that the oligarchic conspirators on Samos 'told the common people openly' that an alliance could be made with the Persian king (and Persian funds thus obtained to support the fleet) if the Athenians would recall Alcibiades from exile and replace the democracy with an oligarchy, and he adds that the troops assented in the plan (viii. 48. 2—3). None of this, therefore,-was a secret, and word of what was being planned must inevitably have made its way to Athens, if not even before Peisandros arrived in the city in December (via gossip carried by the crews of the transport and supply-ships that must have gone constantly back and forth to Samos, or by other travellers and traders), 20 then certainly when the crew that brought him home began to talk to their families, friends, and neighbours about events in camp. Nor is it conceivable that Peisandros could have spent weeks moving from one small group of citizens to the next, asking for their support for the conspirators' plans, without word of what he was up to leaking to the populace at large—particularly since at least a few of those to whom he spoke must have been appalled and told their fellow-citizens what was being contemplated. Whatever the explanation may be, therefore, 20 For examples of similar phenomena (or the fear of them) during the same year, Th. viii. 9. 2 (word of the Chian faction's intention to revolt with Spartan help makes it way to Athens when the plans are not carried out immediately), 14. i (Alcibiades and Chalkideus arrest anyone they meet as they sail to Chios in order to prevent word of their approach anticipating them).
DATE AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND
xliii
of Ar.'s characterization of Peisandros in Lys. as a thief but seemingly nothing more, it cannot be that the details of the oligarchs' intentions -were generally unknown at Lenaia-time in 411. The references to the dangers posed by antidemocratic treachery, hostile attempts to rewrite the constitution, and secret dealings •with the Persians at Th. 335—7, 361—2, 365—6, can all be dismissed as echoes of the actual Assembly-curse (although they need not have been only that). But commentators universally agree that the appeal to Athena as traditional patroness of the city at 1136—47, and especially the extraordinary bacchiac line 1143—4, in "which the goddess is invoked as an enemy of tyrants, -was intended to echo in the audience's ears as they exited the Theatre. Although Lys. displays no overt awareness of an immediate threat to Athens' democracy, in other -words, Th. does; and the obvious implication is that the play -was staged at a time -when the oligarchic conspiracy -was more advanced and could no longer simply be ignored, i.e. at the City Dionysia in mid-April. If that is true, it is striking that Th. nowhere alludes to the reign of terror that, according to Thucydides, had already engulfed the city -when Peisandros appeared for a second time around the beginning of June (Th. viii. 65. 2—66). 21 Andrewes, HCT v. 193, explains this anomaly by arguing that Thucydides' apparent chronology is once again at fault; the conspirators -were relatively few in number (cf. Th. viii. 66. 3), and they must not have got aggressively down to -work until some time after the City Dionysia, perhaps six or seven -weeks before Peisandros' arrival. But the similar elision of the details of Peisandros' political manoeuvring in Lys. suggests that something more significant (and more sinister) is at -work. Ar. must have produced a relatively solid draft of his plays -well in advance of the festivals at -which they •were performed, so as to allow adequate time for the very complicated process of production. The difference bet-ween -what looks to have been political reality on the day of the festival and -what the text presents (i.e. in Lys. the treatment of Peisandros as an important political player but not as someone involved in antidemocratic 21 But one could argue that there are many quiet hints of this, for in the world imagined in the play secret meetings are held and conspiracies hatched to condemn individual citizens to death for opinions expressed in public; the Assembly is a bizarre and bitter parody of itself; official political power functions as a means of oppression; average citizens like Agathon prefer to remain uninvolved in the troubles of others; and it takes a reckless fool to stand up in public and speak what he takes to be the truth.
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INTRODUCTION
plotting, and in Th. the vague allusions to threats looming against the democracy but no mention of political murders and the like) might simply be a product of that lag: the plays reflect the situation at the time they were written, not the time they were performed, and if up-to-date topical material was inserted during rehearsal, it did not make its way into the copies of the text we have. Much more likely, both plays are deliberately reticent about the political situation in the city at the time they were produced, although for different reasons. The political changes proposed by Peisandros and his allies in mid-winter were certain to be wrenching, and although average democrats seem to have accepted their inevitability (Th. viii. 48. 3, 53. 2—54. i), the topic may well have seemed too sensitive to refer to on stage.22 Peisandros could be mentioned and made passing fun of on some other generic charge; but that -was already almost too close for comfort, and Ar. in any case probably recognized that the plot of his comedy responded to the oligarchs' proposals by offering (even if tongue-in-cheek) what no one in the Assembly had been able to come up with a few weeks earlier: an alternative path to salvation for the city (cf. Th. viii. 53. 2—3). In the case of Th., matters were likely very different. If Thucydides is to be taken at his word (and there is no good reason to doubt him), by the time of the City Dionysia it had become exceedingly dangerous to express non-oligarchical political opinions in Athens. Comedy normally enjoyed a special exemption on matters of this sort. But these were not normal times, and if Ar. kept his peace about such things—except for a few, easily dismissed allusions in the parody of the Assembly curse, and -what could be characterized, if necessary, as merely a hymn to Athena asking that she protect the city from traditional enemies (cf. 338—9 -with n.) and secure it peace—it may have been because he was afraid; and what is perhaps most remarkable is that in times like these he dared speak out at all. 23
22 23
Cf. comedy's seemingly complete silence about the plague in the 4205. Cf. Sommerstein (n. 14) 120.
THE F E S T I V A L
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III . THE F E S T I V A L
The Thesmophoria -was a women's festival celebrated -widely throughout the Greek cities of the ancient Mediterranean in honour of Demeter and her daughter Pherrephatta/Persephone/Kore.24 According to Hdt. ii. 171. 2—3, these rites -were introduced into Greece from Egypt by the Danaids before the Dorian invasion, a thesis that attests to their antiquity if nothing else. The Thesmophoria -was held at sowing-time in early -winter and -was intended to ensure the fertility of the earth and (perhaps as a secondary development) the city's -women.25 The meaning of the name is unknown, but it more likely refers to the various rites passed on to mankind by the two goddesses than to objects carried in procession by their devotees.26 Men -were strictly excluded from the Thesmophoria and the details of the ceremonies -were treated as a great and terrible secret (cf. 363—4, 627—8, 1150—4; EC. 442—3; Hdt. vi. 135. 2; Ael. fr. 44 Hercher). We therefore know little about the festival, and although Ar. and his male contemporaries clearly took some basic 24 For catalogues of known Thesmophoria festivals, M. P. Nilsson, Griechische Feste von religioser Bedeutung mil AusschluJ} der attischen (Leipzig, 1906) 313-16; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States iii (Oxford, 1907; repr. New York, 1977) 328-32 (nn. 76-107); Arbesmann, RE vi. i (1936) 24-6; Burkert 242-6. A new comprehensive survey of the evidence is being prepared by C. Austin and D. De Bartolo. For the Athenian Thesmophoria, Farnell (above) iii. 83—97; Deubner 50-60; Parke 82-8; Simon 18-22; Brumfield 70-103; M. Detienne, in M. Detienne and J.-P. Vernant (eds.), The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks (Chicago and London, 1989; originally published in French in 1979) 129—47; H. S. Versnel, Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual (Leiden, New York, and Cologne, 1993) 235-60; Habash, GRBS38 (1997) 19-40, esp. 20-3; Robertson, EMC/CFNS 18 (1999) 1-33; Dillon 110-20; Tzanetou 331-5. It has been conjectured that the Danaid trilogy of Aeschylus ended with the foundation of the Thesmophoria: see R. P. WinningtonIngram, Studies in Aeschylus (Cambridge, 1983) 71 n. 53; D. J. Conacher, Aeschylus: The Earlier Plays and Related Studies (Toronto, 1996) 107-8. For the name Pherrephatta/Persephone, 286-8 n. 25 In Athens, the Proerosia ('Preparation for Ploughing') on 5 Pyanepsion was similarly associated with the beginning of the agricultural year, and the Pyanepsia ('Bean-boiling') on 7 Pyanepsion may also have had fertility aspects. 26 Cf. Call. Cer. 18; D.S. v. 5. 2; Verg. Aen. 4. 58 with Servius and Pease ad loc.; 2R Luc. p. 276. 25—8 (below). For the epithet, cf. e.g. A. Ag. 525) or (SIG1 629. 6; Pergamon, 2nd c. BC); Brumfield 70—3; Levin, General Linguistics 31 (1991) 1-12. Those who accept Frazer's view that are 'things deposited' (i.e. pigs and other objects) refer to Anacr. PMG 406 and LSCG 154 B 17 (Kos, 3rd c. BC). But this is clutching at straws.
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INTRODUCTION
information about -what -went on during it for granted, they too must have been quite imperfectly informed. In Athens, the Thesmophoria originally occupied three days, from 11—13 Pyanepsion (October—November), but by the late fifth century a local celebration in Halimous on 10 Pyanepsion had, according to 2R 80, been incorporated into it. 12 Pyanepsion (on-which Th. is set) could thus be referred to as both the 'third day' of the festival (if one included the Halimous Thesmophoria in the count) and the 'middle day' (i.e. of the original three days); cf. Phot. , ('The Days of the Thesmophoria: Four; the tenth is "Thesmophoria", the eleventh "Descent", the twelfth "Fasting", and the thirteenth "Fair Offspring" '). 27 Ar.'s characters repeatedly refer to a Thesmophorion ('sanctuary of the Thesmophoroi'), -where all the action in the play after the opening scene is set (83, 89, 880; cf. 278). No such shrine has been identified, and Broneer, Hesperia 11 (1942) 250—64, esp. 262—4, 273—4 (folio-wed by Miles 22—3; Dillon 118—19), reasonably suggests that it may have been located -within the City Eleusinion, a large, -walled (Th. ii. 17. i) precinct on the north slope of the Acropolis. The propylon through •which one entered the Eleusinion from the Panathenaic Way -was at the south end of the precinct and is sufficiently far up the slope to justify the numerous references in Ar.'s play to 'going up' to the Thesmophoria, i.e. from the Agora (281 withn., 585, 623, 893), and to explain the name 'AvoSos ('Ascent') for the first day of the festival. The -women -who took part in the Thesmophoria camped in tents in—and perhaps, if the crowd -was large enough, around—the precinct (624, 658), and they must therefore not normally have gone home at night. 28 By the second century, there -was a priestess of 'the 27 Forthe festival at Halimous (of which next to nothing else is known), Plu. Sol. 8. 4—6; Polyaen. Strat. i. 20. 2 (two slightly different versions of a story in which women celebrate a Thesmophoria by dancing on a beach at Kolias nearby); Clem. Al. Protr. 34. 2 (simply referring to mysteries there). We know from Paus. i. 31. i that there was a temple of Demeter and Kore at Halimous, and Hsch. /<: 4816 refers to a temple of Demeter at Kolias. 9 Pyanepsion was the Stenia, which was also sacred to Demeter and her daughter (834-5 n -)28 Cf. Plin. Nat. 24. 59 vitex . . . Graeci lygon vacant, alias agnon (Diosc. i. 103. 2), quoniammatronae Thesmophoriis Atheniensiumcastitatem custodientes hisfoliiscubitus sibi stemunt; Hsch. K 3098 (women celebrating the Thesmophoria slept on a plant called Kvetopov to make them pure, but without specific reference to the festival in Athens); Nixon, in R. Hawley and B. Levick (eds.), Women in Antiquity (London and New York, 1995) 87.
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Thesmophoroi' (Agora I 5165. 1-2), and the office probably existed already in Ar.'s time (cf. 758-9).29 In addition, Is. 8. 19-20 and/GIF 1184 refer to women called apxovaai ('leaders'), who were chosen by their denies to take a leading role in celebrating the Thesmophoria; whether these are references to local deme festivals (presumably at the same time of year but not on exactly the same days) or to the citywide ceremonies under discussion here is unclear. At 293-4, J ust before the Thesmophoria assembly begins, the disguised Inlawtells 'her' imaginary Thracian servant-girl to 'step aside out of the way; for slaves aren't permitted to hear the speeches' So too at 329— 30 the chorus refer to themselves as 'well-born women of Athens' and at 541 Inlaw refers to the right of free speech that ought to belong to 'however many of us citizen-women are present' at the assembly The implication of these passages and of Is. 3. 80; 6. 49-50, is that full participation in the Thesmophoria was limited to citizens, although it is clear that many slaves are present during the brouhaha that follows Inlaw's disastrous intervention in the debate about Euripides (537, 608-9, 728), and they must have been on hand to escort their mistresses home from the festival, just as when they went out of other occasions.30 So too Call. fr. 63. 9-12 suggests that unmarried girls could not take part in the rites, 31 and it may be worth noting in this connection that Mika, Kritylla, and Inlaw as he presents himself all have children or what pass for them (Mika 690-1 (actually a wineskin disguised as a baby); Kritylla 447-8; Inlaw 289-91, 637, cf. 478). But Smikrines at Men. Epitr. 749 takes it for granted that a man's slave-concubine might participate in the Thesmophoria along with 29 Cf. Is. 3. 80 (a wealthy man is expected to provide a feast for the wives of his demesmen at a Thesmophoria); Broneer, Hesperia 11 (1942) 270—3; Parker, in T. Linders and G. Nordquist (eds.), Gifts to the Gods (Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilizations 15: Uppsala, 1987) 142. The apxovaai in the inscription are charged with furnishing barley, wheat, honey, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, cheese, and the like (presumably as materials for cakes), as well as a small quantity of money; the expense is to be borne by the deme generally. 30 Cf. Brumfield 87: 'Apparently a number attended, or [Inlaw] would not have thought it good camouflage to chatter with an imaginary slave-girl.' 31
('wherefore on that account in Attica it is not holy for virgins to look upon the rites of Deo Thesmophoros with their eyes before a husband comes, before they accomplish nuptial beds').
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INTRODUCTION
his -wife, and Callimachos' point is perhaps only that virgins -were barred from some important portion of the rites rather than that only married -women could participate in the festival generally.32 How many of those eligible to take part in the Thesmophoria actually did so is impossible to tell. But the fact that some expense -was involved (Men. Epitr. 749—50) and the need to be away from one's house or -work for several days in a row probably meant that poorer citizens -were underrepresented there, as in most aspects of Athenian public life. 33 Of the three days, 11 Pyanepsion -was known as ' ('Ascent'; see above),34 12 Pyanepsion as ('Fasting', probably in commemoration of Demeter's refusal to eat or drink after her daughter •was abducted by Hades (h.Cer. 49—50, 200—1); cf. 948—9, 983—4; Av. 1519; adesp. com. fr. *II2), 3 5 and 13 Pyanepsion as a ('Fair Offspring'; cf. 299 -with n.). 36 Our most substantial source for •what -went on at the festival is 2R Luc. pp. 275. 23—276. 28 Rabe, a fascinating late account that probably reveals many of the rites •which had been kept secret from earliest times:
32 Luc. D.Meretr. 2.. i refers to the presence of an unmarried girl with her mother at the festival but it is difficult to know what to make of the claim, particularly since the situation is imaginary. 33 Thus Kritylla is present for the beginning of the women's assembly but is forced to leave before it is over, because she is too poor simply to abandon her work for a day. 34 Phot. 6 134 (above, p. xlvi) gives the name instead as KadoSos ('Descent'). 35 According to Plu. Mor. 3786 (Is. et Os. 69), the women sat on the ground when they fasted. 36 ThusI R 8o;Alciphr. ii. 37;cf.I R 585;Hsch.a5234.
THE F E S T I V A L
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The Thesmophoria is a festival of the Greeks that includes mysteries and is also called the Skirrophoria. It was celebrated according to the more mythical account because, when Kore was snatched by Plouton as she was gathering flowers, a certain swineherd named Eubouleus was tending pigs in the same place and they were swallowed up by Kore's chasm. Therefore in honour of Eubouleus piglets are thrown into the chasms belonging to Demeter and Kore. And the rotting [remains] of them, after they have been thrown down into the megara (lit. 'great halls'), 37 are brought up by women called 'drawers', who have stayed pure for three days and who go down into the aduta ('innermost sanctuaries') and, after they have brought them up, set them on the altars. They believe that whoever38 takes some of these and mixes them in with his seed-corn will get an abundant crop. They also say that there are snakes down in the chasms, which eat much of what is thrown down. And on that account they clap their hands, whenever the women draw [up the rotted piglets] and whenever they put the moulded objects39 back again, in order that the snakes, which they consider guards of the aduta, might move away. These same things are also called Arrhetophoria and are celebrated in the same fashion for the birth of the seed and the engendering of human beings. And also brought up there [or 'on this occasion'] are holy objects which cannot be named, which are prepared from dough made of grain and resemble snakes and male forms. And they get pine-branches because the plant is so productive [of fruit]. Those things and the piglets (these too because of their fertility) are thrown into the socalled megara, the aduta, as we said already, to symbolize the generation of crops and of men, as thank-offerings, as it were, to Demeter, since by supplying her crops she civilized the human race. The account of the festival given above is the mythical one, but the one just mentioned is the natural explanation. It is called the Thesmophoria because Demeter bears the name 37 Cf. Paus. ix. 8. i (of ceremonies in a 'sacred grove' of Demeter and Kore at Potniae in Boiotia): 'at a fixed time . . . they let go some new-born pigs into the socalled mcgdra' 38 Note the masculine participles, which seem to imply that men were allowed to approach the altars when the festival was over. 39 These are described more fully below, where they are called 'holy objects'.
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INTRODUCTION
Thesmophoros, since she establishes laws and rites (thesmof), in accord with which men must work and get their nourishment.40
Exactly when during the festival the events described in this scholion took place is impossible to say; but the piglets must have been butchered and dumped in the pits (megara/aduta) perhaps a week or two before it began to assure that they were rotten but not desiccated by the time the 'drawers' extracted them. Nor can we really know the point of all this cultic activity and the story that both accompanied and glossed it, although it seems obvious that throwing the piglets into the megara somehow recapitulated the fall of Kore and Eubouleus' swine into the chasm in the earth, and that the drawers' recovery of the piglets (ensuring the fertility of the city's crops) recapitulated Demeter's recovery of her daughter (which resulted in the restoration of fertility to the earth). In addition, we know that at the Athenian Thesmophoria: (i) A sacrifice called the ('penalty'), doubtless followed by a feast, and a rite of some sort called the ('pursuit') or ('Chalkidic pursuit') were performed (Hsch. 8 2036; 145; S x 43j cf- Hsch. ^ 86); the latter is perhaps to be explained as a purification rite of some sort (setting in flight a supernatural curse vel sim.). Whether either of these is to be identified •with the sacrifice Alciphr. ii. 37 puts on 13 Pyanepsion is unclear. (ii) The women made obscene jokes and mocking comments reminiscent of lambe's behaviour at h.Cer. 202—4 and of the behaviour of both men and women in other festivals that involved mysteries (Apollod. i. 5; cf. D.S. v. 4. 7; Richardson, Homeric Hymn to Demeter, pp. 213—17), as -well as at-weddings and other celebrations not connected with mysteries. (iii) 958, 961 leave little doubt that there -was dancing, and there must have been hymns like the one sung by the chorus at 1148—59 as •well. (iv) Pomegranate seeds -were eaten (cf. Clem. Al. Protr. 19. 3, •where the prohibition on eating seeds that had fallen to the ground 40 For discussion of the scholion (which is late and garbled, but probably draws on older material), Brumfield 73-9; Burkert 442 n. 14; G. Sfameni Gasparro, Misteri e culti mistici di Demetra (Rome, 1986) 259-77; Lowe, in S. Blundell and M. Williamson (eds.), The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece (London and New York, 1998) 149-73. The references to the Skirrophoria (sic) and Arrhetophoria are best explained as ignorant marginal glosses which made their way into the text. Clem. Al. Protr. 17. i appears to contain some of the same material.
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makes it clear that others could be and -were consumed during the festival), doubtless once again somehow in commemoration or imitation of the story of the rape of Persephone (h.Cer. 371—4, 393—413 •with Richardson on 372). (v) The constant reference to torches hints at nighttime ceremonies.41 (vi) Prisoners in the city -were released from their chains for the duration of the festival (Walz, Rhet.Gr. iv. 462 (Marcellini Scholia ad Hermogenis Status)).42 In an ironic twist, this privilege is not extended to Inlaw in the play, and tremendous emphasis is put on the bonds in -which he is held after his arrest (930—1 n.; cf. 940, 943, 1013, 1022, 1032, 1035, 1108, 1125), although he is'released'in the end (1204—8). That the women held an assembly on the second day of the Thesmophoria to discuss matters of interest to them (as in Ar.'s play) is possible, and EC. 16-17, 59 refer to a similar meeting held at the Skira.43 In both places, however, this is more likely part of the fantasy. What the city's women did at their secret festivals was by and large a mystery to their sons, husbands, and brothers. But it must have made sense that they should use such occasions to plot trouble, and the imaginary political structure of their world was, not surprisingly, modelled on that of the real society with which the audience in the Theatre was familiar. IV. E U R I P I D E S AND THE CITY S WOMEN
As Thesmophoriasusae begins, Athens' -women are in the middle (80 •with n.) of a religious festival that has taken them out of their homes and their husbands' beds. At the same time, they are locked in a bitter, ongoing quarrel -with Euripides about the -way he portrays 41 Cf. Hdt. vi. 16. 2 (the Chians arrive in Ephesus at night and are taken 'to be thieves and to be coming after the women' of the city, who were celebrating the Thesmophoria), which probably implies that a portion of the rites went on at night, although it might instead be the case that the women were camping in a sanctuary outside the city (just as they camped in or around the Eleusinion in Athens). " Cf. J^A D. 22. 68 (no. I7ob Dilts) for a similar rule during festivals of Dionysos and the Panathenaia. 43 The meetings of the Assembly to be held to consider events at the City Dionysia and the Greater Eleusinia referred to at D. 21. 8-9 (cf. DFA 68-70) and And. i. in respectively are quite different, since they are held after the festival to consider what went on during it.
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INTRODUCTION
them in his tragedies and the effect of this on their male relatives. Domestic life in the city has been disrupted in two entirely different ways, which are none the less brought together in a single action in Euripides' announcement at 83-4 that an assembly will be held in the Thesmophorion today to decide how to punish him. Both situations are resolved at the end of the play, as Euripides agrees to alter the content of his tragedies and the women set off for home.44 But what happens in the meantime makes it clear that the charge against the playwright is not what it appears at first to be and that the concessions the women extract from him have not only already been granted but serve primarily to confirm their awkward and ambiguous status in the city. A. The Problem. According to Euripides in the opening scenes of the play, Athens' women are angry with him because he abuses them in his tragedies (85, 182). Mika in her assembly-speech is more precise about the problem: because Euripides consistently presents women as sexual adventurers, drunks, traitors, and chatterboxes, the city's men have grown suspicious of their every move (400-6), and many of the crimes they once got away with have become impossible (407-28). The women's complaint is thus not that Euripides lies, for they are by their own admission exactly what he says they are, a fact also apparent from their assembly-curse, in which they mention him by name (336-8) in the course of calling down the gods' wrath on anyone who interferes with their drinking, the steady supply of adulterous lovers, and the like (esp. 339-48).45 Instead, the women object to Euripides' willingness to publicize what are for them inconvenient truths, a form of bad behaviour which, they insist, amounts to an abuse of his authority as a poet and a teacher (cf. 399) of his fellow-citizens. As a consequence, no one in the Thesmophoria assembly attempts to refute the disguised Inlaw's claim that Euripi44
Cf. Bowie 226-7. The charge of atheism, although levelled against Euripides by Kritylla (450-1 with n., 453-4 n.), is not developed in Th. as it had been against Socrates in Nu. (247—8, 379—81, 423—4, 819—31, 1468—74, 1506—9; cf. 1232—41, 1461). At 667—86 and 715—20 Inlaw and a hypothetical accomplice are condemned in the most solemn terms for their 'godless' behaviour. This does not imply intellectual atheism, and the scene degenerates into farce, as the chorus decides to pay the trespasser back in his own coin (721—2) and burn him at the altar (726—7 with n.). 45
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des has failed to mention the great majority of the -wicked things 'we -women do'. What makes her opponent's behaviour outrageous, Mika argues—and -what ultimately leads to 'her' being exposed as a man—is that she recapitulates the crime of the man for -whom she is arguing, by daring to speak badly of 'her' own sex in public (esp. 535-6,538-9.551-2). Although the -women in Th. complain about Euripides' hostile treatment of them in his tragedies, therefore, they also acknowledge that he tells the truth; and the fact that they do so in a nominally exclusively female setting, -where they have no reason to misrepresent the situation, tacitly affirms for the external, primarily (and perhaps exclusively) male audience in the Theatre that the suspicions the tragic poet has allegedly stirred up about the behaviour of their •wives, daughters, and sisters are justified. Mika's hostile characterization at 545—8 accordingly denounces Euripides only for failing to achieve some sort of balance in his plays. He -writes exclusively, she complains, about 'bad' -women like Phaidra and Melanippe, never about 'good' -women like Penelope; and her implication is that there •would be no cause for complaint if he simply mixed things up a bit, allowing individual men -who saw his plays to adopt the—perhaps misguided—notion that their own female relatives fell into the second category. Nothing in Mika's argument suggests that the proposed change -would represent reality more effectively; -what matters is that it -would make life easier for the city's -women. The objections of Athens' -women to Euripides' tragedies are thus more complex than he initially makes them out to be. Even more important, it eventually emerges that, on one level at least, Euripides is not the problem at all. In their complaint in the parabasis at 785—99, the chorus observe that Athenian men regularly describe •women as trouble and a source of troubles, but simultaneously do their best to keep their own -women inside the house -while attempting to get access to others. As the chorus present it, this is a mark of a serious confusion: anyone -who dislikes and distrusts the opposite sex so much ought to be delighted -when they disappear from his own residence and ought not to try to make contact -with those -who belong to other households (esp. 793—4). But the argument is not to be taken seriously, for -what the chorus describe are—as the audience in the Theatre -was certainly aware—merely different aspects of a single, coherent sensibility. The men to -whom they refer know exactly -what they -would do to their neighbours' -wives, sisters, and
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INTRODUCTION
daughters, if given the opportunity, and think that there are signs they have some chance of doing it; and they therefore do their best to keep other men away from their own -wives, sisters, and daughters —-who, analogy suggests, may -well be open to similar advances. Women are 'good' (i.e. desirable to have in one's house or bed) for the same reason that they are 'bad' (i.e. because of their potential complicity with someone -who might manage to get them into his own house or bed instead), so that each pole of the argument and of the characterization defines and requires the other. Put another •way, -women are exceedingly unstable characters,46 and the (implicitly male) author, spectator, or reader cannot be sure -whether they •will be 'good' or 'bad' at any moment, for they are always potentially (or simultaneously) both. Men, on the other hand, are stable characters, -who remain -who and what they are, regardless of how they look; and garbled and diverse as Agathon's theory of imitation at 148—67 may be, everything he says confirms that, if a man's appearance or manner of speech changes, it is because he has chosen to represent someone or something else. A more significant point is that the argument put forward by the chorus in the parabasis stands in considerable tension -with assertions made earlier in the play about 'the problem of Euripides'. Euripides' crime, as Mika and others present it, is that his unvarying depiction of-women as dangerous, deceitful, cunning, and sexually aggressive has made the city's men see the female members of their household in that light. Misogyny thus has an identifiable historical origin, and as a consequence, if Euripides can only be convinced to change his -ways and -write about 'good' female characters, the situation -will easily be corrected. But the chorus in the parabasis draw no such connection and describe a far more complex bundle of attitudes and anxieties than can easily be extracted from Euripidean tragedy (at least as Aristophanes' characters seem to understand it). What the parabasis reveals is that the tragic poet's plays are only a symptom of the larger cultural fact that men for some unspecified reason (into -which there is apparently no need to pry) believe that -women are 'bad'. Blaming this on a single contemporary makes the problem solvable and is thus an effective dramatic device, -which must be •why Aristophanes has done it. As -we argue in section C below, the 'solution' imposed at the end of the play none the less paradoxically 46 Cf. E. IT 1298 opdr' O.TTWTOV tas yvvaiKfiov yevos; Men. fr. 808; Verg. Aen. 4. 5 69-70 varium et mutabile semper /femina.
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affirms the situation parodied and denounced by the chorus in the parabasis: to ask for more 'good' women is to consent to the validity of the interdependent categories of 'good' and 'bad' as conventionally defined, so that Euripides' enemies ultimately get exactly what they ought not to want. But consideration of that question first requires a closer examination of the role played by the tragic poet and his plays in Aristophanes' comedy. B. 'Euripides'on Stage In the opening lines of Th., Euripides is presented as a fast-talking intellectual quack, whose bland self-assurance does little to disguise the fact that most of what he has to say is nonsense (5-21). The characterization becomes richer but no more sympathetic as the scene proceeds. Like many of the heroes in his tragedies, Euripides finds himself in a very tight spot; and his solution is to resort to one of the 'devices' that, he and others repeatedly imply, are typical of his plays, by talking his way out of trouble—or, better put, by convincing someone else to do the talking for him and thus to assume the risk that ought to be his alone (87-94 with 87 n.). When Agathon refuses to be taken in by this proposal, Euripides shamelessly accepts Inlaw's offer to infiltrate the women's assembly in his place (211-14), and the plot is off and running. That the Aristophanic Euripides' attitudes and behaviour are strikingly similar to those of some of the characters in his tragedies is made explicit in Agathon's quotation at 194 of Ale. 691, which assigns to Euripides himself sentiments expressed by the equally self-centred Pheres. Indeed, there is no sense anywhere in the play that Euripidean characters ever speak simply for themselves, and the women's anger springs specifically from their sense that the poet can (and must) be held responsible for the allegedly consistent view of their sex expressed in his tragedies (e.g. 392-4). Euripides and his plays are one (as is also made clear by the fact that all the parts in the tragic parodies that make up most of the second half o f T h . are taken either by the tragic playwright himself or by his mouthpiece Inlaw); and so too Agathon's poetry is effeminate because he himself is. Indeed, Agathon goes on to argue explicitly that what a poet produces reflects his
vais ('nature') (167), although in the case of Th. itself it would be more accurate to say that the process has worked the other way around: Euripides' tragic characters resemble the Euripides
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IINTRODUCTION
•who appears on stage here not because the historical Euripides generated those characters in his own image and Aristophanes faithfully reported the fact, but because Aristophanes created his Euripides on the basis of a reading of the latter's tragedies. That the process -was unfair is apparent e.g. from 275—6 ~ E. Hipp. 612 ('my tongue has sworn an oath (sc. to keep silent), but my mind is free of it'), -where an unrealized threat by a young Euripidean character in anguish is converted by Inlaw (and Aristophanes) into an insinuation that Euripides himself is addicted to perjury. Nor is the charge of blatant misogyny, upon -which much of the plot of Th. as a -whole turns, any easier to maintain. Despite Mika's insinuation that Euripides puts only 'bad' -women like Phaidra and Melanippe on stage, other female figures in his tragedies even in the 4303—Alcestis, for example— are presented as morally exemplary; and at least in the version of Hippolytos preserved for us (and cited at 275—6) Phaidra is an innocent victim caught in a terrible situation, a characterization that could probably have been applied to Melanippe as -well. The Euripides -who appears on stage in Th., in other -words, represents not merely a distillation of his own tragedies but a highly tendentious reading of them. This is particularly apparent in the handling of the four (or perhaps five) plays that are parodied in the course of Th. and that serve in turn to set up the resolution imposed in the final scenes of the play. 47 (i) Telephos -was staged at the City Dionysia in 438, along -with Cretan Women, Alkmeon in Psophis, and the 'pro-satyric' Alcestis.4* The hero, a son of Herakles and Auge, -was king of the Mysians, a barbarian people in north-west Asia Minor, and -was -wounded in the leg by Achilles after the Achaeans mistook his city for Troy during a preliminary invasion of the region and attempted to sack it. When his -wound failed to heal, Telephos consulted an oracle, -which offered 47 For the tragic parodies in Th., seenn. 48, 51, 55 below; L. K.Taaffe, Aristophanes and Women (London and New York, 1993) 94-100; Zeitlin 387-99; Tzanetou 33951; N. W. Slater, Spectator Politics: Metatheatre and Performance in Aristophanes (Philadelphia, 2002) 169—79; Bierl 255—69. 48 For Euripides' Te/e^>/zosandtheparodyofitin Th., seeHandley and Rea; Webster 43-8; Rau 42-50; Heath, C£>NS 37 (1987) 272-80; Cropp, inCollard, Cropp, and Lee 17-52; C. Preiser, Euripides: Telephos. Einleitung, Text, Kommentar (Spudasmata 78: Zurich and New York, 2000), esp. 71—97; F. Jouan, Euripide viii. 3 Fragments (Paris, 2002) 91—132; Aguilar, CFC(G) 13 (2003) 181—93. Aristophanes refers to Telephos and Alcestis (cf. 193-4 n -)> which by 411 were over a quarter of a century old, more often than any other tragedies, and Sommerstein, Th. p. 6 n. 36, plausibly suggests that they may have been part of the first set of Euripides' plays he saw staged.
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a riddling response to the effect that he could only be cured by 'the one that had wounded' him. Euripides' play began with the arrival of the hero, dressed in beggar's rags, before Agamemnon's palace in Argos, where he presumably hoped to get an audience with the king and eventually with Achilles. That Telephos met Clytaemestra outside the palace, shared a deceptive version of his story with her, and was encouraged by her to take the infant Orestes in his arms when he supplicated Agamemnon (as apparently in Aeschylus' version of the story) seems likely but cannot be proved. At some point a quarrel arose between Agamemnon and Menelaos, perhaps about whether their forces should take revenge on the Mysians and their king. The disguised Telephos unexpectedly spoke up, arguing that his people had acted no differently than 'we Achaeans' should have, if similarly provoked. The exact order of events after this is unclear, but a warning was apparently received that a stranger had infiltrated the meeting; the chorus instituted a search; and when Telephos' identity was discovered (by Odysseus ?), he fled to an altar with Orestes, whom he threatened to kill if he were not allowed to speak in his own defence. Evidently the case Telephos made was persuasive, for in the end he was accepted by the Achaean forces as an ally and a guide for their expedition against Troy and was healed—not, however, by Achilles himself, but by filings from Achilles' spear (which had actually done the wounding). Aristophanes makes extensive use of Telephos in A charnians (425), where the hero Dikaiopolis is able to make his unpopular case in favour of the Spartans to the chorus only after he seizes what he and they all treat as one of their children and threatens it with a sword over an altar; he then borrows the Mysian king's rags from Euripides and offers a second, even more controversial speech that deals with the supposed origins of the Peloponnesian War and is directed as much to the audience in the Theatre as to the chorus.49 Dikaiopolis chooses to play Telephos because he thinks of the tragic hero as a master of rhetoric (esp. Ach. 428-9); but the parody in which he engages (and which significantly distorts the order of events in the original) also mocks Euripides' tragedy as yet another example of the playwright's ludicrous fondness for heroes reduced to exile, poverty, and distress, and for having their stories turn on extraordinary moments of high emotion (reduced to bathos when the 'child' 49
Cf. Olson, Acharnians, pp. liv-lxi.
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INTRODUCTION
Dikaiopolis takes hostage turns out to be a charcoal-basket, charcoalburning being an important industry in Acharnai). Much of-what goes on in the first half of Th. recalls (and implicitly criticizes) Telephos in similar -ways: Inlaw puts on a ridiculous disguise (215—68) and infiltrates a hostile assembly, -where he makes an oddly compelling (if still unsuccessful) case on behalf of -what everyone else present takes to be the common enemy (466—519); and after he is recognized and the chorus have made a search for any other intruder -who might be in the place (655—88), he flees to an altar -with a 'baby' (689—98). Exactly -when the parody of Telephos begins—or, better put, exactly -when the audience in the Theatre can be expected to recognize that a parody of that play in particular is under -way—is unclear. 50 Indeed, the Telephos-parody is not announced explicitly in the text in the -way that those of Palamedes (769—71), Helen (850), and Andromeda (1012) are, so that it stands in a certain sense apart from them (see (v), below). But Inlaw unambiguously takes the part of the Euripidean hero at 689, -when he grabs Mika's child (actually a \vineskin) and makes his desperate dash to the altar and -what ought to be safety there; and at this point and at least in retrospect the outline of the standard Aristophanic version of the tragic Telephos' story (implicit also in Acharniani) can be seen to correspond neatly to Euripides' plan and Inlaw's bumbling attempt to make it -work. The isolated and uncompromising paratragic hero has dared to speak -what he takes to be the truth in the presence of his enemies and has got himself in terrible trouble as a result. But -whereas Dikaiopolis thirteen years earlier played Telephos and -won his audiences over, Inlaw's version of the story contains no hint of a happy ending. He is left friendless and alone, and his decision to butcher Mika's child rather than keep it as a hostage (as in the tragic original) marks an implicit acknowledgement that the storyline he has temporarily made his own has come to a decisive dead-end. (ii) Palamedes -was performed at the City Dionysia in 415 and •was the second tragedy in a connected trilogy that included Alexandras and Troades and -was folio-wed by the satyr-play Sisyphos.*1 Relatively little is known of -what -went on in the play, although Odysseus clearly brought false accusations of treachery against 50
Cf. Bowie 223-4. For Euripides' Palamedes and the parody of it in Th., Webster 174-6; Rau5i~3; Scodel 43-63; F. }ouan,Euripideviu. 2 Fragments (Par is, 2000)487-513; R. Falcetto, IlPalamede diEuripide (Alessandria, 2002); cf. 770-1 n. 51
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Palamedes to Agamemnon; a trial -was held, and Palamedes -was condemned to death and executed; his brother Oiax inscribed news of •what had happened on oarblades, -which he threw into the sea and one of-which eventually made its -way to their father Nauplios; and Nauplios plotted destruction for the Achaean fleet upon its return from Troy. By choosing the Oiax-scene, out of all this material, for parody, Aristophanes implicitly presents Euripidean tragedy as consisting of 'clever'—if arguably absurd52—devices and little else, confirming
observations made repeatedly earlier in his comedy by the characters themselves (cf. above). More important, Aristophanes (or Inlaw) has altered his tragic exemplar in -ways that make it a better match for the old man's situation. Euripides' Palamedes looks to have been a brave and isolated speaker of the truth in many -ways reminiscent of his Telephos, and Inlaw is in serious trouble -with the authorities, just as Palamedes -was. But Inlaw responds to his situation by sending off a message, as Oiax did but Palamedes did not; and that message is a plea for help (-which might have been appropriate for Euripides' hero after he -was sentenced to die) rather than revenge for someone else (as in the tragic original). The Aristophanic hero thus presents himself as a combination of two Euripidean characters, 53 and his dilemma as a combination of theirs; and at the same time the parody he undertakes contains a significant modification (or correction) of the one that precedes it. Telephos acted alone, and the last thing Inlaw says before he begins his truncated version of that play is that he has got himself in trouble (651 -with n.). But the fact is that his situation is more like that of Oiax, -whose problems must all have been due to his being Palamedes' brother and taking Palamedes' part. As he launches the Palamedes parody, therefore, Inlaw uses virtually the same -words as he did 115 lines earlier, but this time assigns responsibility for everything that has happened to Euripides (766—7). Once again, the parody recapitulates the action in the play up to this point, but again it offers the paratragic hero no obvious -way out. The tried and true 'Euripidean' strategy of telling an ugly truth to one's opponents in a paradoxically convincing 52 One can easily imagine carving an SOS into oarblades, but it is wishful thinking to believe that even one of them would reach its intended recipient, if they were simply dumped into the sea hundreds of miles away. See 781—2 n. The modern successor to this device is the message in a bottle. 53 This is comparable to some extent with the Helen parody in 871-3, where Ar. fuses the arrival of Menelaos with that of Teukros.
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•way has accomplished nothing. And although making an argument of this sort can plausibly be taken to have been Euripides' original plan for Inlaw in the -women's assembly, the tragic playwright conspicuously fails to be drawn on stage now by 'Oiax's' 'oarblades' (846—8). A different approach is going to be necessary for anything to be accomplished, as the action that follows also makes clear. (iii) Helen -was performed in 412 as part of a set of plays that included Andromeda (cf. Section 11. A and below), and the fact that it has been preserved for us makes it easy to see how Aristophanes handled his exemplar. As Euripides' tragedy begins, Helen is in a desperate situation: Theoklymenos, the new king of Egypt, is insisting that she marry him, and she has fled to his father Proteus' tomb for safety. Despite her troubles, the Euripidean Helen is a strong and capable character. She has -waited patiently for many years, believing that she -will eventually be allowed to go home and be reunited -with her husband (Hel. 56—9); -when Menelaos raises the possibility that the prophetess Theonoe may reject their request for assistance, and insists that his -wife -will betray him if she marries Theoklymenos after he is executed, she promises to commit suicide rather than allow that to happen (Hel. 832—7); and -when Menelaos fails to come up -with a plan to get the two of them out of the country even after Theonoe agrees to turn a blind eye to their machinations, it is Helen, speaking explicitly as a -woman, -who tells him -what they must do to escape (Hel. 1049—92). Theonoe is also an impressive figure, -who holds the fate of Helen and Menelaos in her hands but •whose strong sense of right compels her to disregard her brother Theoklymenos' desires and protect the foreigners. Menelaos, on the other hand, spends most of the play either baffled or confused, although he and his men do ultimately acquit themselves -well against the—admittedly unmanly—Egyptians. The play itself is much concerned -with questions of theodicy and the difference (or supposed difference) bet-ween appearance and reality. Helen is in Egypt because of the jealous anger of Hera, -who allowed only a likeness of her to go to Troy -with Paris (esp. Hel. 31—6, 42—8), a fact that causes endless confusion for the other characters, to the extent that even after Helen realizes that the anonymous ship-wrecked Greek -who has made his -way to Theoklymenos' palace is her husband and tells him as much, Menelaos is ready to abandon her to her fate because he 'knows' that his men are holding 'the real Helen' captive nearby (Hel. 566-96).
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The parody of Helen in Th. combines fragments of three scenes in the original: Helen's prologue speech and encounter -with another Greek-wanderer, Teukros; Menelaos' arrival at the palace, where he is abused by an old female doorkeeper (a scene reminiscent of comedy); and the initial encounter of husband and -wife.54 But the new 'new Helen' (cf. 850) that results contains none of the rarified intellectual and theological matter so prominent in the original, and is instead a simple tale of easy recognition and (attempted) rescue. The question of-why Helen is in 'Egypt' has been -written out of the text (cf. 855—71 n.), along -with the problem of her Doppelgangerin and the ambiguous personal status that results (cf. 855—919 n.). All that matters is that 'she' is here, conveniently clinging to -what Inlaw calls a tomb but Kritylla curtly reminds him is an altar; and after 'Helen' and' Menelaos' have exchanged only a few -words, they recognize one another and prepare to run away to safety. Kritylla repeatedly insists that Menelaos/Euripides must be deeply confused, since he seems not to understand -where he is or -whom he is talking to (e.g. 879—80, 882—4). But unlike Euripides' hero, the Aristophanic Menelaos is not obviously a dolt; indeed, it is he -who initiates the recognition of husband and -wife (902—10; contrast E. Hel. 591, 593). Inlaw's Helen, on the other hand, is a strikingly helpless figure, -who -wants someone else to rescue her (914—16) and, 'her' pun in 912 (-where see n.) implies, to take her as a sexual prize; and the Aristophanic 'Theonoe' is now not a help but a hindrance to the hero and his -wife (896—9). Euripides' intellectually complex story of a powerful and simultaneously very desirable female character, -whose bravery, intelligence, and talent for bold initiative, combined -with the aid of a courageous female sympathizer, save her and her much less accomplished and impressive husband from certain defeat and disgrace has thus been changed in Th. into the tale of a helpless -woman -who is carried off to safety (and bed) by a heroic male rescuer. This revised Helen draws Euripides on stage, as the parodies of Telephos and Palamedes failed to do. Neither Inlaw's Helen nor the paratragic treatment of Andromeda that follows '-works', in the sense that neither allows the Aristophanic Euripides to get the old man safely offstage. But they do suddenly point forward in the play rather than 54 For the parody of Helen in Th., 855—919 n.; Lange 3—9; Handley, in Handley and Rea 23-4; Rau 56-65, esp. 56-8; Kannicht, .He/«za i. 79-82, esp. 79-80; Nieddu, in A. Casanova and P. Desideri (eds.), Evento, Racconto, Scnttura nell' Antichita Classica (Florence, 2003) 55—90.
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back, and hint at the (supposed) resolution of the central conflict to come. (iv) Andromeda -was performed along -with Helen in 412 (cf. above); only the broad outlines of -what -went on in the play after the first epeisodion can be discerned.55 Kassiepeia, the queen of Ethiopia, had offended Poseidon, and as punishment the god sent a flood and/or a sea-monster against her country. To appease Poseidon's •wrath, Kassiepeia's husband, Kepheus, offered his daughter Andromeda to the sea-monster, chaining her to a rock by the shore. Euripides' play began -with the heroine alone on stage in chains (E. fr. 114 — Th. 1065—ga), bewailing her father's decision to offer her to the monster (E. fr. 115 ~ Th. 1070—2). At first only the nymph Echo responded to Andromeda's song from a nearby cave (i.e. the central stage-door) (E. fr. 118 ~ Th. 1018—21), but soon a chorus of local girls arrived to keep her company (E. frr. nj~Th. 1015; 119—22 (fr. 120. i—2 ~ Th. 1022—3; fr- I22 ~ Th. 1029—41, iO4ya—55)). Perseus then appeared on his -way back from killing the Gorgon (E. frr. 123 — Th. 1101—2; 124— Th. 1098—1100). He had spied -what he took to be a statue on the shore, but -when he realized that this -was in fact a beautiful girl, he took pity on and determined to rescue her, and rapidly fell in love (E. frr. 125—31 (frr. 125. i— 2 ~ Th. 1105—6; 127. i — Th. 1110; 128 — Th. 1107—8)). Andromeda for her part offered herself to Perseus, in -whatever capacity he might -wish, if he -would only save her life (E. fr. 132). Sophocles seems to have placed the exposure of Andromeda much later in his version of the story, and -what folio-wed in Euripides' tragedy -was most likely his independent expansion of inherited material. Kepheus and his -wife Kassiepeia clearly opposed their daughter's marriage to Perseus (E. fr. 141), and the bulk of the play probably consisted of debates about this and perhaps some related intrigue. E. frr. 145—6 preserve part of a messenger speech that reported Perseus' defeat of the monster and rescue of Andromeda, and Athena may -well have appeared at the end as a deus ex machina, 55 For the myth, Apollod. ii. 4. 3-5; Hyg./«6. 64; Eratosth. Cat. 15; LIMC i. i. 774-5. For Euripides' A ndromeda and the parody of it in Th.,see 1010-12 n.; Webster 192-9; Rau 65-89; F. Bubel, Euripides, Andromeda (Palingenesia 34: Stuttgart, 1991); Klirnek-Winter 55—315 (with detailed commentary on individual fragments); H. Van Looy, Euripide viii. i Fragments (Paris, 1998) 147-90; Gibert, ICS 24-5 (1999-2000) 75-91; Bierl 150-4. For representations of the play in vase-painting, see A. D. Trendall and T. B. L. Webster, Illustrations of Greek Drama (London, 1971) iii. 3, 9—13; Green 22—3.
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bringing the quarrel -with Andromeda's family to an end and sending Andromeda and Perseus on their -way to Argos. Although Aristophanes preserves large sections of the prologue of Euripides' play, he inverts its structure, allowing 'Andromeda' first to complain to 'her' female companions (1015—55 ~ E frr. 117—22) and then to have -what quickly degenerates into a slanging match •with 'Echo' (1056—81/2). But the parody breaks off immediately after the love-smitten 'Perseus' declares his intention of marrying— or at least having sex -with—the princess (1121—2), and although the Skythian may stand in to some extent for Kepheus (since both characters attempt to thwart Perseus' and Andromeda's plan to escape together), the material that followed in the original has been omitted. Dionysos in the prologue of Frogs claims that his heart -was 'struck-with desire' whenhe read Andromeda (Ra. 52—4), and his implicit characterization of the play as a moving and memorable lovestory appears to have been typical of the reactions of ancient readers; indeed, this may have been the first such story to appear on stage in the Theatre of Dionysos, a point -whose implications are taken up below. But -what -we know of the Euripidean original suggests that it -was a complex tale of argument and intrigue, -which has been reduced in Th. (as also in Frogs) to something strikingly reminiscent of the truncated version of Helen that precedes it: a beautiful, chaste, and submissive -woman is rescued by a male hero, -who is captured by sudden, profound, 'romantic' (but also, as befits comedy, overtly sexual) desire, and -who does his best to carry her away to -what -will presumably be for both of them a marital 'happily ever after'. (v) Seaford argues that metrical considerations date Euripides' Cyclops to the late 41 os, 56 and Cyc. 222 (Polyphemos' first -words on stage) appears to echo Andromeda fr. 125. I (parodied at Th. 1105) (probably part of Perseus' first speech). Dale suggested that Cyc. 7°7 / OL' afuf'i-Tp'fJTos r'fjaSe recalls S. Ph. 19/8 and if this is right, Euripides' satyr-play can date no earlier than the City Dionysia of 408.57 But the argument is not very strong, and it is tempting to hypothesize that Cyclops echoes Andromeda so pointedly because the plays belong to the same tetralogy, particu56 JHS 102 (1982) 161—8, with particular attention to Odysseus' lines; but whether the play can so easily be graphed on the tragic axis remains unclear. 57 A. M. Dale, Collected Papers (Cambridge, 1969) 129; followed by Seaford, Cyclops pp. 49—50.
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larly since the plots of Cyclops, Helen, and Andromeda all involve captivity in a foreign land and the arrival of a Greek rescuer -who comes into conflict -with and defeats the local ruler. In that case, Th. 1216—26, in -which the chorus offer the Skythian confusing directions that cause him to run helplessly back and forth across the stage in search of the vanished Euripides and Inlaw, may allude to the end of Cyclops (esp. 675—88), -where the chorus of satyrs abuse Polyphemos in a very similar fashion -when he asks -where Odysseus and his men have gone. The final scene in Th. could thus be read as the satyr play that rounds out the set of three explicit tragic parodies that precede it (cf. on Telephos, above) and mockingly sums up the action in them in a fittingly outrageous fashion. 58 But it must be conceded that the humour in both places is not very sophisticated and that there may be no direct dependence of one text on the other. C. The Resolution (or What Passes for One) At 1160, Euripides appears on stage and speaks to the chorus in his own person, offering to stop abusing them in his tragedies if they will let him have Inlaw (i 160-3, J I^>5~7)- This does not mean that the tragic playwright has changed his mind about female behaviour; indeed, he closes with a threat that, if he does not get what he wants, he will tell the city's men everything that goes on at home while they are off on military duty (1167-9). Instead, Euripides proposes to cover up what he and the chorus (who immediately agree to come to terms, attesting to their awareness that he is right about their having something substantial to conceal) both 'know' to be true and the audience in the Theatre is thus allowed to take for granted: the world is full of Phaidras and Melanippes, despite the fact that Euripidean tragedy will in the future feature only Penelopes (cf. 549-50). The ultimate result of this meeting of minds is that Inlaw is released from his bonds and allowed to escape to his wife and children (1205-6), after which the chorus leave the Thesmophorion for home (1228-9), resolving the irregular social situation with which the play began (see section A). The world has been set right, but at a price. As the male semi chorus in Lysistrata say (citing what they describe as proverbial wisdom), men can live neither with women nor without them, and 58 Cf. Bowie 224-5 (arguing that the parodies of Telephos, Palamedes, and Helen amount to a connected Trojan War trilogy, that the parody of Andromeda is a sort of satyr play, that the closing scene is a 'comic coda', and that all of these taken together recall the structure of a normal day's set of performances at the City Dionysia).
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the only -workable choice is to find some -way to live -with them (Lys. 1038—9).59 Bad as -women are, it seems, it does no good to call—or perhaps even to pay—much attention to the fact; and Th. implicitly concludes on a very similar note. Up to this point, Euripides has shown no interest in compromise, and his offer to the chorus is in one sense unexpected. But his proposal also does little more than put into -words something that has been apparent on stage for over 300 lines and that simultaneously represents a coherent (if tendentious) interpretation of recent theatrical history. Helen and Andromeda (both staged in 412) feature •what Mika and the chorus -would certainly call 'good' female characters , so that not only do Inlaw' s parodies of those plays proleptically fulfil Euripides' offer at 1160—7, but by proposing to bring 'good' •women on stage the comic Euripides offers to do something the historical Euripides had arguably undertaken a full year earlier.60 At the same time, the concession at 1160—7 is not "what it appears to be, for Euripides' 'new' -woman as interpreted by Aristophanes is a helpless, vulnerable creature, -who is simultaneously chaste and enticing and -whose story can be brought to a happy conclusion only through the intervention of an aggressively virile man (cf. section B).61 Mika has got her -wish (cf. 547—8), but the problem -with the •way it has been granted is that the 'good' female characters Aristophanes' Euripides has to offer are indistinguishable from the positive aspect of the polarized Athenian male view of-women about •which the chorus complain so bitterly in the parabasis. The radical change his Euripides proposes—and -which he has, on another level, already put into effect—is thus in a larger sense no change at all but a back-handed affirmation of the status quo. For-women to be'good' in the -way the Aristophanic Euripides and Mika -would have them be, it must also be generally conceded that they are 'bad', for the two categories are mutually dependent (see section A). Indeed, a recognition of something very similar encapsulates the understanding to -which the tragic poet and the chorus come at 1167—70: only because Euripides knows how 'bad' -women are can he reach an agreement -with them to represent them in his tragedies as 'good'. Despite an appearance of putting '-women on top', the sexual politics of Aristophanes' 59 Cf. Susar. fr. i. 3—4 'Women are an evil (KO.KOV) ; but all the same, demesmen, one cannot have a home without evil'; Men. frr. 801; 804. 16—17. 60 Indeed, it is tempting to suggest that Ar. conceived of the plot of Th. while watching Euripides' tragedies of 412 as a way of explaining their—to him, at least, 61 apparently striking—content. Cf. Bobrick 184.
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play are in fact extremely conservative. Not regardless but because of -what his Euripides has done and promised to do, nothing about the relationship between men and -women -will change; the idea that misogyny has a historical origin and can accordingly have an end serves as cover for a deeper and more powerful conviction that things -will always be just as they have always been. Inlaw is thus allowed to escape and the plot of Th. brought to an end by means of a poetic sleight-of-hand, -which finesses the fact that solving the 'problem of Euripides' not only fails to alter the larger situation described in the parabasis but confirms and lends it support. Aristophanes' over-whelming eagerness to bring the sexes together in a nominally happy ending is apparent in the fact that he supplies Inlaw -with a -wife at 1020—1 (in an incongruous paratragic context) and then -with children at 1205—6, giving the old man someone to hurry off home to once he has been freed, as -well as in the chorus' announcement at 1228—9 that they too are leaving for home, despite the fact that the Thesmophoria is not over (cf. 80 -with n.). But perhaps most telling is the resort at the end of the play to the cheap but effective (cf. 1128—32) motif of the barbarian threat. As the chorus surrender control of Inlaw to Euripides, they note that the only problem that remains is the Skythian (1171), -who is now the sole 'blocking figure' on stage; and much of-what is clearly intended to be the hilarity of the final scenes consists in the systematic humiliation of this character first by Aristophanes (-who depicts him from the very first as a clumsy brute) and then in the final scene by Euripides and the chorus. In both Helen and Andromeda, Greeks triumph over non-Greeks, so that -what goes on on stage here is still in one sense Euripidean parody. But the united front Euripides and -women so readily and easily construct against -what is now abruptly defined as their common enemy also diverts attention from the irresolvable (although allegedly resolved) conflict bet-ween men and -women, •with -which most of the play is concerned, onto another conflict, the rights and -wrongs of -which must have appeared far clearer to the average late fifth-century Athenian; and it can scarcely be coincidence that something very similar goes on at the end of Lysistrata, •where the heroine urges the Athenians and the Spartans to put aside their seemingly irreconcilable differences to confront the threat of Persian power (Lys. 1128—34, esp. 1133-with Henderson ad loc.). 62 62
Cf. ibid. 190.
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The fundamental problem -with Euripidean tragedy as it is presented in Th. is that it aggressively exposes ugly facts -which -would be better left obscure. As Aeschylus says in a related context in Frogs, that something is true is no excuse for putting it on stage, for good poetry aims not to 'educate' people but to convince them to act in socially helpful -ways (Ra. 1052—5). In Th., this criticism focuses on Euripides' hostile treatment of -women; but in the first half of the play in particular Aristophanes does exactly -what Mika condemns Euripides for, by presenting his female characters—and indeed allowing his female characters to present themselves—in an exceedingly dark manner. Aristophanic comedy elsewhere defends its scathing criticisms of its audience by insisting that this abuse serves a positive purpose: by telling the Athenian people things they -would rather not hear, it forces them to mend their -ways (esp. Ach. 630—64). But one can easily imagine the Aristophanic Euripides defending his tragedies in a similar fashion; and that Th. is not really intended to teach the audience in the Theatre anything about •women's behaviour is apparent both from the fact that its assertions are commonplace (as the chorus' complaints in the parabasis make clear) and from the poet's repeated attempts at the end of the play to impose a hasty (if superficially appealing) solution to the problems raised at the beginning. None of this ought perhaps to come as a surprise. Th. is set on a festival day, -when normal activities are suspended in the city but extraordinary events can be expected to occur (78—84); and so too the comic poets enjoyed the right to express themselves at the Lenaia and the City Dionysia in -ways that -would not have been tolerated in most public settings.63 But Aristophanes also regularly contrives to withdraw or neutralize many of the criticisms he offers in his plays. In Knights, for example, the old fool Demos ('the People') ultimately reveals that he is cleverer than he has let on, and the Sausage-seller (-who -won his position as chief slave/demagogue by showing he -was the most unprincipled man in the house/city) at the end of the play unexpectedly bestows extraordinary goods on his master. This is -wildly inconsistent, but the inconsistency serves the poet's purposes, by allowing him both to criticize and to flatter his audience, and by eliminating -what might other-wise have been perceived to be the call for changes in the real -world outside the 63
But note e.g. Aeschin. i. 126, 131, 164; 2. 99; D. 18. 130.
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Theatre. So too in Th., the hostile portrait of Athenian women in the opening scenes yields by the end to a consistent depiction of them as devoted celebrants of Demeter's mysteries.64 If the play has a point to make about relations between the sexes, it seems to be (as in Lysistrata) that men need -women and therefore have no choice but to ignore the ugly things they know to be true about their character and behaviour. The supposed historical development of Euripidean tragedy traced in Th. from dangerous and unproductive truth-telling to artful concealment of -what are generally conceded to be facts, and from over-the-top misogyny to equally over-the-top romance, is thus simultaneously a description of the internal -workings of Aristophanes' play itself. The audience in the Theatre—as opposed to the hypothetical future audiences referred to at 1167—9, •who can be expected to believe anything they see—has -watched this process unfold from the beginning and has thus been alerted to the fact that the 'new' vision of -women Euripides and Aristophanes are contriving to promote is a calculated misrepresentation of the actual state of affairs. But for the moment, at least, none of that matters much. The Thesmophoria is coming to an end, as is the City Dionysia; the unexpected, unlikely, and offensive things said or done on stage today can all be forgotten or ignored, if that is -what is required (as it is) to bring the -world back to normal; and all concerned—or at least all those -who matter—can go happily home to their families.
V. STAGING
A. Division of Parts At 922-9, Inlaw is on stage pinned to a plank; Kritylla is standing guard over him; Euripides is heading off into one wing; and the Prytanis is entering from the other. These are all speaking parts, and the unavoidable conclusion is that Th. can be staged with three actors only via some odd and unlikely arrangement involving lightning changes of costume, unmarked exits, silences on stage, and the like. Like a number of other Aristophanic comedies (including Acharnians and Frogs), therefore, the play is most naturally taken to require a fourth actor, who on the staging outlined below speaks 64
Cf. Zeitlin 399—405.
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only nine lines or partial lines. The speaking parts in Th. are best divided as follows (cf. Lange 46; DFA 152; Russo 196—7), although other arrangements are possible:65 Protagonist: Inlaw (1-946, 1001-1209) Deuteragonist: Euripides (1-279, 869-927, 1009-12 (cf. 1009 n.), 1056-1132 (cf. 1064 n.), 1160-1209), Mika (295-764) Tritagonist: Agathon's Slave (36-70), Agathon (95-265), Kritylla (295-458, 759-944), Kleisthenes (571-654), the Skythian (10011225) Fourth Actor: the Prytanis (923-44) One remarkable feature of this division is that both of the—presumably quite demanding—lyric parts at the beginning of the play (39—62, i o 1—29) -were taken by the tritagonist, -who must have been a quite accomplished performer, despite his seemingly inferior status. Mania (295—764), Teredon (i 160—1203), andElaphion (i 160—1214) are represented by mutes, as is the Skythian in his first appearance on stage (923—46). Mute slaves appear on stage at 95 and 265 (pushing Agathon on and off, respectively, on the ekkuklema) and at 238—48 (bringing on and taking off a torch), and perhaps also at 655 (bringing the chorus torches, -which must then also have been taken off by prop-men dressed as slaves earlier) and 1001 (carrying on Inlaw bound to his plank). B. Costume Although representations of comic actors from Ar.' s time are neither numerous nor always easily interpreted, a good deal of information about this aspect of the plays can be gleaned from the texts and from artistic evidence dating to a generation or two later.66 Male characters •were normally represented -with dark masks (cf. 31 n.) fitted -with detachable beards (222—3 n -) > 'whereas -women -were represented -with •white masks. Most adult male characters -wore a long leather stagephallus, -which could be tied up out of the -way, allowed to dangle 65 We assume that the assembly heraldess (295-311, 331-51, 372-82) is played by the coryphaeus; cf. 295—382 n. 66 The standard treatment of Old Comic costuming is Stone. For the artistic evidence, T. B. L. Webster, Monuments Illustrating Old and Middle Comedy (3rdedn., revised and enlarged by J. R. Green) (BIOS Suppl. 39: London, 1978), together with the comments of Green 27—38.
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free, or put in an erect position (like the Skythian's at 1187—1201). Artistic evidence suggests that most actors -were fitted -with absurdly padded stomachs and buttocks. Beyond that, comic costume -was relatively realistic, and characters -wore clothes and shoes appropriate to their age, sex, and social status. Much of the visual economy of Th. depends on an aggressive subversion of these conventions. Almost all the male characters in the play are made to look like -women at some point: Agathon -wears a -white, beardless mask (191) and -women's clothes (esp. 136—8; cf. 97—8, 250—1, 257—8) and has no visible stage-phallus (142); Kleisthenes lacks a beard (575) and may also -wear a -white mask (cf. 571—3); Euripides enters at the very end in female costume and clearly -well disguised, given that the Skythian takes him for a -woman •with no questions or prompting (i 194); and Inlaw spends virtually the entire play dressed in a krokotos (a saffron-coloured -women's inner garment; cf. 137—8 n.) and a bizarre -wig or set of headgear he has borrowed from Agathon (cf. 257—8 n.). Ar. clearly expected his audience to find this cross-dressing both amusing and deeply humiliating for the individuals involved67 (even if those individuals sometimes evince little shame at how they look), and he accordingly draws out the scenes in -which Inlaw is transformed into a -woman (213—68) and stripped and exposed as a man (636—51) to great length and jams them full of-wild, slapstick humour. So too Inlaw mocks Agathon for his effeminate appearance (97—8, 134—43); the coryphaeus treats Kleisthenes in a similarly scornful manner (582—3); -when the Council decide to put Inlaw to death, they decree that he -wear his krokotos and mitra on the plank, an additional horror the old man tries desperately to avoid (936—45); much of the effect of the parodies of Helen and Andromeda depends on the fact that the tragic heroines are played by an individual -wearing a prominent stage-phallus; and Euripides' cross-dressing in the final scene is best explained as an index of his utter desperation after all his other plans have failed. Inlaw's female costume is both his means to infiltrate the -women's assembly and the clearest sign of the extent to -which he has violated societal norms by doing so. Thanks to Euripides' intervention, he escapes his bonds and runs off—still dressed in -women's clothes (cf. 1220). But the visual argument of the play is maintained none the less, for after Inlaw is gone from sight, the role of dramatic scapegoat 67
Cf. the treatment of Blepyros at EC. 311—727.
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settles on the only character -who is even more outrageously dressed than he: the Skythian in his -wild native costume (cf. 923 n.). C. Props Aristophanic props are generally very simple.68 Those used in Th. include the brazier and myrtle branches brought out by Agathon's servant (37); Agathon's couch (95 n., 261—2 n.); the razor (218—20 •with n.), mirror (140 -with n., 234—5), musical instruments (137—8 •with n.), and various items of clothing (249—62 -with nn.) piled on or beside it; the torch used to depilate Inlaw's arse (238—41), and those carried by the -women at the festival (280, 655, 917); the garland -worn by speakers in the -women's assembly (380 -with n.); the brush-wood Mika and Mania stack about Inlaw after he seeks refuge at the altar (726—9 -with nn., 739); Mika's elaborately dressed baby/ •wineskin (esp. 733—4) and the bowl in -which she proposes to catch its 'blood' (754—5 withn.); the knife Inlaw uses to cut the -wineskin open and to carve letters into the dedicatory plaques he discovers hanging from the altar (694—5 n -> 773~5 "with 773—4 n.); the plank to -which Inlaw is pinned throughout the final scenes of the play (930—1 n., 1001 n.); the Skythian's -whip (cf. 932—4 n.), knife (i 125—7 n -)> and quiver/bowcase (1195—7 n.), as -well as the mat he fetches to sleep on (1007 n.); and Euripides' musical instruments (1217—19 n.). D. Theatre Resources; Exits, and Entrances Archaeology offers little insight into the details of the Theatre of Dionysos in Ar.'s time, and most of -what -we know comes from the text of plays that survive from the period. 69 Bet-ween the front row of seats and the stage -was a dancing area (the orchestra), -which -was accessible via two side-entrances (the eisodoi or parodoi). A permanent altar (put to use in Th. for the offerings by Agathon's servant (37—8) and by Inlaw himself (285), as-well as for parodies of Euripides' Telephos, Palamedes, and Helen) stood in the middle of the orchestra.10 In the 68 For Aristophanic props, see Poe, RhM NF 143 (2000) 274-6, 283-7, 292-5; English, Helios 27 (2000) 149—62. 69 Cf. A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens (Oxford, 1946) 1-133, esP- 15—29; Moretti, REG 113 (2000) 275-98, esp. 284-98 (English version in ICS 24-25 (1999-2000) 377-98). 70 Rehm, GRBSzg (1988) 263-307.
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41 os, the stage probably consisted of a raised -wooden platform connected to the orchestra by several steps, -which allowed actors to move down into the orchestra (as Inlaw does after he seizes Mika's 'baby' at 689) or up from it (as Euripides and Inlaw probably do at the very beginning of the play). A -wooden stage-building (the OK-UJV-TI) stood along the back of the stage. Th. requires only a single, central stagedoor, -which functions as Agathon's house (26—265); an unspecified sacred building in the Thesmophorion precinct (cf. 278, 880) -where fire-wood is kept (726—39); an ill-defined spot, safe from prying eyes, •where the Skythian can go to pin Inlaw to his plank (947—1000), to fetch his mat (1007), and to have sex -with Elaphion (1202—9); and (as part of the Andromeda -parody) as Echo's cave (c. 1064—97). A theatrical trolley (the ekkuklema; cf. 96 n.) -was located behind the central stage-door and could be pushed out to represent interior scenes; at 95—265 it is used for the visit to Agathon's house. A theatrical crane (the mechane), -which allowed characters to fly on stage, -was concealed behind the OK-UJV-TI', the earliest more or less certain evidence for its use is at the end of Euripides' Medea (431).71 The mechane (like the ekkuklema) -was a favourite device of the late fifth-century tragic poets and is perhaps used by Euripides at 1098 for his entrance in the guise of Perseus returning home -with the Gorgon's head (but see n. ad loc.). The direction of a number of exits and the places from -which a number of characters have come are indicated or implied in Th., and this information, -when combined -with that discussed above, allows much of the basic staging of the play to be reconstructed, provided one assumes that: (a) -when characters return from off stage, they do so from the -wing, eisodos, or stage-door through -which they exited earlier—this is an uncontroversial thesis; (b) unless characters indicate -when they exit that they are going somewhere different from -where they came from, they exit by the -wing, eisodos, or stagedoor from -which they entered. This is a less secure assumption but can be regarded as a sort of Occam's Razor of staging practice: characters 'belong' to the 'place' from -which they came. The folio-wing points can then be made: (i) At458,KrityllaexitstotheAgora(457),andwhenKleisthenes 71 Cf. Mastronarde, CA 9 (1990) 268-72; Lendle, in E. Pohlmann et al., Studien zur Biihnendichtung und sum Theaterbau derAntike (Studien zur klassischen Philologieg3: Frankfurt am Mein, 1995) 165—72.
STAGING Ixxiii enters at 571, he says he has come in response to gossip circulating in the Agora (577—8). The obvious conclusion is that Kleisthenes enters from the same wing as that into -which Kritylla exited earlier (and from -which she must return at 759). (ii) At 654, Kleisthenes exits into a -wing (hereafter 'Wing B') to inform the prytaneis that Inlaw has been arrested, and Mika follows him off -with the same mission at 764. When the Prytanis and the Skythian enter in response to this summons around 923, therefore, they must come from Wing B. (iii) Since Kleisthenes implies that he has come from the Agora but notes as he exits that he is going somewhere else (i.e. to see the prytaneis), he probably enters from a different -wing from that into •which he exits, i.e. from Wing A. If that is the case, Kritylla must also exit into Wing A at 458 and emerge from it again at 759 (see (i) above). But this is all somewhat uncertain. (iv) The Prytanis does not say -where he is going -when he exits at 944, and he therefore probably returns to Wing B. Kritylla also leaves the stage at this point; -whether she exits into Wing A (from •which she came) or Wing B (accompanying the Prytanis off) is unclear. (v) When Euripides exits at 927, having been alerted by Kritylla that the Prytanis and the Skythian are entering from Wing B, he must go into Wing A to avoid them. It must therefore be from Wing A that he emerges again at 1009. (vi) In that case, it is most likely also Wing A into -which he exits at 279 and 1132, and from -which he must enter at 871 and 1160. (vii) Where Euripides and Inlaw exit to at 1209 is anyone's guess. But the neatest staging -would be to have the two of them race down the same eisodos they entered through at the beginning of the play (eisodos A?). The chorus, -who are also going home (1228—9), probably follow them off, -while the Skythian exits in the opposite direction (into Wing B?). The entrances and exits in Th. can thus be reconstructed as follows (cf. Lange 49-50). Wing-assignments that appear certain are marked with an asterisk; those that pose a substantial problem of some sort are marked with *. i Euripides and Inlaw enter via an eisodos. 36 Agathon's slave enters through the central stage-door. 70 Agathon's slave exits through the central stage-door.
Ixxiv
INTRODUCTION
95 Agathon is rolled out of the central stage-door on the ekkuklema. 265 Agathon is rolled through the central stage-door on the ekkuklema. 279 Euripides exits into Wing A. 295 The chorus, Mika, and Kritylla enter via an eisodos (their arrival is announced at 281). 458 Kritylla (going to the Agora) exits into Wing A*. 571 Kleisthenes (coming from the Agora) enters from Wing A*. 654 Kleisthenes (going to speak to the prytaneis) exits into Wing B*. 729 Mika and Mania exit through the central stage-door. 739 Mika and Mania emerge from the central stage-door. 759 Kritylla (coming from the Agora; cf. 458) enters from Wing A*. 764 Mika (going to speak to the prytaneis) and Mania exit into Wing B*. 869 Euripides enters from Wing A (cf. 279). 923 The Prytanis and the Skythian (having been summoned by Kleisthenes (654, cf. 764)) enter from Wing B*. 927 Euripides exits into Wing A*. 944 The Prytanis exits into Wing B (cf. 923). Kritylla exits into a •wing*. 1009 Euripides enters from Wing A*. 1012 Euripides exits through the central stage-door. 1056 Euripides enters from the central stage-door. c. 1064 Euripides exits through the central stage-door. 1098 Euripides enters either from the central stage-door or via the mechane*. 1132 Euripides exits into Wing A. 1160 Euripides, Elaphion, and Teredon enter from Wing A. 1203 Teredon exits into Wing A. 1209 Euripides and Inlaw exit down the eisodos through -which they entered at i. 1214 Elaphion exits into Wing A. 1225 The Skythian exits into Wing B. 1231 The chorus exit via the eisodos through -which they entered at 295-
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E. The Wiirzburg 'Telephos' Krater Wiirzburg 115697 (Plate i), an Apulian bell krater dated to £.370, depicts two figures. To the extreme left, standing sideways to the viewer and facing toward the centre of the pot, is an unattractive woman who wears a headscarf and a sleeveless, belted chiton which falls to her ankles. She is looking directly at the other figure, to whom her posture implicitly calls attention, and holds a large skyphos or krater out in front of her with both hands. Her left (forward) foot is planted firmly on the ground, but the heel of her right (rear) foot is raised, as if she -were leaning eagerly forward. The figure to the right has a stubbled face, identifying him as a beardless man. He is seen from the front and is almost in the middle of the composition, and although his eyes are averted to his right, in the direction of the woman, his gaze falls somewhere between her and the individual examining the pot. He is thus apparently aware of the woman's presence but looking at a third party, whose existence his gaze creates; and there can be little doubt that he is the central character. Like the woman who approaches him, he is barefoot and wears a belted chiton. But his chiton has sleeves and extends down only to his knees or so, and leggings are visible beneath it, and he wears a headband of some sort. In his left hand is a wineskin, two dangling extremities of which are fitted with what look like sandals or slippers. In his right hand is a knife, with which he simultaneously threatens the wineskin and holds the woman at bay. Directly above the sword floats an object probably to be identified as a mirror. In 1980, Kossatz-Deissmann identified the Wiirzburg krater as a depiction of a scene from a South Italian phlyax comedy that parodied Euripides' Telephos and was similar to Th.;72 the third party toward whom the hero is looking must therefore be the audience in the Theatre (to be distinguished from the individual examining the pot, who sees the scene from an additional remove). But as Csapo and Taplin (1987), working independently, pointed out a few years later, the Wiirzburg krater more likely recalls a performance of Th. itself and in particular the action at 750-5, where Inlaw threatens Mika's daughter—actually a wineskin wearing 'Persian' slippers 72 A. Kossatz-Deissmann, in H. A. Cahn and E. Simon (eds.), Tainia: Festschrift fur Roland H amp e (Mainz, 1980) 281-90, with two plates (Tafel 60. 1—2). Further references will be found in J. R. Green's forthcoming third edition of Phlyax Vases. For Euripides' Telephos, above, n. 48.
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(733—4 withn.)—with a knife taken from the altar to which he fled at 689 (cf. 694—5 n -)> and Mika holds out a basin (cf. 754—5 n.) to catch her child's 'blood'. 73 Csapo 381—7, notes that this makes sense of a number of details in the painting that puzzled Kossatz-Deissmann: the headband (which Telephos ought not to have on) must represent the KefiaXrj TTepiOeros borrowed from Agathon at 257—60 (cf. 941);'* the stubble on Inlaw's face recalls the clumsy shave he got from Euripides at 221—31; and the mirror is presumably the prop he used to inspect his newly beardless face at 23 3—5." That the mirror is still visible 'on stage' some 500 lines after this, Csapo 387, suggests, may mean that it -was not taken on and off on the ekkuklema, as one -would other-wise assume, but hung throughout the play on a peg driven into the OK-UJV-TI. One important implication of the Csapo—Taplin thesis (-which has been generally accepted) is that Athenian Old Comedies -were at least occasionally revived in Magna Graecia in the first half of the fourth century. 76 A number of problems -with the scene on the Wiirzburg krater none the less make clear that this is something other than a simple, straightforward depiction of a South Italian theatrical performance, although such a performance doubtless lies in the background. The text of Th., firstof all, leaves little doubt that the mirror used at 233—5 comes on stage -with Agathon (cf. 140), and there is no reason to think that it is not taken off in the same -way. Nor could Inlaw's face have been anywhere near as badly shaved as it is on the Wiirzburg krater, for the old man passes easily as a -woman until his dress is opened up (revealing that he has no breasts) and then lifted at 636—50; and unlike in Ar.'s play, the Wiirzburg Inlaw is barefoot (cf. 262—3), and no brush-wood is piled around the altar (cf. 728—9, 739), and the old man's theatrical phallus, -which is exposed to the •women (and the audience in the Theatre) -with much hue and cry at 643—8, is here invisible. The absence of the brush-wood and the 73 Csapo 379-87; Taplin (1987) 102-5; cf. the discussion at Taplin (1993) 36-40; Green 65—7. 74 Cf. Taplin (1987) 103—4 (identifying the headband as merely a bit of typical comic—as opposed to tragic—costume). 75 Taplin (1987) 105, obliquely suggests that the mirror is to be understood instead as a dedication in the sanctuary; but this fails to explain why the artist has chosen to include it in his composition. 76 Cf. Csapo 387-92; Taplin (1993), esp. 30-6, 41-7 (who cites three other secure examples of what are almost certainly scenes from Athenian Old Comedies preserved on South Italian vases), reviving a suggestion by Webster, CQ 42 (1948) 19—27.
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phallus, and perhaps of Agathon's fancy boots (which no Euripidean beggar -would -wear), may serve to make the Wiirzburg Inlaw more closely resemble the tragic Telephos, rendering the parody more recognizable and the point of the scene clearer." Indeed, if the painter had chosen to depict the action only a few lines further on in the text, after Inlaw had killed the captive 'baby' (as Telephos did not), the resemblance between the tragic and the comic heroes -would be considerably less striking. Much more important, the seemingly unwanted mirror (to -which the upraised knife, however, emphatically calls attention), the stubble on Inlaw's face, the missing phallus, and the carefully rendered headband, -work together to remind anyone looking at the pot of the singeing- and shaving-scene earlier in Aristophanes' play; -while the fact that Inlaw is depicted here as obviously male obliquely stresses the fact that his disguise has failed, explaining how he got to this point of desperation. The Wiirzburg krater is thus not just a document of a moment in fourth-century theatrical history but a sophisticated bit of visual narrative, -which requires and repays careful, engaged reading. How Inlaw -will escape is not obviously hinted at. But for the moment he seems to have the situation -well in hand, and the implication is perhaps that he -will ultimately emerge, if not quite triumphant, at least no more badly damaged than he is already. VI. THESMOPHORIAZUSAE II
Among the fragments of Aristophanes' lost comedies are 28 (frr. 331—58, totalling 54 lines or fragments of lines, plus a few -words and phrases cited out of context) from another Thesmophoriasusae (hereafter 'Th. II')- Th. II is undated but has generally been assigned to some time after the preserved play of 411, 78 Its plot and general contents are obscure, although a few basic elements of the action can perhaps be recovered.
77 Cf. Taplin (1987) 103, who notes that the posture adopted by the Wiirzburg Inlaw (a sword in one hand and one knee on the altar) seems to be standard in visual representations of Telephos. 78 Cf. Kaibel as quoted in PCG iii. 2. 182 'nee de tempore fabulae constat. . . nisi quod superstitem deperdita antiquiorem fuisse nemo dubitabit.'
Ixxviii
INTRODUCTION 1
A. The Fragments '' fr. 331 ap. 2 R 298
Phot. K 1 1 8 KaXXiyeveiav H-jroXXd&iupos p.ev rr/v Pffv (FGrHist244 F 141
(Kalligeneia is) a divinity associated with Demeter, whom he represented speaking in the prologue in the other Th. Kalligeneia: Apollodorus says that she is Earth, others a daughter of Zeus and Demeter. But Aristophanes the comic poet (says that she is Demeter's) nurse.
fr. 332 ap. Poll. vii. 95 (cf. v. 96—101) and (except for the first and last line) Clem. Alex. Paed. ii. 124. i
5
10
15
(A.) A razor, a mirror, scissors, wax, soap, a hair-piece, purple stripes for gowns, headbands, hair-bindings, rouge—utter destruction! —white lead, scented oil, a pumice-stone, abreastband, a hair-net, a veil, orchil-rouge, necklaces, eyeliner, 5 an expensive Egyptian garment—medicine for insanity! —a hair-band, a slip, a shawl, a fancy robe, a bordered robe, a long robe— the stocks! the pit! — a robe with a purple edge, a curling-iron. 79 For a detailed philological study, Torchio, Quad. Torino 14 (2000) 33—66. In vol. 13 (1999) 99—1 14, Torchio discusses POxy. 1 3540 — adesp. com. fr. 1132, which Handley had tentatively attributed to Th. II on the strength of his supplements in
fr. 331 ; at 1. 13 there is mention of
THESMOPHORIAZOUSAI II
Ixxix
The best is yet to come. (B).What's next? (A.) An earring, a set stone, more earrings, a choker, cluster earrings, 10 a bracelet, brooches, wrist-bands, necklaces, ankle-bracelets, seal-rings, chains, finger-rings, plasters, baubles, breastbands—dildos!—carnelians, dangling necklaces, coiled earrings, and many other things which you couldn't list if you tried 15 fr. 333 aP- Ath. 3. I04e80
5
(A.) Has any fish been bought, or a little cuttlefish or some broad prawns or an octopus? Or is a dogfish being roasted or a mullet or some squid? (B.) Certainly not, by Zeus. (A.) No skate? (B.) Absolutely not. (A.) No haggis or beestings or boar's liver or honeycomb or pork belly or eel or crayfish? This is great aid you've lent to wearied women
5
fr. 334 ap. Ath. i. zga
I will not allow you to drink Pramnian wine, nor Chian, nor Thasian, nor Peparethian, nor any other that will arouse your ship's-ram
fr.33 5 ap.2 E 7V M .623
They say that the ambassadors to the Amphictyonic council have come bearing great blessings for the city from Pylaia, and the ambassador to the Delphic council as well 80
For detailed discussion, M. Pellegrino, Utopie e immagini gastronomiche nei frammentidell'Archaia (Bologna, 2000) 157-72.
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INTRODUCTION
fr. 336 ap. Ath. 15. 6900
O much-honoured Zeus! What a smell the vile bag breathed out at me the moment it was opened, of scented oil and hazelwort fr. 337ap.2 VEBarbMatr P/. 159
however many curious items of clothing they had, and with however many ornaments they wrap themselves about
fr. 338 ap. Poll. vii. 66
after she took off the covering of her inner robe and of the breastbands her titties were in fr. 339 ap. Phot, a 1065 — S a 1446 — 27way.B a 955
woe is me for that day long ago, when the herald said of me, 'This fellow is worth . . . "
fr.34oap.Z RVE8MBarb .Ra. 3
since on account of this saying I'm unable to carry so much baggage and I'm having my shoulder crushed fr. 341 ap. Phot. c c 2 i o i - 27way.B a 1520 and an antithesis shaved in Agathon's style
fr. 342 ap. Poll. ix. 36 he ought to have been given the name Amphodos
THESMOPHORIAZOUSAI II
Ixxxi
fr. 343 ap. Poll. x. 152 a little bag, (of the type) in which our money is kept
fr. 344 ap. Zon. p. 195 (Orus fr. A 4 Alp.) I want to mount my wife
fr. 345 ap. Poll. ix. 69 the cauldron is getting hot (in reference to women preparing mulled wine)
fr. 346 ap. agth-c. Arabic version of Gal. by Hubais (made from a lost Syriac translation by his teacher Hunain ibn Ishaq)81 I also say that we determine the meaning of these names in the language of the Greeks based on the hint offered by the word itself, meaning the etymology of the name 'fire', that it is a great burning heat. Based on the popular use of this name, I conclude that people say 'he has fever' when a person is burning with heat. This is the first meaning. Based on the use of this name by the ancient people, we conclude that we must see which ancient people mentioned this term . . . When you say 'Which ancient people should we follow?', I will tell you: one of the many ancient people who did not deal with medicine, philosophy, or other fields of that kind; for they recall the meaning of the names only in the way people used them at that time. If you wish, I will mention the first of them: the comic poet Aristophanes, because this is a man who, when standing in a theatre, where many people gathered, surely tried very hard to make sure that the words he used in his speech would not be taken in a way different from how people normally understood them. I say that this Aristophanes, when he stood once in front of the audience, wanted his audience to absorb his poetry well, and asked a group of Athenians to forgive him for a fault they thought he had in his words that might cause them to think badly of him. So he claimed that for four months now he had a chronic illness, an illness that is called and fever. Then he said about the illness which is called ijm'oAos that it was 81 Our translation was produced by Renana Schneller of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies atthe University of Minnesota. The Arabic original, accompanied by a German translation, was published by M. Meyerhof and J. Schacht,APAW,philosophisch-historischeKlasse (Berlin, 1931 no. 3). The passage is discussed by Cassio, RFIC 115 (1987) 5—11.
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INTRODUCTION
cold, and that he got fever as a result of it, and that the fever is not similar to the cold, but its nature is in fact contradictory to it. He claimed that, as a result of the cold, he demanded to be covered with wool, because he wished to get warm, and a fever attacked him with heat and burning fire, and caused him to drink water. I want to quote his words for you, so that you hear from him the clear words I told you about. [Hunain ibn Ishaq says: After Galen explained that, he offered a citation from Aristophanes. But the Greek manuscript from which I translated into Syriac had so many mistakes and gaps, that it would be impossible for me to understand its meaning unless I was used to understanding Galen's words in Greek and all their meanings from his other books. But I am not confident and used to Aristophanes' words and therefore could not understand them easily, so I leave it out. Another reason caused me to leave it out: as I read it I found no meaning in it that went beyond what I have already found in Galen, and I considered it correct, so I did not want to make the effort, and switched to something more useful. After Galen quoted the words of Aristophanes he returned to where he was and said:] So are you saying, my friend, that the people from Athens understood these words of Aristophanes? Or do you argue that his words sounded to them as if he said 'Already for four months I suffer from an illness called , and it is the precursor of the illness called jSXlrvpi; and that when he mentioned aKivSat/ios he meant the cold that preceded the heat, and when he said jSXlrvpi he meant the same heat? But you know that his word is the shivering that comes before the heat, and his word 'warmth' is a name that indicates burning heat. You heard what this man said after the word I copied for you, which was correct in your eyes, and I agree entirely that his word r/TTLaXos also indicates a cold sickness and his word 'warmth' indicates a warm sickness. [Hunain said: I am not able to finish the word that he copied here as well, for the reason I mentioned previously. Galen said:] And Aristophanes, according to what I explained to you, testified about himself and about the people of Athens that they used the name 'warmth' according to what I described in their words. I am able to explain to you that all the comic poets use the name 'warmth' the same way in testimonies from their words that I am using frequently as a proof. If I wanted to fill up books with them, the books would be bigger than the books of Menodotos and Menemachos. But I know that if I did that and proved it, all the people would say 'he has forgotten himself. Preserved in Greek: (i) ap. 2vr V. 1038 (citing Th., sc. //) and at the same time a cold, precursor of fever
THESMOPHORIAZOUSAI II
Ixxxiii
(2)ap. Poll. iv.i86 and he had come with heat and burning fire (i.e. a fever) fr. 347 ap. Ath. 3. nyc
certainly a great bit of food fis thef production of comic poetry, when Krates both considered his saltfish 'white as ivory', 'shining', and 'summoned with no effort', and made countless other such jokes fr. 348 ap. Heph. ench. 13.3 (p. 41.11 Consbr.) 82
neither to summon the Muses with their curling tresses nor loudly call the Olympian Graces to the dance; for they are here, according to our poet fr.349ap.2 b T Pl. Cra. 42id
'A contest does not wait for an excuse' is a saying applied to those who are naturally easygoing and carefree, or to those who don't approve the words of others who offer excuses. Aristophanes has mentioned it in Th.II fr. 350 ap. Phot. A 452 - S A 816
'The wolf had his jaws wide/ They say this to describe those who hope to make some money but don't succeed. Aristophanes in Th.II
82 From the parabasis, to which Fritzschealso attributed fr. 719 (in the same metre) ap. S a 2874 — £vva,y.E a 1617 — Apostol. iii. 37 ('to show off smart words and jokes / all fresh from the bellows and the moulds').
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INTRODUCTION
fr. 35iap.Erot. 045 'Wine with a bouquet': that which smells good and is sweet, according to Ar. in Th.
fr. 352 ap. Ath. 14. 6iga and there is another (song) of women winnowing, according to Ar. in Th. fr. 353 ap. Antiatt. p. 78. 24 'Better': Ar. in Th.
fr. 354 ap. Hsch. fiziz 'barbos': a spoon in Th.
fr. 355 ap. anon, in Arist. EN, CAG xx p. 200, 10 Heylb.
baukides, which are a type of shoe Ionian women wear, of which Ar. too has made mention in Th. fr. 356 ap. Antiatt. p. 88. 28 expl. Poll. ii. 125) ovaais
'to have a talk with' in an amorous context (i.e. 'to make love'): Ar. in Th. fr. 357 ap. Antiatt. p. 96. 25 'to correct oneself: Ar. in Th. fr. 358 ap. Hsch. A 224 - Phot. A 48 - S A 62 'to play the Laconian': to be a paederast. Ar. in Th.II. B. The Date Th. II is most often referred to in ancient sources simply (if confusingly) as 'Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae' vel sirn. (e.g. Poll. vii. 95, citing fr. 332; Ath. 3. 1046, citing fr. 333), but is called 'the
THESMOPHORIAZOUSAI II 11
IxxXV
second 77z.' a number of times (first at Ath. i. 2ga, citing fr. 334; subsequently a t2 RVE8MBarb Ra. 3, citing fr. 340; 2T PI. Cra. 42id, citing fr. 349; and Photios — Suda, citing frr. 350 and 358), 'the other Th.' once (2R 298, citing fr. 331), and 'the first Th.' once (Hephaestion, citing fr. 348). The surviving play, on the other hand, is referred to as 'the first Th.' by Clement of Alexandria (on 215—16) and as 'the earlier Th.' by Aulus Gellius (citing 453—6). 83 The evidence -would seem to favour the notion that the extant Th. -was generally known in antiquity (i.e. from didaskaliaf) to have been staged before the lost play. But Butrica 51—62, shows that references of this sort are sufficiently inconsistent and ambiguous in their implications to prevent us from treating this as a necessary conclusion, and he offers four reasons for dating Th. II at least a decade earlier than is generally assumed, to the late 4203 and perhaps specifically the Lenaia of 423: (i) Fr. 347 refers to the comic poet Krates, -whose floruit -was around 450—430 and -whom Ar. mentions elsewhere only atEq. 537 (424) (Butrica 44-5). (ii) The creto-paeonic metre of frr. 347—8 is common in Ar.'s first five plays (425—421) but is found in his last five only at Ra. 1356— 60 (Butrica 45). 84 (iii) 2VLh V. 61 (ovS' aS9is avaaeXyaiv6p,evos EvpiTTiSrjs ('nor Euripides abused again'); part of a catalogue of comic cliches in -which the poet's characters, speaking for the poet, decline to indulge today) observes that Ar. also attacked Euripides in Acharnians, Proagon (422?), and Th. The other two plays mentioned date to the 4203; the omission of Frogs makes it clear that -we are not being offered a catalogue of every Aristophanic comedy in -which Euripides -was criticized; and the Th. referred to is thus unlikely to be the preserved play of 411 (Butrica 45—6). (iv) The 'cold' (rjTTiaXos) and 'fever' (Trvperos) said in fr. 346 to have cost the poet his voice for four months should be connected -with the openly metaphorical mention at V. 1038 of 'colds and fevers' attacked by Ar. in a comedy of 423 (cf. MacDowell ad loc. and the similar language in fr. 399, from the original Clouds) and understood as a reference to individuals -who brought malicious prosecutions 83 For the complex problem of ancient titles, see Sommerstein, SemRom 5 (2002) 1-16. 84 For the problematic metre in this passage, Dover, Frogs, pp. 361—2.
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INTRODUCTION
against him some time probably in 424 (cf. Ar. test, i. 29—30). Since Wasps -was a Lenaia play and the original Clouds -was performed at the City Dionysia in 423 (Nu. Hyp. ii. i), the only festival date that remains open for Th. II in this period is the Lenaia of 423 (Butrica 46-9). None of these arguments is compelling. (i) The description of Krates' poetic accomplishments uses the imperfect and comes in the context of what seems to be a brief (and tendentious) history of the genre, and mention of him is no more or less appropriate to the late 4103 or 4003 than is the allusion to his rough contemporary Kratinos atRa. 357 (405). (ii) Av. 243-7 (4 J 4) offers three creto-paeonic tetrameters very much like fr. 348 (although not from a parabasis); Lys. 614-25 ~ 636-47 (411) contains a mix of trochaics and cretics reminiscent of fr. 347; and cretics appear elsewhere in Ar.'s later plays at e.g. Lys. 1046- 1061, 1049 ~ 1063, 1192- 1206 (a\\4cr);Ra. 229 (cr2tr), 245 (cr tr); EC. 906 (cr tr), 952a-b ~ 960-1, 958 (all 2 cr). (iii) In V (the only source for the scholia vetera in the opening sections of Wasps), the scholium referred to by Butrica is two separate and probably unrelated notes. The first of these (6ib in Roster's edition) ahistorically identifies V. 61 as a reference to Th., whereas the second (6ic in Koster's edition) actually reads ('Euripides has been introduced in this fashion not only in Dramas but also in Proagon and inAcharnians').*5 The two notes were combined by the early fourteenth-century scholar Demetrios Triklinios, whose version of the scholia - 2 Lh and who emended 2V 6icto readoj ('Euripides has been introduced not only in this drama, as has been said, but also in Proagon and Acharnians'), producing the text printed by Koster. But the older version offers no reason for believing that the anonymous commentator from whose work2 v 6ib is drawn thought of the Th. to which he refers as belonging to an early group of plays along with Acharnians, Proagon, and Dramas. 8f> 85 Note the apparatus. 2V 6ic is written in the interior margin of the page and may be from a different source than 2V 6ib (cf. Koster p. xii). 86 It may also be worth noting in this context that the preserved Th. fits the description offered by Zv 6ib, whereas the fragments of Th. II contain only one apparent glancing allusion to Euripides' work (fr. 342) (cf. B, below).
THESMOPHORIAZOUSAI II
Ixxxvii
(iv) This is an ingenious theory, but lacks any probative value. Perhaps most important, one decisive piece of evidence ignored by Butrica requires that Th. II be dated to roughly the same period as the preserved play or even later. Fr. 341 leaves no doubt that Agathon's personal and poetic tendencies -were -well known to the audience of Th. II, just as they clearly -were to the audience in 411. But evidence preserved by Plato and Athenaeus (cited at 29—30 n.) makes it clear that Agathon staged his first set of plays at the Lenaia of 416, -where he took the prize. Th. //thus almost certainly cannot be dated earlier than the City Dionysia of that year and -would fit more comfortably at least a year or two later. Aristophanes could still have referred to Agathon's poetry even after the latter's departure for Macedon some time before 405 (Ra. 83-5 with 2 RVME8Barb 85, — Agathon TrGF 39 T ya—b). But Th. II is none the less more naturally placed before that, leaving 415/14—407/6 as the most likely range of dates. C. The Plot According to 2 R 298 (— fr. 331), the goddess Kalligeneia,-who shared her name -with the final day of the Thesmophoria festival (cf. 299 n.), spoke in the prologue of Th. II; and Ath. i. 2,ga reports that the literary historian and -wit Demetrios of Troizen called the play not ('the second Women at the Thesmophoria) but at &eap,o<j)opidaaaai ('Women who are Done Celebrating the Thesmophoria') (Th. II test, ii — SH 377). The play -was thus almost certainly set on the final day of the festival, a conclusion lent further support by fr. 333, -where someone expresses exasperation that no fine foods have been prepared of the sort that 'lend aid to -wearied •women' (i.e. after they have fasted and danced throughout the 'Middle Day', on -which the preserved Th. is set).87 That the plot of the play involved a serious rupture of male—female relationships is possible: atfr. 332, one character (almost certainly a man) offers another a catalogue of items -women -wear or use to make themselves attractive, -with caustic additions (vv. 3, 6, 8) that show he regards all these as means to ruin the opposite sex (cf.frr. 336—7; 355); atfr. 3 34 a man is forbidden to drink any -wine that might give him an erection; and 87 Cf. the reference to women drinking in fr. 345; IG IP 1184. 9-10 Pap. Col. Zen. i 19 (New York, 1934) mentions the gift of two Chian jars of wine for the Thesmophoria in Alexandria on 27 Nov. 257 BC.
Ixxxviii
INTRODUCTION
at fr. 344 the speaker's observation that 'I -want to mount my -wife' perhaps implies that something is preventing him from doing so.88 But beyond this, we know only that frr. 339—40 seem to have been spoken by an unhappy slave not unlike Xanthias at the beginning of Frogs or Karion at the beginning of Wealth; and that in the parabasis the poet (speaking through his chorus) explained his recent absence from the public eye (fr. 346) and discussed the history of comedy (fr. 347) and his own—pre-eminently important—position in it (fr. 348). Butrica 62—70, taking up a suggestion of Kuiper's, attempts to get beyond these limited conclusions by comparing the story told by the third(?)-century-BC author Satyros (POxy. ix. 1176 fr. 39 col. x) about a confrontation between Euripides and Athens' -women, arguing that Satyros' account represents the plot of Th. II treated as biography. Satyros reports that the -women hated Euripides because of the nasty things he said about them in his plays and therefore 'united against him at the Thesmophoria and -were present en masse at the place -where he happened to be passing time' (i.e., presumably, the cave -where Euripides did his -writing, referred to at col. ix. 4—19). 'But although they -were angry, they spared the man, both because they felt awe for the Muses . . ,'. 89 The column breaks off at this point, but the anonymous Vit. Eur.§6(p.6. 10—ii Schwartz; probably drawing on the same source) adds 'and then after he offered assurances that he -would no longer speak badly of them'.90 Butrica observes that there are as many differences as similarities bet-ween Satyros' story and the plot of the preserved Th., to -which it patently bears some relation: in Satyros' account there is no trace of a character like Inlaw; the -women seem to confront Euripides face-to-face in his lair rather than plotting behind his back at their festival; and the Muses apparently play an important part in rescuing him, perhaps (if the source is indeed a lost 88 For other references to sex, frr. 356; 358. Grenfell and Hunt (the original editors) assigned fr. 592, in which one woman proposes resolving a problem (clearly the absence of any men to have sex with) by using dildos—immediately said by another woman to be utterly unsatisfactory substitutes for the real thing (esp. 16—18, 24—7)— and then seemingly moves on to the possibility of sleeping with slaves (29-30), to Th. II, but it is impossible to know if this is correct. 89
Col. X. 24—38 ] Movaas . . . . Cf. Kuiper, Mnemosyne ii. 4 (1913) 276-7.
90
THE M A N U S C R I P T T R A D I T I O N
Ixxxix
comedy) by appearing (ex machinal) at the very end. Butrica accordingly suggests that Satyros must have been relying not on the play we have but on Th. II, -which may have been less successful than Ar. hoped and -was therefore re-worked by him, much like the original Clouds (of -which -we similarly have only the later, revised version). One significant objection to Butrica's thesis is that the tale as presented in Vit. Eur. §6 lacks the odd elements in Satyros' version and instead conforms neatly to the plot of the preserved Th., suggesting that Satyros' additional details have come from some other source and been -worked into the Aristophanic narrative frame-work. Nor do the fragments of Th. II lend Butrica's conjecture any positive support, for the only reference to Euripides in -what -we have of the play is -what looks to be a parodic allusion to Antiope at fr. 342, and there is no hint of verbal attacks on the tragedian or of a confrontation outside his cave or the like. Indeed, the obvious parallel to -what little we can recover of the action -would seem to be instead the connubial strike in Lysistrata.91 But barring a major new papyrus find, this is probably as far as -we can go.
VII. THE MANUSCRIPT TRADITION
HI — PSI 1194 + PSI XIV p. xv. Seven pieces of a second-century AD roll -written in a stylized but not very elegant hand, and containing line-beginnings (139—56, 272—88, 594—6, 804—9), line-ends (237—46), and a colophon -with title and line-numbering. The piece containing 139—44 -was first published by E. Grassi in SIFC NS 27—8 (1956) 48 (- PSI XIV (1957) xv), the rest by M. Norsa and G. Vitelli as PSI XI (1935) 1194. See Austin, Pap.Flor. 7 (1980) 11—12 (-with pi. i). 272—88 are also reproduced in Dover, AC, pi. 2 (p. 6). Changes of speaker92 in HI are indicated by paragraphoi, dicola, and some abbreviated names inserted by a second hand at 279). The stage-direction (parepigraphe) after 276 is preceded by a coronis in the margin. The papyrus has an important new reading at 242, -where R's text is defective (see n. ad loc.), and confirms 91 Which party initiated the break in relations between the sexes and why is impossible to know. But if the trouble began with the women at their festival, fr. 334 shows that the men quickly met whatever they did with a sexual blockade of their own. Or was all this the result of some larger social or political crisis, the resolution of which fr. 335 announces? 92
See in general Lowe, BICS 9 (1962) 27—42; Dover, G&L 254—62.
XC
INTRODUCTION R
a variant reading in 2 at 141, a modern conjecture at 285, and the correct spelling of proper names at 287 and 807. It agrees with R at 142,93 as well as at 140, 150, 239, and 277, where the text has sometimes been suspected. n2 — POxy. Ivi. 3839. Three fragments of a second-/third-centuryAD roll-written in a biblical uncial and containing parts of 2s(?), 742— 66, 941—56. On the back is a version of Apollonius Sophista, Lexicon Homericum (see BICS 28 (1981) 123—41, -with pi. i). The papyrus •was first published by W. Cockle, in 'Owls to Athens' 51—60. Changes of speaker in T12 are indicated by paragraphoi and blank spaces. (But the blank space before erne /J.OL in 743 is a mistake; R correctly has a dicolon after the phrase. At 745 and 746 T12 has a text •without break, -where R -wrongly has dicola before p,iKpov and respectively.) The papyrus confirms modern conjectures at 745, 746, and 754, and agrees -with R's MLKO. (a spelling supported by epigraphic evidence) in 760 (-where see n.). 758 (condemned by some modern critics) is present. n3 - POxy. Ivi. 3840. A fourth-century-AD scrap written in a rapid, sloping hand, containing line-ends at 1185-93, and published by P. Parsons in 1989. n3 has a dicolon at the end of 1190, as well as the parepigraphe that appears as an extra line in R after 1187 (see n. ad loc.). The papyrus is confirms a modern conjecture at 1185, but the Skythian's wrongly normalized at 1192. R — Ravennas 429, in the Biblioteca Classense in Ravenna. Parchment, -written in minuscule £.950 and the only manuscript containing all eleven extant plays of Aristophanes, in the order PI., Nu., Ra., Av., Eq., Pax, Lys., Ach., V., Th., EC. Changes of speaker are normally indicated by paragraphoi and dicola. Some names -were added by the SiopOwrris ('corrector'), -who made a number of corrections and added the scholia (2R) in small uncials. But the majority of attributions -were inserted in the sixteenth century by Euphrosynus Boninus, -who used the text of R as printer's copy for the Juntine editio princeps of Th. and Lys. (Florence, I5i6). 9 4 Boninus had found 93 'Although the scribe of R has made a mistake of some kind, he did not actually write a-ntos. Probably he intended TTEOS and inadvertently wrote an extra loop in his •n' (N. Wilson). 94 See F. A. von Velsen, Uber den Codex Urbinas der Lysistrata und der Thesmophoriasusen des Aristophanes (Halle, 1871).
THE M A N U S C R I P T T R A D I T I O N
XC1
R in Urbino and took it to Pisa, -where it remained out of circulation for nearly three centuries. Invernizzi rediscovered it in Ravenna and used it for his 1794 Leipzig edition. The scholia in R -were first published in London by Bekker in 1829. M - Monacensis Graecus 492, in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. A fifteenth-century direct copy of R, 95 with Th. and Lys., but containing a small crop of often correct minor variants. R and M were fully collated by von Velsen in his 1878 Saarbriicken edition (reprinted in Leipzig by Teubner, 1883). We have checked his readings against the photographic facsimile of R (ed. J van Leeuwen (Leiden, 1904)) and a microfilm of M.96 Variant readings gleaned from the scholia (2 R ), 97 from entries in the tenth-century Suda lexicon (S), 98 and from citations in other ancient sources (the indirect tradition)99 often contribute to the improvement of the text. But Th. is unique in being a one-manuscript play: -were it not for R, this -would be afabula deperdita, on a par •with Th. II (above, Section VI). R is thus a priceless object, both beautiful and venerable in appearance, yet (like many other medieval manuscripts) a somewhat messy document, containing a rich farrago of scribal corruptions accumulated over the centuries. Since the Renaissance, scholars have painstakingly attempted to restore this 'battle-scarred text'100 to its original state. Our critical apparatus records their successful emendations, as -well as countless minor 95 This was first pointed out by Enger, RhM NF 2 (1843) 245. See also Clark, JP 3 (1871) 160, and von Velsen (above, n. 94). 96 Note the following addenda and corrigenda to von Velsen's collation: in R 5 oa (6V M), 69 TTpoit], 142 mas (see above, n. 93), 233 (/ipovTiarjs, 290 ciXXtos, 306 KO.I added above the line by a later hand, 311 n) Traiatv three times, 373 np,6K\€i, 471
477 TroAA', 500 oiov, 657 €ia€\ij\vd€i>, 964—5 i€pa>, 1073 ypat?, 1173 €([>poi>, 1185 aj, 1187 in M 1114 97 See Kraus 41—3. As we go to press (July 2003), the new edition of the scholia on Th. and&. in the Groningen corpus (Part III fasc. 2/3) has still not appeared (cf. CR N S 5 I (2001) 18-19). The most learned scholium on Th. is at 162, where the annotator takes sides with Aristophanes of Byzantium against the inept criticisms of Didymos (see 161—3 n -)- On Alexandrian and later scholars in the Ar. scholia, see PCG iii. 2. 28-30 (test. 113-29); Henderson, Lysistrata,pp. lix—Ixviii; Dover, Frogs, pp. 94-102; Dunbar, Birds, pp. 31-43; S. Trojahn, Die auf Papyri erhaltenen Kommentare zur Alien Komodie (Munich and Leipzig, 2002) 117-52. 98 See V. Coulon, Quaestiones criticae in Ar.fabulas (Strasburg, 1907) 105-9. 99 See Kraus; Kassel, KS 243-4. We have been able to supplement their lists in a few places. 100 Jackson 212.
XC11
INTRODUCTION
blunders of a more obvious kind in R. So as to avoid overburdening the apparatus -with minutiae and to give an accurate idea of the manuscript's idiosyncrasies and aberrations, we offer a survey of R's more notable features (many of-which, it should be said, accurately reflect early Byzantine practice). Scriptio plena At change of speaker:101 28 aKove, 215 p,e, 5 62 wore, 625 e'|U,oiye, 1081/2 twice, oroTti^e twice. Before a pause: 97 et(U,t, 184 ndaa, 508 dneXO' aneXOe, 647 S), 766 CTTLVOLO. (also n 2), 813 KXeifmaa, I2i3a Bentley). Inmid-sentence: 166 KaXdrjv,42'j 9piTrriSeaTa,444dXXa-, 5^o^ Poll.), 693 ev6a.Se, 812 |U,eyiora, 1075 vij Sia, l i o o 1111 ccAAd. Contractions (crasis and synizesis): see app. crit. at 288, 344, 476, 747, 1061. Division of words No division: see app. crit. at 122 Siavevp-ara,102 558 aura, 909 985 eiccTTCtAA', 1047 averiKTe, 1062 TOCFCHJT^S, 1114 p-"f)TL, 1120 1150 dvSpdcnv, 117s. Wrong division: see app. crit. at 514 CTOT' eK/j,ay/j,a, 527 ccAA' dnav, 717 1125 |U,aoTiyoi a', 1156 TToAu Trorvta. 103 Note also 159 Gelenius, praeterea Divus), 329 609 TLT0i!)v iq St' (TIT^ vi) /It"), 624 Schaefer ad Greg.Cor. p. 65). 101 For the issues involved, see van Leeuwen on Nu. 214; Gomme-Sandbach on Men. Epitr. 219; Radermacher 2 (1954) 312-13, on Ra. 1220; Dunbar on Av. 90; Braun, ZPE 133 (2000) 34. 102
R regularly treats prepositions as part of the following word: 2 l^atdivov, 91 101/2 £vi>€\€vd€pa, 126/7/8 Siai^piSiou, 313 and 327b €7T€v^aLs, 360 and 366 398 TTpoTou, 440 TTapaurr/s, 452 €iaijp.iav, 529 VTroXidai, 716 £ui
THE M A N U S C R I P T T R A D I T I O N
XC111
Aspirates Wrongly added: 19 /u.ij0' O.KOVW, 174 wv for wv (cf. 589 wv), 276 :',104 397 17 f°r S. 556 oi>x (OVK M), 619 ecr0' (ear' M), 835 M), 909 p,dXia9' t'Sov105 (|U,dAioT' efSov E. .He/. 563), and, for aspirates in the Skythian's regularly unaspirated Greek, app. crit. at 1091, 1093, 1103, 1124, 1214 (ws ra^tora). Note also 1007 1083 OVTOS, 1133 olov, 1180 cos and wcmep (also 1185, 1192), I222a Wrongly omitted: 7 ay' (ay' Msic), 15 avrw(ai>T- M, aur-Brunck), 148 M), 418 633 djU,ts (djU,- Pollux), 655 di/iajU-evas (a- M), 659 eta, 664 M), 842 -ar' i^V, iO47b dV (dv Casaubon), 1178 Omission of aspirated article: see app. crit. at 2, 30, 95, 266, 403, 405, 409,426,446,495,563,635,906, 1010, 1165. Wrong accents Double Accents: 261 TOVTL (also 733), 412 roSt (also 1181), 1142 See also below under Negatives. Adverbs, particles, pronouns: I dpa (for apa; also 8, 263), 407 et'ev, 77 36 eKTToSwv (also 293), 847 e/j,TToSwv, 846 6'8' (o 8' S), 209 (for a); also 649, 695, 735 twice, 737, 878, 1038, iO48a, 12220), 523 Indefinite adverbs and pronouns: these are regularly accented as interrogatives: 537 noOev, I wore (also 527), 31 TIS (also e.g. 151, 238), 632 TLVOS, 647 rtV, 271 TI (also e.g. 335, 402). Nouns and adjectives: 559 yaAi)v, 11 eKarepov (-repov M), 346 200 KaraTTuyov (-TTiiyov S ^JC, KaraTTuyov Dindorf), 258 S),106 976 ftfAi^Sas, 417 jU.op(U,oAjJKeta (-AuKeta Dindorf), 779 Poll. S), 641 arepififi (-ifir) Meineke), 415 Proper names: g88a SaK^ete (SaK^ete Fritzsche), 898 Elmsley on ^4c/i. 47). Verbs: J<)8 ala^wQels (for -Setcr'), 180 a0i'y|U,ai, 171 yvoiis, 979 135 epeaOaL (epeaOaL Dindorf), 795 104
For the spelling oi>x', see below under Negatives. For aspirates before forms of ISeiv, see W. Cronert, Memoria Graeca Herculanensis (Leipzig, 1903) 149 n. i; E. Mayser and H. Schmoll, Grammatik dergriechischen Papyri aus der Ptolemderzeit2 i. i (Berlin, 1970) 175-6. 106 See F. Studniczka, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der altgriechischen Tracht (Vienna, 1886) 130 n. 26. 105
XC1V
INTRODUCTION
Dindorf), 568 Aa/Se (for Aa/Se; also 913, 1096, 1197), 10
Negatives and oi>x are always followed by an apostrophe107 (as -with elided see below under Crasis): 5 OJJK' (also e.g. 188, 451), 7 ou^' (also e.g. 8, 97). Note also 226 OVK' ovv (for OVKOVV),IOS 41 1 ovoeis, 98 (for ouSeV'; also 688), 383 ovoep,ia (cf. 430 /aia), 843 jU,i)8ev' (also 932), 442b (U,i)8ev (also 496, 1 162), 228 /j,rjoa/j,ws (also 714), 1 162 Crasis in crasis appears as «' or ^': 161 K'dvaKpewv, 349 /c'oi/ciav, 484 641 K OVK (etc.), 5 lo^'oi, 522^'ijTts. Butnote6o2 284 KCCT, 482 KCCT', 486 KaO' , 518 KCCT', 792 K
Neglected assimilation See app. crit. at 317, 390, 646, 926, 997, 1032, 1034—5. Punctuation See app. crit. at 10, 38, 749, 759 (a small selection).
107 See Cronert (n. 105) 10. The same practice can already be seen in the 4th-c.-AD Bodrner codex of Menander. For the apostrophe, note also 269 dmJAAto', 484 530 pTJTtop', 558 ef, 736 «:a«:', 1224 8' djjei (cf. Men. Dysk. 337 108 Similarly 250 y'om< (for youi'; also 263, 688).
XC1V
INTRODUCTION
Dindorf), 568 Aa/Se (for Aa/Se; also 913, 1096, 1197), 10
Negatives and oi>x are always followed by an apostrophe107 (as -with elided see below under Crasis): 5 OJJK' (also e.g. 188, 451), 7 ou^' (also e.g. 8, 97). Note also 226 OVK' ovv (for OVKOVV),IOS 41 1 ovoeis, 98 (for ouSeV'; also 688), 383 ovoep,ia (cf. 430 /aia), 843 jU,i)8ev' (also 932), 442b (U,i)8ev (also 496, 1 162), 228 /j,rjoa/j,ws (also 714), 1 162 Crasis in crasis appears as «' or ^': 161 K'dvaKpewv, 349 /c'oi/ciav, 484 641 K OVK (etc.), 5 lo^'oi, 522^'ijTts. Butnote6o2 284 KCCT, 482 KCCT', 486 KaO' , 518 KCCT', 792 K
Neglected assimilation See app. crit. at 317, 390, 646, 926, 997, 1032, 1034—5. Punctuation See app. crit. at 10, 38, 749, 759 (a small selection).
107 See Cronert (n. 105) 10. The same practice can already be seen in the 4th-c.-AD Bodrner codex of Menander. For the apostrophe, note also 269 dmJAAto', 484 530 pTJTtop', 558 ef, 736 «:a«:', 1224 8' djjei (cf. Men. Dysk. 337 108 Similarly 250 y'om< (for youi'; also 263, 688).
THE M A N U S C R I P T T R A D I T I O N
XCV
109
Confusion of vowels and diphthongs A selection of the more common occurrences. see app. crit. at 103, 462, 571, 740, 749, 844, 889, 947, 1171. see app. crit. at 320, 642, 733, 804; and for the omitted augment, at 439. 479. 488. 521, 794app. crit. at 24,110 134, 204, 256, 282, 474, 580, 605, 743, 862. pp. crit. at 105, 135,nl 326, 504, 788, 839, 891, 909, 927, 1001, 1007, 1058, 1087, 1107, mo, 1133, 1167, 1190, 1198, 1216. see app. crit. at 24, 162, 644, 651, 1002, 1185. 'Confusion between i^ieis and v^els is universal in medieval texts, and the substitution of one for the other is hardly emendation; it is a question of deciding, from the context, which of two letters pronounced [i] one should write' (Dover on Nu. 195). See app. crit. at 310, 350, 386, 526a, 581, 600, 802. see app. crit. at 640, 872, 1139, 1198. see app. crit. at 42, 168, 209, 307, 347, 545, 805, 807, 939, 984, 1014, 1073-4, I I J 9 . I J 3 2 . 1219. 'nihil frequentius in codicibus quam confusio inter ot et (Blaydeson Th. 392). See app. crit. adloc. and at 417, 501, 860 (cf. 995). At Pax 1150, R has TTOIOS TIS for
Other Confusions andr: see app. crit. at 21, 225, 482, 702, 710, 860, 934. ndre: see app. crit. at 44, 141, 290, 327a, 711. Omissions Adscript iota:112 this is regularly omitted with adverbs: 3 Ko/juS-f), 91 660 7TavTax>i, 665/6 T-rjSe, iziftravT-r), 1224 TT? 8' i; with verbs: e.g. 69 Trpoiij, 85 TpayojSoi, 442a eyoi|U,cu, 526 oiOjU/^v; with nouns: 1194 ypccSiov (also 1199); and generally in datives singular: 76 d' 148 yvoijU,^, 283 dya^i) TV^IJ, 428 TOJJTOJ, 430 TOJ, 529/30 680 \vaaij, 909 eXevrj, 1060 raiSe, 1164 XPe"* • • • iroia, 1229 109 For a list of similar errors in the Bodmer codex of Menander, see C. Austin, Menandri Aspis et Samia i (Berlin, 1 969) 5 9-65 . 110 For the dual ending aKeXei, see also Threatte ii. 133—4. 111 Cf.Av. 1590 opw'fleia Bentley, -viBiacodd. '" Subscript iota becomes common only after the izth c.; see V. Gardthausen, Griechische Palaeographie2 ii (Leipzig, 1913) 241-4.
XCV1
INTRODUCTION
omitted with articles, nouns, and adjectives: see app. crit. at 394, 450, 453, 1153; and -with verbs: see app. crit. at 357.512,804,825,842. Other letters: e.g. iota in the middle of a -word (see app. crit. at 289, 944, 996) or at the end (see app. crit. at 947, gSoa, 1108, 1182), nu at the end (see app. crit. at 615, 853, 1217). Small words and particles: e.g. ye (86, 555, 804, 883), KCU (283, 306, 697, 741, 1158), and the definite article (i48(?), 301, 304, 456). Haplography: see app. crit. at4i8, 443, 486, 689b, 745, 1052, 1073— 4Saut du meme au meme: see app. crit. at 96 and 494. Like-wise 28, 33, 169, and 1102—3 "were omitted in Rac as a result of homoioteleuton •with the previous line. Additions -wrongly added -with nouns and adjectives: see app. crit. at 90, 471, 683, 824, 969, 989; and especially-with verbs: see app. crit. at 364, 367 twice, 427, 486, 548, 624, 657, 702, 746, 760, 861, 885, 929, 943, 946, 1011, 1189. Other intrusive letters: e.g. epsilon (see app. crit. at 83, 234, 584); final iota (see app. crit. at 282 (cf. Alex. fr. 172. 2 A), 317, 376, 638, 641, 1096); final nu (see app. crit. at 235, 848, 1005, 1114, 1194); sigma (see app. crit. at 28, 106, 719, 809, 1004, 1073). Small words and particles: e.g. KCU (789, 1157), TLS (340, 725), 17 (852), and the definite article (495, 1080). Dittography: see app. crit. at 234, 246, 341, 590, 654, 842, 844, 914, 952, I I I 5 , I2II, 1214.
Explanatory glosses incorporated into the text: see app. crit. at 128, 297, 300, 320, 681, 1031, 1150-1,1152. Transpositions Anagrams: see app. crit. at 581, 1114, 1125. Words: see app. crit. at 34(?), 480, 580, 632, 660, 721, 797, 799, 956, 997/8, 1214, 1215. Lines: see above under Omissions (Saut du meme au meme). 28 -was first transposed after 30; the other lines mentioned -were added in the margin, as -was 647 (omitted by Rac).
THE M A N U S C R I P T T R A D I T I O N
XCvii
Corrections See app. crit. at 45, 263, 433, 493, 512, 1073. Elsewhere the correc^ 714 " tion is simply -written above the line (e.g. 693 d^eir', 833 TTore). At 684/5/6 d-TTOTiVeTcu, originally a correction of now occupies a line by itself just above. Alternative forms and spellings Ar. uses edv at 184 and 400, elsewhere regularly TJV (e.g. 69, 151, 223) , 113 but always Kavincrasis (401, 678, 792, 795, 797, 798). 579—81 n. R has yiyv- at 542, 606—7, 620, but ytv- at 189, 264, 614. We restore ytyv- throughout, as 'Attic inscriptions have only until 306/5 B.C.' (Threatte i. 562). See further Arnott, in Willi 195-6. 410—12 n.
R rightly has es in the colloquial phrase es KopaKas (1079—82 n., cf. 1226), in paratragedy (1098, cf. 1122), and once in lyric (i 149; cf. Lys. 786; Ra. 1352). But we restore eis for esat 89, 485, 645, 767 twice, 812, 951, 954, 1137, as els is the standard Attic form used elsewhere in R (224, etc.). See further Threatte i. 178. For 657, seen, ad loc. is the norm (443), ovveKa a metrically convenient alternative (176 n., 360, 366). See further Threatte ii. 668. 173-4 n.;cf. 478. I4on. 211 —12 n.; cf. 1063. 39—40 n.; cf. 421.
is the norm (115, 317, 325, 405, 406, 733, 1115, 1117; cf. 902), the Homeric and Ionic Kovprj a metrically convenient alternative in lyric (101/2, 1138—9). and MeveXaos/-Xews: 39—40 n., 866—7 n -
Metre dictates the choice; see app. crit. at 312, 313, 802,810. We follow R and print vvv throughout (e.g. 27, 107, 195), •without distinguishing between vvv as adverb and vvv as enclitic. See C. J. Ruijgh, L'Element acheen dans la langue epique (Assen, 1957) 64—7. At 104/5 R' s vvv must be corrected to VLV rather than 113
We follow Dindorf in restoring rjv for R's av at 154 (also Hi) and 1187.
XCV111
INTRODUCTION
,114 since vvv is not now attested in comedy, even in tragic parody (K-Aon Cratin. fr. 151). Old Attic gvv is metrically guaranteed at 475, 553, 601, at 40, 156, 158, 178, 270, 624, 891, 955. Elsewhere both forms are used; cf. ^v^opd at 179 but av^uf>- at 198, and the variatio at 71516. See also app. crit. at 273; Henderson on Lys. 7-8; Threatte i. 553-41058 n.
R normally has -no- when the syllable is short, and elsewhere. We follow the manuscript throughout, except that we restore -no- at 517, 547, 555, 676/7, 678, 708, where R momentarily abandons its practice. See further W. J. W. Koster, Autour d'unmanuscritd'Aristophane ecrit par Demetrius Triclinius (Groningen, 1957) 226-30; MacDowell on V. 261; Threatte i. 326-30; Arnott, ZPE 134 (2001) 43-51. 247 n. Both forms are used as metre requires (dos in lyric at 126 withn., ais in dialogue at 194). 286-8 n. On the distinction between xpy and x/rfv (like that between Set and e'Set), see 74 n. xprf occurs at 16, 149, 378, 471, 529/30, 655, 659, 660, 662, 777, 784, 958, 966, 1062; exp-fjvat 598; and xpf)v at 74, 726, 842. xp^v must be restored at 793 and 832; there are good reasons for not restoring it at 662, 777, 966. Variant readings See app. crit. at 141, 162, 299, 393, 567, 838, 1051, and at 373, 380, 391, 560 for variants in sources other than R. Intrusive stage directions See app. crit. after 99, 129, 276, 1187. Enclitics At 271 R has ffv fiot rt for r\v (U,ot rt (see above under Wrong accents). In a series of enclitics we do not adopt the new treatment advocated by Barrett (Hippolytos, pp. 426-7) but follow the old rule of accenting all but the last, as in Vedic: see M. L. West, Aeschyli Tragoediae (Stuttgart, I99o)xxxii. 114 As first printed by Dindorf in 1835. In his note (1837 p. 709), Dindorf called his correction a mistake ('male legitur'); viv was then advocated by Meineke in 1839 (_FCGii. i p. 101).
M O D E R N W O R K ON THE TEXT
xcix
VIII. M O D E R N W O R K ON THE TEXT
R -was not available to Marcus Musurus, the distinguished Cretan scholar -who prepared the editio princeps of Aristophanes for the great printing house of Aldus Manutius (Venice, 1498). As a result, the Aldine edition contained only nine plays, and neither Th. nor Lys. -was published until some years later by Euphrosynus Boninus in an appendix to the Juntine edition (Florence, 1516). Since then, over forty complete editions of Aristophanes have appeared. Of the seventy-five or so names mentioned in our apparatus, about half •were Aristophanic editors; the rest include many of the giants in the history of Greek textual scholarship.115 The recent discovery of unpublished marginalia by earlier Hellenists has led to significant changes in the attribution of conjectures,116 and we have adopted a policy of awarding paternity to the individual -who first proposed an emendation (the npwros evperris) rather than the one -who printed it first or -was given credit for it later. We list below all the editions (in chronological order; subsections A—C) and adversaria (in alphabetical order; subsection D) -which have left their mark on our text. A. The Early Period (1516-1710) This is the era of the one-volume (mostly octavo) Aristophanes. There is, however, a striking constrast between the pocket-size Scaliger (241110) and the exceedingly large edition of Kuster, -who easily overtook both Gelenius and Portus in the heavyweight folio division. ed. pr. = E. Boninus (Florence, 1516). Also known as 'luntina'. Grynaeus (1532) = S. Grynaeus (Basel, 1532). Also known as 'Cratandriana'. See app. crit. at 307. Zanetti = B. Zanetti (Venice, 1538). Also known as 'Veneta I'. 117 Grynaeus = S. Grynaeus (Frankfurt, 1544). Also known as 'Brubachiana'. Gelenius = S. Gelenius (Basel, 1547). Also known as 'Frobeniana'.118 115 For a brief survey of the leading figures, see U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, History of Classical Scholarship, trans. Alan Harris, ed. H. Lloyd-Jones (London, 1982); for Th. in particular, Austin (1987). 116 See Austin (1987); a few new finds lurk in Prato's overloaded apparatus (2001). See also Dunbar, Birds, pp. 50-1. 117 'Veneta IF is used for the 1542 reprint by J. Farreus. us q^^ temptation to fill the margins of this handsome volume with manuscript
C
INTRODUCTION
Canini = A. Canini (Venice, 1548). Also known as 'Gryphiana'. See app. crit. at noi. Raphelengius = C. Raphelengius (Leiden, 1600). Also known as 'Plantiniana'. Portus = A. Portus (Geneva, 1607), with notes by O. Biset. Also known as 'Calderiana'. Scaliger = J. J. Scaliger (Leiden, 1624). Also known as 'Leidensis'.119 Kuster = L. Kuster (Amsterdam, 1710). B. The Last 250 Years (1760-) After Kuster, editions in two or more volumes became the norm. There was again some variation in format, with the diminutive Boissonade(32mo) and the slim Tauchnitz fascicules (i8mo) dwarfed by Bergler's majestic quartos and the multi-volume Invernizzi. Bergler = S. Bergler (2 vols.: Leiden, 1760), edited by P. Burmann II. Th. in vol. ii. Brunck = R. F. P. Brunck(3 vols.: Strasburg, 1783). Th. in vol. i. Reviewed by R. Person, Maty's New Review 4 (1783) 55—68 (= Person's Tracts (London, 1815) n-37).120 Invernizzi = P. Invernizzi (13 vols.: Leipzig, 1794—1834). Th. in vol. ii (1794); the commentary in vol. viii (1821) was compiled by W. Dindorf. ed. Lips. (1814) = the Tauchnitz edition (3 vols.: Leipzig, 1812-14). Th. in vol. iii (1814). Printed anonymously, but said to be by G. H. Schaefer. A new edition was published in 1842 by C. H. Weise (Th. in vol. ii). See app. crit. at 1201. Dindorf = W. Dindorf (1802-83), an indefatigable editor; see above under Invernizzi. His own first text was the two-volume Teubner of 1825 (Leipzig; Th. in vol. ii, with his corrections at 173, 433, 478, 556, 624), followed by another edition in 1830 (London) and in the same year the first issue of his complete Poetae scaenici Graeci (Leipzig). Dindorf's main edition was published at Oxford (Th. in vol. ii (1835): the commentary in vol. iii (1837); the scholia in vol. ivpart iii (1838)), his last in London in 1869 (sth and final version of Poetae scaenici Graeci). Boissonade = J. F. Boissonade (4 vols.: Paris, 1826). Th. in vol. iii. notes proved irresistible; Biset, Casaubon, Daubuz, Bentley, and others seized the opportunity with gusto. 119 q^^ j5y o Amsterdam reprint by J. Ravestein contains T. Faber's new translation and notes on EC. 120 Brunck's corrections at 235, 347, and 409 are autograph marginal notes in a manuscript now in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris (Suppl. gr. 354) and in his own copy of his vol. i (Res. m. Yb i); see Austin (1987) 76—7.
MODERNWORKONTHETEXT
ci
Bekker = I. Bekker (5 vols.: London, 1829). Th. in vol. i; the Latin translation and Greek scholia in vol. ii; the commentary cum notis variorum in vol. iv. Bothe = F. H. Bothe (4 vols.: Leipzig, 1828-30; 2ndedn. 1845). Th. in vol. iv (1830) and vol. iii (1845). See also his Lectiones Aristophaneae (Berlin, 1808), published under the anagrammatic pseudonym L. Hotibius (with his suggestions at 367, 681—3, ^ Z 39)Holden = H. A. Holden (Cambridge, 1848; 3rd edn. 1868). Bergk = Th. Bergk, a new Teubner edition (2 vols.: Leipzig, 1852; 2nd edn. 1857). Th. in vol. ii. Meineke = A. Meineke (2 vols.: Leipzig, 1860). Th. in vol. ii. See also his Vindiciarum Aristophanearum liber (Leipzig, 1865). Hall-Geldart = F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (2 vols.: Oxford, 1900-1; 2nd edn. 1906-7). Th. in vol. ii. Anew OCT is being prepared by N. G. Wilson. Coulon = V. Coulon (5 vols.: Paris, 1923—30). The Bude edition, with a French translation by H. van Daele. Th. in vol. iv (1928).121
C. Separate Editions o/Th. Thiersch = B. Thiersch (Halberstadt, 1832). Fritzsche = F. V. Fritzsche (Leipzig, 1838). Reviewed by G. Hermann, Z. Alt. 5 (1838) 670—94. Fritzsche subsequently brought out a revised text of Th. 1-465 in two academic 'specimens' (Rostock, 1859-61). Enger = R. Enger (Bonn, 1844). Reviewed by G. Hermann, Z. Alt. NS 3 (1845) 905-20 (= Hermann's Opusculaviii (Leipzig, 1877) 288-308). von Velsen = A. von Velsen (Saarbriicken, 1878; Leipzig, 1883). Reviewed by O. Bachmann, Phil. Anz. 15 (1885) 217-22. Blaydes = F. H. M. Blaydes (Halle, 1880). The first in a 12-volume series of all the plays and fragments (1880—93) ,122 van Leeuwen = J. van Leeuwen (Leiden, 1904). The eighth in an 11 -volume series (1893—1906; Vesp.2 1909). 121 See also Coulon's Essai (above, under Abbreviations) and his articles in REG 35 (1922) 408-14 (Th. at 412-14); 38 (1925) 73-98 (Th. at 82, 90-4); 39 (1926) 90-6, 347-5° (Th. at 93-5, 348-50); 42 (1929) 11-19 (Th. at 17-18); 43 (1930) 36-63 (Th. at 52-3); 44 (1931) 8-33 (Th. at 8-21); 47 (1934) 421-43 (Th. at 423-4, 431-5, 440-2); 50 (1937) 15-41, 448-58 (Th. at 454-8); 66 (1953) 34-55 (Th. at 37-8, 49-50); Philologusgs (1942) 31-54 (Th. at 45-54); RhMNF 100(1957) 186-98 (Th. at 186-97); Io6 (1963) 149-60 (Th. at 150-4). See also Melanges Bides (Brussels, 1934) 121-34. 122 See also his earlier edition of Birds (Oxford, 1842), pp. iv—v, for his suggestions at 38 and 1216. Further notes by Blaydes (often repeated ad nauseam) can be found in his Adversaria critica in Aristophanem (Halle, 1899); Spicilegium Aristophaneum (Halle, 1902); Analecta comica Graeca (Halle, 1905); Miscellanea critica (Halle, 1907).
cii
INTRODUCTION
Rogers = B. B. Rogers (London, 1904; reprinted in 1920 with a preface by G. Murray). The third in an n -volume series (1902-16). Sommerstein = A. H. Sommerstein (Warminster, 1994). The eighth in an n-volume series (1980—2001; Addenda to Th. in vol. n Wealth (2001) 305—10; vol. 12 Indexes, 2002). Reviewed by Olson, BMCR 5 (1994) 633-6; Austin, CR NS 45 (1995) 431-2. Prato = C. Prato (Milan, 2001). In the 'Lorenzo Valla' series, with an Italian translation by D. Del Corno. Reviewed by Olson, BMCR 2002.03.13. D. Adversaria Critica (a selection)123 Anon. Par. = an anonymous lyth-c. annotatorof a copy of the 1600 Leiden edition of Raphelengius now in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris (Res. Yb 739). See Austin (1987) 71, and app. crit. at 58, 594, 1133. Anon. Rom. = an anonymous i6th-c. annotator of a copy of the 1548 Venice edition of Canini now in the library of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome (Colloc. 22 A i). See Prato p. xxxii n. i, and app. crit. at 103,719. Bentley = R. Bentley (1662—1742). The notes in his copy of Gelenius, now in the British Library (676. h. 13), were first published, not without mistakes and omissions, by G. Burges, CJ 14 (1816) 130—7. See Austin (1987) 66; Prato on 969. Biset = O. Biset (fi594). His 'new scholia' in Greek in his copy of Gelenius (now in the Cambridge University Library (Adv. a. 2. i) were published by Portus in 1607, but Portus failed to record scores of excellent conjectures, which anticipated later suggestions. See Austin (1987) 62-4, 87-92; Prato on 290 and 717. Bourdin = G. Bourdin, (Paris, 1545). 'Scholia' in Greek, printed with the text. As the scholia in R were not known at the time, Bourdin's notes, like those of Biset, served as a replacement and were reprinted by Portus in 1607 and Kusterin 1710 and even by Dindorf as late as 1823 (in vol. xi of Invernizzi's edition). Burges = G. Burges. Notes on the lyrics, in CJ 14(1816) 231—40. Casaubon = I. Casaubon (1559—1614). His annotated copy of Gelenius is now in the British Library (C. 77. g. 12). See Austin (1987) 65; Prato on 939Daubuz = C. Daubuz(i673-i7i7). His annotated copy of Gelenius is now in the British Library (1348. i. i). See Austin (1987) 67. Dawes = R. Dawes, Miscellanea critica (Cambridge, 1745) 320-31. 123 An asterisk indicates posthumous publication (in part or in whole). Not listed here are works referred to above under 'Abbreviations', e.g. J. Jackson's Marginalia scaenica (1955) or E. Fraenkel's Beobachtungen su Aristophanes (1962).
M O D E R N WORK ON THE TEXT
ciii
Divus = A. Divus. His Latin translation of Aristophanes (Venice, 1538) often tacitly removed corruptions for the first time. See Austin (1987) 69. Dobree = P. P. Dobree (1782—1825). His Adversaria (Cambridge, 1831— 3) were posthumously published by J. Scholefield. For Th., see vol. ii (1833)236-42. Ellebodius = N. Ellebodius (N. Helbault, "f 1577). His Latin versions of Th. and Lys. with notes are now in the Ambrosian Library, Milan (Cod. Ambr. D 478 inf.). See Schreiber, TAPA 105 (1975) 313-32; Austin (1987) 64-5 (who examined a microfilm). Faber = T. Faber (Tannegui Le Fevre, 1615-72). His annotated copy of Scaliger's 1624 Leiden edition is now in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris (Res. Yb. 740). See Austin (1987) 65-6. Hamaker = H. G. Hamaker, Mnemosyne 5 (1856) 291-306. Hermann = G. Hermann (1772—1848). He brilliantly improved the lyrics over a period of nearly 50 years, from his early De metris (Leipzig, 1796) and Elementa doctrinae metricae (Leipzig, 1816), to his 1845 review of Enger. van Herwerden = H. van Herwerden. His Vindiciae Aristophaneae (Leiden, 1906) 83—7, briefly lists all his earlier suggestions on Th. going back to the collective article inMnemosyne 2 (1853) 210-13. Kaibel = G. Kaibel (1850-1901). His annotated copy of von Velsen( 1883) is now in the Sackler (formerly Ashmolean) Library in Oxford. See Austin (1987) 67-8. Lenting = J. Lenting, Observationes criticae in Aristophanem (Zutphen, 1839) 18-28, 133-4. Person = R. Person (1759—1808). Apart from his 1783 review of Brunck, most of his emendations appeared posthumously, either in his Adversaria (Cambridge, 1812) or Tracts (London, 1815), or in his Notae in Aristophanem, edited by P. P. Dobree (Cambridge, 1820; Th. on pp. 209— 22).
Reisig = C. Reisig (1792—1829). Some of his suggestions can be found in his Coniectaneain Aristophanem (Leipzig, 1816), the rest inEnger's 1844 edition. Reiske = J. J. Reiske, AdEuripidemet Aristophanem Animadversiones(Leipzig, 1754)217-20. Wilamowitz = U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1848-1931). A number of readings marked 'Wil.' are recorded in Paul Maas's copy of van Leeuwen, now in C. Austin's possession. See Austin (1987) 68. Willems = A. Willems, BAB (1908) 625—77, reprinted in his Aristophane ii (Paris and Brussels, 1919) 535—79Zuretti = C. O. Zuretti, RIFC 29 (1901) 554-66.
civ
INTRODUCTION
We refer passim to Austin's earlier-work on the play. Besides his unpublished D.Phil, thesis, "Towards an edition of Ar. Th.' (Oxford, 1965), see his articles (in English, French, and Latin) in Dioniso 45 ( I 97 I ~4) 3 J 6—25; PCPSNS 20 (1974) 1—2; Le Monde grec: Hornmages a Claire Preaux (Brussels, 1975) 186—7; Pap. Flor. 7 (1980) 11—12 (\vith plate i); ZPE 57 (1984) 58; Dodone 16.2 (1987) 61—92; Dodone 19. 2 (1990) 9—29; CR NS 45 (1995) 431—2; QUCC 72 (2002) 74—6; and his contributions to Lourengo and Parker (as above, under 'Abbreviations'). A Note on Line-Numbers For convenience's sake, we follow all modern editors in retaining the line-numbers of Brunck's 1783 edition of Aristophanes. Linenumbers such as '369-70' indicate verses that combine what are in Brunck's edition two (or in some cases more) complete consecutive lines. Line-numbers such as '101/2' indicate verses that combine portions of-what are in Brunck's edition two (or in some cases more) consecutive lines. Line-numbers such as '327a' and '327b' indicate separate verses that are combined in a single verse in Brunck's edition.
METRICAL SYMBOLS 1. In abstract description of a metre: (1) position occupied by a long syllable (2) last position in a verse position occupied by a short syllable position that may be occupied by either a short or a long syllable 2. In scanning a given sequence of words: long syllable short syllable syllable that may be scanned as short or long syncopated form position that may be occupied by syllable that would be short if the next syllable belonged to the same verse syllable-boundary between mute and liquid when they make position (e.g. 463 point at which word-end occurs in both strophe and antistrophe point at which hiatus or ~ occurs end of strophe, antistrophe, epode, or any other sung passage The following abbreviations are used: adon(ean) aeol(ic) a line containing a single choriamb as nucleus alcman(ic) (dactylic tetrameter) anacr(eontic) (variant of ionic dimeter) an(apaestic metron) archeb(ulean) (aeolic) arist(ophanean) (aeolic) ba(cchiac) cat(alectic) adj. indicating that the end of a line is abbreviated (cf. Maas §58) cho(riamb)
cvi
cr(etic) D da(ctyl) do(chmiac) dod(rans)A dod(rans)8 e gl(yconic) hypodo(chmiac) iambel(egus) ia(mbic) ibyc(ean) io(nic) ith(yphallic) lek(ythion) mol(ossus) p(aeon) par(oemiac) ph(erecratean) reiz(ianum) sp(ondee) tel(esillean) tr(ochaic)
METRICAL SYMBOLS
(aeolic; cf. West, GM 194) (in dactylo-epitrite; cf. D) (aeolic)
(x e x D) (aeolic)
(Ra. 1208, etc. and
(resolved cretic) (catalectic glyconic) (catelectic telesillean) (headless glyconic)
SIGLA ii
ii/iii iv R x S x M xv ed. pr. xvi
ac pc
mg rec s
-
PSI XIV p. xv: vers. init. 139-44 PSI XI 1194: vers. init. 145-56, vers. fin. 237-46, vers. init. 272-88, 594-6, 804-9, et subscriptio POxy. Ivi. 3839: frustula ex 2s(?), 742-66, 941-56 POxy. Ivi. 3840: vers. fin. 1185-93 Ravennas 429 Suda (ed. A. Adler) Monacensis Gr. 492, ex R exscriptus editio princeps luntina (ed. E. Boninus: Florentiae, 1516) scholium ante correctionem post correctionem varia lectio vocabulo notata varia lectio vocabulis lemma scholii in margine manus recens supra lineam vocabulum vel vocabula in eadem sede crux desperationis (- verba corrupta) versus finis litterae in lacuna deperditae verba e coniectura suppleta
notata
Sigla quae ad testimonia tantum pertinent: fabulam non nominat testis nee fabulam nee poetam nominat testis verba quae in Thesmophoriazusis legimus alii fabulae tribuit testis in apparatu non omnia notavimus quae passim apud testes corrupta omissa transposita leguntur
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Index personarum deest in R
5
10
15
20
R p. i6z v . vid. etiam subscriptionem (infra, Tit. p. 49) etTest. 2. a. i8,b. ij,c. g (PCGiii. 2 p. 5) 2§Sai33O (aAotov) § Phot. a 1029 = § 27way.B a 984
18, 19 (^oat^i/) §§ Moer. x I
Boissonade: av- RS 3 re A2R (nunc evanidum praeter verba TI R 5 6V M: 6'a R: 6V ed. pr. 7 peXXys Brunck: R 10 6pap; Gelenius 16 Trptor' e- Grynaeus: -rrpcoTa R 18 R Biset: -1)1' R: -^ Boissonade -^oavr/v Biset (cf. 2R
4
25
3°
35
40
33
37Q2
Poll. ii. 88
36 (. . . TTTTj^uifisf)
§ S IT 3024
39-41
4O—2 (lTTlSl][JL£l . . .) § S 6 378
Reiske 24 TrpoafioSoifu Ellebodius (cf. ZR R OKfXfi KB i. 432: -Xt] R 28 Brunck:-aoj R 30 Ayadatv Biset: ay- R 32 ou^ eopaKas TrdjTTOTe; Eur. cont. Bentley 34 OUTOI pa TOV AC Kaibel 38 ante et post eaiice dist. Blaydes (l8 4 2;cf.I R A«V«Toa) ? , coS€oi.K€) 39 Aao ? I R S GI ™:A ! ra) ? RS AF 40 Dindorf: -tfAei'aas RS 21 ye AIR: re R
23
5
45
5°
55
6o
43-5 (• • • yhavKov) § S e 3997 (hinc § Zon. 941 I^TUI) 43 cf. §§ Luc. Trag. S 129 44 (KeXaSeiTto) §§ S K 1278 45,48 2807 (p. 397. 2-3); § Eust. p. 1718. 9 45 03
Rpc.
R,c
R
60
6 65
70
75
80
85
90
74 §§ S K 1487 (cf. §§ Moer. K 38) 80 (rpiri] ©ea^ofiopicw) §§ Hsch. 1440 83—4 cf. 8 0 3 2 5 69 8vpat,€ Zanetti Dobree
R
80 emi Tpirrj
74 xp9?11 RSFV: %prj SAGM
lp,6v RS: lp,e Valckenaer ap.
'arl KS,R: eireiirep earl Nauck
86 SiVcuay' Grynaeus: Si" Kai' R Sandbach 90 yupai^i M:-^iV R
83 pov Biset:
87 €KTOVTO)I> Bergler: €KTauTfjs x^11 Markland: ^dp R
R:
7
95
IOO
101
IOI/2 I03 104
I°4/5
110
114/15
93—4 §§ Sr439
Tzetz.C7z//.xiii.28i—8
93 §§ 8*2025
94 (iJ/Lterepos1 o-Trupa/Ltous 1 ) §§ S7r3i92;cf.
96 (eKKVK\ovfjLevos)§§
Zon.6jSeKKVK\ei
1445 (iLvpiLf]Ko$ a.Tpa.TTov$) §§ Hsch. fj, 1904; Phot, fj, 606 Trag. 75 104/5-6 (ev-rreiarcos . . .) § S a 183 95 rt Kaibel: ri 8' R suppl. Meineke
100 §§ S 104 cf. §§ Luc.
-MyaflajpBiset: ay- R 96 TTOU Dobree: TTOLO R 'a^';— 99 yap Burges: av R: av Scaliger: vvv Rogers: r/V Austin
(ecce\ cf. Men. Dysc. 910; Theoc. 8. 26) post 99 parepigraphe i^ivvpia^os (rP-*2R 100 8iafj,ivvp€Tai Dawes: -fj,ivvpi£,€Tai RS 101 X8ovia.iv Meineke: -at? R 102 eXevOepia Hermann 103 TrarptSt R: TrpaTrtSt Wecklein -^opevoaoOe Anon. Rom. (tripudiate Divus): -aflat R 104 i>ti> Dindorf: vw R 105 Reiske: eviriar- RS 106 e^et S: -et? R 107 oA/3t£e Bentley: oirXi^e R Bergk: fj,ovoa R
8 ii5/i6
120
125 126 126/7/8
128
130
135
115/16 (^prefjiiv aypoTepav) § Eust. p. 361. 27 I2O EM, p. 153. 31 TTdpcoBcov TO e£ 'Ep€x&€cos Evpnri8ov (brevius § Et. Gen. (AB) a 1271 Lass.-Liv. = § Phot, a 2957 = § S a 4147 = § £vvay.E a 2226 125 §§ S a 4016 128 (ayaAAe) §§ Phot, a 164 = §§ Sway.B a 145; cf. §§ Phot, a 87 post 129 parepigraphe 6XoXv^,€i 6 yeptov §§ S o 194 130—2 (rj8v . . . i^avoaAtoTov) § S y 141 131—2 (^TjAuSpiajSes" . . . /LtavSaAajrov) §8^,134 131 (^lyAuSpiajSes" . . .) § S K 912 Hsch. 6491 (KaTe"yX(aTTiafjLevov)§ Poll. ii. 109 132 Hsch. fj, 224; §§ Phot. ^,86 132—3 (ajar' . . .) § S y 63 (hinc 133 §§ Zon. 423 133 (yapyaAo?) §§ Moer. y 23; cf. §§ Phryn. PS, p. 56. 9 134 (TJTLS) §§ Hsch. 17 948 136 (. . . Trarpa) §§ S y 504 (ytWts) § Hsch. y 1015; cf. §§ Phryn. PS, p. 60. 19 136-40 (TIS 17 • • •) § S /3 no 137 Hsch./3 211; cf. §§ Phot./3 62 115 dei'aaT'Zanetti(/m/(&7£eDivus): -aavr' R 117 aepvav Dindorf: -ofR 122 Sidfeu^taTa Fritzsche: Stav- R 125 OOKI^COV Schone: -co R2RS: OOKI^OV *y')-^R 126 ^ao? Burges: ^to? R 127 a/Lt Meineke: iJ/Lt-R: u/Lt- Nietzsche 128 ' Dindorf: <j)oifiov n^a R post 129 parepigraphe 6AoAv£,ei 6 (-eis R) y€pcov RS: A R 2 130 TTOTfiai S:-TfiaR 134 ^Tts Gelenius(cf. Hsch.): efrts R ex corr.) 135 /lu^oupyeia? Dindorf: -yta$- R
9
140
145
15°
155
160
165
1^.1—2,
(iTOTepOV . . . 7T€O$) § S 77 987
Moer. x I9
142 (iTOU 7T€O$ . . .) S A 63
(ACLKCOVIKCLI) §§ Hsch. A 225; §§ Phot. A 57
146—7 S a 1097
149-50 § Apostol. xviii. 4ih 159-61 S a 1633 162-3 S € 989 162 S € 4049 (hinc (oiirep . . .) §§ Zon. 942 exvfuaav) (exv^iaav) §§ Hsch. € 7681 163 S i 495 (_€fjLiTpo
139 ov RSV: a- SMT: o- SAGI: om. S F 140 Karpmrov Dover ad Ra. 47: RS 141 ou T'H! w-i;R: TI'S S' R: m) S'Thiersch 142 Wos H! et R (TT male exaratum, ut vid.; non a-ntos): TO TTEOS S 148 ap,a {rrj) Meineke 154 r/V Dindorf: apri! R 162 KaAKaiosRS: Ka^aLos ir?'^R OLirep . . . ^v^iaav S: R 163 OI€K\O>I>T' Toup: -/<:ii'aji'R: -KIVOVV S 165 Elmsley (OTrfweftaterDivus): -ea^ero R
IO
170
175
180
185
i go
i68 (ala-^pos) ^RVEFAv. I295a. a 173 (/3au£aji<. . .) § S /3 192 (hinc § Zon. 379 175 (ov . . .) S £ 63 176 ^R 500 177—80 (ao(f)ov . . . ae) § S 792 177-8 (ao>ov . . .)§ S 01 154 179 § 8*2556 192 vos) § Poll. ii. in 193 § Eust. p. 4. 8 168 o M : a i R 168-9 -KXerjs bisBentley: -KX-ijs bis R R 173 fj Dindorf: TJF RS 178 ofos S: -OF R (cf. ^ p,eyaXrj Kai Oav^aorfi): KOLV- RS
169 SeBrunck: 179 «raiFij Biset
II
195
200
205
2IO
215
I
95~7 (/•»? • • • ) § § S v 709 198-201 §§ S T 440 215-16 S a 4565 cf. ZR ravra Se e'Aa/3ei< IK ra)v 'ISaiatv Kparivov (fr. 90); Clem. Al. Strom, vi. 26. 4 196 yap ai< S: yap R 204 vuKTepijaia Bothe: -etaia R 209 -SatjLia)i< M: R (X^.) Evpim&r) Elmsley ad Ach. 475: -ijs R 216 a>evei.v R: ed. pr.: etaaj R 217 'TriSoupai 'p.avTov Dawes (e^tauToi' iam Scaliger): S R
12
220
225
230
235 219-20 (. . . £vpo8oKT)s) Poll. x. 140 pp. § 130. 43; § 1399. 38
220 (£vpo8oKT)s) § Poll. u. 32; Eust. 223 (aTTCLTai la.TTa.Tai) § S € 2807 (p. 397. 4)
227 §§ S r/ 334 (rjfjLiKpaipav) Et. Gen. (AB) (p. 150 Miller); §§ Hsch. r/ 496; Eust. pp. § 710. 50; § 1127. 35 (§§ Ael. Dion. 17 g) 231 Et. Gen. (AB) (p. 218 Miller, brevius § EM, p. 593. 38) (pv ^.v] §§ S € 2807 (p. 397. 4); cf. § Eust. p. 723. 9 S/Lt 1383 (hinc§ Apostol. xvi. 6oc) (fjLv£,eis)§ Eust. p. 440.23 232 §§ S 105 235 (KAeioOfEvrj) § S K 1756 220 -BoKTjs 2 R Poll. (-So^? Eust.): -8iK7]s R 222 ot/Ltot Dindorf: coi^oi R 223 aTTarai larTarai Biset: arrara.' arrarai R: a.rra.ra.ra.ra.rra.L S 225 Porson: Siy^Tpay' R 230 arpefjLas avrov Dobree 232 au RS: et van Herwerden: cbv Blaydes 234 6eaa6ai Porson: 6eaaaa6ai R aavrov Biset: R 235 KAeioOevrj Brunck: -vr/v RS
13
240
245
250
255
3 37 § S S 205 239 (xtpKov) §§ Hsch. K 2333 244—5 (T(* • • •) Phot, a 2946 — Hvvay? a 2,2,13 (Ael. Dion, a 186) 245 (£v ...)§§ S a 4132 Moer. a 17 (hinc §§ Hsch. a 7634); cf. §§ Phryn. PS, p. 28. i 246 § S T 903 Eust. pp. §§ 83. 6; § 992. 60; § 1314. 15 (aWos) § Eust. p. 1385. 59 Hsch.r 1243; §§ Phot. p. 598.5; cf. §§ Luc. Lex. 2248 (-n-Xvvei) §§ Moer. 7779 254 §8712114 (-TToadiov) §§ Hsch. 77 3096; §§ Phot. p. 445. 3 257—8 8-771165 258 § Phot. p. 417. 11; Eust. p. 1280. 63 (K€>aXfi irepiBeTos) § Poll.
ii-35 242 [fTJTepoF n a (leg. Medaglia): om. R 246 yeyeVij^ai SEust.: yeyevv- R 247 a>oyyiefElmsley adAch. 463: 077-R 248 olpio^er' Zanetti: -£er' R Brunck: els R 256 a/<:eAei KB i. 432:-A-^ R
14 260
265
270
275
280
z6l § S e 135 (eyKVK\ov . . .) § S K 1809 263 (^aAapd . . . ) § § S ^ 7 274 (apS-ip) §§ Hsch. a 7097 275-6 cf. § Eust. p. 443. 37 277-8 80325 282 Phot, a 1386 (Ael. Dion, a 113) 260 ap' Kuster: ijp R tippoaei. Zanetti: -01; R 261 Ad/3' Kuster: Xripfiav' RS 263 yomIR) Phot. Phot.: -pa) R
is
285
290
300
305 310
285 (TTOTrai/) § Eust. p. 437. 4 292 § Phot. p. 486. 24 295 (ev 3°4 Tai? et add. Meineke 306 KCLI add. 5 Rrec ayopevovaav van Leeuwen: TTJV dy- R 307 TOP ^5- Grynaeus (1532): TCOV a6- R 310 T^LIV M: u^tv R 312 Dindorf: -iL&aQa. R 313 -n.&Qa. Bourdin: -iL&aQa. R
:6 315-16 318/19
319 320
323 323/4 324
325-6 32?a 32?b 328-9 33°
335
34°
322—4 § S ot 181 335~7 §§ Sat. Vit. Eur. fr. 39 col. xii. 8 (post 373—4) 336 ('77iK-i]pvK€V€Tai)§§ Et. Gen. (B) = §§ EM, p. 360. 21 = §§ Phot. € 1580 = §§ 8^2375 ZWQ.J. e682;cf.§§ Hsch.e4853 341 § 8^1271 (hinc§ Zon.745 Hsch. 773308 317 TrayKp- ed. pr.: 7Ta.jj.Kp- R Kopa M: Kopq R 320 -
I?
345
35°
355
356-9 360
363-6
367/8 368 369-70
347-8 («'...) § S x 3 9 4 363~4 (mropprfra. . . .) S a 3501 369-?! S IT 444 ('ex Pluto') 373~4 §§ Sat. Vit. Eur. fr. 39 col. xii. i (vid. ad 335~7) 374~5 (^lpxt//<:^et' • • • £ypa/u-/u'(*TeL>ei<) S e 2616 344 ai< Faber: a ay R 346 eraipa et erepa ^-S11 347 xoaj? Brunck: RS 349 KtoKiav Brunck 350 ^^i' M: vp.iv R 356 Aeyouaai? R: R 2 357 l^aTrarataiv Bentley: -at R 360 OVVEK' Bentley: epe/^' R vers. ad366rettulitReisig 364 Ae'yowo' Bentley: -aivRS 367 Bothe: -avail* -avail* R
Hunt): Ti^oKXei' RIRS
372 Traa' Voss: TTCLS R
373 ap[^i/<:A]eia Sat. (suppl.
:8 375
MIKA 380
385
39°
395
377~8 (• • • ira-dew) § S x 481 (hinc § Lex. Vind. p. 190. 10) S TT 1166 381 (xpefji'TTTeTai) §§ Phryn. PS, p. 126. I S 43 I 389 § S e 2592 (eTTio^rj) §§ Hsch. e 5 195
128
380 3§3~4 (• • • 390—4 § S
390-1 2 T P1. Thg. 1270 = Gr^. 457b = ^).M/. 3 65d(pp. 112, 136, 178
Greene; hinc (. . .6eaTai)§§ 8^955) PS, p. 34. 18; § Eust. p. 380. 15 Hsch. t 501
392 (av8pepaaTpia$)§ Poll. iii. 7i;§§ Phryn. 395~6 (. . . r/i^ds) S t 275 395
376CT^oAiyZanetti: -rj R. 380 Trpatrov R: irporepov S 386 rjjj,d$ Cobet: R 390 epfipaxv S 2 PI. Hp.Mi.: epfip-, vs I. PI. Gr^.: evfip- R 2 PI. ^^39 1 Tpaya)8ol KO.L R: rpayojSia /cat S: rpayajSt/cot 2 PI. 392 (Liot^o- S: R avBpepaarpias Poll. SGFM Eust.: dpSpea- RSAV 393 oivoiriiras ^•)2RS: R •2 : -TroTtSa? R 394 avSpaatv Kuster: -at RS 398 (LvTr&p Kuster
19 400
4°5
410
415
42O
425
413 §§ Men. Mon. 191 (— E. fr. 804. 3); § Apostol. v. Q3b 417 EM, p. 590. 53 421-8 (ot . . . egai/fapevovs) § S A 64 421—7 (ot . . . 8*159 422 (KaKoi70eaTaTa)Eust.pp.§ 974-37;§ no8.25;§ 1603.52 423 (yo/Lu^tous1) §§ Phryn. PS, p. 61. i 426 (oiKOTpuji) §§ Moer. o 25; §§ Hsch. o 266 (§§ Ael. Dion, o 9) 428—9 (e/Ltot . . . ) § § S /c 2771 400 817 add. Austin 403 avrjp Brunck: av- R 405 aSeA^o? Biset: aS- R 409 afSpe? Brunck: av- R 412 eOeXei Kappeyne van de Coppello: OeXei R 417 JJ.OLXOLS M: /Ltu^- R4*8 £vyyvtoa8' M: £vyv- R 419 Reiske: Ta.jj.ievea8ai R Aa^eif Scaliger: Aa/Seif R 426 oiKOTpiifs KB i. 220: R: oni. S 427 eSt'Sa^e S: -ev R
2O
43°
433/4 434/5
435 436 436/7 437/8 438/9
439 440
440/1 442a 442b
445
45°
429 (KvpKavav) §§ Phot. K I254(~§§ Hsch. ^4691); § Eust. p. 1213. 50 Hsch. 0,4182; §§ S a 1645 =§§ Svvajy. a 449 (cf. §§ Moer. a 103) 432 . . .) § Eust. p. 1484. 53 (rrjs ypa/Lt/Ltareajs1) Poll. iv. 19 436/7—438/9 §§ S € 22 437/8 (irvKv&s) §§ Hsch. TT 4335 442b (avTiKpvs) §§ Phot, a 2109 (§§ Ael. Dion, a 147) 447-9 (poXis • • • recos) 2T PI. Hipparch. 22gd (p. 109 Greene) 448 (fjLvppivais) §§ Moer. /Lt 23 449 § S r 321 (rj^iKaKtos) § Poll. vi. 161 453—6 Gell. xv. 20. 7 433 OU7TO) Dindorf: ouTrajTrore (ex OUTTOJ re) R 436/7 Austin: iraaas 8' etSea? (i'S- S) e^rjTaaev (-ae S) RS 437 ^/SaCTTaae S: -aei< R 439 ai>f]vp€i> Meineke: -€vp€i> RS 440 aurr/v Zanetti: -TJ? R -K\€TJS Bentley: R 443 €i>€Ka Kaurr/ Porson: €I>€K' aurr/ R 446 ap-^p Brunck: av- R 450 Taraip Brunck: -at R 453 a-n-aaaiaii' Gell.: -at R
21
455
460
46 3 /4 464/5 465
470
475
480
455-6 § Plu. Comp. Ar. et Men. i (p. 8530) 457-8 (Sei . . .) § S a 1591 458 Ath. 15. 68oc (aT€>rivovs avv8t][ia.Tiaiovs) § Poll. vii. zoo Hsch. a 2624 459—60 § S A 4 4 i 466 (o£vdvp,£iadai) §§ Phot. p. 340. 19 468 (davp,aaiov) §§ Moer. 6 16 (hinc §§ Hsch. 6 146) 469 §§ S o 330 (brevius Phot. p. 335. 25 = §§ Sway, o 162) (ovaipriv) §§ Hsch. o 852 470 § S 328 473-4 (• • • >epofj.€v) S T 683 480 § Poll. iii. 42 Hsch. S 1558 456Tof?Plut. Gell.:om. R
Zanetti (audientes Divus): -aais R
462 aKaipaZanetti: aKepaR
469 ovai^v S: ovoi- R
467
471
Brunck: -Xoiaiv R 474 e/Grynaeus (s/Divus): rj R 476 ^taAA-^i'Dindorf: R 477 -n-oAAa Selv' Dawes: m>AA' R 478 -ij Dindorf: TJF R 479 KadfjuBev Scaliger: -euSeii' R 480 Bi€/<6pT]a€v ouaav eVreTii'Poll.: R
22
4§5
49°
495
500
5°5
51° 481 § Se52o(hinc§ Zon. 669 eKvvev); Eust. p. 1746. 6 484 § Eust. p. 1746.45 Eust. p. 503. 20 486 § S a 1712 (KeSpiSas) §§ Hsch. /<: 1980; Phot. K 517 489 (Ayvia) St. Byz. p. 22. 15; cf. §§ Moer. a 13 493-4 (fj.riXi.a0' . . . vvx&') S A 434 504 (COKVTOKI.') § Poll. ii. 7; §§ Phryn. PS, p. 129.3 5°6 (Ki;pi'u)j3ej3ua/ie'i'oi')§§ Phot. K 675; cf.§§ Hsch. K 2549 509 S 77 637 (hinc § Zon. 1012 rjrpov) (rjrpov) §§ Moer. 77 14 482 Kayo) Lenting: Kar' R 486 erpifie S: -ev R awrfOov Dindorf: avij- RS 488 rjpei- Kuster: epei-R 493 Xi]Kd)p,£daS: /<:ii'-R(/<:ii'inras.) 494 Bentley: OKopoSia ij.rj.a- R 495 oo^po^vos Kuster: 6a({>prj.iv6- R Dawes: dp-R d-n-o Biset: d-n-o TOU R 500 v-n-avyaa' Hermann: UTT' avyas R Austin: eyKeK- R 501 fioi-^ov Grynaeus (adulterum Divus): ^wx" ^ 504 aiKVTOKi Poll.: -TOKeia R
23
515
520
525 526a 526b 528/9 529/30
53°
535
514—16 S § § A 2 7 i ~ § § 7 r 2 i i 4 514 Poll. ix. 131; § Eust. p. 1857. 10 (cf. p.4&2.4o;§ Ael.Dion.*e26) 515-16 (-noaSiov...) 8*2787 516 Hsch. 01977 (KVTTapov)cf.§§ Phot.Ki27o 527-30 §§ 8(11073 528—30 § Stob. iii. 13. 29 531—2 § § S a i 3 4 9 536—7 (et p.ev . . .)2 bT H. //. z- Z 35~7 (i- 48—9 Erbse) 512 rj '(f)€p€v Bentley: rj e'(/)epe (ex ei'ae^epe) R 514 avT€Kp,ayp,a Reiske: (ex ey/u,-) R: eV^t- S 521 yvpedi] Meineke: eup- R 526a •»y/Lui< ed. pr.: R 527 dAAd 7rdi> Cobet: dAA' a-n-av RS 532 dp' €i R: dAAai S 533 'AyXavpov'Daubuz-.'Ayp-'R 537 avraied. pr.: -ro/R: om.Z H. yeR: IH.
24 54°
545
55°
555
560
565
554 (l/^1?0^') § Et. Gen. (A) -tjBeioOa (Orus fr. B 77 Alpers, brevius §§ EM, p. 420. g; cf. Eup.fr. 454) 557 (ai
560 TOV dv8pa TO) 7T€\€K€L yVVT) Rl €T€pa TOV O.v8pa TO) 7T€\€K€L Si
Enger
563 A-^apviKr/ Dobree: d^- R
25
57°
575
580
585
59°
566 § S K 730 567 (IKTTOKIO) . . . TTOKaSas) § S e 588 (hinc § Zon. 672 Hsch. e 1637; §§ EM, p. 323. 55 (mwcdSas) §§ Hsch. -n 2750; cf. §§ Theognost. gl. 66. i Alpers; §§ Phot. p. 437. 21 570 (xeaeiv) § Epim. alphab. in H. Od. 5. 201 (ii. 338. 21 Dyck) 572—3 (-rrpiv . . . Trvdat^d') § S o 292 574 (gvyyeveis ...)§§ S | 83 576 (-rrpo^vw . . .) § S -n 2541 5677rAo/<:aSa?'^'^S11 (cf.Pherecr.fr. 259) ouroiLenting: ouSeR 569 R: TTpoaidi van Herwerden: Trpoadiye Willerns 571 -iravaaade M: -adai R 575 eiriSrjXov Blaydes 580 -ijre bis Biset: -eire bis R ,111} *rai Person: KOU pr/ R 581 u^tii' M: T/P.LV R afiapKTois Dindorf: afipaK- R 584 ^aa'Zanetti: e'^aa'R 590 KaTTeriX' Bekker: -riXX' R
26
595
6oo
605
610
615
598 (eXivveiv) §§ Moer. € 61 (hinc §§ Hsch. € 2097) 616 § S a n 6 3
601—2 §§877 2540
594 oiofjiai 'yajy' Anon. Par.: oiojj.eycoy' R 59^ Tavra Bentley: ravrl R 600 iJ/Lta? M: u^ta? R 601 £vve- SFVM: ovv e- RSAG 605 TJTIS Zanetti: elns R add. Bentley 606 ^St Grynaeus: fj8e R: 178' 17 M 611 rts add. Kuster 612 dfajLtefoj Grynaeus: -pevco R 615 TroAuf Gelenius: -v R 616 s : ? R: x^^ 7®-P ^ y^p' X^^ yV Lenting (cf. 549)
27
6zo
625
630
635
640
620 (Ko8toKi8a)v) §§ Phot. K 859 ~ §§ Hsch. K 3218 633 # Poll. x. 45 ('ex Polyido') (aKofiiov) §§ Phot. p. 516. 22 Hsch. a 1769 — §§ Phot. p. 537. 2; cf. §§ Moer. a 46
630—1 § S TT 2563 641
619 ear' M: €08' R 624 OOVOTL Dindorf (-art iam Biset): aovarlv R 631 (LieTaSijLieR 632 TpirovBeri Austin: TiBerpirov R 634 KXeiaBeves ed. pr.: /<:Aeiaoa6- R 635 avijp Bentley: ai>- R 638 ^aAa Grynaeus: -Act R 640 rirOovs ed. pr.: rirQos R 641 OTepitfirj Meineke: -^77 R
28
645
650
655
660
663/4 664
665/6 666
647-8 § Si640 642 Se fiT]Tt]p M: Sijft- R 644 SieKvijie Dindorf: Si) ex- R 646 Thiersch: eVy- R ^idAAa Bentley: dAAa R 647 civBp- S: tovBp- R 651 -eKuXiaa Scallgen -eKuXrjaa R
654 TTpvraveaiv M: -peaaip R R
Kuster: post xpi) R
653 ofyijaeTai
658 SiaBp-ijaai. Kuster: aBp-ijaai. R
662 ft' add. Austin
665/6 /<:ai rd /
Faber: oi'^erai R
657 iTreXrjXvde Handley (aveX- Fritzsche): 660 -na.vra.yii ante
665 Se pii/ior Hermann: Suippufiov R
29
670
675/6 676/7
68o-z
684 684/5/6
68ga 68gb
690
695
696-7 Greg. Cor. Dial. Alt. 3 pp. 20-2 (cf. ZAld PL 4530) 667 ArjtfiOr) Reisig: ^i) Xa8rj R 669 avBpaoiv Beer ap. Hermann (1845): R 675 €(f)€7T€iv Hermann: -Trofras-R 679 /j,rj add. Burges 681 Bothe: ei TI 8pcoy iraaiv R 683 earai Bothe (erit Divus): eariv R Brunck: -^iVR 684/5/6 TTapa^prj/j.' a.7roriv€ra.L Hermann: a.7Toriv€ra.L-j R 68gb Tioi 3 add. Biset 697 /cat Greg. Cor.: om. R
30
7oo
7°5
710
7i5
718-19 720
721-2 723-5
702 (aTravr' . . . ) § § S a 2902. cf. §§ App. Prov. i. 384 no. 35; §§ Paroemiographi Suppl. i. 40 no. Vb 2 710-13 §§Si;I7o 729 (BvpriXunra) §§ Hsch. 8 862; cf.§§Phot. ^ 2 5 6 700 roSe Dobree: Se R 702 aTravr' ap' €arl Bentley: a-n-av yap earn* R: S f i f a r a Person: epya R: irXea. S 704 e|apa|ei Bentley (vel-|oj, utiam Ellebodius): l£ap£a> R 706 onr/ Faber: on R: oaris Porson 710 y' S: T' R 1 711 S'Boissonade: T ' R S 715 ap Hamaker: ovv R 717 r-jyi'S'Biset: R 719 evvfipieis Anon. Rom.: -fiptaeis R 721 yap epyais Burges: R 723 Se Fritzsche: Se ae R 724 -rpo-nos Blaydes: -rpo-nov R 725 TU^-^ Bergk: ris TV^T] R
3i 73°
735
740
745
75°
73 O—I (°v • • • Ta^ecos) § S K 2408
734 (UepoiKas) § Eust. p. 1522. 12
735—7 §§ S 8 251 735 § Eust. p. 1441. 23; § Et. Sym. a 241 Lass.—Liv. EM, p. 31. 13 742 (fpeyKov) Antiatt. p. 98. n; §§ Phryn. PS, p. 73. i 745 (rvvvovro] §§ Phot. p. 610. n (cf. §§ Hsch. T 1645) 747 §§ S 1168 (hinc §§ Apostol. vi. 16) 749 (e/Ltm/LnrpaTe) §§ Hsch. € 2458 (hinc §§ Zon. 709 ejLiTrtirpaTtu)
730 S e S i T o S e R 733 eyevefl' Grynaeus: -vr/8' R 740 aTTOKpivai M: R 741 KCLI add. Biset 743 rjpyaoto Hall—Geldart: ei'py- R 745 TVVVQVTQV et -TO T12 (coniccerat Brunck): rvvovrov et -TO R 746 yeyove n2 (coniecerat Brunck): -vev R 747 x&aov Bentley: ^at oaov n2R: oaov S 749 post y' dist. Blaydes C^LT?impart (sic) M: €fj,7Ti7Tpa.Tai R
32
755
760
765
770
775
780
769-75 (ofS' . . . ) § § S TT 45 (hinc 77O-I (ray . . . ypa>tov) §§877 1702) 777 §§ S 2064 778—80 (-TTivaKatv . . . p,6xda)v) Poll. x. 58 77§~9 §§ S a 742 754 TO H2 (coniecerat Lobeck ad S. Ai. 1066 (ed. i, 1809)): [ioi TO R 7589 itptas nos: lepeias n2R 759 post rovri dist. Bergk 760 -Kopijae Mpc: R 761 '£i]paaaro Fritzsche: ^-ijprja- R 768 ay add. Porson 772 yevoLvr' Grynaeus (fierent Divus): -VOLT' R: y' eKewTo S TrXarai1 suppl. Sandbach (post ir60evz iani Biset) 773 el TOLOL Ellebodius: eh a SLO. R: TOLOL S 777 xP 1 ) RS: XP 1 7 1 ' Bentle y
33
785
79°
795
800
806
800,810 (jSeAWous) §§ Moer. j3 8
808-9 (TIS . . . j3ouAeiai<) § S £431
784 ravra Grynaeus (/fc7C Divus): ravra R 788 aTaats Scaliger: araaeis R 789 et Zanetti: et KCU R 790 eKK- Reiske: lyK- R 792 evpijr' Porson: R 793 palveaB' M: -vefl' R xp1?" Brunck: xp^ R 794 Meineke: eup-R KCLT€- Brunck: Kara- R 797 TO /<:a/<:oi' f,f]T€iT€ dedadai J. Kaye ap. Dobree: ^rjrei TO KO.KOV TeOeaaOai R
799
T(
^ KO.KOV T7a.pa.Kvijsa.v ISeiv Porson
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Ael. Dion, a 23); §§ Luc. Lex. 5
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37
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COMMENTARY In the centre of the stage-building (CTK-IJVIJ) is a single large door first put to use as the house of Agathon (26-30). Two actors enter from an eisodos, one of them out of breath and worn out (1—4, 24) and lagging behind the other. Both wear dark red ('male') masks with gaping mouths and beards (Stone 22—4, 28—31) and grey wigs (Stone 60—5), and are fitted with long theatrical phalli (Stone 72—100). The first character's phallus is rolled up and tied out of the way at his waist, whereas the latter's dangles loose (cf. 239), as befits his role as the play's chief buffoon. Each of them has on a short chiton (Stone 170—2) with a himation (213-14 n.) over it. Both characters wear shoes or sandals (Stone 222-43). Nothing else can be said about their costume, although the first is most likely richly dressed. The first character is quickly identified as the tragic playwright Euripides (4). The second remains anonymous until 74 (where see n.), when he reveals that he is Euripides' kinsman by marriage this is the only name or title he is ever given. The time of day is early morning (2, 78—9 with n.; cf. 375), and at 80 it is said to be the third day of the Thesmophoria (but see i n.). Av. and_Ra. (and to a lesser extent PL) begin in a similar fashion, with two characters appearing on stage near the end of what has been, for at least one of them, a long and trying journey. 1—4 Cf. PL i—21, where Karion, although supposedly addressing the gods (i), first grumbles to himself about the lunatic project in which he is involved (1—17) and then demands that his master explain what the two of them are doing (18-21). 1-2 The first verse appears to set the action in winter (rather than late spring, when Th. was performed; see Introduction, pp. xli,xliii); cf. 67-8. If the audience in the Theatre knew the title of Aristophanes' play in advance, they would have expected it to be set in October-November (when the Thesmophoria was celebrated; see Introduction, p. xlvi). But this is much too early to be impatiently awaiting the arrival of spring; and since the second verse immediately converts the image into a metaphor ('Will this long period of misery ever come to an end?') in order to begin the process of introducing the plot, it may be that the idea of the swallow's arrival was already proverbial by this period and could be used at any time of year. Similar dramatic imagery is used at the start of Shakespeare's Richard III: 'Now is the winter of our discontent / made glorious summer by this sun of York'. For the appeal to Zeus plunging the audience in medias res, cf. Nu. 1-2. i A despairing complaint addressed to the world at large (although not
52
COMMENTARY
to Eur.; contrast 3-4). Cf. 71; Bain, Actors 94-7. to Zeu: A bland colloquial oath, often functioning as little more than an exclamation, like English 'My God!' Routinely * (e.g. 71; Ach. 435; Nu. 2; Ra. 1278). x^'S''"' <*pci wore <|>avr|<j€Tai;: For the appearance of the swallow or martin (Thompson 314-25; Dunbar on Av. 714) as a sign of spring, Eg. 419; Pax 799-800 ~ Stesich. PMGF 211; Av. 714-15; Hes. Op. 568-9; Simon. PMG 597; carm. pop. PMG 848. 1-2 with H. W. Smyth, Greek Melic Poets (London, 1906) 507-8; ARV* p. 1594, no. 48 (St Petersburg olim Leningrad 615, apelike on which a young man cries ('Look, a swallow!'), a man responds vr) TOV 7/paxAe'a ('Yes, by Herakles!'), and a boy adds aini]t ('There it is!'); on the side is written ('Spring is come')); cf. Av. 1417; fr. 617; Cratin. fr. 35; PDuke Inv. 774 c ii 11 (Kolner Papyri 9 (Wiesbaden, 2001) 31) (suppl. Kassel; 'if only you would appear, swallow!') (3rd c. AD); Thompson 319—20. dpd -jrore marks this as a discouraged question (cf. GP 46), as at [E.] Rh. 360. For interrogative dpa late in the sentence, GP48-9. 2 Cf. Pherecr. fr. 95 fijroi wepieppwv av-rov e| ea>8ivov ('I've been wandering about seeking him since dawn'). dmoXei [ i : A colloquial expression of exasperation; 'He'll be the death of me by (+part.)!', i.e. 'Damn him for (+ part.)!' Cf. 1073 with n.; Antiph. fr. 221. 8; Alex. fr. 177. 15; Men. Mis. 18. dXotiv: 'thrashing around' (cf. 2R). dAodoi is properly 'thresh [cut grain]', i.e. by causing horses, oxen, or the like to trample it on a threshing-floor (H. //. 20. 495—7; X. Oec. 18. 3—4; Bliimner i. 3—5; Miiller 251-4); hence the meaning 'tramping endlessly about, pounding along' here and the more common extended sense 'thrash, crush' (e.g. Ra. 149; fr. 932; Theoc. 22. 128; Herod. 2. 34). Cf. Taillardat §138; Austin(1987) 69—70; (1990) 11. For similar complaints, Av. 4; Men. Mis. 21. (6) dvOptd-uos expresses hostile impatience ('this person'), as at e.g. Av. 940; Lys. 936; PL 855; D. 3. 16; 4. 9. Cf. Headlam on Herod. 6. 27. !£ itoGivoO: 'since [the time of] dawn'. A colloquial Attic equivalent of eiuOev, first attested elsewhere at Pherecr. fr. 95* (above); cf. Alex. fr. 259. 4*; Men. Sam. 511*; PI. Snip. 22oc; Phdr. 227a, 228b; Lg. 722c; X. HG i. 1.5. This is hardly consistent with ewdev in 375 (marking the start of the women's assembly), but Greek drama is notoriously flexible in its handling of time (cf. Taplin (1977) 290—4) and the audience cannot be expected to worry about matters of this sort. 3-4 oTov re: Sc. eari. A common ellipse (also 178), as with e.g. eVoi^ioy (59) and (j>povSos (691); cf. KG i. 40—1. For the peremptory tone, cf. potin at Plaut. Amph. 903; Men. 466; Pers. 287; Rud. 424. This might be a colourful way of describing the stitch Inlaw has got in his left side (for the location of the spleen on the left side of the body, PI. Ti. 72c; Arist. HA 496 b i6-i7) from chasing
LINES
1-6
53
Eur. about the city (2), which makes it feel as if his spleen has expanded and is about to burst out of his body; cf. Plaut. Merc. 124 (an exhausted messenger)peril, seditionemfacitlien, occupatpraecordia('l'vehaditl My spleen's in revolt; it's pressing up into my chest!'); Plin. Nat. 11. 205 (the spleen 'sometimes causes a peculiar impediment in running'). But Inlaw is not only tired but annoyed (2 with n.), and what he means is more likely 'before I vomit up my spleen' (for e«j8dAAa) in this sense, e.g. Eg. 404); cf. HeadlamonHerod.4.62(p.2O3); Austin (1990) 11—12. is a colloquial Attic intensifier (e.g. Pax 820*; Antiph. fr. 189. 14; PI. Snip. 2isd; Is. 6. 35; Hyp. 3. 6; cf. Thesleff §272); here 'absolutely' vel sim. TTOI fi' dyeis;: An obvious question, set up by the complaints in 1—3. But the answer is deferred until 25—30 and a bit of amusing nonsense (5-24) inserted to warm up the audience. Cf. 5-22 n. perhaps adds urgency to the appeal; see Dickey 199-206; contrast 193. For the crasis, cf. Theoc. 2. 66 TiuvpovXoio = ru> Evj3-; KB i. 221. Contemporary Athenians represented on stage in Ar.'s plays are routinely identified by name either just before or immediately after they appear (as here); cf. 95 with n., 571 (a striking exception to the rule) with 574—5 n.; Olson, 'Names' 316—18. 5—22 An interruption in the forward movement of the dialogue (and perhaps in the movement of the characters across the orchestra), consisting of (i) a quick display of Euripidean verbal subtlety, with Inlaw playing the befuddled straight-man but still acknowledging the brilliance of it all (5— 12); followed by (2) a mock-philosophic discourse by Eur. on the origin of the senses of sight and hearing, again capped by an (at least nominally) appreciative comment by his companion (13-22). Cf. 39-62 n., 71-94 n., 97—176 n. The pomposity of Eur.'s professorial manner is mercilessly exposed by Inlaw's ludicrous distortions and misunderstandings; cf. ZR ('The one character speaks in a very elevated, tragic style, while the other hears [his words] more stupidly than is necessary'); A. Roemer, Studien zu Aristophanes (Leipzig, 1902) 169. 5—10 What Eur. means in 5—6 is that Inlaw does not need to hear about things he will soon see. But Inlaw assumes that he is being told he ought not to hear what he has asked about (7); and when Eur. says 'Not the things you're going to see' (7), Inlaw takes this to mean that he should not see anything (8), at least if he wants to hear about it, as he does; by which point Eur. is talking in circles (8) and Inlaw is completely flummoxed (910). Gordziejew 299, compares Strepsiades' bumbling (or half-hearted) attempts to make sense of the learned remarks of Socrates and his slave at Nu. 165-8, 200-17, 235-6. 5-6 For the idea that autopsy is better than learning by verbal report (a commonplace), e.g. H. 77. 2. 484-6; E. Or. 81; Th. i. 22. 2; Plaut. True. 489. Cf. Pax 939; Av. 119; PI. 517; E. Supp. 1176; 70/2417; fr. 413. i.
54
COMMENTARY
Sommerstein follows ed. pr. and Dobree in reading oy (i.e. But oaa, like a y in 7-8, is needed to link the two contrasting ideas, 'you don't need to hear what you're going to see' (andvice versa). A deliberate manipulation of the audience's expectations: Eur. speaks like a priest and misleadingly implies that he is taking Inlaw to some sort of initiation (cf. Ra. 155). mus \€Y€is;: 'Huh? What do you mean?' (Av. 323; Ra. 515*; Aristomen. fr. 2. 2); more often (e.g. Av. 319; PI. 268; E. Hel. 471 ('What do you mean? What is that you said? Say it to me again!')) or (e.g. Ach. 768; Nu. 207; Lys. 756) 7—8 ou 8ei [i' aKoueiv; in 7 is echoed in ou8' dp' opdv 8ei fi';* in 8, just as in 7 is echoed in oux & Y "v ditoueiv Set]* in 8, with the infins. in chiastic order. For seeing what one should see and not seeing what one should not see as a mark of a good man (a trope perhaps lurking in the background), E. fr. 413. 3; Hdt. i. 8. 4; cf. Men. Mon. 48. For the turn of phrase, cf. E./OW558; Antipho Soph. 87B44&. A col. 3. 1—15. expects a positive response (GP46). Q-IO Cf. Ra. 1169 (Dionysos' reaction to Eur.'s attempt to draw a distinction between -IJKIU and Kare'p^o^ai) 'Well done, by Hermes; although I don't understand what you're saying!' TT&JS f-ioi mapaiveis; is a serious rather than a sarcastic question. Se^uis: For Se|ioj and its cognates as very positive, primarily late 5th-c. evaluative terms (a sense of the word attested first in Pindar (JV. 3. 8; /. 5. 61) but absent from tragedy), Dover, Frogs, pp. 13—14. Used of poets also at Ach. 629; Ra. 71, 1009 (Eur. identifies this as one of the first qualities to be looked for in a good poet); cf. Stratt. fr. I. 2 Spdp,a Se^iwrarov (of E. Or.). Editors generally place a full stop at the end of 9 and make 10 interrogative. But this is quite abrupt, and it seems more natural to place a colon at the end of 9 and a full stop at the end of 10, making the second line a simple-minded comment on Serais. Explanatory yap is not needed; cf. Doveron_Ra. 15. jievroi: 'certainly', as at e.g. Lys. 1095 Men. Epitr. 510; PI. Snip. I7&b; cf. GP401 ('Conveying a favourable opinion of the previous speaker's words'). 'You're saying that I mustn't. . .' (KG ii. 180). For ris', R has the wrong accent <j>-l)s (cf. Introduction p. xciv)), Arnott, in Willi 216-17. 11 Elsewhere in comedy, x^p's always means 'separate' or 'separately' (e.g. Ach. 714; V. 658; Antiph. fr. 27. 24) rather than 'different', as here and frequently in Plato (esp. Sph. 245C Phlb. 44a and 2R (cf. Miller 172) comments that 'These things are borrowed from natural philosophy' (cf. Anaxag. 5 9 6 6 'to exist apart'). But ^oipij has the sense 'different' also at e.g. Semon.
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fr. 7. i; Euen. fr. 4. 2; A. Ag. 926 with Fraenkel ad loc.; S. Ant. 510; OC 808; E. Ale. 528 xwpls TO T' eivai ml TO f^-ij vopitfrai, and this must be a simple case of an (originally perhaps primarily poetic) extension of meaning. Y"P: '[Yes,] for. ..' (GP"j^— 4); cf. 641. Preservation of the dual is a distinctive feature of Attic; cf. 24, 956, 1183; Bers 59-61. €KdT<=pou: First attested at Pi. /. 8. 31, but otherwise absent from serious poetry and confined to comedy and prose. ('nature', as opposed to o vop.os, 'custom, culture') was a key term in the intellectual debates of the late 5th c. (Handley, 'Nouns' 132; Dover on Nu. 1075), but 13-18 make it clear that Eur. means simply 'their origin'. 12 Inlaw needs to know which two things Eur. is talking about before he can ask how their origin is different, and his garbling of what his companion is talking about is not only in character (cf. 6-10) but funny, as is Eur.'s unexpected endorsement of his analysis (cf. 22). Cf. Sansone 342. It is therefore wrongheaded to delete the line as a gloss on 11 (van Herwerden, Mnemosyne ii. 10 (1882) 88) or as 'an author's variant surviving from an early draft' (Sommerstein). eu 106' on: 'Know you well that [this is the case]!', i.e. 'Exactly!' Colloquial; cf. Pax 373* with Olson ad loc.; PI. 183*; fr. 466. 7*; Stevens 29. For the hiatus, Moorhouse, CQ NS 12 (1962) 239-47, esP- 2 39- Eur. reacts as if Inlaw had said and is too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice the mistake. 13—18 For the parodic image of Eur. as natural philosopher, Rau 157—60. 13 mtis X U P'S> : 'What do you mean, "different"?'; cf. Lys. 496, 521; Ra. 98; EC. 126; PI. 356. OUTU: i.e. in such a way as to be Cf. 14-15 n. The vb. is characteristic of philosophical discourse (e.g. Anaxag. 59 B 13 Derveni pap. (ZPE 141 (2002) 42, col. xxi. 14)) and poetic cosmogony (A.R. i. 498). rore: 'at that time', i.e. 'the time I am referring to', further defined in 14-15. Cf. van Leeuwen on PL 834. 14—18 Critics have often tried to detect the influence of a particular philosophical system in the parody here and in the Euripidean fragments cited in 14-15 n.: earlier scholars (e.g. L. Parmentier, Euripide et Anaxagore (Memoires Couronnes xlvii: Brussels, 1892-3) 82-4) thought of Anaxagoras, with whom Eur. was sometimes connected (cf. D.S. i. 7. 7 (quoting E. fr. 484. 2—6) 'being a student of Anaxagoras'; Alex. Aet. fr. 7, p. 126 Powell, withMagnelliadloc., pp. 223-31 of his edition, Florence, 1999), while Mureddu, Lexis 9/10 (1992) 115-20, argues for Empedokles (thus also Sansone). Eur. did refer to contemporary intellectual theories in his plays (e.g. Ale. 245 with Dale ad loc.; cf. Telecl. fr. 41), but the specific parallels alleged are not compelling; cf. 16-17 n -; Wilamowitz, Analecta Euripidea (Berlin, 1875) 163-4; Bakhuyzen 108-9. Two things must be distinguished in this passage: (i) the idea of separation at
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the origin of the universe (14-15); and (2) the notion of Aither creating the separate sensory organs (16-18). The first idea goes back at least to Hesiod's Theogony (see G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and M. Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers2 (Cambridge, 1983) 34—41). A concern with the development of the sense-organs, on the other hand, seems to be characteristic of 5th-c. thought; Diogenes, Empedokles, Alkmaion, and others evidently treated the problem, although nothing in what survives of their work is much like our passage. A closer parallel is X.Tkfem. i. 4. 5 (Socrates is speaking): 'Does it not seem to you that he who originally made human beings equipped them for their good with what they needed to perceive each category of things, eyes for seeing what can be seen, and ears for hearing what can be heard?' In general, cf. F. Solmsen, Kleine Schriften i (Hildesheim, 1968) 332-55, esp. 338. 14-15 AE0r|p: The aWr/p is properly the upper air, in which (inter alia) lightning (1050 with n.) and gusts of wind (43 withn.) originate and the stars are set (1067-8; cf. Griffith on [A.] PV88; Rowe on PI. Phd. lopby-ci), and from which Euripidean gods mould simulacra of living things (Hel. 583-4; Ph. 1543; Ba. 291-3, 629-31); at 272 (where seen.) ~ E . f r . 487, it is Zeus' residence. A personified AlOr/p (first attested at Hes. Th. 124) is referred to as a cosmogonic deity at Orph. i B 12; 13; Musae. 2B 14; Acus. 9 B i; 3; cf. Pherecyd. 7 A 9; as well as at E. fr. 839. 1-2, and is identified with Zeus at E. frr. 877; 941; Pherecyd. 7 A 9; Emped. 31 A 33; cf. A. fr. 70. For AlOr/p specifically as the begetter of living things, Nu. 570 A ('Aither . . . nourisher of all life'); E. fr. 839. 1—2 ('Zeus' Aither, begetter of human beings and gods'); cf. E. frr. 877; 1023. aiB-qp/AW-qp is poetic and philosophic vocabulary; very common in Eur. but elsewhere in Ar. only in tragic quotations or paratragedy (43 (where the Slave's use of the word sets him in the tradition of poetic bombast established here), 51, 272, 1050, 1068, 1099; Av. 1183; Ra. 100 = 311, 892); in dithyrambic parody (Av. i4Oo;cf. Av. 1393b); in lyric at Nu. 285/6, 570 (above); and at Nu. 265 (part of an invocation of various deities; anapaests). The impfs. in these verses describe a process in the course of which two innovations (marked by aors.) occurred (16-18 with nn.); the implication of 17 is that the sun was created at a preliminary stage in the process. ore . . . Creation is occasionally referred to elsewhere in early sources as a process of differentiation rather than aggregation (E. frr. 52. ('Earth the birth-giver separated out mortal beings'); 484. 2—4; Emped. 31 A 49 (of aither); Anaxag. 59 B 2), although the image is more often applied to the 'dissolution' of elements conventionally referred to as 'death' (e.g. Emped. 31 A 37; B 9. 4; Epich. 23 B 9 = fr. 213; E. fr. 839. 8-14). Siexaipi^ero is mid. ('was separating itself out [from the original indistinct mass]') rather than pass.: Aither
L I N E S 14-17
57
went one way and Earth the other, as at E. fr. 484. 3 (of Sky and Earth). Cf. W. Staudacher, Die TrennungvonHimmelundErde (Tubingen, 1942) 105—6. TCI TfpuTa: Adverbial, like -irpu)r(a) in 16. In a cosmogonic context also at Hes. Th. 108 ('Tell how the gods and the earth first came into being'). are 'living creatures', not 'living things', so that plants are not included; but the qualifier Kivou^ieva ('endowed with motion') is none the less added at the end of the line to make clear why eyes and ears are needed (16—18), that is, to keep the animals that were being created from running into one another. Iv auru: 'in its bosom'. £UV€T€KVOU: The simplex TeKvoo) is poetic and especially tragic vocabulary (e.g. A. Th. 657; S. OT 867; E. HF r, Theodect. TrGF 72 F 4. 2; first in prose in Aristotle), but is absent from comedy; cf. Miller 172-3. The compound is attested elsewhere only in several non-Attic inscriptions, gvv- implies a partner, which must be Earth (as at E. frr. i82a Kannicht = Antiope VI Kambitses; 484; 839; cf. Supp. 532—4; fr. 1004), although the lack of any specific mention of her means that the emphasis falls on Aither. 16-18 In 14-15, Aither is presented as merely a primordial entity of some sort, whereas here it behaves like a human craftsman, manufacturing special parts for the creatures that it is—in a less anthropomorphic form—in the process of producing. 16-17 & [iev P\eu€iv xp^: 'with which one must see' (instrumental dat.; cf. PI. Snip. 2i2a with Dover ad loc.), i.e. 'the thing one needs, in order to see'. TTpo)T(a): 14—15 n. Eur.'s argument depends on the traditional poetic image of the sun as an eye that looks down upon and sees all things (JVM. 285/6 with Dover ad loc.; EC. i with Ussher ad loc.; Olson on Pax 406; Mastronarde on E. Ph. 543). But 'the wheel of the sun' is an otherwise unattested image, although the sun's disk is referred to from time to time as a 'circle' e.g. A. Pers. 504; E. Hec. 412; EL 465) and the personified Sun is frequently said in poetry to travel through the sky in a chariot (Diggle on E. Phaeth. 2, 173; Olson on Pax 406). dv-rifiifiov (first attested here and identified as a poeticism at Arist. Rh. 1406^9-30) normally takes the gen. (hence Blaydes's rpo^ou). But Eratosth. Cat. 13 has (which Bakhuysen no, suggested might echo an actual Euripidean verse, but see Nauck on E. fr. 925), and Nonn. xviii. 115 = xxi. 204 offers O.VTITVTTOV p.ip.T)p.a SeX-rjvaiijai Kepamis. For the eye compared to the sun, PI. _R. 5o8b; this is based on the common Greek conception of man as a microcosm, avripipos TTJJ ovpaviov rafeius ('an imitation of the heavenly organization'; Ruf. Anat. i). Cf. W. Kranz, Kleine Schriften (Heidelberg, 1967) 195. For the idea that living creatures were moulded out of earth, Dunbar onAv. 686, to whose references add Epich. 23 B 9 = fr. 213; E. fr. 839 (which combine to support her thesis that
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the image dates to well before the 4th c.). Empedokles also discussed the origin of the eye (31 B 84, 86), but the theories Eur. offers here show no sign of any specific influence of his poetry. (Blass's speculative at Emped. 31 B 84. 9 canot be used as evidence; see M. R. Wright, Empedocles: The Extant Fragments (New Haven, 1981)241.) 18 aKof)s...x°»vr]v: '[asl a funnel for hearing';cf.2 R 'the word 019 is missing'; D.S. ii. 56. 4T'ljsaKO'ljsTprip.aTa', Austin (1987) 70; TsitsiridiSjHellenika 51 (2001) 57—61. Thus Biset for R's indefensible aKo-rjv Se^odvTjy; but Boissonade's aKofj Se -^oavrfv is also possible (if palaeographically inferior). For funnels, Pherecr. fr. 113. 30-1; IG 13 386. 127; 387. 144; Amyx 255-9. For hearing as a fluid that passes through a channel, S. OT 1386—7. For the image of the listener filled full like a vessel, PI. Phdr. 235C—d. For ears as funnels, PI. R. 41 la. For 'pierced ears', S. fr. 858. 2 (where Radt prints Meineke's pv-ma^fvov for the paradosis TpvTra>fi,evov); cf. A. Ch. 451-2 Si' Miiller 52. 8i€T€Tpr|vaTO is the Homeric form of the aor. (here mid., perhaps under the influence of the preceding e^TjxavTjaaTo; Attic would have SierpTjaaro) and is thus appropriate for a cosmogony; cf. Rutherford 76-7. In the same way Plato injected 'subtle and feathery' Ionic touches into cosmological utterances; cf. Dover, CR NS 31 (1981) 288—9 (reviewing D. Th. Sakalis, a(Ioannina, 1978-80)). IQ 'So because of this funnel I shouldn't hear or see?' (deliberative subJunes.). For the anaphoric article (contrast 18 -^odvriv), KG i. 597. Inlaw seizes on Eur.'s final point to return to the question he asked in 10 (where OUT' aKoveiv olid' opdv is * as fir|T' (XKOUU ^6' opto), bringing his interlocutor's brief foray into speculative cosmogony to a suitably ridiculous end. Cf. Nu. 227—38, where Strepsiades offers a similarly puzzled response to Socrates' closing remarks about the resemblance between abstract thought and cress, before trying to bring him down to earth (both figuratively and literally). 20 vr) TOV Ai': Like ^d TOV At' (e.g. 34, 175; Nu. 1228; Ra. 192), a common line-opening formula (e.g. 259; V. 217; Pax 1265; Lys. 1095; Ra. 3) equivalent to a simple affirmative adv. (Thesleff §288). 'I am happy to learn thisl' ye is exclamatory and distinctly sarcastic (GP 128). irpoapavdavia (first attested at [A.] PV 697) is 'learn [something] in addition to [something else]', here 'in addition to [what I knew before this conversation started]'; cf. 24; MacDowell on V. 1208. 21 2R cites S. fr. 14 ao<j>ol rvpavvoi rcov aofituv fvvovaiq ('tyrants are wise by keeping wise company') and claims that Ar. in Heroes (= fr. 323) attributed the line to Euripides, as Plato (Thg. I25b; R. 5&8a), Antisthenes (fr. 59 Decleva Caizzi), and scattered later sources do (cf. Radt's apparatus; is one poet echoing the other? or did they both hit on the same line by
L I N E S l6-24
59
coincidence (cf. E. Andr. 28 ~ S. OT 218; E. Ba. 193 ~ S. fr. 695)?). But nothing suggests a specific allusion to the verse, although is elevated poetic style (below). Seneca, on the other hand, seems clearly to echo Inlaw at Ep. 94. 40 occursus mehercules ipse sapientium iuvat, et est aliquid. oiov Y« TTOU '<JTIV KT\.: 'What a thing is . . . ! ' ; cf. Eup. fr. 342 olov ye TTOV 'ari yXwaaa Kavdpanrov Aoyoy. Each particle keeps its own force: ye emphasizes olov, while TTOV is ironic, as at V. 27. Cf. GP 494. For the agreement of (e)<jTW with the predicate OLOV rather than the pi. subj., which follows, KG i. 75-6; Gildersleeve §124. (a poeticism; cf. KG i. 261-2), 'consorting with brilliant men', avvovam/fvvovaia is late 5th-c. vocabulary; first attested in Hdt. (ii. 78; vi. 128. i). 22-4 iroXV av KT\.: For the poet as teacher, an idea lurking behind Eur.'s remark (ignoring Inlaw's simple-mindedness), 399 n. Not a genuine aside (since it makes no difference whether Eur. hears it) but—like 1—2; see i n.—an exasperated remark intended for no one in particular. 77019 av + opt. (a primarily tragic idiom, rare in comedy) is highly emotional and expresses a hopeless wish (KG i. 235; Gildersleeve 446; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 622; cf. 1016—17 (paratragic); Ach. 991 (lyric); Eq. 17, i6(aparody of Phaidra's dilemma); V. 166 (probably tragic quotation or paratragedy); Pax 68 (paratragedy?); Men. Epitr. 441-2; Sam. 102); 'if only . . .!' The solemn prayer ends in bathos. ouv: 'in that case', i.e. 'if you have so much to teach me'. dyaSois: For similarly sarcastic uses of the adj., Pax 370 with Olson ad loc.; S. Ant. 31, 275; Ph. 873. R has e^evpoip,' OTTWS / eri irpoa^adoL juij, which is metrical but nonsensical, and we print Ellebodius' Sommerstein and V. Tammaro (in a forthcoming note in the Miscellanea in ricordo di A. Colonna, pp. 919—21) both accept Reiske's e|eiJpoiy; but cf. Zuretti, RFIC 29 (1901) 555. Having just been told (at least as he sees it) that he ought to be both blind and deaf (19), Inlaw notes that his problems would all be solved if he could only find a way to be crippled as well—and thus spared the need to walk any further (thus 2R). Cf. Austin (1987) 70; (1990) 12; S. OT 120 eV ydp iroAA' av e|et>poi p,a0€iv. For fvpiaKia and its compounds used in the sense 'invent', 438/9 n. For irpoapavdavu}, 20 n. xu^°S etvai TIO <JK€\€I: An oblique reference to Eur.'s alleged overfondness for crippled heroes (Ach. 410—11, 426—9; Pax 146-8;Ra. 846xwXoTtoiov('cripple-maker')). r
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25—30 Eur. finally answers the question asked in 3—4 (cf. 5—22 n.). 25 For the staging, 22—4 n. (3a§i£e: j3a&i£,iu (also 269 485, 617, 1190, 1228) is colloquial vocabulary; cf. Olson on Pax 117. is relatively common in Ar. (e.g. Av. 202; Ra. 609; EC. 1074), but is otherwise rare and attested in the classical period only in comedy (e.g. Mnesim. fr. 4. 23; Men. fr. 129. 2) and the orators (e.g. And. 2. 10; D. 18. 232; Aeschin. 2. 68); presumably highly colloquial. Cf. Dover, EGPS 63-4. After the penthemimeral caesura the line is identical with Nu. 635. TTp6a€X€ TOV vouv: 'pay attention' (e.g. 381 withn.; Eg. 1014*; V. 1015; Pax 174; PI. Cri. 47b); colloquial. Cf. Handley, 'Words' 209; Olson on Pax 669. E8ou: 'There!' (colloquial), signaling compliance with a request or command (255*, 568 with n.; Stevens 35; Lopez Eire 184—6). 26 opas TO Gupiov TOUTO;: * at Nu. 92. Dover ad loc. argues that (attested in the classical period only in Ar., although cf. Alciphr. ii. 27 (iii. 30), probably drawing on a classical source; for the accent, Petersen 10—14) is a persuasive diminutive (Petersen 163) in both passages (in Nu. it is followed by «ai raiKiSiov): like Strepsiades, Eur. plans to seek a favour, and although he does not expect to ask Inlaw for it, his intention colours his choice of vocabulary. But at PL 1098 Karion—who no longer needs anything from anyone—also uses Ovpiov of the central stage-door, and while the sense might be pejorative there ('wretched door'; cf. Petersen 122-5), more likely this is a colloquial Attic term for a house-door (cf. Petersen 87-8) and is used here (as elsewhere in comedy) metri gratia. Herakles was commonly invoked to express shock, surprise, or horror (e.g. Ach. 94 with Olson ad loc.; Alex. fr. 274. 5; Men. Dysk. 74; PI. Euthphr. 4a; Snip. 2i3b; X. Mem. i. 3. 12; D. 19. 308; Aeschin. i. 49), but vr| TOv'HpaK\€a is only a very bland oath (Eq. 481; Av. 1391; PI. 337; D. 25. 51; cf. V. 758). -e'a is to be scanned as a single long syllable; cf. 64 ea withn., 280 Oeaaai', Dover onRa. 863. 27 olfiaiYe: 'I think [that I do]!', i.e. 'I certainly do!'; cf. 594; Ach. 919; Pax 863; Ra. 491; PI. Cri. 47d; Alc.i I27b. Colloquial (Stevens 23-4). For ye adding liveliness or intensity to a positive answer, GP 130—1. HolfordStrevens, following Rogers, suggests instead taking the ye as limitative: 'I think so', sc. 'but you've got me so confused I hardly know what I'm seeing and not seeing!' aiYa: Eur. means simply 'Keep silent!' (LSJ s.v. I; cf. 45, 95, 99), but Inlaw—who is eager to cooperate but (as frequently in this scene) a bit behind the curve—takes him to be saying 'Keep silent [about this]!' (LSJ s.v. II) and therefore responds (' I'm keeping quiet about the door'; cf. 28*). For aianrw picking up cf. Ra. 915—16. vuv is common with imperatives (e.g. 107, 279; cf. LSJ s.v. II. 3); for the accent, Introduction pp. xcvii—xcviii. 28 The verse was omitted from R's exemplar as a result of the homoio-
L I N E S 25-31
6l
teleuton with 27; was added either in the margin with inadequate indication of where it ought to be inserted or at the foot of the page after 30 by a corrector; was displaced (to between 30 and 31) when R was copied; and was restored to its proper place in the text by Ra. Cf. 33; Introduction p. xcvi. 29-30 AydGuv . . . / 6 TpaY8o-uoi6s: According to Plato (Snip. I73a = Agathon TrGF 39 T 2), Agathon son of Teisamenos(P^4 83; PA A 105185; TrGF 39) took the prize 'with his first tragedy' (ri\ irpunri rpayoiSia) while still a young man, and Athenaios (5. 2i6f-2i7a = Agathon TrGF 39 T i; clearly drawing on official records of some sort) puts the victory at the Lenaia in 416. Aristotle reports that Agathon introduced e^jSoAi^a (songs bearing no relationship to the plot) into tragedy (Po. I456 a 29—30; cf. Plu. Mor. 6456), and other musical innovations were attributed to him as well (101-29 n.). Agathon was very good-looking (191-2 with nn.), and Plato (Prt. 3isd-e; Snip. I77d, I93b-c) andXenophon (Snip. 8. 32) both make it clear that he and his older male lover (epaoTr/s) Pausanias of Kerameis (PA 11717; PAA 769665) maintained a sexual relationship for many years. When Agathon went off to the court of Archelaos of Macedon some time before 405 (Ra. 83—4; Ael. VH 13. 4), therefore, Pausanias accompanied him (Marsyas FGrHist 136 F8; Ael. VH 2. 21). Long-term homosexual commitments seem to have been rare (Dover, Symposium, pp. 3-5), and Ar. at least implies that Agathon (who was perhaps in his late 2os or early 305 at the time Th. was performed) did his best to maintain a boyish appearance, inter alia by shaving his face (33, 134 with n., 191 withn.). Ar. mocks Agathon elsewhere for his effeminacy (fr. 178) and his fondness for over-elaborate language (frr. 341 (from Th. II); 592. 35), and both characteristics are on display in the scenes that follow. For Tpa-yiuScmoios, cf. 88 with n., |U,eAo7rot09 (Ra. 1250), e7ro7imo9 (Hdt. 11. I2O. 3), (common in PI. (e.g. Snip. 223d)), SiBvpap-jSoTroios (Arist. Rh. i4o6bi-2 (LSJ s.v. is in error), I4i3 b i4). Equivalent nouns in are much less common (cf. Pax 734 Poetic (and especially Euripidean) vocabulary (e.g. Eg. 1328 with Neil ad loc.; Stesich. PMGF 184. i; A. Pers. 474; S. Ph. 575; E. HF 12; Or. 17; cf. Miller 173). Agathon must have been well-known in Athens in 411, as the oblique references to his personal peculiarities in 31—5 make clear, and the real point of adding the specification is to set up Inlaw's puzzlement as to who is being referred to. 'Which Agathonisthat?'; cf. 621 withn.; Ach. 963; Pherecr. fr. 155. 20-1; Timocl. fr. 12. 4; Aeschin. i. 130; Headlam on Herod. 6. 48.770109 picks up -77-0109, and the punning assonance emphasizes Inlaw's contempt for this supposedly 'unknown' tragic poet. 31 ia-riv TIS followed by a noun or proper name serves to introduce a story or an important new element in a story (Hermipp. fr. 77. 6; Men. Asp. 23
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with Austin ad loc.; S. Tr. 752-3; Aeschin. i. 41, 62; Theoc. 14. 24; cf. fr. 424. i; H. //. 2. 8n; 11.711; Od. 3. 293; 4. 844; 10. 552; h.Bacch. 8; Ter. Phorm. 122): having unexpectedly discovered that Inlaw seems to have no idea who 'the famous Agathon' is (29—30), Eur. backs up to offer a more comprehensive explanation. He is interrupted, however, first by Inlaw's question and then by the appearance of the Slave (36-7). marks this as a dubious question still open to a positive answer; 'you don't mean . . ., do you?' Agathon was a relatively common name in Athens (at least a dozen additional 5th- and 4th-c. examples in LGPN ii s.v.), but Inlaw is not confused; the joke is that—as the average member of the audience was also well aware—none of these adjectives could be applied to Agathon the tragic playwright. Cf. Dover, Gnomon 40 (1968) 828. Cf. 0.21.71 la^vposris'fjv, peXas ('He was a powerful fellow, dark-skinned'; of a well-known pankratiast). A dark complexion (from spending time in the sun) was regarded as a mark of manliness (e.g. fr. 596. i; PI. R. 4746, 55&d; cf. EC. 62—4; Gomme—Sandbach on Men. Sam. 607; Dover onNu. 103), whereas pale skin was a mark of a woman, an intellectual, an effeminate, or a libertine (191 withn.; Nu. 103, 119-20, 1112; Ra. 1092; EC. 428; Sosicr. fr. i. i; E. Ba. 457-9; PI. Phdr. 239c; X. HGiii. 4. 19-Ages, i. 28; Men. Sik. 200 with Sandbach ad loc.); cf. 823 with n.; X. An. v. 4. 34; Ussher on EC. 63-4, 878-9. Kaprepos is 'big and strong', as at 639 Kaprepd*; Ra. 464*, 1398. 32 What Eur. ought to say is iravaai (f>\va.pcov ('Stop talking nonsense!') vel sim. But he falls into the trap and responds with a straight face which serves as a feed for Inlaw's triumphant 'Never seen him!' Cf. Zuretti, RFIC29(1901) 555. ouxlopaitaTni-uore: Echoed* in 33 ov-% eopaKas irdnrore;. For the use of the pf., van Leeuwen on Nu. 766—7 ('Sollemnis in hoc interrogationisgenere'). For eopa«a (rather than as the pf. act. of opdoi, Arnott on Alex. fr. 274. i, and in Willi 204. 33 Omitted in Rac as a result of the homoioteleuton with 32. Cf. 28 n. 31 n. 6 8a<ju/iniY
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sertion(thus Seager, C0NS 31 (1981) 246—7, who adopts Bentley's text in 32; see app. crit.), with Eur. sadly shaking his head. But 34 follows more naturally as a straight answer to a genuine and pressing question. 34 [ia TOV Ai' OUTOI Y' : 'No by Zeus, certainly not'; cf. 20 n., 533 n. ye emphasizes oinoi, just as in oinoi . . . ye it emphasizes the intervening words (Ec. 522). So too KO.ITOI ye is sometimes found (e.g. Ach. 6n; adesp. com. fr. 1000. 10) beside the commoner Kalroi . . . ye. Cf. Austin (1987) 70. ware Kdfie Y'eiSevcu: 'at least in such a way that /would know about it', i.e. 'so far as/know' (cf. EC. 350 fr. 311. 2; Ter.Hec. 863; GPzgg). 35 Kdi fir|v is adversative (GP 357-8); 'and yet [even if you claim you've never seen him]'. Cf. 1126; Wakker, inA r ^4GP2i7-i8. As often, av-y' simply adds emphasis to the vb.; 'you'vefuckedhim!' Cf. 1004, 1224; Nu. 785; V. 940; Av. 85; GP 122-3. pffttvrjKas is a climactic obscenity (Dover, AC 38-9), after which the joke developed in 30-4 is discarded and a new direction taken up with the entrance of Agathon's Slave (36—7); cf. 59—62 n., 570 with n.; Silk 210 (emphasizing the discontinuity of characterization). For piveiu (crude colloquial vocabulary; cf. 50, 206, 1215), MM §205 ('The vulgar vox propria for sexual intercourse in comedy'); Bain, 'Verbs' 54-62; Lamberterie, RPh iii. 65 (1991) 149—60; Chadwick 73—5. d\\' OUK 0106' iaus: That an adult male might be ready and even eager to bugger another male was regarded by the Athenians as amatter of course (cf. 59-62, 157-8, 1118-24; Nu. 1967), but to be the passive partner in such a relationship was a disgrace. The joke is thus entirely on Agathon, who, Eur. implies, has made himself sexually available to every passer-by, like a common prostitute, in the dark (cf. 204-5), so that Inlaw may easily have had sex with him without actually seeing his face and without even an exchange of names. Cf. 98 with n., 153, 158 n., 172 n., 175 n., 257—8 with n. For male prostitutes in Athens, Dover, GH 19—34 (with reference especially to Aeschin. i); D. M. Halperin, One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (New York and London, 1990) 88-104, esP- 88-92; Davidson 90-1. For tragic poets as sexually passive, Nu. 1091—2 (a blanket slander not referring to any particular individual). For oi&a used of knowing persons, e.g. Ach. 430; E. Cyc. 104; Men. Mis. 651; A. Ag. 434. 36-94, 95-278 Two parallel scenes, the second far more richly developed and built in large part on the scheme outlined in the first: (i) Eur. observes that someone is coming out by the central stage-door and tells Inlaw to get out of the way and/or to keep quiet (36-8, 45, 95-9); (2) a male resident of the house emerges and performs an extended piece of paratragic poetry (39—57, 101—29), prompting (3) a series of rude responses (many of them taking up the question of Agathon's sexuality) from Inlaw (45, 48, 50, 51, 57, 130-45, 153, 157-8, 168-70, 172, 175); (4) Eur. eventually
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silences Inlaw and makes a request of the Slave/Agathon (64-5, 176-92); (5) the response is not entirely satisfactory (66, 70, 193-208) and (6) Eur. is thrown into despair (71, 209), (7) causing Inlaw to re-enter the conversation (72-94, 209-78). 36-7 make use of a dramatic convention common to tragedy (A. Ch. 1021; S. OC 111-16; E. El. 107-11) and Aristophanic comedy (also Ach. 238—40; Pax 232—5; Ra. 312—15), in which one character or group of characters is able to stand aside and watch and listen at least initially unobserved as another character or group of characters come on stage; cf. 95-129 with 71 n. Here the lack of resolution in 36, the poetic (below), and the fact that Eur. is speaking and another representative of the tragic genre is coming on stage, combine to suggest paratragedy; cf. Beobachtungen 22-6, esp. 24-5; Bain, Actors 90-2; Garvie on A. Ch. 2,0-1; Muecke 42-3. 'Soph. £7. 77-85 produces a variant in which Orestes (if it is Orestes) refuses to stay and listen' (Handley, in Entretiens Hardt 38 (Vandoeuvres-Geneva, 1993) 114 n. 22). •nrr|£tdfi€v: 'Let us crouch.' The vb. is also attested at e.g. H. Od. 8. 190; Thgn. 1015; Pi. P. 4. 57 with Braswell ad loc.; Bacch. 13. 117; carm. pop. PMG 909. 8; A. Pers. 209; S. OC 1466; Posidipp. Com. fr. 28. 13. First in prose at PI. Snip. i84b; X. Cyr. iii. 3. 18; elsewhere in Ar. at V. 1490 (of the tragedian Phrynichos; anapaests and perhaps an allusion to adesp. tr. fr. 4o8a = Phryn. Trag. fr. 17 Na); Av. 777 (lyric); Lys. 770 (oracle); Ra. 315 (a scene parallel to this one). us is causal ('since'); cf. 233; LSJ s.v. B. IV. l^epx^Tai is always * in Ar. (70 019 e^ep^erai*, 95; Ach. 240; Eq. 234; V. 1375; Lys. 5, 737, 1107; cf. Amphis fr. 23. 5*; Anaxil. fr. 8. 2 e£epxo{i,ai*; Philem. fr. 146. 2*). Gepcunov TIS aurou: Like virtually all Aristophanic slaves who take an active part in the dialogue, Agathon's Slave is anonymous; cf. Olson, 'Names' 310—12. Xanthias in Frogs and Karion in Ploutos are the two notable exceptions. Contrast 279 with n. rrup ixuv: i.e. in a brazier upon which frankincense (Xipavos/XipaviuTos) or myrrh (apvpvrf) are to be burned as part of the ceremony; cf. V. 860—i ('Let someone bring out fire and myrtle branches and the frankincense from within!'); Ra. 871 ('Let someone give me fire and frankincense!'); Olson—Sens on Archestr. fr. 60. 4—5; C. Zaccagnino, // Thymiaterion nel mondo greco (Studia Archaeologica 97: Rome, 1998), esp. 33-65; LiDonnici, Kernos 14 (2001) 65-79. fiuppivas: Most likely a garland woven of myrtle branches (also in sacrificial contexts at V. 861 (above); E. El. 778; cf. Av. 43 with Dunbar ad loc.; van Straten 161—2). For garlands, 447—8 n. 38 Trpo8vfi,a,Ta are small offerings such as cakes that are placed on the altar 'before' the main sacrifice occurs (PL 660; LSCG 21. A (Piraeus, 4th c.); cf. E. Supp. 29 with Collard ad loc.; I A 1310—11), and
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might be taken to mean 'with an eye to making a preliminary sacrifice consisting of [some of] his (i.e. Agathon's) poetry'. But the Slave's song (39—57) is not otherwise presented as a sacrifice, and as its purpose is instead to ensure the successful outcome of Agathon's compositional activity, the vb. is more likely used as at E. Ion 805; Hyps. fr. I. iv. 36; and Eur.'s point is that the Slave intends 'to make an offering on behalf of [his master's] poetry', i.e. in support of Agathon's efforts. For -n-podvai, cf. Ziehen, RhM NF 59 (1904) 391-406; J. Casabona, Recherches sur le vocabulaire des sacrifices en grec (Aix-en-Provence, 1966) 103-8. TTolijais (lit. 'production'; first attested in Hdt.) is a typical late 5thc. technical term; found in comedy (e.g. Ra. 868, 907; Pherecr. fr. 155. 10) and prose (e.g. Hdt. ii. 82. i; PI. Ion 53id; Isoc. 4. 159), but absent from serious poetry. Cf. J. D. Denniston, Greek Prose Style (Oxford, 1952) 2,0-1; Handley, 'Nouns' 139. For parenthetic ioiKe ('it seems'), PL 1098; more often 019 eoi«e (e.g. Ach. 240; Lys. 1106; Antiph. fr. 204. 8; E. HF 36; cf. Z R 'the word 019 is missing'). For similar parentheses, 490 withn.; KGii. 353-4. 39-62 Anapaestic dimeters (42 and 62 catalectic), often used by Ar. in prayers (e.g. V. 323—33; Pax 974—1015); Inlaw's interruptions fit neatly into the rhythm. Paratragic (cf. Parker 55—61, esp. 59) and a virtuoso display of alliteration and assonance. The audience—to say nothing of Inlaw—have finally been informed about where Eur. is going (cf. 3-4 with 25—30 n.), and what remains is to find out why. Had Eur. and Inlaw not stepped to the side (36), an order closely resembling 64—5 could easily have followed directly upon the Slave's appearance on stage. These verses thus represent another brief interruption in the forward movement of the plot (cf. 5—22 with n.), which keeps the audience amused but offers no additional information about exactly what is going on. 39-57 The Slave's initial request for quiet (39-40) is justified (40 yap) on the ground that a troupe of divinities is in the place (40-2). His second— and far more elaborate—request for universal silence (46—8) seems at first to be only an expansion of the first, but is then explained (49 Y^p) n°t by the fact that the gods are active and present, but by the fact that Agathon is about to begin producing poetry (49-57). Cf. Horn 95-7. 39—40 Eur. and Inlaw move off to one side and crouch down there (cf. 36); the staging of the scene that follows is easier if Inlaw is somewhat closer to the door than is Eur. (cf. 45 withn., s8n., 64-5 n.). The central stage-door swings open and Agathon's Slave emerges, wearing a myrtle crown and carrying a small brazier upon which myrrh or frankincense is burning (37 with n.). Aristophanic doorkeepers routinely reflect their masters' manners (Olson on Pax 180), and Agathon's Slave is just as pretentious and wordy as Agathon himself. The great fuss Inlaw makes about Agathon's effeminate style of dress (97—8, 136—43) suggests that his Slave's costume
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is more conventional, although it may still be finer than that of the average servile character. Cf. Eq. 1316 eix^ri^eiv ^pi) Kal aro^ui KXr/eiv. ei'^nj^oy is literally 'speaking words of good omen', but here (as often) means 'silent', as 40 makes clear; Inlaw's interjections (45, 48, 50, 51, 59—62) thus mark deliberate defiance of what he is told to do. eu^rjjiua is routinely requested before a solemn or significant speech or action (e.g. 295-6; Ach. 237 with Olson ad loc.; Nu. 297; V. 868; Av. 959; Ra. 354; A. Eu. 1035 with Sommerstein ad loc.; Men. Leucad. fr. i. 14—16 = fr. 258. 4—6 Koerte); here the point is simply that nothing is to be allowed to interfere with the sound of Agathon's voice (49-57). eWoi marks this as highly formal (in this case hieratic) language, as also at 295-6; Av. 959 (all ev>-r]{i,m Wai); EC. 1019 with Ussher ad loc. But the phrase aropa av-yKXr/aas (cf. Eq. 1316 (above); E. Hipp. 498; Ph. 865) is colloquial and marks a sharp drop in stylistic level from 39. -icAiy- rather than -«Aei- is the proper 5th-c. tragic (and paratragic, as here) form of the vb. (cf. 1142; Phot. « 762; Lautensach 217; Barrett on E. Hipp. 498—9; for inscriptions, Threatte i. 370). Contrast «AeiSia at 421 with n. mas • • • Xaos is arguably a bit ridiculous when addressed to an (apparently) empty stage. Aaoj (2R) is a poetic (e.g. H. //. 2. 664; Simon. PMG 608 fr. i. 11; Pi. O. 8. 30; A. Pers. 92; S. OT 144; E. Heracl. 81; Supp. 664; Timoth. PMG 791. 209) equivalent of R's unmetrical Attic—Ionic Aeoij (used by Inlaw in the Helen parody at 857). Cf. 867 and 901, where R has the reverse error with 866-7 n v G. Bjorck, Das alpha impurum und die tragische Kunstsprache (Uppsala, 1950) 104—7, 3J8—30. The word is attested elsewhere in comedy only at Eq. 163 (paratragic); Ra. 2i9b, 676 (both lyric). 'is visiting'. emS^eo) (cf. Homeric emStjiAevw, ImSr/picis) is primarily prosaic, late 5th-and4th-c. Attic vocabulary (e.g. Th. i. 136. 3; PI. Prt. 3i8b; D. 33. 25); cf. Silk 285 n. 57 ('a hint of prosaic self-deflation'). For the idea, cf. fr. 407 (of Poseidon) dAA' ov rvy-^avfi / em'S^oy lav ('but he doesn't happen to be in residence here'); Call. Ap. 13 ('when Apollo is in residence') with Williams ad loc.; fr. 75. 26; Braswell on Pi. P. 4. 5 (of Apollo). 41 Gicujos Moua&jv: Oiaaos (first attested at Alcm. PMGF 98. i; elsewhere in comedy only at Ra. 15 6 (of the troupes of initiates in the Underworld)) is used routinely in Euripidean lyric to mean 'band' vel sim. (IT 1146; Ph. 796; Or. 319; IA 1059; cf. Ion TrGF 19 F 32; LSJ s.v. II), which must be the sense here. The idea of the Muses as a wandering group of singers who stop on occasion to offer inspiration or instruction to human poets (also at e.g. Ra. 2,2,9, 356; EC. 882; fr. 348 (from Th. II), is at least as old as Hes. Th. 1-34. Cf. Ael. fr. 11 Hercher (ap. S <j> 328) = Philem. test. 6: on the night before his death, the comic poet Philemon dreamed that nine young women were leaving his house, saying that it was not right for them
L I N E S 39-43
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to remain; they were the nine Muses. |.ieAa6piov: Plural in the sense 'dwelling, domicile' is tragic usage (e.g. A. Ag. 1333; S. Ph. 1428; E. Andr. 882; HF 761; Tr. 997; conjectural in this sense in the early 6th c. at Ale. fr. 42. 7, but attested nowhere else before Aeschylus); elsewhere in comedy only at 874; Av. 1247 (bothparatragic); Men. Sam. 517 (with the second syllable scanned long, and thus elevated style). 42 Seairoauvidv: Poetic vocabulary (fr. 734; Anaxandr. fr. 42. 33 (as substantive; elevated style); h.Cer. 144; Tyrt. fr. 6. 2 (as substantive); Pi. P. 4. 267 with Braswell ad loc.; A. Pers. 587 (lyric); Ch. 942 (lyric); E. Hec. 99, 1294 (both anapaests); IT 439 (lyric); Phaeth. 88 (anapaest), Timoth. PMG 791. 125) and style (KG i. 261—2). fieXomoitov is a nom. part, from ^eAo-iroiea) (cf. 67; Ra. 1328 (both referring to the production specifically of lyric poetry)) rather than gen. pi. of fieXcnroios (Ra. 1250). 43-8 For the theme of the silence of the natural world in awe or anticipation of a divine epiphany vel sim., Av. 777—8 with Dunbar on 777; Pi. P. i. 5—12; E. Ba. 1084—5 with Dodds ad loc. (the fundamental note on the question); Limen. CA p. 149. 8-10 [v] ('The aither held the swift-flying courses of its whirlwinds still, and the holy gulf of Nereus and great Ocean left off their thundering'); Luc. Trag. 129—30 ('Let the aither be quiet and windless, and let every sufferer from gout keep silent!'); Mesom. Sol. i—6 (p. 25 Heitsch2) ('Let the entire aither keep silent, and the earth and the sea and the winds! Let the mountain vales keep quiet, and the echoes and voices of the birds! For Apollo of the beautiful hair and the unshorn locks is about to come to us'); Synes. Hymn. I. 72—9 Terz. ('Let the aither and the earth keep silent! Let the sea stand still and the air stand still! Let the gusts of the swift winds leave off! Let the rush of the rounded billows leave off!'); cf. Theoc. 2. 38 with Gow ad loc. 43 -uvods: Poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. 77. n. 622; Pi. O. 3. 31; Simon. PMG 600; A. Ag. 192; S. El. 435; E. Andr. 479); attested elsewhere in comedy with the sense 'breath [of wind]' only at Av. 1396 (dithyrambic parody). vr|V€fios ai0r|p: An echo of H. II. 8. 556 cf. 51* (a mocking echo of this line); Av. 778 A.R. 2. 162 vfivep.os aKTrj /, 661. vfivep.os (otherwise confined in the classical period to tragedy (A. Ag. 566, 740; E. Hec. 533;7T 1412), although cf. PI. Snip. I97C TreAdyei Se yaXrprp / vi]vf^iav (part of two dactylic hexameters put in Agathon's mouth)) is to be taken in apposition to aWr/p, 'so that it is windless'. ForaWr/p, 14—15 n.
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44 Kufia (common in tragedy) is found occasionally in prose as well (Hdt. vii. 193. i; Th. iii. 89. 4; PI. Phd. H4a; Ti. 43b), but is attested elsewhere in Ar. only at Eq. 433 (epicizing); Ra. 304 (~ E. Or. 279), 704 (~ Archil. fr. 213), 1310 (lyric). For Kvpairovrov and variants thereof, Hes. Op. 691; fr. 204. 60; Pi. fr. *i3&a; E. Or. 343-4; fr. 921. i; [A.] PV1048; Alcibiades fr. eleg. i. i. re: R has Se, but there is no obvious reason why we should have two Se's (43—4) followed by two res (46—7); Se'in43 shows that the slave passes on to a new point, and the enumeration is then carried out by repetition of re, as usual (Alcm. PMGF 89; cf. GP 504-5; Austin, PCP,S'NS2o(i974) i; Garb rah, ZPE 96 (1993) I9i-2io,esp. 202-9). The error is to be traced to the influence of Se in the preceding line; cf. 327a (the reverse error). [ir\ KeXaSemo: 'let it not resound' vel sim. For the idea, Williams on Call. Ap. 18. KeAaSe'oi is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 18. 310; Ale. fr. 115. a. 10; Pi. P. 2. 15; A. Ch. 609 (lyric); E. HF 679, 694 (both lyric); Ph. 1102 (iambic trimeter; ignored by LSJ s.v. ('Trag only in lyr. and anap.')); Pratin. PMG 708. 3; Timoth. PMG 791. 198; Delphic Oracle Q7i. 3 Fontenrose ap. Paus. x. 37. 6 attested elsewhere in comedy only at Pax 801 (lyric; ~ Stesich. PMGF 211. 2); Ra. 384, 683 (both lyric), 1527 (anapaests); Theopomp. Com. fr. 41. 3 (a lyric allusion?); cf. Nu. 283—4, 312 (all lyric). 45 y\auK6v: An epithet of the sea at H. //. 16. 34; Hes. Th. 440 (cf. West ad loc. and on 244); S. frr. 371. 2; 476. 3 (both lyric); E. Cyc. 16; Hel. 400, 1501 (lyric); cf. 318/19 with n -> Gow on Theoc. 7. 59; A. Lesky, Thalatta (Vienna, 1947) 161. Attested elsewhere in comedy only in paratragedy (Av. 1339 = S. fr. 476. 3; Ra. 665/6 ~ S. fr. 371), and presumably intended as another mocking echo of high poetic style. For the sense of the adj. (here 'grey-green' vel sim.; to be taken in apposition to P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, Studies in Greek Colour Terminology, i: (Mnemosyne Suppl. 65: Leiden, 1981); Olson-Sens on Archestr. fr. 14. 7. Phot. j8 212 = S j8 370 (cf. Hsch. j8 787) glosses ('a sound pronounced for disparagement and mockery'), and the suffix -d| is commonly attached to onomatopoeic words (Peppier 158-9; Dover on Nu. 390-1 and Pa. 209-67; cf. 945-6 n.), so that |3oii|3d£ (presumably derived from^o^oy, 'roar, rumble' (cf. 1176)) must mean 'Blah-blah-blah!, Yada-yada-yada!' vel sim.; cf. Plaut. Pseud. 365; Labiano Ilundain 123—5. Like the augmented form j3op.j3aXoj3op.j3af in 48 (cf. TTmTmTmnrd^atNu. 390, after mra-mxl), a 'bomolochic' interjection, to which the Slave does not react; cf. 86, 153 with n., 200-1, etc.; Bain, Actors 89—90; contrast 50—1 with 50 n., 57—8. ri \eyei;: Not so much a question as a complaint: Inlaw's refusal to keep quiet as requested (39-40) is making it difficult for Eur.—who is standing further from the door and thus behind his companion (39-40 n.)—to hear what the Slave is saying. Cf. Austin (1990) 13.
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46-8 With human beings and the natural world having been told to keep silent (39-40, 43-5), all that remains is to give the birds (46) and beasts (47—8) their orders. •nrrfvtiv re y^VTl KiTaKoifidaGto: Cf. Verg. Aen. 8. 27 alituum . . . genus sopor altus habebat. -n-Tr/vfav . . . yevrj is a highstyle periphrasis (e.g. 312, 959-60 (both lyric); Av. 1707 (paratragic) with Dunbar ad loc.; Anaxil. fr. 22. 5 -mrpa. ff Ap-nviiav A. Eu. 912; S. Ai. 398; E. Hipp. 1252; Andr. 727; cf. Olson-Sens on Archestr. fr. 60. 9—10). -n-Tr/vos is tragic vocabulary; elsewhere in Ar. only at Pax 126, 141 (both paratragic); Av. 1088 (lyric), 1707 (above; paratragic). Grjpuv: Primarily poetic (especially tragic) vocabulary (in prose at Hdt. iii. 129. i; PI. Sph. 235a; _R. 559d; X. Cyr. iv. 3. 13, 6. 4, etc.); attested elsewhere in comedy at Av. Ill (lyric), 1064 (lyric); Alex. fr. 247. 12; Theopomp. Com. fr. 46. i. The prose equivalent is Brjpiov. iioSes u\o8p6fiuv / \ir\ \uea6tov: 'let not the feet be released [from sleep; cf. 46; S. Ai. 675—6] so that they can roam the woods', with vXoSpop.iuv, which really belongs with -jro&es (cf. KG i. 280), taken in apposition to 8-rjpwv . . . aypiiav. This is a very stilted way of putting the idea—which is precisely the point. v\oSpofi,os (attested nowhere else before the late Roman period; cf. Catull. 63. 72 nemorivagus) is a parody of 'frigid' (168—70 n.) tragic coinages such as vXoKop.os (E. Andr. 284 (lyric)), v\o>opl36s (E. IT 261), and Aan/ujpoSpo^ioy (E. IA 207 (lyric)). 45 n. 49 KaXXiemris (echoed mockingly in 60) is attested nowhere else before the Roman period. But the cognate vb. KaAAieire'o^ai is found in 5th- and 4thc. prose (cf. LSJ s.v.), and there is no need to assume that this is a coinage modelled on ijSuemys (exclusively poetic vocabulary; e.g. H. //. i. 248; Pi. O. 10. 93; N. 7'. 21 (of Homer); S. OT 151 (lyric)) or on Euripidean hapax legomena such as KaXXipXefiapos (Ion 189 (lyric)), KaXXipiuXos (Or. 1382 (lyric)), KaXXiSlv-rjs (HF 368 (lyric)), KaXXlSi>pos (Hec. 467 (lyric)), (Ph. 645 (lyric)), and «aAAiTo|oy (Ph. 1162). But Ar. does none the less use «aAAi- compounds elsewhere only in lyric (Pax 797; Av. 682; Ra. 451) and reminiscences of lyric (Ach. 1227 with Olson ad loc., 1228, 1231-3; Eq. 1254; Av. 1764 (all KaXXlvixos)). For the preciosity of the historical Agathon's language, TrGF 39 T 16; PI. Snip. igSa-b, 2Oic. The omission of medial caesura serves Ar. as an ironic comment on the claim. 50 -n-pofios: Epic (e.g. H. //. 3. 44; Od. 11. 493; cf. adesp. eleg. fr. 62. 4) and tragic (e.g. A. Ag. 200 (lyric); S. OT 660 (lyric); E. Heracl. 670; adesp. tr. fr. 668. 5) vocabulary; attested nowhere else in comedy (conjectural at Cratin. fr. i. 3). R's -n-pd^oy is linguistically possible (Schwyzer i. 494 n. 2) but more likely represents a simple scribal slip than a genuine hapax legomenon. Inlaw's coarse interjection jitiv piveiaGcu; (cf. 35 n.) comes from out of the blue, but his equally crude interjection in 57 also
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lacks any obvious motivation in what the Slave has said, and it seems best to assume that at both points he is offering a hostile comment based on what he (and the audience in the Theatre) already know of Agathon's predilections (35)—although in this case (contrast 45 with n., 48) the Slave notices that someone has spoken, even though he fails to react to the content of the remark (51; contrast 57-8). For Inlaw's aggressive use of obscenity throughout this scene and the contrast with Agathon (who uses none at all), McClure 215-26. 51 <|xdvr|aas: The aor. of the simplex >oWai is almost exclusively Homeric (e.g.//. i. 201; 10.465; Od. 4. 370; cf. Antim. frr. 7)84. i Matthews) and is presumably intended as a poeticism. The phrase is the tragic counterpart of TLS eoTiv o AaAow; at adesp. com. fr. 1115. 15. Cf. quis hie loquitur? (common in both Plautus (e.g. Capt. 133) and Terence (e.g. Andr. 267)); Sandbach, BICS 25 (1978) 125. vr|V€fios ai0r|p: Amockingecho of 43*. Cf. the (rather more distant) echo of 56—7 in 61—2; Rau 101 n. 13. 52—7 A chaotic jumble of images, the overall effect of which is to present Agathon not as a divinely inspired poet (cf. 40-2) but as a mere wordsmith; cf. Ra. 797-802, 824; Taillardat §758; Miiller 69-70; Muecke 44-6; O'Sullivan 140—1; Torchio, Quad. Torino 15 (2001) 134—5. 52 The Slave takes up his sentence again at the point where Inlaw interrupted him in 50. Spuoxous: Pegs or stakes upon which a ship's keel was set in the first stage of the construction process (H. Od. 19. 574 with Bust. p. 1878. 62; A.R. i. 723; Archimel. FGE 85; Plb. i. 38. 5; 'S. PI. Ti. 8ib ~ Phot. S 767 ~ S S 1547), and thus a natural image for the initial stage of any great project (Spdfiaros dpxas; cf. V. 30 with 2V; PI. Ti. 8ib; Taillardat §673; Casson 223, fig. 163; D. Page, Folktales in Homer's Odyssey (Cambridge, Mass., 1973) 130—2). Spd^a in the sense 'play' is attested first at Ecphantid. fr. 3. 2 (with reference to Megarian farce) and Hdt. vi. 21. 2, and is common in late 5th-c. comedy (e.g. 149, 151, 849; Ach. 415, 470; Pax 794-5; Ra. 920; Telecl. fr. 41. i; Stratt. fr. 1.2), always used of 'tragedies'. Epicharmus' plays, however, were called 'dramas' (see e.g. PCG i. 70 on 'Opva) and cf. Ar.'s own titles and Apa^a-ra fj NlojSos (PCG iii. 2. 158-69). See in general Richards, CR 14(1900)388-93; Snell,P/iz7o/o^MsSuppl. 20.1(1928) 1-33; Philologus 85 (1930) 152—6; H. Schrenkenberg, Jpd l u,a(Wurzburg, 1960); Diccionario Griego-Espanol vi (Madrid, 2002) 1163 (s.v. 53 Kafnrrei.. . veas dv|/i8as: Adi/iiy is a 'felloe', i.e. the exterior rim of a wheel (Paus.Gr. a 182 withErbseadloc.). For'bending'wheels, H.//. 4. 485-6; Theoc. 25. 247—9. F°r wheel-making as an important Athenian craft, PL 513. For cart- and chariot-making generally, Eq. 461—4; Bliimnerii. 324— 6. Wood was bent by heating it (Thphr. HP iv. 11. 11; Theoc. 25. 249; cf. H. Od. 21. 245-7; steaming and boiling are never explicitly referred to), and Theophrastos comments repeatedly on which woods are most
L I N E S SO-7
71
flexible (e.g. HP i. 5. 5, 6. 2; iii. 10. 4; v. 6. 2, 7. 4). But Ar. allows the Slave to use the vb. in part because Kap-mfi and its cognates also appear in (generally unfavourable) descriptions of poetic composition (68 with n.; Nu. 333, 969-70; Eup. fr. 366 (corrupt); Pherecr. fr. 155. 9, 15; Timoth. PMG 802. 3 with Hordern ad loc.; cf. 100 n.; Suss, RhM NF 97 (1954) 119-20; Taillardat §784; West, AGM 356-7). eutiv (probably Verses', as at e.g. Ra. 1381) appearsparaprosdokian for Tpo^cw. 54 TOpveuei: 'turns on a lathe (ropvos)'; for the image, cf. PI. Phdr. 2346 (of Lysias' speech about love) ('eachofhisexpressionsisperfectly turned'); Hor.^4P44i male tornatos ... versus ('badly turned verses'). For lathes, Arist. Mu. 391 b2O-4; Bliimner ii. 214-15, 331-4; DoddsonE. Ba. 1066-7; cf. ^4^.491; A. fr. 57. 3; contrast 'compass' (e.g. Thgn. 805; E. fr. 382. 3). Ko\\oji€\€i: An Aristophanic coinage ('he glues lyrics together'); ^eAoKoAAei is expected and the peculiar nature of the formation is part of the parody. A reference to the use of glue (produced either by mixing flour and water or by boiling hides, hooves, or bones; cf. IG II 1558. 10 «[o]AAa/i(o9) ('glue-boiler'; an individual's occupation)) as a basic construction technique (Eg. 463 (contrasted with pegging); Bliimner ii. 308-10), although KoAAdoi and its cognates are also used of welding metal (Pi. N. 7. 78; Hdt. i. 25. 2) and joining wood (Thphr. HP v. 7. 4 with Casson 205 n. 21). Cf. PI. Phdr. 278d-e; Taillardat §415. 55 YvwuoTu-uei: 'forges maxims'; cf. ^eAcmWa) (A. Ag. 1153). The vb. (a hapax legomenon) is formed from the adj. yyoi^o-nVos-, which is attested first at Eq. 1379 (in the form yv(up.oTVTTiKos) and was most likely coined by the rhetoricians; cf. Neil ad loc.; Nu. 952; Ra. 877 with Dover ad loc. (although the reference to Taillardat is in error); Taillardat §765; O'Sullivan 136, 140. dvrovofid^ei: Lit. 'calls things by different names' (cf. Th. vi. 4. 6, the only other 5th-c. attestation of the word); here 'produces metaphors' or 'elaborate periphrases' (cf. Agathon TrGF 39 F 15 (101-3 n.)). 56—7 KT]poxuT€i Kai YOYY"^€I / Kai Xoav€|J€i: An allusion to bronze-casting via the 'lost wax' (cireperdue) technique: a wax model was produced over a wooden or clay core (cf. 514 with n.), covered with a clay investment, and fired in an oven; the wax burned away during the firing, the clay hardened into a mould that preserved an exact negative impression of the wax, and melted bronze was then poured into the mould. Cf. Poll. x. 189; Bliimner iv. 278—90; C. C. Mattusch, Greek Bronze Statuary from the Beginnings through the Fifth Century B.C. (Ithaca and London, 1988) 15-22. A is normally a 'crucible' vel sim. (West on Hes. Th. 863), although the word is sometimes used to mean 'mould' (cf. Bliimner iv. 286), and since Kr/po^vrei clearly refers to the creation of the wax model (cf. Hippod. ap. Stob. iv. i. 94 K-rfpo^vrei rdv tfjv-^av ('he moulds the soul'; undated,
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but the only other attestation of the vb.), yoyytiAAei (a hapax legomenon, although cf. 61 avyyoyyvXas) must describe the most important step in the process between the making of the model and the pouring of the bronze, i.e. the 'rounding-out' of the model to produce the mould. (lit. 'round') in the sense 'neatly conceived, terse' appears to be a semitechnical rhetorical term already in this period (Olson on Ach. 686; fr. 488. i) and may figure in the word-play somehow. 'gives blow-jobs'; cf. Cephisod. fr. 3. 5; Strata Com. fr. i. 36; Jocelyn, PCPS NS 26 (1980) 12-66; Bain, 'Verbs' 74-7; Olson on Ach. 79. The vb. is also used as the climax of a comic sequence at Eq. 167. For the motivation (or lack thereof) for the interruption, 50 n. 58 Cf. K. Of. 1269—70x1908' ap' d^i(j)l ^i€\adpov -TroAet oov dyporas dvrjp; ('\Vho is this rustic who ranges about your house?'). Verse 63 is spoken directly to Inlaw, and the old man's threat in 59-62 is most effective if made to the Slave's face. This verse must thus both describe and cover Inlaw's movement away from his hiding-place up to the central stagedoor (cf. 39-40 n.). aYpouiras: Otherwise an exclusively epic form (e.g. H.//. n. 549; Od. n. 293; [Hes.] Sc. 39 (but all with the initial syllable scanned long); subsequently at e.g. Theoc. 13. 44; 25. 23; A.R. 4. 1183; Q.S. 7. 506), although Sappho has the fern, dypoiomj (fr. 57. 1-2). The conventional contrast between sophisticated city-dwellers and boorish countrymen is at least as old as H. Od. 21.85-7. Otherwise confined to tragedy and Aristophanic paratragedy (Ra. 1265, 1267 = A. fr. 132. 2 (dactyls); E. El. 1293 (anapaests); [E.] Rh. 557 (anapaests)). GpiyKois: Echoed in 60. A BpiyKos is a 'coping', i.e. the topmost course of stones in a wall (esp. Arist. PA. 246^7-20; cf. P1._R. 5346; Jannoray, BCH 64-5 (1940-1) 38-40; 68-9 (1944-5) 89 n. 2), and thus via synecdoche the house as a whole (e.g. E. IT 129; Ion 156). The word occurs twice in Homer (Od. 7. 87; 17. 267), once in Archilochos (fr. I9&a. 21; not necessarily a sexual double entendre), and once in Sophocles (fr. 506. 2), but ten times in Euripides (also e.g. El. 1151; Tr. 489; IT 47), mostly inplays dating to the 41 os, hence presumably the Slave's paratragic (note the absence of the def. art.) use of it here. Cf. Miller 174-5. 59-62 For the omission of the antecedent of os, cf. Nu. 1226; KG ii. 434-5. Sc. el^n (3—4 n.); cf. Men. Dysk. 370 Denniston on E. El. 796. KaXXiemous and Gpiyxou are mocking echoes of the Slave's remarks in 49 and 58, respectively, while an d Xoav€'-'CTai pick up yoyyvXXei and y^oavevei in 56—7. The Athenians fucked people 'down the arse' (cf. 200 with n.) rather than 'up the arse' (as in colloquial English). R a 's (Kara) TOU GpiyKou is thus clearly right (Austin (1987) 71; (1990) 13-14): Inlaw is proposing to bugger the Slave and Agathon (cf. 50) much as he offers to bugger Agathon at 157—8 and as Strepsiades offers to share 'a little something of mine'
L I N E S 56-65
73
with Socrates' students before they are hustled off stage at Nu. 193—7. 'after rolling you up and twisting you round' (cf. Lys. 975), i.e. 'after turning you around and bending you over'. For the emphatic reduplication, ]. Vahlen, Opuscula Academica ii (Leipzig, 1908) 299—305. TOUT! TO wees: Accompanied by a gesture toward his stage-phallus (cf. initial n.). The obscenity (which caps the equally coarse but less developed insults in 50, 57) is reserved for the end of Inlaw's interjection as a sort of punch-line, and after the Slave's shocked response (63), Eur. interrupts and the plot begins to move forward again (64—5). Cf. 35 n. Forire'oy, 142, 643, 648; TkfTkf §i ('the vulgar voxpropria. Evidently its usefulness lay in its shock value'); cf. 254 with n. 63 f\ TTOU . . . Y(€) is commonly used in a fortiori arguments (e.g. Lys. ^3- 57)> although here 'the . . . relationship is implied, the second clause being unexpressed' (GP 282): 'You must certainly have acted outrageously when you were young, old man, [if you're acting this way now\\' 6ppiaTr|s: Cf. Nu. 1068; PI. 1074. An accusation of hybris (as here in the Slave's characterization of Inlaw's behaviour in 59—62) implies not so much injury as insult (although insult often accompanies injury and may itself be a form of injury), as at e.g. Ach. 479, 1117; Pax 1264; Ra. 21; PI. 899, 1044; cf. 465 with n., 535. For the concept generally, Arist. Rh. i378b23-9, i389b7-8 (both passages noting that hybris is typical of the young, as of the rich). For hybris as typical of youth, also S. fr. 786; PI. Euthd. 273a; X. Lac. 3. 2; cf. N. R. E. Fisher, Hybris (Warminster, 1992), esp. 10-13; Chadwick 292-7. For forced subjection to sexual penetration as 'suffering hybris', e.g. Th. viii. 74. 3; Lys. 12. 98; Aeschin. i. 15; Arist. EN ii48 b 3o—i; Dover, GH^^—g. A more or less neutral form of address (Olson on Ach. 397*), at least when the parties do not know one another. Used here mostly for the sake of the contrast with 64—5 39—62 n. Addressed to the Slave. Eur., who has remained off to the side even after Inlaw steps out of hiding (cf. 39-40 n., 58 n.), moves over to the door to break up the quarrel and bring the old man back to order. to Sai^iovie: A conciliatory if often exasperated form of address (also combined with ea(aov) at Nu. 38; Lys. 945; EC. 564, 784); 'my good sir' vel sim. (e.g. Eq. 860*; V. 962; Ra. 44*; Pherecr. fr. 85. i*; Mnesim. fr. 3. 4). First in Homer (e.g. //. i. 561; 2. 190; Od. 10. 472); also attested in the classical period inHdt. (iv. 126; vii. 48; viii. 84. 2) and Plato (e.g. Phdr. 235c; Grg. 489d), but absent from tragedy and other serious poetry, and thus presumably colloquial. Cf. E. Brunius-Nilsson, AAIMONIE: An Inquiry into a Mode of Apostrophe in Old Greek Literature (Uppsala, 1955), with the comments and criticisms of Verdenius, Mnemosyne iv. 12 (1959) 147—8; Sommerstein, CQ NS 27 (1977) 272 (but note that the word is in fact frequently used between social equals and
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often with a thinly veiled tone of annoyance (e.g. Av. 1638; EC. 784)); Dickey 141-2. TOUTOV fiev ia xi'peiv: 'let him go!', i.e. 'pay no attention to himl'; colloquial (e.g. PL 1186—7; Stratt. fr. 42. 2; E. Hipp. 113 with Barrett ad loc.; El. 400; Hdt. iv. 112; PI. Cri. 45a with Burnet adloc.; Snip. 1766; Prt. 347e; cf. Stevens 26). For the motif of ignoring a character on stage while calling for someone else, S. OT 1069-70. For the scansion of e'a (^ or as a monosyllable in synizesis?), Dover on Nu. 932; cf. 176. au 8e: Cf. Jebb on S. EL 448 ('av Se marks an antithesis, not of persons, but of clauses, and serves merely to emphasize the second clause'); Austin (1990) 14-15. Similar orders to slaves at Ach. 402; PL 1103; E. Ba. 170. Ethic dat. (KGi. 423); 'please'. Cf. 289, 291, 627. TTCUJT] rexvt]: 'by every means', i.e. 'at all costs, no matter what'; used to 'lend urgency or insistence to an imperative' (Dover onRa. 1235); cf. 271 Trdaaisre^vais (to avoid hiatus) with n., 430 with n.; Nu. 885*, 1323*; Lys. 412; EC. 366*, 534*; S.Ai. 1^2,iravroig.rfxt'"(l\ Hdt. i. 112. I p.riSep.LfJTex^'!]', Lys. 19. 11, 53; X. An. iv. 5. 16 = vii. 2. 8 (allmxCTTj re^vy Kal ^riy^avif). 66-9 Advance notice of Agathon's entrance at 95 (but cf. 71-94 n.), which both resumes the announcement in the anapaests at 39—57 (esp. 49—50, 52—7) that the poet is about to begin composing and warns the audience in advance that any poetry he presents on stage is likely to be exceptionally 'frigid'(cf. 168-70 n.). 66 firfSev iK€T€u(e): 'Don't go on supplicating me!' (Rijksbaron 43—4); a response to the pleading tone of irdaji T^yv"f\ (65) and perhaps Sai^wie (64 with n.). For supplication, 179-80 n. auros: More likely 'of his own accord' (e.g. Ach. 36; Lys. 1107 au-ny yap . . . 178' e^epxerai; PL 965 S.OT34i;H.//. 4. 287; X. An. vi. 6. 9; cf. KGi. 653) than 'the master himself (JVM. 219 with Dover adloc.; fr. 279; Men. Sam. 256, 258), even though the speaker is a household slave. Despite LSJ s.v., rdxa + fut. in the sense 'soon, forthwith' is common in comedy (e.g. 853; ^4cA. 332; V. 453; Pax 1317; EC. 933; Cratin. frr. 131; 151.2). 67—8 Kdi Y"P: Explanatory, 'for in fact' (GP 108—9); c f- 196. Cf. 42 n., and note the specific reference to lyric in 68. 1-2 n.; Eq. 883; Men. Mis. 12. ouv marks progression 'to a new point, or a new stage in the march of thought' (GP 426; cf. EC. 180), in this case an explanation of precisely what is motivating Agathon's independent decision to come out of his house (66). 'bend down', i.e. 'so as to make curved' (cf. PI. Ti. 3&b, 7ic); picking up on the imagery of wheel-making in 53 (where see n.). First attested as a technical term for choral lyric here and at Pherecr. fr. 155. 9 (of dithyramb); cf. 100 n.; Pherecr. fr. 155. 15 (metaphorically of Phrynichos' compositional technique) ('bending and twisting'); Arist. Rh. i4O9b27; [Arist.] Pr.
L I N E S 64-71
75
9i8 b i3—29. For the stylistic level of paSiov + infin., Bers 195— 2Oi,esp. 198—200. 69 irpotr) Gupaai: 'comes forth [to compose] outside'; for the pregnant construction (idiomatic), cf. Th. iii. 71. 2 TOVS eKei KriTmref/ievyoTas; Satyr. FHGiii. i6o,fr. I a<j>iKoij.evos&' HOrivriaive£;'OXvij.TTias', Holzinger, SAWW 215. i (1933) 62 n. i; Austin (1987) 71. Ovpaai ('outside') is a rare form, attested six other times in Ar. (792; V. 891; Pax 942, 1023; Lys. 353; EC. 993) but otherwise confined to late 5th-c. tragedy (E. EL 1074; fr. 521. 2 (from Meleager); S. OC 401 with Jebb ad loc.; adesp. tr. fr. *&38. 8). Tipos TOV tjXiov: 'facing the sun', i.e. 'in the sunlight' (JVM. 771*; V. 772 with MacDowell ad loc.; Pax 567*; EC. 64*; fr. 619*; Eub. fr. 67. 3*), where it will be warmer. Cf. 1001 irpos rrjv alrpmv* with n. 70 TI ouv lyto 8p&j;: 'What am / to do?' (cf. 925; PL 1197; Austin on Men. Asp. 380); Inlaw (like the even more disgruntled Xanthias at Ra. 107) feels left out of the conversation. ii€pifi€v(€): Late 5th- and 4th-c. Attic vocabulary (e.g. Ach. 815*; Antiph. fr. 126. i; S. Ant. 1296; E. Ph. 223 with Mastronarde ad loc.; Th. i. 124. i; PI. R. 449d; Men. Mis. 22). Cf. 36* with n., 95. The Slave goes back into the house, closing the door behind him. 71-94 finally answer the question implicit in the action since 29-30, where Eur. identifies the central stage-door (and thus his destination; cf. 3—4 with n.) as Agathon's house: (A) Eur. explains his vague initial complaint to Zeus (71) by noting that some unspecified trouble is waiting for him (75), and subsequently defines this as a matter of life and death (76-7); (B) he then makes clear that the problem has to do with the city's women, who are angry with him for his portrayal of them in his tragedies (81—4, 85); (C) and only after all of this does he tell why he has come to Agathon's house and what his plan is (87-92 with n.). Inlaw's questions in 72-4, 78—80, 87 set up Eur.'s explanations, whereas his briefer interjections and queries in 76, 84, 89, 91 do little more than keep the dialogue going. Cf. 586 n. The teasing style of the exposition is typical of the prologue up to this point; cf. 5-22 n., 39-62 n., 97-176 n. Despite the Slave's repeated assurances in 66 and 70, Agathon does not emerge from his house until 95, and these verses not only serve to explain to the audience what Eur. is up to (above) but allow the tritagonist time to change costume. 71 to Zeu: Cf. i* n.; but Eur. is really addressing Zeus. The first half of the line sounds paratragic (esp. S. OT 738 cf. Eq. 1240; Pax 58, 62 (all paratragic); Miller 175), although neither Siavoei (late 5th-c. vocabulary; common in Ar. (e.g. JVM. 481*; Pax 362; EC. 769*) and prose (e.g. Hdt. ii. 121. S. 4; Th. v. 9. 2; PI. Snip. 2i9a), but not attested in serious poetry) nor rr|fi€pov (first attested in Homer in the form arnj.epov, common in the comic poets (e.g. 83*; Ach. iO73*;^4«. 1045*; Cratin.fr. 129; Hermipp.fr. 74. i) and4th-c. prose (e.g.
j6
COMMENTARY
PLPhd. 6ic;X.HGvii.2. 20; D. 18. 8), but attested in serious poetry only at [E.] Rh. 683; cf. 76-7 n.) is tragic vocabulary. As the action of a Greek play normally takes place in a single day (Austin on Men. Asp. 417—18), the idea of 'today' as the fateful day often serves as a leitmotif; cf. 76, 83, 181; and the plots of S. Ai. and E. Ale. and Hipp. By 95-6, Eur. and Inlaw have moved away from Agathon's door again, and this would seem to be the last moment for them to do so, as Eur. steps off to one side, holding his hands in the air (e.g. Av. 622—3) and offering a desperate complaint to the king of the gods, and the puzzled Inlaw follows him away (72-4). 72—3 72 and the first half of 73 amount to explanatory glosses on the questions that follow, and are addressed to the retreating Eur.'s back (cf. 71 n.). vr| TOUS Geous: A banal oath, * at Av. 1166; Ra. 152; PL 74, 685. TI TO TfpaYna TOUTI is * at Av. 1171; Ra. 658, and i most likely colloquial (cf. PI. Snip. 2i7c; Ep.II 312%', Olson onAch. 156). 'What are you groaning about? What are you taking so badly?' For rl areveis;, cf. V. 180*. arevw (poetic vocabulary) is extremely common in tragedy (e.g. A. Ch. 931; S. OT 64; E. Hec. 589; Hel. 463; [A.] P 1^409) and is thus appropriate to describe the behaviour of a grieving tragic playwright. For ri &va<j>opeis;, cf. Ra. 922 (Dionysos to Euripides) rl aKopSiva xal Sva>opeis; ('Why do you fidget and take this ill?'). Sva>opea> (first attested in Aeschylus) is widely distributed in 5thand 4th-c. literature; pace Miller, TAP A 76 (1945) 76, the fact that it can bear a technical medical meaning is no reason for assigning it that meaning wherever it occurs. 74 For the motif of keeping an unhappy secret to oneself, e.g. Lys. 711-14; PL 23-7; E. Hipp. 267-323; cf. Fraenkel, KIB i. 489-93. is not simply equivalent to xpr/ (which Ar. could have written, had he wished; cf. app. crit.) but expresses unfulfilled obligation: 'You ought not to be concealing this [although you are]' (KGi. 204-5; Gildersleeve§364; Barrett on E. Hipp. 467; Austin on Men. Asp. 92); cf. 598, 726, 793, etc. in the sense 'conceal from someone' is used with the ace. of the person concerned. Here p,€ is to be understood; cf. Austin (1987) 71. Like epic 777joy(esp. H. Od. 8. 581-2 with Hainsworth and Garvie adloc.), Kr/Searris (Attic vocabulary; first attested at A. fr. 47a. 819) functions as a generic term for male inlaws (affines) of all sorts (e.g. Lys. 19. 12-13; 29. 2; of a father-in-law at e.g. Lys. 32. 5;X._ffGiv. i. 8; of a brother-in-law at e.g. Lys. 32. i; And. i. 47; of a son-in-law at e.g. Isoc. 10. 43); cf. V. 731 Ki]8fpu}v ff fv-y-yevris (a contrast between non-blood- and blood-relatives). The implication of Inlaw's remark and the other ancient evidence is that good relations with one's inlaws were valued highly and that a man could expect to be able to turn to his K-rjSearal for support once the resources of his own household were exhausted, and before appealing
L I N E S 71-7
77
to demesmen or the like (e.g. E. Hec. 833-5; Lys. 32. i; Is. 2. 29-30; cf. Dover, GPM 275-6). The «i)8e<mys relationship between Inlaw and Eur. is crucial to the plot and is therefore specifically referred to three more times: at 210 (after Agathon has refused to cooperate and Inlaw is preparing to offer himself), 584 Krfitarrp riva* (Kleisthenes' summary of Eur.'s plot, and implicitly an explanation of why anyone would undertake so dangerous a mission on behalf of another man), and 1165 * (Eur.'s justification of his unexpected offer to give up denouncing women in his plays). At the same time, by identifying the two men as (rather than friends or the like) Ar. captures a fundamental dynamic of his story as a whole: what binds Inlaw and Eur. together is their relationship to women. 'Eur.'siojSeCT-njj' is the only specific identity ever assigned Inlaw in the text of the play, although the tradition represented by the scholia and marginal indications of change of speaker in R identify him with Mnesilochos (PA 10329; PAA 657020), the father of the historical Euripides' first (?) wife (cf. anon. vit. Eur. §5 (p. 5. 5 Schwartz); S e 3695; Wilamowitz (ed.), Euripides Herakles2 i (Gottingen, 1895; repr. Darmstadt, 1969) 7 n. 12), whom the comic poet Teleclides identified as his poetic collaborator (Telecl. fr. 41). 75 TI adds specificity to KCIKOV . . . neya; it is not 'big trouble' generally that awaits Eur., but one big trouble in particular, hence Inlaw's question in 76. TTpoTT€<|>upan€vov: (fjvpaia is used in culinary contexts of the 'mixing together' of ingredients that preceded the kneading of dough for bread, cakes, and the like (esp. Av. 462—3, where ('knead to completion') are distinguished; Th. iii. 49. 3, where ('barley-groats mixed with wine and olive oil') are not true barley-cakes but emergency rations made and consumed on the go). The Hippocratic authors refer repeatedly and exclusively to barley-cake du,d£a; cf. Olson on Pax i; Olson-Sens on Matro fr. i. 92) as (lit. 'pre-mixed') et sim. (esp. Aff. 52 (vi. 260. 22), where is said to be la^vpoTepri ('stronger') than barley-cake not treated this way; cf. Viet. ii. 40 (vi. 536. 14, 538. 12); Eratosth. fr. 26 Strecker ap. Ath. 4. I4oa), which must be the image in the background here, as also at ^4«. 462-3 (where see Dunbar'sn.).Cf. 429 with n. (a similar image); Bliimner i. 61 n. i (but note that barley-cake was not leavened, so that it can scarcely be to that stage in the bread-making process that properly refers); Taillardat §755. Eur.'s point is thus that a plot has already been conceived against him (cf. 82 with 82-5 n.) and that matters will be all the worse because of that. 76—7 TTOIOVTI;: 'What sort in particular?'; cf. 75 n.; Ra. 289*; Alex. fr. 153. T 5 with Arnott ad loc. fj8€ KT ^- = E. Tel. fr. **I44 Austin (where vel sim. must have stood in the place of Ar.'s For the Telephos-parody in Th., Introduction pp. Ivi—Iviii.
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Cf. Av. 1072 (a formal public announcement); S. Ai. 756, 778, 1362; OT 1283. The colloquial form is -nj^epoy (71 n.). 78—9 n. iar(i) . . . £tov: For the periphrastic use of + pres. part, to describe a state, S. OT 1045 rj KO.OT' en ^uiv;\ Tr. 735; Ph. 412; KG i. 38-9; Gildersleeve §191; Aerts 5-26; Moorhouse 204. Cf. 209* with n. Eupnri8r]s: For the proper name and a 3rd-pers. vb. used in place of eyoianda ist-pers. vb. to add solemnity to a remark, V. 1396; Lys. 365; S. Ai. 864; KG i. 88; Headlam on Herod, i. 76; Austin on CGFPR 151.263= Men. Mis. 664. 78-9 By KpiBr/aerai in 76, Eur. means simply 'it will be decided'. But Inlaw takes him to be saying that '[legal] judgment will be given' and therefore objects that this cannot be the case, for neither the courts nor the city's Council will be in session today. Kai mus; marks this as an incredulous objection; 'But how [can this be]?' Cf. 96, 624, 645; Eq. 128* with Neil ad loc.; Nu. 717, 1434; A. Ag. 549* with Fraenkel ad loc.; E. Or. mo*; PI. Tht. i88e; GP 309-10. For the series of clauses (presumably colloquial), cf. 926-7 f/vwep . . . f/v; van Leeuwen on Lys. 1183. For TCI 8iKaarr|pia / . . . SiKai^eiv, cf. [Arist.] Ath. 59. i ra SiKaorr/pia . . . Set 8iKa£,€iv, and phrases of the type (Eup. fr. 166) or o^eroi. . . / o-^frfvaovrai (Pherecr. fr. 137. 7—8), for which cf. Fehling 158-9. For Athens' lawcourts, Todd 82-91, 98146; Boegehold, Agora xxviii (1995) (both with extensive primary and secondary references). The courts met every day except holidays and days on which the Assembly met (V. 661—3 with 2vr and MacDowell on 663; [X.]^4f/i.3.8).Theyopenedatdawn(cf. V. 100-4,215-17,245,5 52), as did meetings of the Assembly (375-6 n.) and doubtless the Council (below), and Inlaw's observation that they will not meet serves to confirm that it is still very early in the day (cf. 2 with n.). For the death-penalty (to which Inlaw takes Eur. to be implying that he may well be subject (above) and which was normally imposed only on common street-criminals (816-18 n.) or to punish grave wrongs done the state as a whole), 930—1 n.; Bonner and Smith ii. 276-87; Todd 139-41; Allen 197-242, esp. 200-2, 205-24, 232-7. A considerable portion of those on trial for a capital offence who had the opportunity seem to have fled the city, forfeiting their case and accepting an effective penalty of exile with a loss of civic rights (e.g. And. i. 13; cf. Todd 140). OUT€ POU\TJS ea8' eSpa: The implication of this passage and 943-4 is that in this period Athens' Council had independent authority to impose sentences of death, although Rhodes (Boule 185) argues that Inlaw is merely offering additional evidence that today is a holiday (80). The Council met every day except holidays and days of ill omen, and the meeting mentioned at 943 is clearly an emergency session; cf. 652-4 n. For the Council's meeting place (normally in this period the Old Bouleuterion, located north of the tholos and just east of the New
L I N E S 76-82
79
Bouleuterion, in the spot later occupied by the Metroon), Thompson and Wycherley, Agora xiv (1972) 29-34; Boule 30-9; Olson onAch. 377-82 (with further bibliography). For e'Spa used of 'sessions' of the Council (rarely the Assembly), And. i. i n ; [Arist.] Ath. 4. 3; 30. 4; IG I 3 61. 53, 55 (both conjectural); IP i. 74; Poll. viii. 145. 80 eirel Tpirr) 'ari 0€<jfio<|>opitdv, r| Meat): The Thesmophoria is normally referred to as a three-day festival (celebrated on 11—13 Pyanepsion; cf. Introduction p. xlvi), and Inlaw's observation that this is 'the third day, that is the Middle Day' (also known as N^arem, 'the Day of Fasting'; cf. 570 with n., 948-9; adesp. com. fr. *H2) was seen as a problem already in antiquity. ZR explains that a separate Thesmophoria was celebrated in the deme of Halimous on 10 Pyanepsion and that that day could be added to the Athenian count, so that the 'Middle Day' of the festival could also be properly referred to as the 'third'. As we know that Demeter Thesmophoros and her daughter were worshipped at Halimous (Paus. i. 31. i; cf. Plu. Sol. 8. 4; Hsch. « 4816 with Henderson on Lys. 2), there is no good reason to reject this explanation and follow Coulon, Sommerstein, and others in reading emiTrep earl with Nauck (Mel. gr.-r. 2 (1866) 471); cf. Austin (1990) 15. Handley speculatively restored at adesp. com. fr. 1132. i (see above, Introduction p. Ixxviii n. 79). 81 Y"P T°l (colloquial) 'conveys assent, while adding something' to the demonstrative (GP 88—9, 549—50; Stevens 48), while K(CU) marks the addition (GP 307-8); 'Yes, for I expect that this very thing . . .'. Cf. 1647 n., 171; Eq. 180; Lys. 46 Ra. 73-4; fr. 504. 9. d-uoXeiv: Picking up on dTroAa)A(e) in 77. First attested at A. Ag. 675 and widely distributed thereafter in both poetry (e.g. 846, 962—3; Lys. 61; S. Tr. 367; E. Supp. 99) and prose (e.g. Hdt. i. 42. 2; Antipho Soph. 87 B 60; Lys. 7. 39); cf. Homeric (e.g. Od. 2. 186). 82—5 Cf. 181—2, where Eur. offers Agathon a similar but more abbreviated account of the situation, Ar. not unreasonably opting to omit information the audience in the Theatre has already been given. The most significant points passed over in the conversation with Agathon are that (i) the women's action does not represent a sudden spontaneous outburst of anger, but is the result of an organized decision-making process (cf. 372— 9), which Eur. represents as part of a plot against him (82 (2) a women's assembly will be held in the Thesmophorion to deal with the matter (83—4 KO.V 0eap.oopoiv p.eXXovai. . . / fKK\i]aLii^fLv)', and (3) Eur.'s 'slanders' against the women have been made specifically in his tragedies (85). Cf. 90-2 with n., 177-8 n. 82 euipepouXeuKdai [ioi: eTripovXevw and its cognates (first attested at A. Supp. 587; Th. 29; Pi. N. 4. 37) are primarily prosaic vocabulary (e.g.
8o
COMMENTARY
Hdt. i. 24. 2; Th. i. 82. i; Lys. 1.44; PI. Snip. 2O3b). Thevb. is attested six other times in Ar., including in the parody of the Assembly-curse (331-51 n.) at 335; in tragedy only at S. Ai. 726; OT6i8; E. Hyps. fr. 60. 36. 83 (l)v (™ i€pu>) 0€<jfio<|>6poiv: 'in [the sanctuary] of the two Thesmophoroi' (cf. 89 els 0eafi,o>6poiv, 224 n., 278 (called TO 0eafi,o>6piov), 880; 2R; Poultney 6; Stevens 27-8), i.e. of Demeter and Kore; cf. 285-7; EC. 443. For the cult-title and its significance, Introduction, p. xlv. The Thesmophorion sanctuary has never been certainly identified but was most likely located within the City Eleusinion on the north slope of the Acropolis; cf. Introduction, p. xlvi. rr|fi€pov: 71* n. 84 €KK\T]aid^€iv: The women's meeting takes the form of a regular Athenian Assembly (90, 277, 302, 329, 375); cf. 295—382 n. They likewise speak of their own Council (372) and People (308, 335, 1145), and at one point refer to the Thesmophorion as 'the Pnyx' (658 with n.). 'with an eye to [my] destruction' (LSJ s. em B. I I I . 2; cf. E. Ph. 534*; IA 1237*), i.e. 'with my destruction being the principal topic on the agenda'. TIT) ri 8r|;: 'Why?'; an emphatic expression of puzzlement also at V. 1155*; Pax 1018*; and perhaps Nu. 755* (v.l.). is attested in Old Comedy only in Ar.; otherwise confined to early epic and Apollonios Rhodios. For Inlaw's question, Eur.'s response to it (85), and Inlaw's follow-up (86) as an explanatory digression, 87 n. 85 6rir| responds to TOJ in 84. TpaY<j>8t5 Kai KaKtos auras Xeyw 'I make them the subject of my tragedies and abuse them', with the second vb. lending specific content to the first (cf. 90—1, 268). The theme is developed at length in Mika's speech in 383-432, esp. 386-8. For the sense of rpa-ywow (first attested atNu. 1091), cf. the regular use of to mean 'make the subject of a comedy [and thus inevitably mock]' (e.g. Ach. 631; Pax 751; Ra. 368; Alex. fr. 121. 2). For KaKfas Xe-yiu, e.g. 182 *, 539, 962-3; Ach. 503 with Olson ad loc.; Lys. 694; cf. 388 with n., 785, 1167 with n. For Eur.'s alleged misogyny, Lys. 368-9 with Henderson on 12; Diph. fr. 74. 3—5. 86 Cf. Lys. 403 va.1 rov UooeiSw rov O\VKOV StKaid ye. A typical 'bomolochic' interjection, to which Eur. accordingly fails to react; cf. 45 n. is the standard Aristophanic oath when the space to be filled extends from the head of the line to the penthemimeral caesura (e.g. Ach. 560; Eq. 1201; Nu. 724; Lys. 403 (above); Ra. 276; EC. 339). For Poseidon, 322-3 n. The text at some point lost a syllable before civ, and Wilamowitz (on E. HF681) proposed SiKalav as an internal ace. with(see 381—2 n. on p.aKpav). But Greek normally uses neut. substantives in expressions of this sort (cf. LSJ s. Wa^oi I I I ) , and Grynaeus' has the right tone (see below) and is supported by Lys. 403 (above). Cf. Austin (1987) 71. 'The effect of ye . . . is to stress the addition made by (GP 157); 'andyou']\ deserve whatever happens to you, too!', Inlaw's
L I N E S 82-92
8l
point being that Eur. does exactly what he is accused of (85). For after an oath (colloquial), Ach. 560; Ra. 183, 1074. 87—92 Preparation for 177—92, but also quite misleading, since (i) Agathon will not need to be made to put on women's clothes, because he is already wearing them (cf. 136-42); and (2) Eur.'splantouse Agathon quickly falls through (193-208) and it is in the end Inlaw who agrees to be disguised as a woman and infiltrate the women's assembly to make Eur.'s case (209— 12). Cf. 584-91 n. 87 drdp marks a break in the thought, as again at 207*, 215*, 1119*. Probably colloquial in tone; cf. GP 51-3; Stevens 44-5; Lopez Eire 131. For pi]-^avai('devices') as typically Euripidean (cf. Stevens on E. Andr. 85), 765 (Inlaw attempts to discover a as- ('device to save myself) and settles on a parody of E. Palame (769-71)), 926-7, 1131-2; cf. 93-4 with nn.; Ach. 445 (Eur. praises Dikaiopolis for his 'devising' when Dikaiopolis asks to borrow Telephos' rags to deceive the chorus). IK TOUTUV: 'from these [troubles]', i.e. those defined in 82-4, 84 TO) KrA.-86 being an explanatory digression followed by a nasty remark. Coulon, Essaizi, suggested instead 'exinde' (cf. V. 346); cf. Austin (1987) 71-2. For the use of IK, Eq. 759; Ra. 185; Poultney 157. R's eV Tavrr/s is taken by Tammaro, Eikasmos 13 (2002) 93-6, to mean 'what scheme do you have coming from this house?', with Inlaw pointing to the central stage-door (for the idea, cf. 183; for the use of the demonstrative, 380 n.; for e« indicating the source of thejurj^ai'iy, A. Supp. 457; [Arist.] Mu. 39& b 33; Hid. ix. 6. 4). But the paradosis is more likely the result of assimilation to the gender and number of what looked to an early editor to be Sixnmv in 86. 88—9 Sc. SLavoovp.aL vel sim. The specification that the Agathon in question is the tragic poet is arguably gratuitous after 29-69, esp. 29-30 A-yadiav . ../ o TpaywScnroios. But the fact that Agathon is a tragic poet is an important part of the explanation of why Eur. has come to him for help (cf. 187 n.), and he accordingly gives some proleptic emphasis to it now. The Si&aaKaXos (lit. 'teacher') was properly the trainer of the chorus (esp. PI. Ion 53&a) rather than the poet, but the two are routinely identified in comedy; cf. Ach. 628; Eq. 507; Pax 73 829; Av. 912, 1403; fr. 348. 3 (from Th. II); Cratin. fr. 276. 1-2; Tapli (1977)12—14. eis 0€<jfio<|>6poiv: Cf. 83 withn. eime fioi is used routinely in Ar. to introduce (e.g. 618*; Ach. 157, 3i<);Eq. ioz;Nu. 82; Lys. 830) or follow up (e.g. 743; Nu. 200*, 637*; Pax 210*; EC. 865*; PL 941*, 998*; cf. Alex. fr. 7. i*) an impatient question. 90—2 Cf. 184—92, where Eur. makes a very similar proposal to Agathon's face (184-6 with n.) but also explains for the first time why he has come to his fellow tragedian in particular for assistance (187 with n., 191-2) and why he is unwilling or unable to do the job himself (189—90). Eur. clearly
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wants Agathon to argue for the justice of his behaviour (as Inlaw does—in outrageous fashion and to initially disastrous effect—in 466-519, 549-65) and has no intention of altering the way he depicts women in his tragedies. Contrast 1160—7 with nn. 90-1 €KK\r)<jidaovT' Iv rais Y uvai £' ('t° participate in the assembly among the women'; for the use of ev, cf.Ach. 630; V. n85;fr. 161) is given more specific context by K(CU) . . . \e£ov6' urnep Ifiou ('and in particular to say on my behalf); cf. 85 n. Eur. has no doubt that Agathon will need to argue his case with the women (cf. 184-7), and Markland's (ad E. Supp. 364 (London, 1763) 139; = Kal a av Sei] ('and what the occasion requires')) rather than R's KO.V (sic) Sejj (= Kal eav Sejj ('and if need be')) should be printed. Cf. Th. i. 22. I rd Seovra . . . ei-jreiv, Austin (1987) 72. -uorepa <|>av€p6v rj \d6pa;: i.e. 'in his own person or in disguise?'; cf. H. Od. 19. 299 rj dps/mSov rje Kpv>-r]S6v. Meineke (who attributed the conjecture to Cobet, apparently in error) suggested to match the adv. Xa&pq (cf. V. 1018 ov (jxiveptijs dAA(d) . . . Kpvp&riv', Th. vi. 34. 2 TJTOI Kpv<j>a ye rj avepws', PI. Snip. i82d But Xe^ovra >avepa>s ought to mean 'to say publicly' (cf. 431), which will not do; cf. Kaibel ap. Austin (1987) 72. 92 <7ToAr|v yuvcuKos T|^A((>i€a^i€VOv: Cf. 851 yvvaiK€ta OTO\TJ\ EC. 879 These words serve inter alia as preparation for Agathon's entrance in effeminate clothing at 95. a-roXi] (which can refer to the clothing of either sex, hence the specification yvvaiKos) is first attested at Sapph. fr. 57. 2 (in the form aroXa) and is widely distributed in 5th- and 4th-c. poetry (e.g. 136 = A. fr. 61; E. Hel. 1382; Timoth. PMG 791. 167) and prose (e.g. Hdt. iv. 116. 2; Lys. 6. 51; PI. Criti. I2ob). 93 KO|_u|/6v is 'elegant, smart' (e.g. Lys. 89; Arar. fr. 8. i; Eup. fr. 172. 2; Men. Dysk. 414); by extension 'subtle, clever' (e.g. 460; Nu. 649, 1030/1; Ra. 967; fr. 719. i; Cratin. fr. 182. 3; E. Cyc. 315; Tr. 651). Common in comedy and late 4th-c. prose, but attested in tragedy only in Euripides (also e.g. Supp. 426; fr. 188. 5) and thus probably colloquial. Cf. Chantraine, REG 58 (1945) 90—6; Miller 175. a<|>68p' iKTOuaourpoiiou: 'very much your style' (Poultney 166; cf. 574; V. 1002; Austin on Men. Asp. 368); for the idea, Eq. 18 KOfu/ievpnriKws ('clever in a Euripidean way'). Perhaps an allusion specifically to Euripides' Telephos, which is parodied later in the play; cf. Introduction pp. Ivi—Iviii. For a<j>o&pa (colloquial), TheslefT§§i33, 146. 94 TOU . . . Texvd^eiv: For re^yrj and its cognates used of Eur. and his plans and poetry, 198—9 (Agathon disavows rf-^yaapara), 271 with n.; Ra. 957; cf. 87 with n.; Miiller 11—12. r|fi€T€pos 6 mupafious: Apparently proverbial, like the English 'that takes the cake'; cf. Eq. 277. A was a type of cake (included in a list of symposium dainties at Ephipp. fr. 8. 3) identified by latrokles in his On Cakes (ap. Ath. 14. &47b—c) with
L I N E S 9O-6
83
the iTvpa^is (included in a list of symposium dainties at Ephipp. fr. 13. 4); it is said by him to have been made of roasted wheat mixed with honey and to have been given as a prize 'to the man who stayed awake at all-night festivals' and who was then allowed 'to kiss whomever he wished of the girls and boys present' (thus Call. fr. 227. 5-7, upon which latrokles is presumably relying; cf. 2R; Poll. vi. 108; Hsch. 774388,4391; Small Objects 109—11), although Trypho (fr. 116; cf. Hsch. a 533) claimed that it was a baked sesame bread and tentatively identified it with the aTjaa^mj?. Plu. Mor. 747a refers to irvpa^ovv-rfs as prizes for symposium dancers, while EM, p. 533. 21-3, says that cakes of this sort were given to those who won at the symposium game kottabos (for which, Olson on Pax 343/4; B. Piitz, The Symposium and Komos in Aristophanes (Drama 22: Stuttgart and Weimar, 2003) 221-41). The plan is entirely Eur.'s, not Inlaw's, but Inlaw's use of the ist-pers. possessive adj. makes it clear that he is already wedded to it; cf. 209—12. 95-129 Cf. 36-57 with 36-7 n. 95 aiYd. —ri lariv;: Cf. Plaut. Pseud. 207 tace.—quid esff As Kaibel (ap. Austin (1987) 72) notes, rieanv; is common after a peremptory vocative (e.g. 193; see K—Aon Lysipp. fr. i. i) or a sudden command (Men. Dysk. 83), whereas TL &' IOTLV; (e.g. 582) represents a request for further information. R's S' must have been added to eliminate hiatus. The central stage-door swings open and Agathon is pushed out on the theatrical trolley or ekkuklema (96 with n.; cf. 265) by a mute slave or slaves. He is reclining on a couch (261 with n.), which is covered with rich bed-clothes, including a woman's himation (250, 261 with n.); the entrance of Euripides at Ach. 409 is similar. Agathon wears a white ('female') mask (cf. Stone 22—7) with no beard (191; cf. 31—3 with nn.); a saffron-coloured chiton of a sort normally worn by women (138 with n.); and a breast-band (139 with n.). A long, beautifully coloured band of cloth is wrapped about his head (138 withn.). Unlike most other male characters in the play, Agathon does not have a visible stage-phallus (142 with n.). A lyre is in his hands and other stringed instruments are perhaps nearby (cf. 137-8 with n.). Other props, including a razor in a razorcase (218-20), a mirror (140 with n., 234-5), another saffron-coloured chiton (253), another breastband (255), another headband and hair-net or something that resembles them (25 7—8 withn.), and a pair of boots (262—3 with 261-2 n.) are within easy reach. Cf. Snyder; Muecke 49-55, esp. 49-51; Stone 346-7. As is normal with historical individuals on stage in Ar.'s comedies, Agathon is named when he appears; cf. 4 with n. 96 Kai TTOU 'aG'j: Cf. 645; E. Ba. 501 Inlaw's question sets up the joke in 97-8. R's TO to eariv originated in a simple visual error, as the scribe's eye leapt from one T1OYEZ (i.e. via scriptio plena) to the next (i.e. -TTOV la-, once again via scriptio
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plena); cf. Coulon, Essai 39. Dover would not rule out with 'split anapaest'; cf. his nn. on Nu. 214 and Ra. 286; Dunbar on Av. 90. For «ai preceding an interrogative expressing surprise or disbelief, 78—9 n. For the indirect interrogative OTTOU picking up the direct interrogative TTOV, KGii. 5i7;cf. 203, 252-3,483;Eq. 128, 1073; Nu. 1495; Ra. 198. OUTOS ouKKuK\oufi€VOs: Cf. 265 ('Let someone roll me inside!') with n. Agathon's entrance and exit, like the entrance and exit of Euripides reclining on a couch at Ach. 409, 479, are clearly intended to parody the use of a theatrical trolley (ekkuklema) to represent interior scenes in contemporary tragedy; cf. 2R; Sandbach on Men. Dysk. 690; Hansen, Philologus 120 (1976) 170—1 (with extensive bibliography); Newiger, Dioniso 59 (1989) 181—5 ~ WJA 16 (1990) 39-42; Olson on Ach. 408-9; Jacques, Pallas 54 (2000) 89-102. 97-176 Eur. could easily make the request in 177-87 the moment Agathon appears on stage (95—6), and these verses thus represent an interruption in the forward movement of the plot of a sort typical of the prologue (5—22 n.; cf. 39-62n., 71-94n., 99-133 n.). 97-8 d\\' f\ 'puts an objection in interrogative form, giving lively expression to a feeling of surprise or incredulity' (GP 27—8; cf. Neil onEq. 953; Jebb onS.Ph. 414; Barrett on E.Hipp. 858; contrast Chadwick 129, who would retain R's ff); 'Perhaps?' (but hoping for a negative answer). Interrogative fiev 'marks the proposition as preliminary' (Verrall on E. Med. 676, cited at GP 366—7); Inlaw does not really think he is blind, but the possibility must be put out of the way before the discussion of this very puzzling situation can proceed. Cf. Barrett on E. Hipp. 316. For the joke, cf. 235 with n. eyoi is emphatic; 'for [whatever you may see,] / . . .' Kupr|vr]v: An Athenian courtesan (PAA 588828) also mentioned at Ra. 1327—8, where reference is made to her 'twelvefold devising', i.e. her extraordinary sexual versatility (cf. 2RVMEeBarb and Dover ad loc.); according to 2R, Ar. referred to her frequently The name is otherwise unattested; for personal names drawn from placenames, Bechtel, AF 5 9—63, andDie historischen Personennamen des Griechischenbis zur Kaiserzeit (Halle, 1917) 551-6. The point of the comparison is not just that Agathon looks like a woman dressed in the most seductive outfit possible (cf. Nu. 51—2; Lys. 42—53, 149—52), but by implication that his body too is available for any purpose to the highest bidder (cf. 35 with n.). According to 2R, other comic poets made fun of Agathon in the same way (= adesp. com. fr. 854). For Agathon's lyre (137-8 with n.) as part of the iconography of the Athenian courtesan, 1217—19 n. 99—133 Inlaw's remarks in 134—45 could (with a few slight superficial changes) follow directly on 97-8, and Agathon's song represents a sort of digression within a digression (cf. 97-176 n.), albeit a highly amusing one that neatly skewers the young tragic poet and his style.
L I N E S 96-IOO
85
QQ Cf. Av. 225—6 (Ti ((Peis.) 'Hey!' (Eu.) 'What is it?' (Peis.) 'Be quiet!' (Eu.) 'Why?' (Peis.) 'The Hoopoe's getting ready to sing again!'), followed by the Hoopoe's second song (Av. 227— 62). According to 2R 100, some ancient commentators or editors argued that a stage-direction (7rape77iypa«j)^,iTOpHj^,oy(cf. icon.) ought to be inserted in the text'between the two verses', i.e. presumably between 99 and 100, since 100 is most naturally taken to suggest that Inlaw has heard something to which he is reacting. Perhaps Agathon plays a few initial notes on his lyre and sings along with them (although without words); cf. the Hoopoe's 'warm-up' atAv. 227—8. The primary point of 99, at any rate, is to prepare the audience in the Theatre for what is about to happen on stage (so that there is little point in worrying, with Dunbar on Av. 226, about how one character knows what another is about to do), while 100 serves to colour their reception of the song in an unfavourable way. For intrusive stage-directions (a common feature of ancient texts), 129 n., 275-6 n., 1187-8 n.; A. Eu. 117, etc.; D. Page, Actors' Interpolations in Greek Tragedy (Oxford, 1934) 113-15 (with numerous Euripidean examples); Taplin, PCPSNS 23 (1977) 121-32; Olson onAch. 113 (with additional Aristophanic examples). For jieXtoSeiv, Dunbar on Av. 226 (above), which—along with E. IT 1104-5 ^eAoiSoj (lyric, like all other Euripidean instances of the word or its cognates, which were apparently regarded by Eur. as high style; note that ^eAwSow in trimeters at E. fr. 188. 2 is merely Nauck's conjecture in a restored verse that may not even be Euripidean)—is the earliest attestation of the word or its cognates. The middle of 99 contains a notorious crux; cf. Austin (1987) 72—3. R's av is metrical but nonsensical; Scaliger's a;? (cf. Av. 226 (above)) is an easy correction but impossible, since this is Agathon's first song; and Burges' yap (Cjf 22 (1820) 281) might easily have been omitted before Trap- (especially in majuscule). For yap used after cf. S. OC i l l otya. Tropevovrai yap otSe STJ rives. Meineke's ^eXwStav is very unlikely, as fif\ca8fa> is needed to govern pvpprfKos arpa-jrovs in 100. Always * in Ar. (Pax 227; Av. 226 (above); Ra. 784, 848; cf. Ach. 1176). Primarily prosaic vocabulary, although first attested in Aeschylus (Th. 440; Ag. 353, 1422; Ch. 1034) and found occasionally in Euripides (Cyc. 170 (corrupt), 214; Heracl. 691; HF 1241, 1369). 100 fiupfirjKos (XTpa-n-ous: Given the parallels at Pherecr. fr. 155. 23 (Timotheos' poetry described as p.vpp.ijKids ('anthills')) and Ael. NA 6. 43 (anthills said to contain TroiKtXas drpaTrovs Kal eXiy^ovs Kal TrepioSovs ('elaborate tracks and windings and circular passages'); cf. Ael. NA 16. 15; Plu.Tkfor. 9&8b), this is more likely a reference to the complex interior structure of anthills than to foraging tracks (cf. Arist. HA 622b24~5) or the wandering course ants seem to take when going from one place to another (cf. Hsch.
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COMMENTARY
1905; Plaut. Men. 888 move formicinum gradum (but see Gratwick ad loc.)). Cf. Hsch. fj. 1905 fj.vpfj.riKtov oSor . . . Kal al f^ovoKtoXoi rpijSoi ('ant roads: . . . also the paths consisting of a single colon'); S <j> 393 (Philoxenos of Kythera nicknamed MtSp^TjK'Ant')); anon, de Trag. §5 (p. 30. i Perusino) dvarpijTos o rpoTros ('the style [is] bored through and through'; of the new music); Borthwick, Hermes 96 (1968)69-72. Since the average Athenian had considerable experience working the land (and thus occasionally digging up anthills), the image will have been more natural for Ar.'s audience than it is for us; for another contemporary reference to the interior of anthills, [A.] PV 452-3. For the 'new music' of the late 5th c. described as 'twisting' vel sim., cf. 53 n., 1175 n. For poetry as a 'road' or 'path', e.g. h.Merc.4-51; Pi. O. i. 110; Emped. 316 24. 2; Taillardatp. 434 n. i (with numerous examples of the image). Hsch. p, 1904 ~ Phot, p, 606 (cf. Hsch. fi, 1905) reports that a path in the deme Skambonidai was called the Mvpp.riKos drpairoy, but associates this with the hero Myrmex (father of the eponymous heroine of the deme Melite (= RE s.v. 5); cf. Hes. fr. 225; Philoch. FGrHist 328 F 27). For ancient views on ants generally, O. Keller, Die antike Tierwelt ii (Leipzig, 1913) 416-21; Davies and Kathirithamby 37—46; Beavis 198—209, esp. 202. 'is he singing his way through?' (LSJ s. Sid D. I) + ace.; a hapax legomenon. fj,iwpif,w (poetic vocabulary; first in prose in Plato) occurs twice in Homer, where it serves as a summary description of aggrieved complaint or lamentation (//. 5. 889; Od. 4. 719; cf. A. Ag. 1165), and from the end of the 5th c. on the vb. and its cognates are commonly used of bird-song (e.g. S. OC67i; Arist. HA 6i8 b 3i; Theoc. 13. 12; Mnesalc. AP ix. 70. i = HE 2655; adesp. lyr. fr. 7. 5, p. 185 Powell; adesp. PMG 1036. 3; cf. Av. 1414 (where the Sycophant is singing of birds and eager to become one, as a result of which Peisetairos describes him as p.ivvpi£,iuv)', Philox. Leuc. PMG 83&(b). 28 (where ^Lvvpi-y^a-ra 8epfi,d is most likely a poetic periphrasis for 'roast birds')). p,ivvpofi,ai is distinguished from dei'Soi ('sing [with words]') at A. Ag. 16, and when p.ivvpi£,iu and the like are used of human beings, they presumably refer to the production of the melodic part of a song, like Agathon's vocal warm-up here (V. 219; Phryn. Com. fr. 74. 2; PI. R. 41 ia). The paradosis -pivvpitfrai (RS) gives tribrach + anapaest (cf. V. 1169; Eup. fr. 99. 90), a metrical 'hiccough' which could perhaps be justified as Inlaw's attempt to make fun of Agathon's irregular trills. But Dawes pointed out that ^ivvpi^ia is elsewhere used as the act. (V. 219; Av. 1414), p,ivvpofi,ai as the mid. (Ec. 880; A. Ag. 16; S. OC 671), and -i£erai probably arose under the influence of -d£erai at the end of 99 (cf. 56, where yoyytiAAei became yoyyuAi£ei after wo^d^ei in 55). 101-29 Agathon's song, the result of the process of composition described at 49-50, 52-7, 67. The poet takes the part alternately of the coryphaeus (101—3, 107—10, 114—15, 120—2, 126—8) and a chorus of maidens (104—6,
L I N E S IOO-29 II
I
I2
I2
R
8?
111-13, 7~ 9> 3~5> 9); cf- 2 ; P. Mazon, Essai sur la composition des comedies d'Aristophane (Paris, 1904) 127-8; Muecke 46-9; Furleyand Bremer i. 353 n. 26. Agathon presumably indicates each change of role with a slight pause, a nod, an alteration in his voice or tone, or the like. The chorus are carefully and consistently presented as Trojan (as first pointed out by Bothe in his first edition (1830) n): they worship Apollo, Artemis, and Leto, who are among Troy's fiercest divine partisans in the Iliad (e.g. 4. 507-8; 5. 447-50; 20. 38-40, 68-72; cf. 114-16 n.); they refer to Apollo in particular as founder of the city of Troy rather than as god of Delphi or Delos (109-10; contrast 316 with n.); and they sing to an 'Asian' lyre (120) and at the summons of 'Phrygian Graces' (121—2). As this is a hymn of celebration, the dramatic setting is most likely the immediate aftermath of the Achaeans' apparent abandonment of the expeditionagainstTroy(//.Par«.arg. i.22-3;E.Hec.916-17; Tr. 522-55, esp. 544—55); this is not a happy omen for Eur.'s great plan. The song is structured as a series of exchanges between the coryphaeus (who gives orders) and the chorus (who obey enthusiastically; cf. 104-6), except for two direct addresses of Apollo by the chorus in 111-13 and 129. For other dramatic adaptations of cult-hymns with similar structures, Ra. 372—413; E. Hipp. 58—71. The coryphaeus refers to and addresses the chorus in both the pi. (101-3, J I 5/ I 6, 126/7/8) and the sing. (107, 128), and they respond in the sing. (104/5, J I 7~ I 8, 123) except at 126/7/8 (at the end of the song, perhaps acknowledging everything that has preceded as a collective effort with the coryphaeus); cf. Kaimio 121—9 (esp. 126), 225. We know next to nothing about Agathon's lyrics, including whether this song is based on a lost original. Its alleged erotic and titillating effects (130—3), at any rate, are due to the metre and the music rather than the words; G. Murray, Aristophanes: A Study (Oxford, 1933) 130, compares Ra. 1327-8, where 'a very musical and nonsensical parody of Euripides, with some irregularities of metre but none of morals, reminds Aeschylus of the notorious "dozen tricks" of the courtesan Cyrene' (for whom, 97—8 n.). In general, see Horn 100—6; Furley and Bremer ii. 341-6; Bierl 162-74; Torchio, Quad. Torino 15 (2001) 127-35. F°r the historical Agathon's bold musical innovations, Leveque 145-6. Plu. Mor. 6456 states that Agathon was the first poet to introduce into tragedy TO the genus chromaticum, sc. that based on the tetrachord of a trihemitone and two semitones, previously considered beneath the dignity of the genre, as opposed to the manly enharmonic of ditone and two quartertones (the diatonic being apparently somewhat marginal at the time). The innovation was attributed to Euripides by anon, de Trag. §5 (p. 28. 39 Perusino) with the remark ('for this type [of music] was of an effeminate character'). For the 'New Music', of which Agathon is generally understood to have been a promi-
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COMMENTARY
nent exponent, Pherecr. fr. 155; West, AGM 356-72; Csapo, ICS 24-25 (1999-2000) 399-426. The metre is an eccentric medley consisting mostly of ionics, choriambs, and trochaics, with a few dactyls near the end, and the absence of a responding song makes establishing the text problematic. Cf. Parker 398-405. (1) 101
(2) IOI/2 (3) I°3 (4) I°4
(5) I°4/5
(6) (7) (8) (9)
106 i°7 108 i°9
(10) no (11) i n (12) 112 (i3)n3 (14) 114/15 (15) n5/i6 (16)117 (17)118 (18)119 (19) 120
(2O)121 (21) 122 (22) 123
(23)124 (24) 125
(25)126 (26) 126/7/8 (27) 128 (28) 129
2,10,,
2cho dodA 2cho anacr 2tr aeol 'heptasyll' anacr 210 cho adon aeol 'heptasyll' 2tr 2tr aeol 'heptasyll' 2tr iambel anacr anacr aeol 'heptasyll' aeol 'enneasyll' cho adon io ioA anacr anacr aeol 'heptasyll' 3dada A 6da iaba tel (dragged)
(i, 4, 7-8, 16-17, 2I ~3) Cf. Parker 63: 'The incidence of the metre in tragedy gives some support to the idea that ionic was thought of as a suitable rhythm for orientals' (i.e. like the characters supposedly singing this song). The parodos of E. Ba. also begins with two syncopated ionics (64 (2) This colon is equivalent to a greater asclepiad (V. 1238; Av. 1410) without base (Parker 76). (3) The first choriamb is resolved, as in (20); cf. E. Ba. 107—8 = 122—3. (4, 7, 16-17, 22~3) F°r the anacreontic (a type of ionic dimeter), Parker
L I N E S IOI-3
89
6 1-2. For the variation ^^ --- ^ -- in 107, 117-18, 123, cf. Anacr. PMG346fr.4. 3 (""] o> woAAijv o^etAco); Parker 62-3. (6, 10, 13, 18, 24) Aeolic 'heptasyllable' = anceps plus reversed dodrans (dodB, — " — ^^ — ); cf. Parker 74—5 (who notes that all the examples in this song have the first long of the dodrans resolved, presumably as part of the parody of Agathon's metrical style). (8) For the v in xpvaeiuv scanned short in lyric, LSJ s.v. fin. (9) For the combination of choriamb and adonean, as in (20), cf. S. Ai. 226 TO.V o {i,eyas fi,v8os de'|ei. The iota of ISpvaaro is long because of the augment. (13) For the split resolution, cf. 1049; Parker, CQ NS 18 (1968) 251. (14) Colon-end (II) can be marked here, since the next line begins with an anceps syllable. Burges' Spvoyovoiaiv would provide a final long, as in (5) and (12). (15) lambelegus = ^ e ^ D. The lengthening before mute + liquid in (to be scanned — ^^ — ) is part of the parody of Agathon's elevated style; cf. 463/4, 719, 1149, 1 156 (all lyric); Parker 92-3. (19) Aeolic 'enneasyllable' = Aeolic 'heptasyllable' (above, but here with the final long resolved) + ^ — ; cf. Parker 74—5. The initial syllable of is short; cf. Johansen—Whittle on A. Supp. 547. (20) See on (9) and (for the resolved choriambs) on (3); the unusual resolutions clearly parody Agathon's practice. For the scansion of see n. ad loc. (21) Resolved and syncopated ionics, as in E. Ba. 372 xpva^av (26) -ov OTTOS ( — "") is an epic hiatus. The dactylic ending in immediately followed by anceps is unusual, but cf . S . O T 176—7 = 1 88—9; Parker 53—4. (27) iaba = iambic dimeter catalectic; cf. 313-14, 353, etc. (28) The telesillean is anceps + dodA (x — ww — w — ); and 'dragged' is Dale's term for the lengthening of the penultimate syllable in the dodrans to produce — ^ ^ --- and thus, in the case of the telesillean, 101-3 Eepdv might be taken with either Aa^miSa (cf. Ra. 1525) or jSodv; cf. Sandbach on Men. Dysk. 236 (on widely separated words standing first and last in their clause); Austin (1987) 73. If the latter, there is a slight pause after lepav, and XOoviaiv goes with Aa^mxSa; if the former, the gen. is dependent on lepdv ('holy to . . .'; cf. PL 937; hiapd 0eafi,o>6po in the 6th-c. Bitalemi inscription (Dubois 175 no. 155); Poultney 7). The ambiguity highlights Agathon's excessively complex and confusing style; cf. in—13 n., 117—19 n. (on oXj3ll,ovaa). XGoviaiv: 'the two chthonic goddesses', i.e. Demeter and Persephone/Pherrephatta/Kore (cf. Hdt.
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COMMENTARY
vi. 134; E. HF6i$ with Bond ad loc.). Whether the goddesses were worshipped at Troy in the historical period (or were imagined in that period to have been worshipped at Troy in heroic times) is unknown and irrelevant; Agathon's song is designed to draw a connection between his Troy and the city in which the piece is being performed (80) and thus (from a different perspective) with the larger action of the play; cf. 280-1 with n. (on the use of torches at the Thesmophoria); Horn 102. (also 655; used elsewhere of anything that 'shines', including the sun) and Sas (e.g. 238) are used indifferently by Ar. to refer to a torch, but the latter word is very rare in tragedy (certain only at E. fr. 472. 13 andadesp. tr. fr. I4b. 2), and Agathon uses vocabulary appropriate to the genre in which he works. Philyll. fr. 29 (cf. Stratt. fr. 38. 2—3) is obscure but clearly turns on this distinction. Torches are routinely represented in vase-paintings not as individual pieces of wood but as bundles of split wood that perhaps enclosed a core of vegetable matter soaked in pitch or the like. Despite LSJ s.v. 2, oak/oas is not 'pinewood' generally (for torches made of pinewood, Nu. 604; fr. 592. 35, citing Agathon TrGF 39 F 15 (torches called TrevKas >a>a>6povs ('light-bearing pine-branches')); S. Tr. 1198 -jrevKivris . . . Xap.-jra.Sos aeXas ('gleam of a pinewood torch'); E. Ba. 146, 307) but those portions of the pine that are most heavily impregnated with pitch and thus most flammable, and which were harvested separately (esp. Thphr. HP ix. 2. 7; cf. HP iii. 9. 3; iv. 16. i; ix. 3. 4). Koupai is a non-Attic form, found in Attic texts only in poetry (also 1138-9 (lyric); A. Th. 149 (lyric); S. OC 180 (lyric); cf. Av. 977 Kovpe (a mock oracle)). £uv IXeuGepa / -n-arpiSi: 'in the company of our free fatherland'; the entire city is imagined singing with and through its chorus. Agathon's song is set in Troy in the mythical past and lacks any other obvious political content; but the reference to the freedom of the fatherland may none the less represent a comment on the situation in contemporary Athens. Cf. Introduction, Section II, esp. pp. xliii—xliv. For rd mxrpia as a political slogan in 412/11, [Arist.] Ath. 29. 3. IXevdepm (Hermann) TrpcnrlSi (Wecklein, RhM NF 24 (1869) 547; cf. Pi. P. 2. 57 eXevBepa >pevl, 61 -^avva irpam'Si) is clever but unnecessary. + dat. is more typical of tragic style than comic (where fierd + gen. is preferred); cf. 716 (dochmiacs), 1034—5 (paratragic lyric); Pax 356 with Olson ad loc. ^opeviu is 'play the chorus' part', and ('sing a song accompanied by dance'; cf. Tib. i. 3. 59 hie choreae cantusque vigent) is no more (or less) extravagant an image than Ra. 247-8 ('we spoke a choral part') or E. HF 1027 (' I will make the sound of a dance'). 104 Cf. Luc. Trag. 75 rivi Saif^ovtov ayovai KWfMaT-fjv \opov; For initial questions as a characteristic of Greek hymns, e.g. Pi. O. 2. 2; Pae. 9. i—6; fr. 29; cf. Norden 144—7; Fraenkel, Horace 293 n. i; Race,
L I N E S IOI-8
91
YCS 29 (1992) 28-9. rivi Saifiovuv;: The use of the sing, may be significant: as 128-9 make clear, the hymn is addressed in the first instance to Apollo, and Artemis and Leto are mentioned only because they are associated with him. Cf. h.Ap. 158—9, where Delian Kovpai are said to sing 'first Apollo, and then Leto and Artemis who pours forth arrows'. OKIO^OS: 'the procession' (cf. 117 withn.; Pi. O. 4. n; 8. 10; Bacch. n. 12; E. Hipp. 55; Tr. 1184; Hel. 1469) and thus, by a natural extension of meaning, the hymn that those participating in the procession sing; cf. 988b-9 with n.; Braswell on Pi. P. 4. 2. 104-6 \€Y€ viv: i.e. 'Tell us his name!'; see Introduction, p. xcviii n. 114. is needed as a sequel to TLVL in 104, and Agathon is unlikely to have said (cf. E. Or. 1281 <j>epe vvv), given aye vvv in 107. The injunction might well be impatient (cf. Olson on Ach. 811-12), but is not necessarily so. eu-ueiaTtds . . . Toujiov / . . . ix^i: An elevated equivalent of 'I am easily persuaded', i.e. 'ready and eager'; cf. E./OW247—8 For evTreiarws, cf. Men. fr. 286. I with K-A ad loc. For the use of TOV^OV (often somewhat broader than eyw), cf. S. El. 1302; E. HF 165 with Bond ad loc.; Ph. 775 with Mastronarde ad loc.; KGi. 267. 8€isusedforydp(GP 169). Cf. 674 aej:Si£,eiv &aip.ovas (lyric), aepit^iu (first attested at A. Supp. 815, 922; cognate with ae^voy (i 17 with n.)) is poetic vocabulary (e.g. Pi. P. 5. 80; Emped. 31 B 112. 8; S.Ant. 943; E.El. 196-7; adesp. tr. fr. i&7c. 2; elsewhere in Ar. only at 674 (above)); prose uses a6J3op.aL (123, 949). 107 dye vuv: A standard, widely distributed Aristophanic formula urging another character to action (e.g. 213 with n., 947; Eq. ion; Nu. 489; V. 211; Pax 512 with Olson on 263-4). For imper. + vvv, 27 n. 'make happy, give joy to' (cf. 129 with n.; C. de Heer, MAKAP — EYAAIMQN — OABIOZ — EYTYXHZ (Amsterdam, 1969) 67-72), as also in 118. oAj8i'£o> is tragic vocabulary (e.g. A. Ag. 928; S. OT 1529; E. Andr. 1218; Hel. 640); not attested in Ar. outside this song. R's ('arm') reflects the influence of the mention of Apollo's bow in 108. R has p.ovaa, but an appeal to the Muse is out of place here and the final syllable must be long. Bergk's pouaa ('with song') is certainly correct; cf. Beobachtungen 113. Fritzsche, Ind. lect. Rost. 1859/60 p. 6, was the first to combine this with Bentley's o'Aj8i£e. For p.ovaa in this sense (elevated style), e.g. Eq. 505 (lyric); A. Eu. 308 (lyric); S. Tr. 643 (lyric); E. Hipp. 11 35 (lyric); Pratin. PMG-JI2. a. 3; Timoth. PMG-jgi. 203; cf. 112. 108 xPUCT«dv pu-ropa TO£UV: Apollo is routinely described in epic as ('of the silver bow'; e.g. H. //. i. 37; Od. 17. 251; Hes. fr. 185. 9; h.Ap. 140; Panyas. fr. 3. 2; cf. Usener 333—4), but Pindar calls him ('of the golden bow'; O. 14. 10; cf. Isyll. 48, p. 134 Powell; A.R. 4. 1709 xpvaeiov . . . TO^OV), an unsurprising inflation of the image, and Sophocles refers to his golden bowstring (OT 203—4). Cf. 321 withn.;
92
COMMENTARY
Apollo's golden lyre at 315; his golden sword at H.7/. 5. 509; 15. 256; Hes. &• 357- 3; Artemis' Tmyxpvaea ro|a ('bow made all of gold') ath.Hom. 27. 5; her golden arrows at H. II. 16. 183 (cf. Janko ad loc.); and Athena's golden spear (318/19 withn.). pvriup (< epviu (A), 'draw') is attested elsewhere only at Arat. 301 (where see Kidd'sn.). 109-10 0oi|3ov (cf. Usener 332-3) is the only name used for Apollo in this song (also 112, 128); neither he nor Artemis is ever called 'child of Zeus' (contrast 118, 129), although what one ought to make of this is unclear. os iSpuaaro x"PaS / yua\a: 'who founded the hollow enclosures of the country', i.e. 'who established a city' in the place. For the rel. clause as a typical hymnic feature, 316 n. For Apollo and Poseidon as mythical builders of the walls of Troy, H. 77. 7. 452—3 (a different version at 21. 446-9); Pi. O. 8. 31-3; E. Andr. 1009-10; Tr. 4-6, 814; Hellanic. FGrHist 4 F 26; Apollod. ii. 5. 9 with Frazer ad loc. yvaXov is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. Hes. Th. 499; h.Ap. 396; Pi. P. 8. 63; A. Supp. 550 (lyric); S. Ph. 1081 (lyric); E. Ion 220 (lyric); Hel. 189 (lyric)) and is attested nowhere else in comedy; Euripides commonly uses the word of temples, sacred precincts, and the like (Stevens on E. Andr. 1093). 2i^iouvriSi ya: 'in the land of the Simoeis', i.e. the Troad, called after the river (or torrent-stream) that ran down from Mt. Ida and met the Scamander before the city (esp. H. II. 4. 475; 5. 773-4; cf. H. II. 12. 18-22; 21. 305-9; A. Ag. 696-7; E. Andr. 1019, 1183; Hec. 641 £7.441; Tr. 810, n 16-17; [E.] Rh. 546, 826; Call. Lav .Pall. 19 withBulloch ad loc.; Str. 13. 595, 597). For the naming of a place after one of its chief rivers, Kannicht onE. Hel. 1-3. For the locative dat. (high style), KG i. 441-2; Bers 86-101. 111—13 Essentially a recapitulation of 107—10, with the coryphaeus' order to the chorus transformed into a request by the chorus to Apollo that he allow what they have been told to do to happen. For the text, Austin (1987)74. Xa'P€ KaXXicrrais aoiSais: For^dpiy ('joy') and its cognates used in Greek hymns in expressions of a desire to please the god, 314 with n., gSob; Av. 1743 with Dunbar ad loc.; Dover on Nu. 274; Race, GRBS 23 (1982) 8-10; Furley and Bremer i. 61-3; cf. 129 with n., 1231. 0oip(e): 109-10 n. eveu^ouaoiai KT\.: A vexed passage, best explained by reference to the coryphaeus' remarks in 107— 10. Apollo has earned his y^pis ('portion of honour'; cf. Olson—Sens on Archestr. fr. 59. 11) by his work in founding Troy (109-10); this ye'paj is ('holy') simply because it belongs to a god. -upo^epuv describes the circumstances under which Apollo will take pleasure in the chorus' song (in), 'by displaying (cf. LSJ s.v. -jrpofiepiu II) his sacred due (as manifested) in our melodious worship', i.e. by acknowledging that the debt the Trojans owe him is appropriately repaid by celebrations such as this. Cf. 959—61 ye'yoy 'OXvp.-jri(uv dfcov / . . . ye'paipe. The obscurity is a deliberate
L I N E S IO8-I9
93 n
part of the parody of Agathon's style; cf. 101-3 - fvp,ovaos is attested elsewhere before the Roman period only at E. IT 145 (lyric); but cf. 107 n. 114-19 Cf. 320-1. 114—16 Cf. E. Tr. 551—5 (part of a woman's description of the last night ('and I at that time in my house was honouring the mountain-haunting virgin daughter of Zeus with song and dance'); probably a standard detail in the story of the city's fall. For Artemis' association with mountains (the place to hunt wild animals (e.g. H. //. 21. 485-6; Od. 19. 428-32; h.Hom. 27. 4-8; E. Hipp. 215-18, 1127-9)), e -g- H. Od. 6. 102-3; h.Ven. 18; Sapph. fr. 44A. a. 6 with Page, S&A 263; Simon. PMG 519 fr. 3s(b). 7; S. OT 206-8; E. IT 126-7; Ph. 151-2; Call. Dian. 18, 20; cf. Telesill. PMG 720. Spvoyovos (a hapax legomenon) is better translated 'oak-engendering' than 'oak-grown' (LSJ). Oaks are conventionally represented as mountain trees (e.g. H. //. 12. 132; 13. 389—91; Hes. Op. 232—3, 509—10; [Hes.] Sc. 374~8;h.Ven. 264-6; E.Ba. 109-10(cf. 116)). is essentially a gloss on rdv . . . xopav. For Artemis dypore'pa ('of the wild country', and thus 'huntress'), Eg. 660; Lys. 1262—3 with Henderson ad loc.; H. //. 21. 471; Sapph. fr. 44A. a. 9; Bacch. 5. 123—4; I Z - 37> carm. conv. PMG 886. 3-4; X. Cyn. 6. 13; IG IP 4573. 1-2 (mid-4th c.); cf. 320 with n., 970-1 with n. For Artemis' cult at Agra in Athens (just outside the city, on the other side of the Ilissos; cf. PI. Phdr. 229c), [Arist.] Ath. 58. i with Rhodes ad loc.; Paus. i. 19. 6;IG IP 1008. 7; ion. 7; etc. (a series of inscriptions from the Roman period referring to a procession and sacrifice by the city's ephebes in the goddess's honour); Deubner 209; Judeich4i6. 117—19 The coryphaeus' implicit reference to Artemis as archer in 114—16 (cf. the reference to Apollo as 'he who draws golden bows' in 108) is not taken up by the chorus, who instead concentrate attention on the goddess's status as daughter (118) and virgin (119; cf. 115/16 Kopav). As the dramatic setting of the song is a religious procession (101—29 n -)> the primary sense of euofiai K\r|£ouaa is certainly 'I follow [behind you], lauding', as at Ach. 1231 eW<j#e vvv aSovres ('Now follow singing!'; cf. Ach. 1232—4); E. Hipp. 58 e-jreaO' q&ovres ('Follow singing!'). «A»]£a) is attested elsewhere in Ar. only in Av. (905 (lyric), 921, 950 (lyric), 1745 (lyric)) and is apparently treated by him as high style; cf. Dunbar on Av. 905, but note that the vb. is in fact extremely rare in lyric outside tragedy (only Pi. O. i. 110; cf. Lamprocl. PMG 735(a). i (dactylic hexameter); conjectural at adesp. ia. fr. 38. 14). aejivdv: 'august' velsim. (cf. 106 aepiaai with n.); not in Homer or Hesiod, but found occasionally in the Hymns (h.Cer. i, 486; h.Hom. 28. 5) and used routinely in the 5th and 4th c. of gods and heroes and of the rites, sanctuaries, and objects associated with them (e.g.
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P/.772(je^,v7jy77aAAdSoy;Pi. O. 14. 8; 'E.Hipp. 713 aep.vfivApTefi.iv, El. 1254; S. OC55; Archestr. fr. 13. 3). The adj. is attested in this sense in Ar. only in elevated or mock-elevated passages (322, 948, 1152/3 (all lyric); Nu. 265 (Socrates' invocation of the Clouds), 291 (Strepsiades' initial address to them); Pax 974 (lyric); Av. 746 (lyric); PI. 772 (Wealth's paratragic invocation of Attica after he is healed)); elsewhere 'proud' velsim. (e.g. Ra. 178; PI. 275). Here it describes not so much the goddess's nature independent of the chorus' song as the effect of their performance: Artemis is a€fi.vri because her worshippers' reverent expressions of respect make her such. Cf. 123 aepofi.a.1. Y°VOV • • • Aarous: For Artemis described as'childofLeto'(cf. Hes. Th. 918-20), e.g. 321; A.-Horn. 27. 21; A. Th. 149; S. El. 570; E. Hipp. 1092; IT 1398. yovov is also fern, at E. I A 794 (lyric). 6\pi£ouaa: Cf. 107 oAj8i£e with n., 129 oXfiie ira.iAa.Tovs. The asyndeton (which draws attention to the tautology with «:Aij£ot>(ja) is part of the parody of Agathon's style; cf. 101—3 n Aprejiiv aTreipoXexfj: For Artemis as a virgin, h.Ven. 16—17; Sapph. fr. 44A. a. 4—8 with Page, S&A 262-3; A. Supp. 144-50 with Johansen-Whittle ad loc., cf. 1030-2; S. El. 1239; E. Hipp. 14-16; Call. Dion. 6; cf. Lys. 1263; h.Hom. 9. 2; 27. 2 (called -jrap&evos). dTreipoAe^j (not attested elsewhere before the 4th c. AD) is a high-style formation; cf. direipoya^oy (Eub. fr. 34. i (lyric), where K— A compare h.Ven. 133 o.TrtipT)ri)v >M-n)Tos and Men. Sik. 372-3 . . . I drreipos dvSpos); drreipoSpoaos (E. El. 735 (lyric)); drreipoKaKOS (E. Ale. 927 (lyric); in prose at Th. v. 105. 3); direipo^d^aj (Pi. N. 4. 30). 120—2 Sc. de«7aTe('hymn'; cf. 1 1 5 / 1 6 ) velsim. Acmi: For Leto and her cult (widespread in Asia Minor) and iconography, Wehrli, RE Suppl. v (1931) 555-76; LIMCvi. i. 256-7. KpoupciTci. . . AaidSos: Sc. Ki&dpios (cf. 124, which rules out the suggestion of Pearson (on S. fr. 287) that this verse be taken 'the beating of the Asian [land]', with reference to the dance (m>8i);2 R ; Phot, a 2956 Aams- ij KiBdpa); cf. Austin (1987) 74. Identified by EM, p. 153.3 1-2 > as a parody of a line from Euripides' Erectheus (fr. 370; Erecth. probably dates to the late 4205 and is parodied or adapted by Ar. elsewhere at Lys. 1135 = E . fr. 363; Horaifrr. 580 = E. fr. 357; 586 = E. fr. 366; cf. Cropp and Pick 78-80). For the kithara, a sevenstringed lyre also called 'Asian' by Euripides at Cyc. 443-4; Hyps. frr. I. iii. 9—10 (problematic); 64. ii. 101, cf. Wegner 30—7; Paquette 90—129; Maas and Snyder 53-78; West, AGM 50-6; Cassio, AION (filol.), Quaderni 5 (2000) 105-10. Kpovfiara are 'blows', i.e. those struck on the strings by the fingers or theplektron (cf. Headlam on Herod. 6. 51; West, ^4GM 65-9), and thus, by a natural extension of meaning, 'notes' (e.g. Eup. fr. 121; Theopomp. Com. fr. 51. 2). Keeping time with the dance (cf. 955/6 with n., 985 fvpvd^ia irooi) against the rhythm'. A deliberate verbal paradox subtly brought out by the variation in metrical quantities, as pvOp. is scanned first long, then short. For other
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95
examples of the phenomenon, H. //. 5. 31; S. Ph. 296; Theoc. 6. 19; cf. Nisbet-HubbardonHor.c.i. 32.11; Hopkinson, Glotta60(1982) 162-77. 6vpvOp.os is first attested in Th. and at E. Cyc. 563 (adv.); common in the 4th c. (e.g. PI. 759 evpvOp.ois -jrpoj3rnj.aoLV', PI. Com. fr. 47. 2; PI. Lg. 795e). (coined on analogy with €vpv8p,os) is attested elsewhere only at Orph. A. 31. 3 (of dancers to lyre-music; Ricciardelli's 'seguite il ritmo' is precisely the opposite of the sense required), but cf. Pratin. TrGF'4 F 3. 13 Phrygia is properly west-central Anatolia, the homeland of the 'Mountain Mother' Kybele, whose cult was already known in Athens in this period (cf. Av. 746 with Dunbar ad loc., 874-6; E. Hipp. 143-4; Ba. 78-9 with Dodds ad loc.; L. E. Roller, In Search of God the Mother: The Cult of Anatolian Cybele (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1999), esp. 143-85; Dillon 154-6). But Sophocles (e.g. Ai. 488) and Euripides (e.g. Andr. 592; Hec. 827; Or. 1480—1) routinely identify Trojans and Phrygians, as Agathon seemingly does here. 'Phrygian' melodies are referred to already by Alkman (PMGF 126) and Stesichorus (PMGF 212. 2), and Sophocles is said to have introduced the Phrygian mode into tragedy (Aristox. fr. 79); according to anon, de Trag. §5 (p. 28. 48 Perusino), Agathon was the first tragic poet to make use of the Hypophrygian mode (a modulated Phrygian, for which cf. [Arist.] Pr. 922bio-27). Plato describes the Phrygian mode as suited to peaceful purposes, including beseeching the gods (R. 399a-b), whereas Aristotle considers it violently exciting and emotional, and associates it with dithyramb (Pol. I342 a 32- b i2). Cf. West, AGM 177-8, 180-1, 352. For the Graces generally, 300-1 n.; for their association with music and the Muses, Av. 781-3; West on Hes. Th. 64. Sidveujiara: 'by the aid of nods', i.e. those of the Graces, who are imagined keeping time with the music. R has oiavfiipara, which LSJ Suppl. s.v. interprets as 'gestures of the body' (cf. Luc. Salt. 64 Siavevw, of rhythmic swaying). But the asyndeton after Aarw re Kpovfiard T' in 120 would be extremely harsh, and the R-scribe's normal practice is to treat prepositions as part of the following word (Introduction p. xcii n. 102). 123 aepofiaiAcmi: iO4-6n., n7-i9n., i2O-2n. dvaaaav: Ageneric epithet of goddesses (e.g. Pi./. 5. 6 (of Theia); fr. 205. 2 (of Truth); E.El. 678 (of Earth)), most often applied to Demeter (e.g. Ra. 385^ h.Cer. 75 with Richardson ad loc.), Athena (e.g. H. Od. 3. 380; A. Eu. 235; S. Ai. 774), and Artemis (971 with n.), although probably only because they are mentioned more frequently than minor figures like Leto. 124 KiGapiv: For the kithara, 120—2 n. Ki&apis is the old Homeric name for the instrument (H. Od. i. 153; Ale. fr. 41. 15; Pi. P. 5. 65; E.Erecth. fr. 65. 8 Austin; Hyps. fr. I. iii. 10 (lyric); Timoth. PMG 791. 231; cf. A. Supp. 681 dxldapiv), although Aristox. fr. 102 claims that the kithara and the kitharis are not to be identified. Ki&dpri/Ki&dpa is attested first at Thgn. 778;
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Epich. frr. 68. i; 108. 2, and is the dominant form from the second half of the 5th c. on (e.g. Hdt. i. 24. 5;E.7ow882; PI. Com. fr. 10. i; PI. 7?. 399d). is a kenning, i.e. a riddling periphrastic description of a sort common in Greek poetry of all periods (e.g. H.77. 2. 696; Pi. O. 8. i; S.Ai. 173-4); cf. I. Wtern, THE OZTEA: The Kenning in Pre-Christian Greek Poetry (Uppsala, 1951). At the same time, the chorus' characterization of the kitharis reflects ideas implicit in the mention of Leto in 123: just as she is the mother of Apollo (cf. 129) and—clearly much less important—of Artemis, so the instrument that participates in her worship is 'the mother of hymns' (perhaps with a hint at the new tyranny of music over words; contrast Pi. O. 2. i dra^i^op^iyyej vpvoi ('hymns that rule the lyre')). 125 cipaevi (3oa: Not only musical instruments (Hdt. i. 17. i) but musical scales and keys could be conceived as either 'masculine' or 'feminine' (West, AGM 90-1, 252), and what Agathon's chorus mean is that the kithara's music is loud or vigorous (cf. Pers. 6. 4 marem strepitum). But the more significant point is that the instrument—grammatically feminine—is confused about its gender, like Agathon and a number of other characters in the play. For jSod and its cognates used of the sound of musical instruments, e.g. H. II. 18. 495; Pi. N. 5. 38; A. Th. 394; of lyres and the like at Pi. P. 10. 39; E. Erecth. fr. 65. 8 Austin; Hyps. fr. I. iii. 10 (124) on its own is somewhat pointless, and Schone's SOKL|_IIOV (RhM NF 5 (1847) 627-8; 'esteemed on account of + dat.) rather than &oKip.ov ('yp~'2R; modifying Ki&apiv) should be printed; cf. Pi. JV. 3.11 &oKip.ov vp.vov. &oKip.(u (R2RS) reflects the influence of the dats. that precede it. 126-6/7/8 'By which, and by our sudden voice, light has shone forth in divine eyes.' Cf. Austin (1987) 74. The antecedent of ra (dat. of agent) is the kitharis (cf. 2 R ) rather than its song. cjmos: 'the light [of joy]'; cf. Lys. 1283/4 (of Dionysos dancing with the maenads) Salerai ('has burning eyes'). >doy is an exclusively poetic form (e.g. H. 77. 18. 11; Corinn. PMG 690. 9; Thgn. 569; Bacch. 3. 80; A. Ag. 575) used by Ar. only in paratragedy (Ach. 1185) and lyric (also Eq. 973; Av. 1748; Ra. 1529). Prose uses >ws. For joy expressed by the eyes, e.g. S. OT 81; cf. Biihler on Mosch. 2. 86; M. G. Ciani, >doy e termini affini nellapoesia greca (Florence, 1974) 35, on A. Pers. 150—1. For the joy felt by the gods at the sound of music, H. II. i. 474; h.Ap. 204—6. iaauro: Poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 2. 809; Pratin. PMG 708. 4; Pi. P. 4. 135; E. HF 919); elsewhere in Ar. only in the compound form eTreavro at fr. 718 (lyric and most likely parodic). 6|_i|_iaaiv: Primarily poetic vocabulary, attested in Ar. only in lyric (e.g. 665/6, 958; Nu. 285/6; Ra. 1354) and paratragedy (Ach. 1184; EC. i) Up to this point, the coryphaeus has merely told the chorus what to do (hence Nietzsche's vp.eTepas (Werke iv (Munich, 1937) 32)), and here
L I N E S 124-30
97
for the first time she identifies the song as 'ours'. The song is 'sudden' because the event that sparked it (the Achaeans' seeming retreat from Troy)—like most displays of divine power (cf. Hopkinson on Call. Cer. 60)—was as well. Si/i is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. Od. n. 421; Alcm. PMGF 3 fr. i. 4; Bacch. i. 77; E. Ion 1204); attested elsewhere in Ar. only at Pax 400, 804 (lyric). The variation in construction (contrast both the simple dat. in 126 and &v x
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(KG ii. 439); 'How . . .!' to-n-orviai FeveruXXiSes: The Genetyllides (sing, elsewhere in Ar., but pi. at Paus. i. 1.5) were women's goddesses and are routinely associated with feminine sexual wantonness, hence Inlaw's invocation of them. They were worshipped at Cape Kolias near Phaleron, where there was a sacred precinct of Aphrodite in which their shrine was probably located, although 2R and Hsch. y 343 agree in associating Genetyllis/the Genetyllides with Artemis. Cf. Nu. 52; Lys. 2 with Henderson ad loc.; [Luc.] Am. 42; Alciphr. ii. 8 (iii. 11); Catull. 3. i Lugete, o Veneres; Usener 124. The title TTOTVM is commonly applied to a wide range of goddesses (e.g. 700 (the Fates), 1149 (Demeter and Kore); Lys. 742 (Eileithuia), 833 (Aphrodite); EC. 476 (Athena)). 131 6r]\uSpi(dSes: Lit. 'smelling of women' (the suffix -laSr/s has its full force; cf. Chantraine, Formation, 429; De La Fuente, Myrtia 17 (2002) 7-43; Willi, PCPS NS 49 (2003) 44), i.e. 'effeminate'; cf. the cognate adj. 6i)XvSpms Sit Hdt. vii. 153.4 (of a man also described as ^aAaKoirepoy ('quite soft') and contrasted with someone brave and strong); Arist. HA 63 i b i7 (a characteristic that finds extreme expression in one male's willingness to be mounted by another); Luc.D.Deor. 8. 3 (of Zeus'boy-love Ganymede, also called p.aX&a.Kos ('soft')). KaTeYXwrriafievov: 'french-kissed' (esp. Nu. 51; adesp. com. fr. 76; cf. 2R; Ach. 380 with Olson ad loc.), such kissing being routinely presented in comedy as lascivious (esp. Ach. 1200-1 with Olson ad loc.; Ephipp. fr. 6. 3-5; cf. MM §§366-72). Agathon's song—like Agathon himself (esp. 35, 57, 153)—takes the passive role. ForKarey'A-, cf. 337n.;P/. 325 KaTej3^XaKevp.6vius. 132 A fi,dvSa\os is a bolt or pin used to lock a door (esp. Phot, p, 87; cf. Zeno Med. ap. Erot. a 103; Artemid. 2. 10; Hsch. « 2 i , 1014; A I394(cf. A 1388); 77 608, 1002; T 1629—30), and the adj. fiavSaXtorov apparently describes a kiss in which one's tongue sticks out of one's mouth like such a pin (Phot. y 115 ~ p.86;cf.Ach. 1200-1 with2 REr ). Cf. Taillardat§i95. For the seemingly otiose y( € )> GP 122-3. (attested first in Ar. and Hippocrates) is common in the comic poets (e.g. Eq. 629; Nu. 1343; Eup. fr. 102. 7; Antiph. fr. 134. i) and prose authors (e.g. Hp. Int. 23 (vii. 226. 4), 35 (vii. 252. 25); Th. iii. 37. 2; PI. Lys. 2O-jb; Is. i. i; not in Hdt.), but is not attested in serious poetry and is presumably colloquial. *33 UTTO T11V £§pav aurr|v uTifjXGe: 'stole over my very seat'; the effeminacy of Agathon's poetry is such that it has had an effect not just on Inlaw generally but on the specific portion of his anatomy where sexual desire is centred (for a passive homosexual). Cf. Pers. i. 20—1 cum carmina lumbum / intrant et tremulo scalpuntur ubi intima versu; Rabelais, Gargantua ch. xiii 'cela me causoit au fondement une volupte bien grande'. For e'Spa (an inoffensive euphemism), MM §436. For iVep^o^ai used of feelings that 'steal up' on a person (a common sense of the vb. in tragedy,
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but not attested elsewhere in Ar.), LSJ s.v. II; Miller 175-6; Rau 109. 'a tickle, twinge'; glossed epeBia^os ('stimulation, irritation requiring a response') by Erot. y 9 (citing Ar. fr. 181 (where see K—A's apparatus) and Diph. fr. 24), who says that the word 'is taken from lusty women'. Cf. the yapyaAia^oy felt by hungry diners at the smell of food at Hegesipp. Com. fr. i. 15-16 and by the charioteer of the soul when he sees a 'love-inspiring vision' at PI. Phdr. 2536; and the use of 'want to scratch') to describe sexual desire at EC. 919. 134-5 (addressed to Agathon; contrast 130-3) move the audience's attention from the song they have just heard (alluded to again very briefly at 144—5 and then more or less forgotten) to what they see on stage (136—40) and its implications (141—3), and thus pick up on Inlaw's remark in 97—8 afterthelonginterruptionin99-i33 (whereseen.). Inlawmoves to centre-stage to confront Agathon (cf. 71 n.). 134-5 with 2 R 13 5 = A. test. 67—8. to veaviax': A veaviaKos is an 'adolescent male', as distinguished from a irais ('boy'), on the one hand, and an avr/p ('adult male'), on the other (e.g. PLLys. 2o6d;_R. 4136; cf. Dover, GH 85-6). The term is commonly used of what we would call 'young men', i.e. those in their late teens and early twenties (e.g. Eg. 731; Av. 1362; Alex. fr. 116. 5), and is here intended as a malicious reference to Agathon's lack of a beard (29-30 n.) or visible stage-phallus (142 with n.), like -ncu. ('boy') in 141 (whereseen.). Cf. 254 with n., 582-3; Dickey 72-7. The word is common in comedy (e.g. Lys. 784/5; EC. 112; Eup. fr. 367; Men. Dysk. 414) and prose authors (e.g. Th. viii. 69. 4; Lys. i. 37; X. HG ii. 3. 23) but absent from serious poetry, and is presumably colloquial. Plato similarly emphasizes Agathon's youth (e.g. Snip. ig8a rov veavlaKov), and J. and G. Roux, RPh iii. 35 (1961) 210—24, miss the irony when they take these references at face value in an attempt to fix precise dramatic dates for some of the dialogues, which routinely combine chronologically irreconcilable events and situations; cf. Dover, Phronesis 10 (1965) 7. rj-ris explicitly identifies Agathon as a woman, despite the masc. voc. that precedes it. M's vfaviaK fins ef ('if you are one') is defended by Holzinger, Burs. 116 (1903) 251; for this use of TIS, cf. PI. Ap. 2Oe rfjs yap ep,rjs, el Sr/ TIS earlv ao>m. But the text as printed expresses the oxymoron more pungently. For a similar joke, Nu. 692. KCIT' AiaxuXov: Lit. 'in accordance with Aeschylus', i.e. 'to quote Aeschylus, as Aeschylus put it'. For this use of Kara + ace., e.g. frr. 341; 592. 35; Antiph. fr. no. 2; Cratin. lun. fr. 10. 2; PI. Snip. I74C. In Frogs, Aeschylus claims that the characters in his tragedies exemplified traditional masculinity (1013—17, 1021—2, 1026—7, 1039—42) and rejected sexual licence (1043—4), and his words are therefore not inappropriately used here to condemn the effeminate libertine Agathon. IK rfjs AuKoupYeias: 'from his Lykourgeian tetralogy'; for this use of e«, 770; V. 580; Pax ioi2',Ra. 1124 ef 'Opeareias with
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Dover ad loc. For R's AvKovpylas, Introduction p. xcv n. i n . Aeschylus' Lykourgeian tetralogy (undated) consisted of Edonians (A. frr. 57-67; cf. below); Bassarai or Bassarids (A. frr. 23—5; the title is a reference to a garment worn by Thracian bacchants and probably by Dionysos himself in Edonians (cf. A. fr. 59 with Radt's apparatus), and the play told of Orpheus' destruction at the hands of Thracian maenads); Neaniskoi (A. frr. 146—9; contents obscure; for veaviaKos, 'adolescent male', cf. above); and the satyr play Lykourgos (A. frr. 124—6). Most likely Aeschylus took first place (cf. A. test. 69). Lykourgos was king of the Edonians, a Thracian tribe (Th. ii. 99. 4; cf. A. Pers. 492-5; E. Hec. 1153). In Aeschylus' version of the story, Lykourgos had Dionysos arrested when he attempted to introduce his rites, and questioned him about his odd appearance in the scene quoted in 136 (where see n.) and perhaps at Av. 276 (= A. fr. 60), and alluded to at Ra. 47 ('What are you thinking? Why have the stage-boot and the club joined forces?'; cf. Dover ad loc.), as well as at E. Ba. 453—9 and at some length in Eubulus' Dionysios (2R 137 = Eub. fr. 24). Cf. M. L. West, Studies in Aeschylus (Stuttgart, 1990) 26-50. For Lykourgos' story, H. //. 6. 13040; S.Ant. 955-65; fr. roc. 2 withHaslam, ZPE 22 (1976) 34; Apollod. iii. 5. i; Hyg.fab. 132; Roscher, Lexikon ii. 2191—2204; LIMCvi. 1.309—10. Polyphrasmon also produced a Lykourgeian tetralogy, in 467 BC (TrGF 7 F i). But Lykourgos came to a bad end, and Inlaw's decision to quote him perhaps prefigures his own eventual discomfiture. probably governs -TJTIS «; cf. 605 ep.' -IJTIS (ftp') r/pov; 136 -uoSa-uos 6 YUVVIS; is identified by 2R as borrowed from Aeschylus' Edonians (A. fr. 61), in which Dionysos seems to have dressed very much like Agathon here and to have carried (or at least been accompanied by followers carrying) exotic musical instruments (cf. 134—5 n -> A. frr. 57; 60). A yvvvis is a 'sissy'; cf. A. fr. 78a (a satyr play). 68 yvvvis S' avaXxis ('a defenceless sissy'); Theoc. 22. 69 with Sens ad loc.; Phryn. PS, pp. 17. 13—14; 60. 19; Poll. vi. 127; Hsch. y 1015; Phot, y 237. For-jroSa-jros ('from what country?' or (at least by this period) 'of what sort?'), Pearson on S. fr. 453; Arnott on Alex. fr. 94. i; Olson onAch. 767-8, 818. It is impossible to know how much of the rest of 13 6-45 is taken from Aeschylus, although (as Fritzsche says) the solemn introduction makes us expect a long and important parody; cf. A. fr. **6iart S' dam'Si ^vvdrfpa «ai«:apCT(7ia;;('what pact exists between a shield and a drinking-cup?') (a fragment (adapted at Ath. 5. 2156) only conjecturally assigned to Aeschylus; = adesp. com. fr. *83i); Kassel, KS 369—71. 2R 137 (which lacks a lemma) reports that Eubulus got 'the beginning of his Dionysios', in which he gave a list of discordant objects in the tyrant-poet's house, 'from here' (evrevBev). Pace Rau 109 (followed by Hunter on Eub. fr. 24 (his fr. 25a)), however, this means not that Eubulus offered a verse identical with at least the first part
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°f 37 (proving it Aeschylean), but only that he used the same theme as that also picked up from the tragic poet by Ar. ris -uarpa;: mxrpa is poetic vocabulary and particularly common in tragedy (e.g. A. Pers. 186; S. Tr. 326; E. Hel. 91; [A.] PV 665); cf. Rutherford 18-19; Olson on Ach. 147. As Rau 109, notes, a question after Agathon's homeland makes no sense in Inlaw's mouth here but is entirely appropriate to Lykourgos asking about the origins of the exotic Dionysos, and these words as well (cf. above) thus have a reasonable claim to be considered part of the original Aeschylean text. Cf. the agricultural adaptation or parody at fr. 30 For 92n. 137—40 expand on Inlaw's final question in 136; contrast 141—3 withn. 137—8 rdpa^is and its compounds are attested elsewhere in Ar. at Ach. 315; Eq. 247; Pax 266, and in Hippocrates (Hum. i (v. 478. 3); Viet. 89 (vi. 648. 20); Mul. i. 29(viii. 72. 9)). Tragedy uses rapay^ioj (e.g. A. Ch. 1056; E. El. 368; HF 533; Ph. 196; adesp. tr. fr. 625. 10), which would fit the line (with a different beginning), and this question thus seems less likely than the ones that precede it to have been taken direct from Aeschylus. is used of Dionysiac excitement at S. Tr. 218. In 139—40, Inlaw draws an explicit contrast between archetypically 'masculine' and 'feminine' objects (respectively an oil-flask and a sword, and a breast-band and a mirror). Here, on the other hand, his questions simply mean 'What is a male poet doing in female clothing?' The (first mentioned at Anacr. PMG 472 and Sapph. fr. 176) is a long-armed bowl-lyre, which Bacch. fr. 2oB. 1—2 calls 'seven-toned' (i.e. 'seven-stringed'). The jSdpjSiTo; is distinguished from the kithara (1202 n.) at Arist. Pol. I34i a i8-i9, 39-40, and from both the kithara and the a(cf. below) at Anaxil. fr. 15. What is less clear is whether a number of instruments have been brought on stage with Agathon on the ekkuklema or whether Inlaw is engaging in a bit of paratragic bombast and calling the same prop by several names (thus Austin (1990) 17-18). Pindar (fr. *I25) claims that the j3dpj3iTos was invented by Terpander, whereas Neanthes (FGrHist 84 F 5) credits it to Anakreon; the instrument seems generally to be associated with Dionysiac scenes, including symposia. For other 5th-c. references, fr. 792; Magnes' Barbitistai; Bacch. fr. 2oC. 2; Pi. fr. **i24d; Crit. 88 B i. 4; E. Cyc. 40; Ale. 345. Cf. Wegner 42-5; Snyder, 0767(1972) 331-40; Paquette 173-86; Maas and Snyder 39-40, 113-38; West, AGM 50-1, 57-9. \a\ei: The vb. and its cognates (not attested in Aeschylus, who more likely wrote Aeye' or ^e'Aei) serve routinely in Ar. to characterize speech as unnecessary or unwanted (e.g. 267 with n., 393, 578; Ach. 21 with Olson ad loc.; cf. Dover, Frogs, p. 22), and Inlaw's use of it (also of musical instruments at Anaxandr. fr. 36; Theoc. 20. 29; cf. Taillardat §866) renders his question explicitly hostile: not just 'What has a barbitos to say to a krokotos'f but 'What nonsense can a barbitos have
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to say to a krokotosT KpoKUTio: A saffron-dyed chiton, normally worn by women (JVM. 51 (dubious); Lys. 44—51, 644/5; EC. 332, 879; cf. 253-5; Arar. fr. 4 'he looks like an unmarried girl, since he's wearing saffron-dyed robes and women's clothing'; A. Ag. 239; E. Hec. 468; Ph. 1491; IG IP 1514. 58—9, 60—i, 62; 1527. 44 (etc.; all women's dedications at Brauron)) or by Dionysos (Ra. 46; Cratin. fr. 40; Callix. FGrHist 627 F 2 (p. 169. 16)), as apparently inEdonians (cf. A. fr. 59). Saffron-dyed clothing is referred to already in early epic (KPOKOTT€TT\OS at H. II. 19. i; Hes. Th. 273) and lyric (Alcm. PMGF46; cf. Sapph. fr. 92. 7-8; Tyrt. fr. 18. 2), and is a mark of luxury and wealth at A. Pers. 660 (Dareios' shoe); Pi. P. 4. 232 (Jason's robe); JV. i. 38 (Herakles' swaddling clothes). Cf. Headlam on Herod. 8. 28; Stone 174-5; Braswell on Pi. P. 4. 232. For ancient dyeing technology, Bliimner i. 225—59 (f°r dyeing specifically with crocus, i. 250). ri 8e KT\.: Sc. AaAei. Xupa seems to serve as a generic term for lyre-like instruments of all sorts (cf. 315 and 327a with n.; Maas and Snyder 79-80; West, AGM 50-1), and is here probably a synonym for pappms, although cf. above. A long band of cloth that was wrapped around the head and tied, producing a sack in which the hair was contained; cf. 161-3 n -> 257~8 with n., 840-1 n.; fr. 332. 6 (in a catalogue of women's accessories; from Th. II); Antiph. fr. 187 (in a catalogue of women's accessories); H. 77. 22. 469 with Richardson ad loc.; IG IP 1522. 18; 1523. 195—6 (etc.; all women's dedications at Brauron); Posidipp. 46. 4; Antip. Sid. AP vi. 206. 3-4 = 777? 200-1; Daremberg-Saglio s.v.; Stone 203-4; Jenkins and Williams, 47^89(1985)411-18. 139 TI \r|Ku6os Kdi <jTpo<|>iov;: 'Why a lekythos and a strophion [together] ?' A Xr/KvOos is a small oil-flask and functions here as a symbol of masculinity because a man took an oil-flask (of a type now conventionally referred to as an aryballos) and a scraper (arXe-yyis or fvarpa', cf. 556—7 n.) with him when he went to work out at a wrestling school (cf. frr. 145; 214; Diph. fr. 51 ap. Poll. x. 62; Ginouves 144-5); c f- Beazley, ABSA 29 (1927-8) 187-215; Haspels, ibid. 216-23; Amyx 213-17; Henderson, HSCP 76 (1972) 13 5—7 (with further bibliography). Perhaps it also has some phallic connotations (Dover on Ra. 1200); cf. 141—3 n. (on the contrast between the male penis and female breasts (implicitly referred to in the mention of the strophion)). A arpoffnov is a broad band of cloth worn by women (presumably beneath the chiton; cf. 255 with n., 637 n.) to provide support for the breasts, rather like the modern bra; cf. 638 n.; frr. 332. 13 (called dTToSeap,os, as also in the next reference); 338. 2 (both from Th. II); Pherecr. fr. 106 (in a catalogue of women's accessories); Quinn on Catull. 64. 65 strophio . . . vinctapapillas; Stone 184—5 'How incongruous!'; here predicative of a pi. subj. (cf. 21; KG i. 58—9; Gildersleeve §126).
L I N E S 137-43 n
103
140 Cf. Ra. 47 (134—5 -)> E. IT 254 ('And what have cowherds in common with the sea?'); adesp. com. fr. 903. 3 TCS yctp KaroTrrpw (/ 582-3; Dickey 65-72. As if Agathon were still a child (cf. TTO.I) being 'brought up' in his father's house. None of the items mentioned in 142 (except perhaps the is likely to have been mentioned by Aeschylus •ueos;: The implication is that no theatrical phallus can be seen on the actor playing Agathon; cf. DFA 222; Stehle 380—3. For the presence of a penis treated as decisive proof that a character is a man, 640—50 (where the absence of breasts is similarly treated as clear evidence that the disguised Inlaw is not a woman); cf. 139 n.;.£<:. 95-7. For «ai before an interrogative used to convey surprise or contempt (as here), GP 309—10. For -jreos, 59—
104
COMMENTARY
62 n. The quotations of the line in the Suda have TO mos, but the absence of the def. art. (also missing in 77,) is paratragic (as again with the next two nouns). x^a'va: A high-quality himation ('outer garment'; cf. 213—14) of a sort worn exclusively by men; cf. Stone 160—2; Olson on Ach. 845. AdKiovLKca: Sc. e^fidSes. A type of men's shoe, apparently fastened with straps; cf. V. 1157-8; EC. 74, 269, 344-5, 508, 542-3 (a crucial component of the women's male disguise); Bryant 81—3; Stone 225—7. The style must have originated in Sparta, but there is no reason to think of imports from there; cf. 730 KpyriKov with n., 734 UepaiKas with n. For Agathon's choice of footwear, 261-2 n. For ('Well, then') used after a rejected suggestion (here that Agathon is being raised as a male; cf. 141—2), S.Ph. 1352 GP273-4; cf. 144. ws YUV11: Sc.rpe>ei(cf. 141). For marking indignation or contempt, KG ii. 281; LSJ s.v. II. Cf. above. For TIT&IOV ('titty'; the standard—obviously colloquial—termfor the female breast in comedy), 691, 1185; Petersen 177—8; MM §200; Olson on Ach. 1199. Contrast 640 rirBovs with n. 144-5 Probably modelled closely on Lykourgos' words in Edonians; cf. below, and note the absence of resolution. ri <|>f|s; TI aiyas; '• * at Lys. 70 (cf. Henderson ad loc.: 'quasi-tragic'); S. Ph. 805 (cf. 951); E. fr. 1008 (conjectural). Elsewhere in Ar., TI^IJS (here 'What have you to say for yourself?' vel sim.) is simply an expression of astonishment; 'What!' (e.g. Eg. 1346; Nu. 1443; Lys. 710). There must be a slight pause before these words, which adds to the solemnity of the tone. On silences in Aeschylus, Taplin, HSCP-j6 (1972) 57-97. d\\ci Sfj-r': 141-3 n. 'Ought I to seek you (deliberative subjunc.) on the basis of your song?' (Poultney 165; cf. 627), i.e. 'Ought I to use your song (101—29) as mY basis for deciding to which gender you should be assigned?' (cf. 130-3 with nn.). A proleptic application of the aesthetic theory spelt out in 149-50; cf. Moliere, Les Femmes savantes I. iii. 263-4 'Et je vis par les vers qu'a la tete il nous jette, / De quel air il fallait que fut fait le poete'. For the use of £TJTOI, cf. 604; Batr. 25 TWTTC yevos Tovp.ov ^reij; ('Why then do you seek my ancestry?'). What must have interested Lykourgos—and what has in fact occupied most of Inlaw's attention in this speech—is instead his interlocutor's costume (cf. 136 n.), and the original may have had e« TTJJ oToX"ljs ('on the basis of this clothing').
Cf. E. Hipp. 946; GP 141-3. 146-7 As befits a tragic poet (at least on stage in a comedy), Agathon's words contain no resolutions until 151 and none after that until 161 (a series of personal names). Voc. mpeapu is attested elsewhere in comedy only at Ach. 1228 and Strato Com. fr. i. 38 (a parody of highstyle language), but is common in tragedy (e.g. A. Supp. 602 with Johansen-Whittle ad loc.; S. Ant. 1033 u> -n-peajSv*; E. Med. 1013; Ph. 896) and
L I N E S 141-72
105
thus appropriate in the mouth of the tragic poet Agathon. The doubling is another paratragic touch and adds weight to the reproach; cf. V. 1403; Pax 131; Av. 1238 with Dunbar ad loc.; fr. 402. i; E. Med. 1021; Andr. 319; Herod. 10. 2 with Headlam ad loc. ('an air of solemnity and warning'); Shakespeare, Macbeth II. iii. 93 'O Banquo! Banquo!'; Fehling 169-73. Agathon was known for his antitheses (fr. 341 (from Th. II) and PI. Snip. igSc with Ath. 5. i87c ~ Agathon TrGF 39 T 16; cf. Agathon TrGF 39 F 6, 11—12, 14; Leveque 129—34), of which this is perhaps intended as an—admittedly not very striking—parody (thus van Leeuwen; 198-9 is a better example). Cf. 151-2 n., 193-4 n -> 198-9 n. and iiap€ax6fiT]v are probably to be taken as 'dramatic' aorists, which refer to 'a sudden action, which is just taking place, . . . as if it had already happened' (Goodwin §60; cf. KG i. 163-4; Lloyd, CQ NS 49 T (1999) 24-45). °u <|>66vou . . . TOV VJ/OYOV: 'the censure arising from your resentment' (cf. Poultney 51—2), i.e. at Agathon's 'inappropriate' behaviour. For the sound-play, cf. Agathon's peroration at PI. Snip. I97c-e. i/ioyoy (first attested at Simon. PMG 542. 3) is common in tragedy (e.g. A. Ag. 937; S. Ant. 759; E. Hel. 846; absent from Hdt.; in Th. only in speeches (i. 70. i; ii. 45. 2)), but is found elsewhere in comedy only at 895 (also paratragedy) and was apparently regarded by the comic poets as elevated vocabulary. rr|v . . . dXY1!0^ °" Trapeaxofiriv: 'I do not generate in myself the corresponding pain', i.e. 'the hurt feelings you were hoping for' (cf. 2R). aAyijaiy is found elsewhere in the classical period only at S. Ph. 792, but is less likely an Aristophanic coinage than an ill-attested poetic word of a typical late 5th-c. type; cf. Handley, 'Nouns' 134-5. 148-72 Agathon develops the explanation for his appearance put forward in 148 in two ways: (i) in order to write effectively, a poet must conform his rpo-jroL ('manners') to his subject-matter (149—50), and Agathon, as a man, must therefore put on female clothing if he wants to write 'female dramas' (151-2, 154-6); and (2) beautiful poetry is written by beautiful people, which is to say that a poet's work reflects his <j>vais ('nature'), leaving Agathon no choice but to make himself as beautiful as possible (159— 67, 171-2; cf. 168-70). These arguments are somewhat inconsistent (for the contrast between 'manners' and 'nature', Olson on Pax 348-9), and Agathon's second point in particular appears confused, since he makes it clear that he regards adopting a beautiful style of dress as a way of ensuring that he will write poetry of a sort that conforms to a beautiful nature. But this is popular entertainment drawing on fashionable ideas, not a systematic scholarly treatise on poetics. Cf. Zeitlin383—4; Ar. and Athens 256—7. The ideas Agathon puts forward (or variants thereof) seem to have been widely disseminated in Ar.'s time; cf.Ach. 410-13 (Euripides writes about crippled beggars because he himself prefers to wear ragged clothing and stay inside his house—or is it the other way round?); Ra. passim
106
COMMENTARY
(the stern, bitter Aeschylus writes stern, bitter poetry, while the glib, immoral Euripides writes glib, immoral poetry); fr. 694; E. Supp. 180-3 with Collard on i8ib—3a; Chamael. fr. 40. 148—50 Cf. fr. 694 (of Euripides) o\T\a p.ev 7r[o]ei Aeye[t]v / TOLOS eariv ('what he makes [his characters] say, that's what he is himself). 148 is usually taken to mean something like 'I wear clothing that matches my thinking' (i.e. 'what I am thinking about'), an odd use of ajia (cf. Sansone, CQ NS 37 (1987) 224—7) which might be explained as intended in part as parody of Agathon's fondness for overbold expressions (cf. Austin (1987) 74-5). The idea would be made easier by opu), which can be used of mental features as well as of clothes (Eg. 757 A-ij^a Oovpiov <j>opeiv, Jebb on S. Ant. 705—6). But more likely this is simply an odd Agathonic way of saying avv via ('deliberately'). Meineke's (rfj) •yvwp.r) is an easy emendation, but the awkward medial caesura in the context of a discussion of proper poetic practice must be intentional and perhaps hints mischievously at Agathon's penchant for being split down the middle; cf. below; 167 withn. iioT)Triv civSpa: A set phrase (cf.Ra. 858, 1008); but in this context avSpa is brought back to life, scoring a point for Agathon ('I am a man whatever you may think'). mpos TCI Spaniard KT\.: An awkward way of saying rpo-jrovs ex6LV ^pos TO. Spd^ara a -jroei, but the clumsiness (or overelaboration) is part of the implicit critique of Agathon's poetic style (cf. above), irpos + ace. is here 'in accord with', i.e. 'to match' (E. Hipp. 701; LSJ s.v. C. I I I . 5). For Spd^ara in the sense 'tragedies', 52 n. 8ei expresses purpose; cf. Av. i53;_Ra. 37. 151-2 serve, inter alia, as discreet preparation for Inlaw's physical transformation into a woman at 213-67. auriKa: 'ne longe abeam, ne longa exempla petam' (Stephanus in the Thesaurus Graecae Linguae s.v.), i.e. 'for example'; a colloquial sense of the word (absent from serious poetry) first attested in Ar. (e.g. V. 1190; Av. 166), Hippocrates (e.g. de Arte 8 (vi. 14. 5); Loc. Horn. 41, 43 (vi. 332. 16, 336. 14)), and the Attic orators (e.g. Antipho 5. 68), and then repeatedly in 4th-c. prose (e.g. PI. Phdr. 2356; Lys. 19. 46, 63; X. Oec. 19. 18; Thphr. fr. s84a. 9. i; Arist. Xen. 975 a n). Cf. KG ii. 115. Y UVCUK€ '( a ) • • • Spaniard is taken by 2R to mean plays in which the chorus is made up of women (in which case Euripides' Bacchae and the pseudo-Aeschylean PV would both be 'women's plays', but Sophocles' Antigone would not), but Agathon is clearly referring more generally to tragedies in which the primary focalizers are female (and the chorus generally, but not always, are as well). Contrast 154 av&pem. Sophron's mimes were conventionally divided into dvSpetoi and yvvaiK€toi ^LC^LOI (test. 22, cf. test. 7). ^lerouaiav . . . i.e. ^erey^eiv Ttov TpcnTwv (sc. Ttov yvvdiKuiv)', another example of the Aristophanic Agathon's somewhat overfull style (cf. 1467 n., 148—50 n., 154—6 n., 183 n., 195—7 n -> 198—9 n.). p.eTovam is first
L I N E S 148-56
107
attested here and at Ra. 443/4; otherwise prosaic (e.g. Is. 11. 22; X. Cyr. viii. 5. 23; D. 15. 29; Aeschin. 2. 152). 153 Like 157—8, addressed to Agathon but ignored by him (as are many other similarly crude and disruptive remarks in Aristophanic comedy); cf. 45 n., 263 with n., 936-7 with n.; Dover, AC 59-65; contrast 168-70. 'therefore . . .?, so, . . .?' K€\T)TI^€IS: Lit. 'do you ride horseback?'; but KeXr/s and its cognates are also used of a sexual position in which the woman (or boy) is on top (esp. V. 501; Macho 171; cf. Pax 900 with Olson ad loc., and add Asclep. AP v. 202-3 -HE 974-9, 832-7; Diosc. APv. 55 = HE 1483-90; Hor. Sat. ii. 7. 50; Ovid, AA 3. 777-8; Mart.xi. 104. 14). The image gains some point from the fact that Phaidra's beloved, Hippolytos, was a famous horseman (cf. E. Hipp. 1131—4), and in Euripides' extant Hippolytos the love-sick Phaidra expresses a desire to ride horses (E. Hipp. 230-1). orav 0ai8pav -n-ofjs: Phaidra, daughter of Minos of Crete and wife of Theseus, king of Athens, plays a central part in Euripides' surviving Hippolytos (428 Be), in which she is an innocent victim, and must have been at least equally central to his undated lost tragedy of the same name (E. frr. 428-47), in which she seems to have behaved less passively. Ar.'s characters, at any rate, treat the Euripidean Phaidra as a by-word for female sexual depravity (497, 546—7; Ra. 1043-4; cf- &• 469; Eub. fr. 115. 11-12). Sophocles wrote a Phaidra (frr. 677-93; undated); whether Agathon also wrote a play in which she was the central character is unknown, and Inlaw's words imply only that any poet interested in writing 'female dramas' (151) will settle on her as a subject sooner or later; cf. 157. For Phaidra's story and the tragedies it inspired, Barrett, Hippolytus, pp. 6-45; Webster 64-76; Gibert, CQ NS 47 (1997) 85—97; LIMCv. i. 445—6, 459—60. For Troie'o) in the sense 'compose', e.g. 157, 193, 450 (used absolutely), 547; Ra. 1043. 154-6 A quite unnecessary statement of the reverse case of 151-2, which both illustrates again Agathon's vacuous prolixity (cf. 151-2 n.) and provides Inlaw with another opportunity for a hostile, witty remark (157—8). Sc. Spd^ara (cf. 151). iveaO' umdpxov = iVap^ei (cf. EC. 114). An empty pleonasm and an otherwise unexampled supplementary use of the part, of inrap-^ia with a form of elp.1 (for a form of inrap-^ia supplemented by apart, of f t p i , e.g. Hdt. i. 192. 4; D. 21. 38). i.e. TO avopeiov ('masculinity'); nothing suggests a gesture, but there is certainly some humour in the fact that Agathon himself appears to lack male genitalia (141-3 n.). a 8' ou K€Krr|fi€0a KT\.: Perhaps quotation or parody of tragedy; cf. E. fr. 21. 6—7 a &' ol -n-Xovro vvres ov Keicnj^e^a, is 'have', as at e.g. EC. 747> E. Supp. 264; IA 822. The use of the ist-pers. pi. in place of the istpers. sing, is a high-style affectation (KG i. 83-4); cf. 183, 196, 219, 250 with n., 877—8 with n. |_ii|_ir)ais is here simply 'imitation', as at
I08
COMMENTARY
Ra. 109; Th. i. 95. 3 (the only other 5th-c. attestations). Cf. 850 with n. For the history of the word, with particular attention to the 4th c. (when it emerges as an important semi-technical term of aesthetic criticism), Else, CP53 (1958) 73—90; G. Sorbom, Mimesis and Art (Uppsala, 1966), esp. 41-77 (a careful catalogue of the word and its cognates, but in support of the unlikely thesis of a close connection with the literary genre mime); D. W. Lucas (ed.), Aristotle: Poetics (Oxford, 1968) 258-72; cf. Introduction p. liv; Handley, 'Nouns' 133; Muecke 54—5; Stohn, Hermes 121 (1993) 196-205; Mazzacchera, Lexis 17 (1999) 205-24; S. Halliwell, The Aesthetics of Mimesis (Princeton and Oxford, 2002; mostly on Plato and Aristotle). Plato in the Republic notes that persistent imitation of another person's gestures, tones of voice, or state of mind can grow into a habit which becomes second nature, and he accordingly will not allow his guardians to 'imitate a woman, since they are men' (395d). adds emphasis to ^IJIMJCTIJ (KG ii. 122—3). auv8r)peu€Tai: 'helps to hunt down'. The compound is attested elsewhere in the 5th c. only at E. fr. 981. 5, but cf. avvOrfpaia (based on a 5th-c. form of the simplex, as opposed to the older 8-rjpevw) at S.Ant. 432-3 (in 'tmesis'); PA. 1005. A banal image (cf. Nu. 358; LSJ s. Or/paiu II. 2; s. Or/peviu II. 2; Taillardat §768), but the metaphorical appeal to a sphere of interest traditionally thought proper for vigorous young men (e.g. Eq. 1375-83; Lys. 784-91) is none the less striking in the mouth of the emphatically effeminate Agathon. 157—8 Cf. 59—62 (a brazen threat; but the basic sentiment is very similar); Av. 1253—6 (where the size of Peisetairos' anticipated erection is an important part of the threat of rape). 'whenever you represent satyrs' (Agathon TrGF 39 F 33); cf. 153 ('whenever you represent Phaidra') with n. The reference is clearly to satyr play, and LSJ s.v. II gives 'satyric drama' as a sense of pi. But the examples cited are all very late, and in the classical period the word never means anything other than 'satyrs' (e.g. Hermipp. fr.47. i; Alex, fr.77.4; E. Cyc. ioo;Ba. 130; Lys.fr. 91 Sauppe(ap. Ath. 5. 2ioa)). For satyrs (known in particular for their very large penises and constant state of sexual excitement), G. M. Hedreen, Silens in Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painting(AnnArbor, i992);L/MCviii. i. 1108-10. Forsatyrplays, R. Krumeich, N. Pechstein, and B. Seidensticker, Dasgriechische Satyrspiel (Texte zur Forschung 72: Darmstadt, 1999); P. Voelke, Un Theatre de la marge: Aspects figuratifs et configurationnels du drome satyrique dans I'Athenes classique (Bari, 2001). roivuv: 'Well, then . . .'; picking up on the previous speaker's words (cf. 269, 272, etc.), in this case Agathon's entire theory of poetry as thus far explicated (149—52, 154—6). Cf. GP572-3. But part of Inlaw's point is perhaps that—especially in the guise of a satyr (cf. below)—he will have something to share with Agathon that Agathon appears to be missing (cf. 15 5—6 withn.), i.e. an (erect) penis.
L I N E S 154-60
lOQ
The particle is rarely placed later than second, but cf.Ec. 339; PL 863; GP 579-80. KaXeiv: A jussive infin. (here colloquial; cf. Bers 180; Lopez Eire 192—3), '[remember] to . . .'; to be distinguished from the use of the infin. in prayers '[grant that] . . .' (288 with n.). 'in order that I might collaborate with you'; cf. frr. 596. 3; 958; Eup. fr. 89. But (6)iiia0€v KT\. makes it clear that what Inlaw is really referring to is buggering Agathon; cf. MM §245; Austin (1990) 18. For the absolute use of o-jriaOev, cf. 1124 e|om<m> -jrpiuKTiaov ('butt-fuck him from the rear!'); V. 1376; Z/ys. 1170. IOTUKUS: 'with a hard-on'. A colloquial obscenity (MM §7), here perhaps para prosdokian for earrjKws ('standing'; cf. Pax 728). lyi simply adds emphasis to the part, that precedes it; cf. 171* with n. 159-67 Unlike in 149-56, where Agathon explains his seemingly inappropriate style of dress by claiming that a poet must adapt his ways to his subject-matter, here he argues that personal style offers insight into an individual's nature and thus bears a direct relationship to the character of his poetry generally. Agathon thus undercuts his own initial explanation of his behaviour and confirms Inlaw's more hostile analysis (i 34-45): the fact is that he dresses like a woman and writes effeminate poetry because he is himself effeminate. Cf. Muecke 53. 159 dXXus T(e): 'and besides' (S. OT 1114; E. Supp. 417; Ion 618; IA 491 (all line-initial); Hdt. viii. 142. 3). Contrast 290 dAAaij S' ('but otherwise'). The style of this and the following line is again elevated With infin., a somewhat recherche expression coined on the model of e.g. CLTOTTOV eari (Pherecr. fr. 96); 'it is inartistic, uncultured, to see . . .'. a^ovaos ('muse-less', and thus 'unsophisticated, crude'; first attested at Emped. 31 B 74 in the sense 'mute') and its cognates are otherwise in this period exclusively tragic vocabulary (e.g. S. fr. 819; E. Ale. 760; fr. 663 ('Desire then teaches a poet, even if he was previously a^ovaos', alluded to at V. 1074; Men. Karch. fr. 7 Sandbach); adesp. tr. fr. 705. n; cf. Miller 176). Agathon himself, of course, at least allegedly keeps company with the Muses (41— 2) and can therefore offer a reliable report of their style and preferences. Holford-Strevens compares Hortensius' reply to Torquatus at Gell. i. 5. 3 Dionysia malo equidem esse quam quod tu, Torquate, 160 dypeiov ovra Kai Saauv: Cf. Nu. 655 / dypeioy ei Kal aKciios ('You are uncouth and stupid'); Alcm. PMGF 16. 1-2 ('He was not an uncouth man nor stupid'). Agathon is describing someone who looks different from himself, and dypeiby (rare, exclusively poetic vocabulary; subsequently at Call. fr. 24. 13; Leon. AP vi. 35. 2 = HE 2256, but there without any obvious pejorative sense) must be in the first instance a reference to the average rustic's rough, unsophisticated cloth-
110
COMMENTARY
ing (e.g. Nu. 72; Thphr. Char. 4. 4) and lack of a fancy haircut (cf. Ach. 849 with Olson ad loc.; Ephipp. fr. 14. 6). In 161-5, therefore, Agathon uses Ibykos, Anakreon, Alkaios, and Phrynichos as exempla in support of his claim that authors of beautiful poetry have traditionally dressed beautifully. Saavs ('shaggy'), on the other hand, although used occasionally of facial hair (cf. 33 SaavTrwywv with n.), more often refers generally to the hair that begins to cover a man's body when he reaches sexual maturity (e.g. Batofr. 7. 9; Ale. ^4Pxii. 30. i = HE 44; Diocl. APxii. 35. 3 = GPh 2098) and in particular that around his anus (Cratin. fr. 339; PI. Com. fr. 3. i; Eub. fr. 106. 2; cf. 236-42 with nn.). Agathon never attempts to claim that other poets practised depilation, although he notes that lonians wore head-scarves or the like (163 with n.) to keep their hair in order. The second adj. is thus (by way of contrast) entirely about the speaker himself. 161—3 For Ibykos, Anakreon, and Alkaios as pederastic poets, 2 Pi. /. 2. ib (= Ibyc. PMGF TB 4); Cic. Tusc. iv. 33. 71 (= Ibyc. PMGF TB 2) quae de iuvenum amore scribitAlcaeus! Nam Anacreontis quidem totapoesis est amatoria. Maxime vero omnium flagrasse amore Rheginum Ibycum apparet ex scriptis ('What things Alkaios writes about the love of young men! All Anakreon's poetry is concerned with love. And that Ibykos of Rhegion burned with passion most of them all is clear from his writings'). For e«eiVoy meaning 'the well-known', e.g. Nu. 180; EC. 167; cf. KGi. 650. Ar. alludes elsewhere to the poetry of Ibykos of Rhegion (mid-6th c.) only at EC. 973a-5 (cf. PMGF 288). For other ancient witnesses associating Ibykos with pederasty, Ibyc. PMGF TB i, 3, 5. Cf."IwvoXiosatPaxS^S', Gildersleeve§539. Ar. refers to the poetry of Anakreon of Teos (PAA 126635; mid- to late 6th c., including some time in the Peisistratid court in Athens) also at Ach. 850 (~ PMG 372; 388. 5; cf. Olson ad loc.); Av. 1372-4 (~ PMG 378); fr. 235 (together with Alkaios). For Anakreon depicted dressed in long robes and head-gear of a sort an average late 5th-c. Athenian would have regarded as unmistakably feminine, L. D. Caskey and J. D. Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ii (Oxford, 1954) 58-60; Brandenburg 86-8; Snyder; Slater, Phoenix 32 (1978) 188-9; Ridgway, AJA 102 (1998) 721—3. A\KCIIOS: The poetry of Alkaios of Lesbos (7th/6th c.) is also referred to by Ar. at V. 1232—5 (~ Ale. fr. 141. 3-4); Av. 1410-11 (~ Ale. fr. 345); fr. 235 (together with Anakreon); and perhaps V. 1238/9 (= incert. fr. 25c Voigt). 2R reports that a variant reading .M^aioj ('Achaios', the name of a tragic playwright (TrGF 20) roughly contemporary with Euripides and quoted by Ar. at V. 1081; Pax 356 (both the same verse-fragment); Ra. 184) stood in some MSS of the play, including 'the older copies'. 2R adds that (i) A\Kaios was an emendation by the Alexandrian scholar Aristophanes of Byzantium
L I N E S 160-3
II:
(3rd/2nd c.), who recognized that Achaios was out of place in a list of archaic lyric poets (= Ar. Byz. fr. 397); and that (2) another Alexandrian scholar, Didymos (ist c.), objected to Ar. Byz.'s reading on the ground that Alkaios' poetry was too obscure for Ar. to refer to (a claim rightly rejected as nonsense by 2R, quoting several of the passages cited above), but added elsewhere that A\Kaios could stand, provided it was taken as an allusion to the citharode (Stephanis no. 131) mentioned at Eup. fr. 303 (Did. fr. 14. 66 Schmidt). That several ancient MSS contained the reading A^aios (presumably a deliberate correction after majuscule A was lost after A) is apparent. What is less clear is whether 2R or its source has independent information about the textual tradition of the play, or (more likely) is merely passing on Didymos' report of the situation and the best witnesses actually supported A\Kaios (thus G. Pasquali, Storia della tradizione e critica del testo (Florence, 1952) 199; Slater on Ar. Byz. fr. 397). In any case, HXKaios must stand, despite C. Kugelmeier, Reflexe friiher und zeitgenossischer Lyrik in der Alien attischen Komodie (Beitrage zur Altertumskunde 80: Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1996) 290-7. 'joining, fastening' (LSJ s.v. I), and thus 'the art of musical composition'; first in this sense here, although cf. fr. 930 (obscure); E. Phaeth. 67—8 (the nightingale's song) \f-mav . . . appoviav. When used of music, the word usually refers to individual tuning-systems (e.g. Eq. 994; Pherecr. fr. 155. 16; Anaxandr. fr. 42. 22; Lasus PMG 702. 3; Pratin. PMG7i2(b). 3; cf. Heraclid. Pont. fr. 163; West, AGM 177-84). 'gave some flavour to, spiced up'; a hapax legomenon. (like xvXos, for which see Olson on Pax 997) is a 'savour' (e.g. Arist. de An. 4i4 b i3-i4, 422 a io-n, b io-i4) or a liquid that contains a savour, which can be used to lend taste to something else (cf. Sotad. Com. fr. i. 19 (a cook describing how he handled a stewed dish) ('I added a bit of oil-and-vinegar sauce')). For the image, Taillardat §755. !fUTpo<|>6pouv: A mitra is a ribbon of cloth that was wrapped about the head and tied like a headband or a turban; cf. Daremberg—Saglio s.v. II; Brandenburg 53—6, 69—76; Tolle-Kastenbein, ^^4(1977)23-36; Stone 203-4; Bezantakos£asszm.7kfz£razareworn(i)by women at e.g. Alcm. PMGF i. 67-9; E. Hec. 923-4 (cf. 257; fr. 332. 2 (a catalogue of women's accessories; from Th. II); Pherecr. fr. 106 (a catalogue of women's accessories); Bezantakos 55—83); (2) by Dionysos or his devotees at e.g. S. OT209; E. Ba. 833, 928-9; cf. Diog. Ath. TrGF45 F i. 1-2; Bezantakos 85-94; (3) by victorious athletes et sim. at e.g. Pi. O. 9. 84; /. 5. 62; E. El. 162-3 (cf- Brandenburg 67-8; Bezantakos 118-30); and (4) routinely by banqueters and komasts in vase-paintings (Brandenburg 76-86). fi,iTpo>opea> is a hapax legomenon (although cf. ^n-p^opos at Hdt. vii. 62. 2; Diog. Ath. TrGF 45 F i. i); for the formation, cf. 218 LyS. 44 KpOKWTO(j)Op(JO',
fr. 830
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S) is unmetrical and probably represents a superlinear gloss that drove out the less familiar word below it. Toup's 8i€K\uvT' (Emend, in Suid. i (London, 1760) 129—30; 'they were broken down', i.e. 'they adopted a pampered style of life, became effeminate'; cf. D.H. Dem. 43 Phot. S 339 SiaK\wv Siadpy-rrnav, with LSJ s. and Ka-ra-yvv^L I. 2) is sufficiently obscure to have required explanation by an ancient commentator, leading to the error. For SiaKiveiu in a seemingly similar sense (hence perhaps the gloss), V. 688. Fritzsche'sKa^AiSoivisalso possible; cf. Coulon, Essai 25. For the idea that clothes match the person, e.g. Sapph. fr. 57. 1-2; Semon. fr. 7. 2-6; Hdt. iii. 22. i 'in Ionian style' (not 'in the Ionian mode'), i.e. 'luxuriously' with undertones of 'effeminately' et sim. For Ionian 'softness' and sexual wantonness, e.g. Pax 933 with Olson ad loc.; EC. 918; Cratin. fr. 460; Antiph. fr. 91; Asius fr. 13; Hor. c. iii. 6. 21; cf. M. Goebel,.E£/mzca(Diss. Breslau, 1915) 105—7. Of the poets mentioned in 161—2, only Anakreon was actually an Ionian. 164-7 •I'puvixos: The tragic poet Phrynichos son of Polyphradmon (PA 15008; TrGF 3), an older contemporary of Aeschylus, is referred to by Ar. also at V. 219—20, 269, 1490 with MacDowell on 220 and 1490; Av. 748—51; Ra. 910, 1299—1300. He was the author of two historical plays, The Capture of Miletos and Phoenician Women, and according to S 762 (= Phryn. Trag. TrGF 3 T i) was the first playwright to use female characters. For the 'sweetness' of his lyrics in particular, V. 219—20; Av. 748—51 with Dunbar ad loc. (and note the allusion to the image of the honeybee also at Ra. 1299-1300); Timae. FGrHist 566 F 32 (= Phryn. Trag. TrGF 3 T 11). TOUTOV Y<*p ouv aKr|Koas: 'for you've heard of him [i.e. even if you haven't heard of the older, non-Athenian poets I mentioned first]!' For O.KOVIU + ace. in this sense, Men. fr. 187. 2 ('has never even heard of an uncle'); Schwyzer ii. 106-7. (here in a parenthesis; cf. Men. Sik. 205; GP 447) occurs elsewhere in Ar. only at V. 726; Av. 39, but is relatively common in tragedy (e.g. A. Ag. 524, 674; S. Ant. 489, 741; E. Med. 533; Hipp. 666) and is probably intended as a poeticism. Whether the historical Phrynichos was actually thought of as Ka\6s (i.e. as a young man; cf. Olson on Ach. 143—4) is impossible to say, but there is no reason why memory of the famous good looks of someone who grew up to be an important citizen should not have persisted for a generation or two. Agathon is describing Phrynichos' typical style of dress (cf. 163), and Elmsley's impf. (Eur. Med. (Oxford, 1818) 253 on 1. '1128' = 1159) should be printed for R's aor. ii^mayfTO. 8id TOUT' dp' KT\.: 'And so his plays were also beautiful'. ap(a) indicates logical connection. Colloquial; cf. 168 with n.; GP4<3-i; Stevens 44. For the use of Kai to add emphasis to and stress its connection with what follows, GP 307—8; cf. 81 n. For
LINES
l6l-7O
113
the combination Sid TOUT' ap' . . . KO.I, cf. Pax 892; Av. 486. For a view similar to that expressed in 167, Timae. FGrHist 566 F i52«j(jiydp ('for he says that poets reveal their own natures'); cf. Kassel, KS 366—7. The importance of the poet's >vais ('nature'; see 11 n.) is also emphasized at PI. Ap. 22b-c and Arist. Po. i455a3O-4. Although medial caesura is not uncommon in Aristophanic trimeters, its presence in 167, in a line in which Agathon declares the fundamental connection between a man's nature and his poetry, is unlikely to be accidental; cf. 148-50 n. 168-70 Whether one or more (perhaps all three?) of the poets mentioned in these verses was competing in the festival in which Th. was performed is not known, although Inlaw's attacks on them would have more point if they were. Cf. 187 n. raur' dp': 'So that's why . . .!' (e.g. 649; Ach. go*; Nu. 319 with Dover on 394; Pax 414; E. IT 932). Tavr(a) is an internal ace. of motive; cf. KG i. 310—11; Jebb on S. OT 788. For ap(a), 164—7 n. 6 0i\OK\€T]s KT\.: The tragic poet Philokles (P^4 14529; TrGF 24) was a rough contemporary of Euripides (Philocl. TrGF 24 T i) and is said by 2VI^ Av. 281 (= Philocl. TrGF 24 T 2) to have been a nephew of Aeschylus and father of another tragic poet, Morsimos (TrGF 29; cf. Olson on Pax 802). For the austerity and 'bitterness' of Philokles' lyrics (which according to Philocl. TrGF 24 T 1-2 caused him to be nicknamed XoXr/ ('Bile') and .MAfuowosCSon of Brine')), V. 462 with 2Rvr and MacDowell ad loc.; fr. 591. 43—4 (conjectural); Telecl. fr. 15; cf. Cratin. fr. 323. He none the less defeated Sophocles when the latter staged his OT (Philocl. TrGF 24 T 3). Ar. also refers to Philokles and his poetry at Av. 281-2, 1295 (cf. below). For the ending in -erjs, cf. SevoK\erjs (169, 440); KB i. 432; Dover on Nu. 70. Av. 1295 suggests that Philokles was nicknamed Kopv&os ('Crested Lark'), which—especially when combined with the mention of 'his (son?) Hoopoe' at Av. 281-2—suggests that there was something odd about the shape of his head (thus Dunbar on Av. 1295; cf. 2R here 'he had an ugly face and a snub nose and a tiny body'). But Inlaw also chooses the adj. aiaxpos (like the even more general KCIKOS in 169) in part simply because it is the polar opposite of (i65); cf. Dover, GPM6g--jj, esP- 7 1 The tragic poet and dancer Xenokles (PA 11222; PAA 732205; TrGF 33; Stephanis no. 1904) was one of three sons of the tragic playwright Karkinos (PAA 564125; TrGF 21); for what is known of the family, J. K. Davies, Athenian Propertied Families 600-300 B.C. (Oxford, 1971) 283-5; Olson, in Rivals 66—7. He defeated Euripides (who was staging the set of plays that included Palamedes (770—1 n.; Introduction pp. Iviii—Ix) and Troades) at the City Dionysia 01415 (Ael. VH 2. 8 = Xenocl. TrGF 33 T 3); cf. 847-8 n. Ar. refers to Xenokles and his poetry (always in disparaging terms) also at 440—2; Nu. I259a—66 (~ Xenocl. TrGF 33 F 2, which
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is all that survives of his work other than a set of titles); V. 1510-11 with MacDowell on 1501; Pax 782-95 (a particularly nasty attack) with Olson on 289—91 and 782—4; Ra. 86. Plato Comicus (fr. 143) and Pherecrates (fr. 15) mention him as well. 6 ... Geoyvis KT\.: Ar. mentions the tragic poet Theognis (PA 6736; PAA 504498; TrGF 28) with contempt also at Ach. 10-12, 138-40 (another charge of 'frigidity', for which see below). 2RrE Ach. n (= Thgn. Trag. TrGF 28 T 5) reports that he was nicknamed XLUJV ('Snow') and identifies him (not necessarily correctly) with one of the Thirty Tyrants of 404-403. 8' au is connective (e.g. Ach. 552; Av. 516, 582; Lys. 91, 426; EC. 667; Hermipp. fr. 63. 6). Aristotle (in reference to rhetoric) defines 'frigidity' as the result of excessive reliance on compound words, odd vocabulary, peculiar epithets, and strained metaphors (Rh. i4O5b346 b i4; cf. Theophil. fr. 4. 4), and elsewhere contrasts a style of music he describes as 'sweet', 'common', 'sober', and 'established' with one that is 'vulgar', 'unpleasant', and 'frigid'. For other charges of poetic 'frigidity', 66-9 with n., 848 (of Euripides' Palamedes); Eup. fr. 261 (of a vulgar, childish joke); X. Snip. 6. 7 (of a strained pun); Alex. fr. 184. 3 (of Araros) with Arnott ad loc.; Timocl. fr. 19. 3-6; Macho 258-84 (of Diphilos); cf. 47 with n.; Av. 935, 1385 with Dunbar ad locc.; adesp. com. fr. 442; VanHook, CP 12 (1917) 68-76; Kurt Gutzwiller, tfjv-^posundoyKos(Diss. Basel: Zurich, 1969) 16-26; Dover, Frogs, pp. 20-1. Only two tiny fragments of Theognis' poetry survive, but the first (<j>opp.i-y£; a^opSoy ('a stringless lyre'); of a bow) certainly fits Aristotle's definition. For 'frigidity' as a personal characteristic (a nasty form of obtuseness), PLEuthd. 2846; D. 18. 256; Chrysipp. SVFiii. 50 (fr. 211). 171 amaa' avayKT]: 'It's absolutely necessary [that things work this way]', i.e. 'It's inescapable'. The phrase and variants thereof are attested in poetry at Pax 373; Polyzel. fr. 3. i; A. Supp. 440; S. EL 1497; OT 986, but are also very common in prose (e.g. Hdt. v. 52. 2; Hp. Loc. Horn. 44 (vi. 338. 12); PI. Tht. 2O3d; D. 20. 26). Euripides has only -jroXXr/ p.' avayKi] et sim. (Ale. 378; Med. 1013; Hec. 396; Ph. 1674). Y"P T O i : 8in. adds emphasis to yvous; 'when I realized these things'. Cf. 158* with n. 172 Ifiaurov €0€pdii€uaa: 'I took care of myself, gave myself the treatment I required' (LSJs. Oepa-jreviu 11.4). TTp6sT&Jv0€&JvisusedbyAristophanic characters only in entreaties (e.g. 228*; Pax 376*; EC. 562*) and urgent questions (e.g. Eq. 1390*; Av. 69*, 996*; PL 1176*); cf. Barrett on E. Hipp. 219. But however interested Inlaw may profess to be in the details of Agathon's 'self-treatment', part of the answer to his question is obvious ('I put on women's clothes') and another part is best left as innuendo (' I contrived to get myself fucked by as many men as possible'; cf. 35 n., 175 n.). TT&JS KT\. is thus little more than a weak narrative feint
L I N E S 168-76
115
which provides an opportunity for Eur. to interrupt (173-4) and take over the conversation (176-92); and in any case, Inlaw soon learns at first hand what it takes to turn a man into a seeming woman (213—68). 173—4 Z 75 n -> c f- !&7 n. Eur. steps over to join the conversation. Lit. 'Stop crying jSaii jSavl' (the noise made by a dog), i.e. 'Stop yapping at him, harassing him!' jSav^w (onomatopoeic) is first attested at Heraclit. 22 B 97 (in the compound form Karaj3avl,iu) and is otherwise exclusively poetic vocabulary (895 (paratragic; also of snarling vituperation); Cratin. fr. 6. i; A. Pers. 13 (corrupt; see Broadhead's Appendix I, pp. 249-50); Ag. 449 with Fraenkel ad loc.; Theoc. 6. 10; Lye. 1453). Cf. V. 1401—5 (a verbally abusive woman compared to a barking dog); Taillardat §487. For the formation, cf. aia£o) (e.g. E. Tr. 145), (1095 withn.), fi,v£,a> (231 withn.), ol^iii^ia (248 withn., 1001 with n., 1081/2), oAoAt>£a) (129 n.), OTOTt>£a) (1081/2 with n.), >ev£,a> (A. Ag. 1308), co£a) (e.g. V. 1526/7). Kai yap eyw: 'for I too' (GP 108); said in a tone of confident superiority. f\ (Dindorf 1825) is the proper Attic form, although rjv (RS; a very common corruption) is used occasionally metrigratia (e.g. PI. 29, 695, 822; 'E.Hipp. 1012 with Barrett on 700; HF 1416); cf. 478; Harrison, CR 56 (1942) 6-9; Stevens on E. Andr. 59. TT]\IKOUTOS is late 5th- and 4th-c. Attic vocabulary, first attested at A. Ag. 1620; first in prose in the orators (e.g. Lys. 21. 20; Is. 3. 55) and Plato (e.g. Prt. 3i8b). r|viK' ripxofirjvuoeiv refers in the first instance to Eur. himself, but the real function of the clause is to cast Agathon (to whom Eur. is comparing himself) as a rank—and quite pretentious—amateur at the art of tragedy, despite the fact that he had won at the Lenaia five years earlier (29-30 n.). 175 What Eur. means in 173—4 is I used to talk very similar nonsense'. But Inlaw takes him to be saying 'I used to dress and behave in the same way', and he accordingly reacts with contempt and disgust. A typical 'bomolochic' interjection (45 n.), to which Eur. fails to react (cf. 176 n.). [no. TOV Ai': 20 n. ou £r]\ti <j€ rfjs iraiSeuaetos: 'I don't begrudge you your training'; cf. 1118 ov ^r/XiuoL ae ('I don't begrudge you [this passion]'; also contemptuous). iraiSevais (late 5th- and4th-c. vocabulary, attested elsewhere in poetry of the classical period only at Nu. 93 7b, 986, 1043; cf. Handley, 'Nouns' 131—2 ('current educated speech')) is properly 'the treatment given a boy' and thus continues the process of presenting Agathon indirectly as a very young man (cf. 134 withn., 173-4, 177-8 n.). But Inlaw means something more ambiguous (and considerably more hostile), like the English 'rearing'; cf. 172 n. £-»jAa) ae + gen. is a favourite Aristophanic construction (Ach. 1008 (lyric) with Olson ad loc.; Eq. 837 (trochaic tetrameter); V. 1450 (lyric)). 176 d\\(d) followed by an imper. marks 'a transition from arguments for action'—i.e. 173—4—'to a statement of the action required' (GP 13—14),
Il6
COMMENTARY
making it clear that Eur. simply 'fails to hear' Inlaw's comment in 175 (where see n.). For the omission of the antecedent of the rel. clause tovuep OUV€K' ^\0ov, e.g. Nu. 238; Ra. 108—9;-P/. 1200; cf. Headlam on Herod. 5. 53. OVVCKO. appears to be the standard 5th-c. Attic form, at least in poetry, although the inscriptional evidence is inadequate and the MSS often confused; cf. Dover on Nu. 238; Olson on Pax 210; Threatte ii. 660—9. €(1:64—5 n. Xeye:'Say [what you ha veto say]!', i.e. 'Go ahead! Speak up!', as at e.g. V. 944*; Lys. 214*; Ra. 1442*. 177-8 ~E. fr. 28(from^4zo/os; 'the mark of wisdom lies in neat abridgement of a lengthy speech'), with Eur.'s original waiSe; replaced by A-yadiav; for the implicit juvenilization of Agathon, cf. 134—5 n -> I 73~4> Z 75 n - Ar. also quotes or alludes to Aiolos at Nu. 1371— 2; Pax 114—15, i i 9 ( ~ E . f r r . 17-18; cf. Olson ad locc.); Ra. 850, 1081, 1475 (~ E. fr. 19), and seems to have presented an extended parody of the tragedy in his two lost plays entitled Aiolosikon (cf. Aiol. test. v. 10—11). Forthe idea, cf. Lucret. 6. 1083; P.-L. Courier, Pamphlet des pamphlets (CEuvres completes: Paris, 1940, 217) 'c'est un merite non commun . . . de clore en peu de mots beaucoup de sens'; Andre Gide, Billets a Angele (CEuvres completes xi: Paris, 1936, 39) 'Le classicisme, c'est 1'art d'exprimer le plus en disant le moins.' For the usefulness of the sentiment in allowing Ar. to avoid repeating material already explained on stage, 82-5 n. aotfiou -upos dvSpos: '[it is] the mark of a wise man', with aninfin. expected in place of the indef. rel. clause oaris KT\.; cf. KG ii. 441—2; Barrett on E. Hipp. 426—7; Handley on Men. Dysk. "j66ff. ('The illogical correlation between main clause and relative clause is of a kind which is familiar in sententious reflections'); Poultney 188. 179—80 Eur.naturallyusestragiclanguageinhissupplication. 'struck by a novel'—i.e. 'terrible'—'misfortune'; paratragic (esp. E. Ale. 405, 856 193-4 n.); cf. A. Pers. 1008; Ch. 31; Rau 112). ^v^opa is common in but scarcely confined to tragedy (e.g. A. Pers. 846; S. OT 99; E. IT 549). For forms of -n-f-irXriYfiievos in tragedy, e.g. A. Ag. 544*, 1345*; S. Tr. 931*; E. Med. 1387*; adesp. tr. fr. 323a*; in Aristophanic paratragedy at Ach. 1218* (cf. Ra. 1214). IK€TT]S d<|>iYH = T' XPTI^6is< Tragic style (e.g. A. 0/1.481 ;E.Med. I 3 i 9 ; f r . 231.1; [A.] PV 169); cf. Rau 112. For similar responses to suppliants in tragedy, E. Heracl. 95 TI xpe'osv ('What [is] your need?'); Supp. 115 ri\pii^a dijpwv Kal TITOS y^peiav €\
L I N E S 176-86
117
181-2 A condensed version of 82-5 (where see n.), with virtually every significant element of Eur.'s remarks here borrowed or adapted from there ~ 83 KO.V &ea^o<$>opoiv . . . rrj^epov, Kai«is auras Xeyto = 85*). For p,eX\w + fut. infin., S. EL 379-80; Gildersleeve §273. Names of festivals normally dispense with the art. (cf. 558, 834; Av. 1519) unless they are accompanied by a determinative phrase (here -nj^epoj/); cf. KG i. 445-6, 600. on KaKus KT\. is a factual statement: Eur. implicitly accepts the truth of the charge against him. 183 Perhaps a tragic line; certainly tragic in style and metre. 'And what assistance canst thou have from us'f lixfjeXriaia (cf. Nu. 648) in Agathon's overinflated style (i 51-2 n.; cf. Dover, EGPS 32-6). d>>e\eia/(l>>e\m is late 5th-c. vocabulary, first attested in Herodotus (vii. 158. 2), Sophocles (El. 944), and Euripides (Andr. 539; fr. 78. i), and common in prose (e.g. Lys. 7. 13; Th. i. 28. 3; X. Mem. i. 4. 5). 154—6 n. 184-6 A slightly adapted version of 90-2 The principal changes are (i) rather than suggesting that Agathon will need to adopt women's clothing (implied in 92), Eur. simply notes that he looks like a woman anyway (185); and (2) the addition of an explicit justification for the strategy in 189—92. r| mda': 'all there is' (Nu. 204; Gildersleeve §649). lyKaGe^Ofievos: The vb. (also Ra. 1523; EC. 23 (conjectural), 98 (both of taking a seat in the Assembly)) is also found in Thucydides (iii. i. 2; iv. 2. i), and is probably colloquial although illattested in our sources. Cf. 600 e-yKO.6rip.evos with n. as [you can do,] if you are thought to be a woman' (cf. E. HF 985; KG ii. 91—2). uirepaiTOKpivT] fiou = a-iroKpivri inrep e^ov, 'offer a response'—i.e. 'a defence' (cf. 188 oVoAoyei; Eup. fr. 228 ap. Harp. A 189)—'on my behalf; cf. Ach. 632; V. 951 (the only other attestation of the compound). Eur.'s failure to specify what he wants Agathon to argue in the women's assembly means that the audience in the Theatre has no preconception about what Inlaw will do once he takes over the job. Eur.'s otherwise surprising reticence thus has the positive dramatic effect of allowing for the reckless speech in 466—519 and must represent a deliberate decision on Ar.'s part. Cf. 267-9 (where Eur. misses a similar opportunity to tell Inlaw what to say) with 269-76 n. Perhaps intended to recall Eur.'s alleged overfondness for the letter sigma (e.g. Med. 476—7; IT"j6^; PI. Com. fr. 29; Eub. fr. 26; but cf. dayman, TAPA 117 (1987) 69-84). aa>a>s is 'for sure, manifestly', as at e.g. EC. 1134; A. Ag. 1636; S. Ph. 40; E. Hipp. 346 with Barrett ad loc.; IA 1608. Cf. Th. i. 74. i aa^earara emuae TO. TT pay para, (of Themistokles'
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COMMENTARY
actions at Salamis). The discussion of the motives of Eur. and Agathon that follows in 188-207 serves to explain the action better and is highly amusing, but does not really advance the plot, and Eur. accordingly returns abruptly to his main point in 208. 187, 189-92 answer a question left hanging since 29-30 and even more explicitly since 88-92: why has Eur. come to Agathon in particular for assistance? Cf. 90—2 n., 184—6 n. 187 fiovos Y^P KT^.: Eur.'s basic point is that Agathon was the obvious star of the 'new generation' of tragic poets (cf. Dionysos' positive remarks about him at Ra. 83-4, as well as the nasty assessment of the abilities of some of the others at 168—70; Ra. 71—2, 86—97) and thus, in a sense, his own poetic heir; cf. 173—4. But by d£uds Ifiou he must also mean 'in a sufficiently persuasive manner', great verbal agility, especially in debate, being one of the alleged hallmarks of Euripidean characters (e.g. Ach. 428-9; Pax 534; Ra. 954-8). 188 eueiTd expresses surprise (e.g. Nu. 226; PI. 827); contrast 637 (indignation) with n. mus;: 'how [is it that]?' (e.g. Av. 278; Lys. 24; Ra. 647). OUK auros a,iro\o-ysl -uaptiv: i.e. 'Why don't you go there and make your defence yourself in person?' impiav is commonly used * in tragedy (e.g. A. Ch. 1014; S. Ai. 1131, 1156 with Jebb ad loc.; E. Heracl. 561; Hipp. 1242; Supp. 391 with Collard ad loc.) in the semiotiose sense 'being present to play your part'; in comedy (frequently in a different sedes) at e.g. V. 840*; Av. 548 with Dunbar ad loc., 1215*; Lys. 284; cf. KGii. 87. 189-90 IY" <|)pdatd aoi: *atAch. gis;Eq. 1211 (both in response to questions, as here); cf. Nu. i354/eyo;>pd<ja). As routinely in Ar. (e.g. Ach. 648; Eg. 774; V. 552; Ra. 1528), TTp&JTa fiev introduces the first in a projected series of items, in this case arguments in support of the thesis that Eur. cannot go to the Thesmophoria assembly himself. For the coordination of -n-pwra fiev with eueira, GP 377. YlYv'")CTKOhiai: 'I' m known', i.e. 'I'm easily recognized', the (arguably somewhat insulting) implication being that Agathon is much less famous, meaning that he stands a better chance of escaping detection. For 190 as misleading preparation of the audience in the Theatre, 21 i-i2n. 'grey[-haired]', as regularly in Ar. (Ach. 600, 610, 693; V. 1192; Lys. 595). Primarily poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 22. 74; Tyrt. fr. 10. 23; Anacr. PMG 395. i; Bacch. 3. 88; S. OT 183; Men. Mis. 620), but also used in prose (PI. Prm. zayb). In Modern Greek evas TTO\IOS Kvpios is 'a hoary old gentleman'. The historical Eur. was now in his seventies; on the synchronisms making his birth coincide with either Aeschylus' first victory (485 BC) or the Battle of Salamis (480 Be), see Jacoby on Philoch. FGrHist 328 F 220. ir&ywv' ^Xu: According to anon. vit. Eur. §2 (p. 2. 10-11 Schwartz) (drawing on what source, we do not know), the historical Eur.
L I N E S 184-92
119
had a very thick beard, as well as moles on his face. But 191 leaves little doubt that what the tragedian means is simply that he has a beard (as did any normal adult male; cf. 33 n.), whereas Agathon does not. IQI The accumulation of epithets is elevated poetic style. Like in the second half of 192—but unlike most of the other adjs. in these lines—eu-n-poawiros ('good looking'; first attested at A. Ch. 969 (corrupt)) is not obviously insulting when used of a man (cf. PL 976; Cratin. fr. 337), which is to say that Eur. begins and ends his description of Agathon in a nominally positive manner. For the historical Agathon's physical beauty, Agathon TrGF 39 T 14. \€UKOS: 'whitef-skinned]'; cf. 31 n. For the adj. and compounds thereof used of women (i.e. in praise of their success in at least presenting the appearance of having kept inside and thus out of the sun; cf. 789-90 n.), e.g. Av. 668; EC. 699; H. 77. i. 55; S.Ant. 1239; E. Ale. 159; Hipp. 771; in censure of effeminate men at Ra. 1092; Sosicr. fr. i. i; E.TJa.457; cf.Ec. 385—7,428; Alex. fr. 217. i (where, pace Arnott, the primary significance of the word is not ornithological); PI. Phdr. 239c; R. 55&d. !£upr]fi€vos: 'clean-shaven'. For Agathon's beardlessness, 29-30 n., 218. As women also used razors (218-20 n.), the reference might be to shaving body hair; but the contrast with in 190 (cf. 33) makes it clear that Ar. is thinking primarily of the face (pace Dover, GH 144). For other references to men said to shave their faces so as to appear more boyish (or more womanish), 235 with n.; Alex. fr. 266; Men. Sik. 264; cf. 215—33. For razors and razor-cases, 218—20 n. (first attested at S. Ai. 786 and Hdt. ii. 36. i; elsewhere in Ar. at 215, 1043 (both airo^vpfia); Ach. 119; fr. 341 (alluding to Agathon; from Th. II) is probably ill-attested colloquial vocabulary. 192 YuvaiK°v-i)v ('after kneading his voice [to make it] soft'). d-uaXos ('delicate, tender') is commonly used of women (e.g.Av. 668 (coupled withXevKo$);Ec. 902; Sapph. frr. 94. 16; 122; Anacr. PMG^o) and in particular of their hands and feet (e.g. Lys. 418; Alex. fr. 49. 2-3; Timocl. fr. 24. 6; A. Pers. 537; Ale. fr. 45. 6), those of men properly having been hardened by physical labour (e.g. H. Od. 21. 149-51). But the adj. is also applied in slightly later sources to sexually desirable boys (e.g. adesp. com. fr. 735. 2; PI. Snip. I95C, I9&a; Asclep. ^4Pxii. 161. i = 777? 902; cf. Cratin. fr. *I95- 3 (coupled with XevKos)). The adj. (first attested at Xenoph. fr. B 3. 5; cf. adesp. PMG 927(6). 2 (undated)) can be used of either men (e.g. EC. 427; Anaxand. fr. 35. 2) or women (E. I A 386); cf. 233. Eur. thus closes his description of Agathon as he began it, with a relatively neutral term; cf. 191 n. For the act. infin. where English expects the pass., cf. 680-2 e^f/iav-ris opav;Nu. 1172; V. 821; Av. 1710; EC. 387; KG ii. 14-15.
L I N E S 433-48
IQI
as Kritylla wife of Antitheos, of the deme Gargettos (898 with n.; cf. 380 n.), and considerably older than the first (896), steps forward, takes the garland from the coryphaeus and puts it on her head (cf. 380 n., 431—2 n.), and begins to speak. iveKa Kaurr|: Thus Parson (Tracts (London, 1815) 30); R's IvfK avrfj (sic) is a simple haplography. «ai is needed with 'I too', i.e. in addition to the first speaker. -uapfjXGov: 'came forward [to speak]' (e.g. Eup. fr. 102. 2; Hdt. viii. 80. 2; D. 7. 20; Ex. 44. i; Aeschin. i. 193)2. 47). 444-5 are a metrical version of the sort of thing probably said routinely in the Assembly and especially the lawcourts when a second speaker wished to bolster the case made by the first. Cf. Lys. 14. 3 eKaarov vp,ds SiSd^w ('Archestratides has offered an adequate indictment as regards the rest. But whatever he has left out, I will instruct you about each matter individually'); 27. i. a 8' lyi ireirov8a: The first speaker's remarks were very general and accused Eur. of wronging women as a group; now we hear the voice of direct personal experience. 446 Ifioi . . . (6) dvr|p: 'my husband'; for the 'sympathetic dat.', Schwyzer ii. 147—8. No &e answers jiev, for the second half of the sentence takes a different construction (dyoi for eyo; &e TO.VTO. vel sim.). Cyprus was under firm Persian control during the Peloponnesian War years; cf. Maier, CAH* vi (1994) 297-326, esp. 306-17. Athens had last intervened (unsuccessfully) on the island in 449 (Th. i. 112. 2—4), but had Kritylla's husband died in the fighting then, her children would be in their late 305 and 405 by now and she would have no need to support them. Although the specificity of the description is striking, there is no reason to think that Athenian forces were involved in the coup that brought Evagoras I to power in Cyprian Salamis some time around 411 (Isoc. 9. 28-32; D.S. xiv. 98. i; cf. IG I 3 113; M. J. Osborne, Naturalization in Athens ii (Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgie, Klasse der Letteren 101: Brussels, 1982) 21—4). Perhaps some Athenians were involved as mercenaries or the like, or Kritylla's husband is supposed to have been a merchant and her complaint exploits the theme of the pathos of dying far from home. Being widowed and never remarrying seems to have been the norm for Athenian women, especially if they had children by their first husband; cf. Gallant 26-7. 447-8 -uaiSdpia -uevTe: waiSdpiov is a pathetic diminutive, 'five little children'. The effect is magnified by the fact that this appears to be a relatively large family and other children would almost certainly have been lost in childbirth or infancy (cf. Gallant 22-6); the speaker has had a very hard life. Cf. 637 with n. aY" KT\.: Cf. 444-5 n. Under normal circumstances, a woman whose husband died returned to her paternal
IQ2
COMMENTARY
household (Harrison i. 38-9), perhaps leaving her children to be raised by their father's relatives, as Mantitheos' mother does after her husband dies at D. 40. 6. That Kritylla was instead (for reasons she does not explain) left to her own resources increases the pathos of her situation considerably. jioXis: 'barely, with great difficulty'. 5th- and 4thc. vocabulary, first attested at A. Ag. 1082; Eu. 864, and widely distributed thereafter in comedy (e.g. 1024; Ach. 890; Cratin. fr. 255) and tragedy (e.g. S. Ant. 290; E. Andr. 811) and in prose (e.g. Th. i. 12. 4; And. i. 44; PI. Tht. I42b). <jT€<|>avr]-n-\oKoua(a): The compound is otherwise attested only at Sapph. fr. 125 (cited by 2R 401). For garland-making as a profession, Arist. fr. 228; Thphr. HPvi. 8. i. This was piece-work (457— 8) which required little capital or credit and must have been done only by the very poor who lacked the strong back and mobility needed to be a porter (for which, Poll. vii. 130) or the like. For female market-vendors and the like, Brock, CQ NS 44 (1994), 336-46, esp. 340-1; Lewis 91-8, esp. 94—5 (with discussion of a red-figure cup (London, British Museum E6i) that may show a female garland-vendor). The extended discussion of flowers and their seasons in connection with garland-making at Thphr. HPvi. 8 leaves no doubt that harvesting wild flowers to be woven into garlands was a minor year-round industry, although we know next to nothing else about it. ipoaKov: The vb. 'is properly used of beasts, and is transferred to men only with a sense of irksomeness'—as here—'or contempt' (Neil on Eq. 255—7); c f- Av. 1357—9 (where the law requiring nestlings to support their old fathers uses rpe(j>iu, but the rebellious Father-beater uses jSoaKw); Lys. 1203-4; Headlam on Herod. 7. 44; Taillardatp. Son. 3. Ivrais fiuppivais: 'in the [place in the Agora (cf. 457—8) where they sell] myrtle garlands'; the implication is that Mika kept her children with her as she worked, no one else being available to take care of them. Henderson's suggestion that Kritylla hints at doing a bit of work as a prostitute on the side (MM§i 25, comparing the colloquial use of p.vpTov to refer to the female genitalia at e.g. Lys. 1004; PI. Com. fr. 188. 14; and the significant name 'Myrrhine' juxtaposed to 'Kinesias' at Lys. 850-2) may appeal to those unwilling to take her woes at face value. For garlands made of myrtle branches, 36-7 n. For sections of the Agora called after the commodities sold there, e.g. Eq. 1375; V. 789; Av. 13, 1288; Lys. 557; EC. 3O3b ('the garlands'); fr. 258. i; Cratin. fr. 209; Eup. fr. 327. 2-3; Pherecr. fr. 2. 2 ('the garlands'); Antiph. fr. 83. 2 ('the garlands'); Lys. 23. 6; Thphr. Char. 11.4; cf. Poll. ix. 47; x. 19; Agora iii (i957) 193-205. 449—51 retds fi€V ouv d\\' / • • • vuv 8': 424—6 n. For reius = ~rrpo TOV, cf. fr. 543; Eup. fr. 384. 3. r)|_uKciKios is 'tolerably, more or less'. rj^iKaKos is attested else where at S. fr. 1051; Alex. fr. 10, and is most likely colloquial. 'I kept myself fed' ;cf. 44 7-8 n.;Eq. 1258.
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93~4 Tilariv;: 95 n. 194 = E. Ale. 691 (Pheres declines to die for Admetos) 'You find life pleasant; do you suppose your father doesn't!' Obviously a striking and well-known verse, given the allusion to it also at Nu. 1415 K\dovGi TraioV?, -Trarepa 6' ov K\O,€IV 8oK€ts', ('Children wail, and do you not think it right that their father wail?'). Ar. quotes from or alludes to Ale. (438 BC) elsewhere at Ach. 893-4 (~ -Ale. 367-8); Eq. 1251-2 (~ Ale. 181—2); Av. 1244 (~ Ale. 675); and perhaps at 179 (where see n.); V. 753 (~ Ale. 866-7?); and^4«. 539 (cf. Ale. 442). Cf. Introduction p. Ivin. 48. For the antithesis (appropriate in any case in the mouth of Agathon; cf. 146-7 n.), cf. Lys. 763-4; E. Hec. 1256. 195—7 An explanation of the significance for the current situation of the quotation in 194, justified in 198—9 by reference to a general gnomic statement. For eywye standing alone as an affirmative response to a question, e.g. Ach. 777*; Eq. 23*',Ec. 91*; S. Tr. 1248*; PLEuthphr. 6e. Presumably colloquial. [ir\ . . . k\fniar\'s'- 'Don't expect!' (Goodwin §259; Rijksbaron 38—9). eAm£o> (for the older eArno) is attested first at A. Pers. 746 and is thereafter widely distributed in prose (e.g. Hdt. iii. 157. i; Th. iii. 30. 3; Aeschin. 3. 221) and poetry, especially tragedy (e.g. Av. 956; Emped. 31611.2; S.Ai. iO52;E..Hj/>/>.97;Neophr. TrGF 15 F 1.4). 154—6 n. uc|>e^eiv: 'to suffer', as at Lys. 841; contrast 756 with n. Kai Yap: 67-8 n. av fiaivoifi€0' civ: 'I should be a lunatic!, I'd have to be crazy!'; cf. 470 with n.; PL 1070; Stevens 16. The use of the pi. for sing, helps maintain an elevated tone in an otherwise colloquial expression; cf. 154—6 n. For one av followed very closely by another, e.g. Ach. 307; S. OT 339; fr. 739; E. Hipp. 961; Tr. 1244; cf. 440-1; KG i. 246-8; Bruhn, Anhang§n6; Slings, CP 87 (1992) 102-5. .e. TO aov, cf. 151—2 n. OLKCLUS: 'as if it were your own'—as, of course, it is. The adv. is first attested here and at Lys. 1118, and is otherwise confined to prose (e.g. Th. ii. 60. 6; Lys. i. 39; PI. MX. 2436) and New Comedy (e.g. Men. fr. 236. 12; Damox. fr. 2. 58) and is thus presumably colloquial. 198—9 = Agathon TrGF 39 F 34? ('It is right to withstand misfortune not by inventiveness but by submission'; cf. Dover, GH 140). For the function of the verses in the argument, 195-7 n - F°r the antithesis (typical of the historical Agathon's poetic style), 146—7 n. For the rhyming distich, cf. Agathon TiGF 39 F 11 epyov ws mipepyov eK-irovov^eBa', E. Norden, Die antike Kunstprosa vom vi. Jahrhundert v. Chr. bis in die Zeit der Renaissance (Leipzig, 1898) 832-3; Bruhn, Anhang §243. For the sentiment (a commonplace), e.g. A. Pers. 293-4; S. Ph. 1316-17; fr. 585 with Pearson ad loc.; E. Med. 1018; HF 1228 with Bond ad loc.; Ph. 1763; Dover, GPM 167-9 For 'devices' as typically Euripidean, 94 n. The presence of rf-^yaapa also at E. Or. 1053 (otherwise unattested before X. HG vi.
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4. 7, except at Or. 1560 (probably interpolated)) may suggest that Ar. has borrowed the word from some lost tragedy (thus Willink ad loc.), perhaps by Agathon himself (above). TOLS Tf-^yaapaaiv is echoed by in 199. <|>€p€iv agrees properly only with and with -r^vaa^aaiv only by zeugma; 2R paraphrases eK>evyeiv ('to escape'). d\\ci TOIS Tra6r|fia<jiv: i.e. dAAd ru> -rrda^eiv, in Agathon's crabbed style (151—2 n.). Echoed in 201*. Trafrij^a is widespread in late 5th-c. tragedy and prose (e.g. S. Tr. 142; E.Hipp. 570; Hdt. i. 207. i; Th. i. 23. i; Hp.Ep. v. 80 (v. 250. 6)), but is not attested elsewhere in comedy. 200-1 A 'bomolochic' interjection, and therefore ignored by both Agathon and Eur.; cf. 45 n. KOI [ir\v introduces a new point, while Y(E) emphasizes the word immediately preceding; 'well you certainly are . . .'. Cf. Jebb on S. Ai. 531; GP 353-5; Wakker, in NAGP 215-17. A.KaTmTvya>vis someone who likes tobe fucked 'down the arse' (cf. 59—62 n.). Apparently a common colloquial form of abuse, although Inlaw means the word literally; cf.Ach. 79 with Olson ad loc. (with further primary references, including a number of 5th-c. graffiti); Fraenkel, KIB i. 147-50; MM §462. eupuTrpuKTOs: Lit. 'wide-arseholed', i.e. as a result of having been buggered so often (cf. above), although what follows makes it clear that (pace MM §460) the word functioned also as a general form of abuse, rather like the modern 'cocksucker' (rarely intended as a comment on a man's actual sexual behaviour). Cf. 199* with n. What is expected in apposition to \6yoiaiv ('not inwards') is dAAdroiy e'pyoiy ('but in deeds'; cf. S. OT 517; OC 782). But Agathon prefers to play the passive part, and Inlaw accordingly refers not to 'what you've done'but to 'what's been done to you' (i.e. 'the many good hard fuckings you've received'); cf. 206—7. 202 Eur.'s question cuts through the obfuscations in 195—9, esp. 198—9: the real problem is that Agathon is afraid of something, as he readily admits (203-5). TI 8' OJTIV on SeSoiKas l\0€iv;: 'What is it that makes you afraid to go?'; an awkward combination of TI S' earlv STL oeooiKas; ('What are you afraid of?') and TI oeooiKas eX&eiv; ('Why are you afraid to go?'). Cf. Eq. 183. auroae ('to there') is attested only in comedy (also Lys. 873; Metag. fr. 6. 4*; Antiph. fr. 57. 20) and prose (e.g. Th. iv. i. 4; PI. Phd. 68b; X. An. iv. 7. 2; a variant reading at Hdt. iii. 124. i), and is presumably colloquial. 203 KCIKIOV aTfo\oifiT)v av r\ au: Picking up on Eur.'s original description of his dilemma in 181-2. KO.KIOV is an adverbial ace., 'more miserably' (KGi. 315). For the expression (here intended literally), 757 n. Cf. 96 n.; V. 48*; Men.Dysk. 625*. 77019; is 'how [can it be that you would perish more miserably than me]?'; cf. 188 withn. 204-5 Sc. dTToXoifjLrjvav. SOKUV: Agathon admits only that the women think he does these things, not—as Inlaw and Eur. repeatedly
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insist (e.g. 35, 153, 200-1, 206)—that he actually does them (although cf. 257-8 with n.). The words yuvaiKuv ipYa appear * in a paratragic context at Lys. 708, and both passages are most likely inspired by a lost tragic exemplar. vuKT€pr|aia (attested nowhere else before Lucian) is modelled on i^epTjaioy (e.g. A. Ag. 22; Hdt. viii. 98. i; cf. H. Od. n. 246 ^lAorijCTia e'pya). As Wilamowitz and Kaibel note (cf. Austin (1987) 75), R's hapax legomenon vvKrepeiaia (as if from epei'So) (cf. 488 with n.)) is out of place with Agathon's euphemisms (aggressively punctured by Inlaw in 206-7). 'to steal for myself the sex women would otherwise enjoy'. Cf. EC. 722 the similarity suggests a common tragic model, perhaps by Agathon himself, v^apird^u} ('filch'; first in Ar. and Herodotus) is attested in the classical period only in comedy (e.g. Eq. 1200; EC. 921; Philem. fr. 3. 14) and prose (e.g. Hdt. v. 50. 3 (in a different sense); X. Cyr. viii. 4. 16; Arist. HA 6o9 a io), and must be colloquial. For Kv-jrpis (properly an epithet of Aphrodite, 'Cyprian') as a euphemism for sex, e.g. Eub. fr. 82. 2; Ibyc. PMGFzSj. 4; [A.] PV6so; E. Ba. 315; cf. Olson on Ach. 988-9. 206—7 204—5 n. Like 200—1 (where see n.), another 'bomolochic' interjection ignored by the other characters on stage. For E8ou y^ followed by a contemptuous repetition of something said by the previous speaker, e.g. Eq. 87; Nu. 818, 1469; Lys. 441; EC. 136 (all line-initial); cf. GP 129; Lopez Eire 103. vr) Aia introduces the mot juste Inlaw insists on calling a spade a spade. Cf. Henderson on Lys. 715; PI. 286—7 TrXovaiois . . . / (Ka.)vf is adversative and ouv lends it emphasis; 'to the contrary!', i.e. 'what you ought to say, is . . .!' (GP475; Lopez Eire 127-9; c f- 861; PL 287 (above)). For the delayed position of the particles (normally first or second in their clause), GP478. r| -up6<|>aais is '[the general sense of] the excuse' as opposed to the specific terms in which it has been cast (206). For the noun, the meaning of which ranges in comedy from 'excuse' to 'pretext' to 'reason, cause', but is never altogether positive, D.H. Th. p. 427. 10 (discussing Th. i. 23. 6, but getting the historian's atria and Trp6>aais the wrong way round); Pearson, TAPA&3 (1952)205-23; 103 (1972)381-94; Gomme—Sandbach on Men. Kon. 20; Arnott on Alex. fr. 132. i (with further bibliography). The crucial point is that any -jrpcxjxiais, be it true or false (or merely inadequate or incomplete), must represent an attempt to supply a believable justification for behaviour—as, Inlaw concedes, Agathon's does (eiKortos ^X €l )Y€ 'n 2O7 'serves to define more sharply the new idea introduced' by drdp, 'this, and nothing else' (GP 119; cf.Ec. 1067). Fordrdp, 87* n. 208 riouv;: 'What about it, then?' (cf. Lys. 861; PL 94; Lync.fr. i. 17 (all followed by a question)); getting back to the point (TO.VTO. = the plan described
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in 184-7) after the long discussion of the motives of the various parties in 188—207. TTor|<ms TdUTa; anticipates a polite ravra TTOTJCTO) (Lys. 506; Ra. 1515; Beobachtungen 81—3), not a cold rebuff. 'Don't imagine [that I will]!', i.e. 'Forget about it!' For the position of ye (idiomatic after juiy in negative commands; cf. V. 922), GP 125-6. 209-10 TpiaKaKoSaifitdv: Not attested in tragedy but common in Ar., generally * (Ra. 19; EC. 1098; cf. 229 with n., 875 TpiaKaKoSai^oy*; Ach. 1024), and in Menander (e.g. Epitr. 145; Pk. 978). For the prefix rpiameaning 'utterly', Olson on Ach. 400. us dii6\td\(a): 'I've had it!, I'm done for!' (for exclamatory 019, I3on.); cf. 1212. * at Ach. 473; Eq. 752; cf. 77 d-iroAaiA'*; PI. 850. Tragedy prefers the aor., although the pf. is found in this sense at e.g. S. Ph. 742; E. Hipp. 1350; adesp. tr. fr. 91. Eur.'s great plan having failed (and the expectations of the audience in the Theatre having thus been subverted), Inlaw—who has been very much on the conversational sideline since 176—abruptly breaks into the action withanewproposal. The repeated voc. adds urgency to the plea (e.g. Pax 1198; Av. 1271-3; EC. 1129; S. Ph. 799; E. Tel. fr. 147. 81 Austin). For the word order (poetic), cf. Ach. 475 E. Hel. 1451; Or. 124.6; KG i. 49; Fraenkel, Agamemnon ii, p. 284 n. 2. Genuinely affectionate, as generally in Ar.'s plays (e.g. Eq. 6n; Nu. 1464; Pax 1198; Lys. 950; cf. Dickey 119), where it is none the less frequently accompanied by a request of one sort or another, as here. to KTjSeard: 74 n. [ir\ aaurov mpoStis: 'don't let yourself down!', i.e. 'don't give up!'; cf. PI. Com. fr. 66 ('Gather your courage and don't give up!'; supposedly said to women in childbirth); PI. Cri. 45C aavrovTrpoSovvai('to give up'). Probably an ill-attested colloquialism; cf. E. Andr. 191 211-12 -utis ouv TTor|atd Sfjra;: 'Sfjra denotes that the question springs out of something which another person . . . has just said' (GP 269); 'Well, [if I shouldn't give up (cf. 210),] then how should I act?' Cf. 618 with n.; Pax zoo 7TO>9 ovv ov Syr' evravda KareXet^d^s ^JLOVO'S; For ovv . . . Srjra (an almost exclusively Aristophanic combination), cf. also 226 with n.; GP 272. For Inlaw's reaction to Agathon's refusal, cf. Xanthias' response at Ra. 178—9 to the corpse's refusal to carry Dionysos' luggage: OVK olpuj^frai; / eyo; j3aSLOvp.aL ('To hell with him! I'll go myself). 'tell him to wail long and loud!', i.e. 'to go to hell!' For the colloquial use of «Aaio), e.g. Ach. 1131 with Olson ad loc.; Eq. 433 K\aifiv ae p.aKpa KeXevaas; Pax 255; Hippon. fr. 86. 18; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1148; Stevens 15—16. For the spelling «Aai- rather than «Aa- (cf. 1063), see MacDowell on V. 584; Threatte ii. 503. For fiaxpa, in this sense, e.g. V. 584; Lys. 520; Eup. fr. 328; Diph. fr. 42. 36; Men. Epitr. 160, 1068; Peric. 370—1 p.aKpa / KO.I p.e-yaXa (an even stronger
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form). The variant {laxpav appears at Av. 1207 (RVEA); PI. i n (RV); Antiph. fr. 217. 6 (CE); Men. Georg. 57. 'and do whatever you wish with me'; frighteningly broad licence, of which Eur. takes immediate and full advantage (cf. 215—17). Cf. Th. ii. 4. 7 (unconditional surrender), on av + subjunc. is expected (cf. Th. iv. 69. 3; X. An. iv. 8. 11), but on + indie, is regular when the vb. is (e.g. Nu. 439; V. 723; Pax 206, 1204; Lys. 98; Ra. 3; Th. vii. 85. i; Lys. 7. 40; Herod. 5. 6 with Headlam ad loc.) or ^pjj^o) (751). Sc. e{i,e, 'take [me] and . . .', as at Av. 56 Xidia Kot/iov XajSwv ('take a stone and knock with it!'); S. 00475 with Jebb adloc. For the quasi-pleonastic use of Xapwv (routinely *) with an imper., e.g. 253; Ach. 188; Ra. 616; 5. Ant. 398; E. Ale. 1020; cf. 285. Inlaw's offer represents an unexpected—if not altogether unmotivated (cf. 72-4 with 74 n.)—narrative twist, which abruptly makes it clear to the audience in the Theatre why Ar. has included the old man in the action (although not why Eur. brought him on his errand to Agathon's house, a loose end that is simply left hanging). Eur.' s immediate acceptance of the offer in 213-14, with no further questions asked or specific orders given about what Inlaw is to say in the women's assembly (cf. 184—6 n., 269—76 n.), is an even less neatly concealed narrative seam: Inlaw looks no more like a woman (cf. 190—2) than does Eur. himself (although he enjoys the advantage of anonymity; cf. 189), and has displayed none of the verbal brilliance Eur. claims made him think of approaching Agathon (184—7, esp. 187); cf. Silk 208—9 (emphasizing the discontinuity of characterization). But Ar. has set the plot up from the first to have Inlaw go off to the Thesmophoria when Agathon refuses, and he steamrollers the question of motivation and has Eur. do what has to be done to move the action forward. 213—78 For a similar (but even more extended) scene in which an old man is dressed in new clothes and taught—ultimately unsuccessfully—how to behave in a hostile and very foreign social environment, V. 1131-1264. 213—14 2 i i — 1 2 n. dye vuv, €ii€i8r| marks a transition; cf. 107 n.; V. 2ii*; Lys. 1273*. aye vvv ('Come on now!') is a regular line-opening formula before a vowel (e.g. .Eg. ion; Nu. 489; Pax 1056; cf. 947); before a consonant, aye or/ is generally used (e.g. 652 with n., 765; Ach. 98; Eq. 155; Lys. noo). aauTOveuiSiStos: 'you are offering yourself; for the expression, cf. 217, 249; V. 1130; PI. 781. Henderson on Lys. 659/60 misrepresents the distribution of the vb., which is attested elsewhere in comedy not only at Hermipp. fr. 43. 2 but at Pax 333; Cratin. fr. 93, and in other genres at e.g. H. 77. 23. 559; Hes. Op. 396; Thgn. 561; E. Med. 186, although the specific sense 'increase, advance' is primarily prosaic (LSJ s.v. III). diroSuOi: Cf. Cratin. fr. 330 a,Troov8i TTJV a-roXrp. Accompanied by a gesture. A ifudriov is a rectangular, woollen outer garment of a sort worn by both men and women (esp. EC.
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526-7, 535), at least during the coldermonths of the year(cf. V. 1055-9), although the need for Inlaw to take off his own himation and put on another so as to pass for a woman (250, 261 with n.) makes it clear that the two sexes wore different styles. Cf. Stone 155—66, esp. 155—60. For ('there you are!' vel sim.) in response to a command, indicating completion of the action, e.g. .Eg. 22; Nu. 778*; Av. 175, 550; PI. Com. fr. 71.9; A. Supp. 438; S. OC 173; cf. 266 with n.; GP 251-2. Sc. eon, '[it's] on the ground!'; cf. Ach. 342. Inlaw drops his himation (which was normally draped over the left shoulder and gathered in at the front, and could easily be taken off), just as other characters do at 568, 656, 1181. 215—17 are, strictly speaking, unnecessary, since 218 could follow directly after 214. But the obvious expectation when Inlaw is made to shed his himation in 214 is that Eur. will begin dressing him up like a woman (cf. 92) rather than shaving his beard and burning the hair off his crotch. These verses thus have a practical programmatic significance: Eur.'s announcement of his plans in 215-16 serves to alert the audience in the Theatre about what is to come (which is not quite what they had thought was coming, although the cross-dressing does finally take place at 249— 63), while Inlaw's response in 216—17 prefigures the mix of foreboding and resignation he displays throughout the scene. 215 According to2 R , Ar. 'got these things from Cratinus'/€u€iv: 'and singe your lower parts'. Hairiness was conventionally a mark of a man (e.g. Lys. 800—4; EC. 65—7; cf. 33 n.), and Athenian women not only shaved their armpits (cf. EC. 60—i) but practiced partial pubic depilation, either by plucking hairs (Lys. 89, 151; Ra. 516; EC. 724; cf. PI. Com. fr. 188. 14) or by reducing them to stubble with a lamp (Lys. 827-8; EC. 12-13; cf. 238 n.; PI. Com. fr. 188. 15; ARV* p. 3 31 no. 20 (a cup by Panaitios that shows a naked woman filling a lamp to singe herself)); cf. 537-8 with n.; Bain, LCM 7 (1982) 7-10; M. F. Kilmer, JHS 102(1982) 104-12; Erotica 13 3-69, esp. 133-41. For the use of pitch in depilation (cf. modern 'waxing'), Alex. fr. 266. i with Arnott ad loc. Inlaw's cheeks must be shaved (215) if he is to pass for a woman (cf. 33 n.). But the singeing of the genital region (a portion of Inlaw's anatomy that no-one can be expected to see, although cf. 643-8) is added on a different sort of logic: depilation was a distinctly feminine practice,
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and as part of the process of physically 'becoming a woman', Inlaw must undergo it. Cf. 590-1 with n., 592-4 (presented as an extreme form of humiliation). (The singeing also provides a fine opportunity for on-stage clowning, as Cratinus may already have recognized; cf. Dover, AC 163 n. i.) rd Kara} ('your lower portions') is a euphemism (cf. fr. 425. 2), but the ambiguity helps set up the action that follows: in fact, it is not Inlaw's pubic region that is treated with fire but his arse (236—48, esp. 242, 246), and he is thus ultimately made to resemble not so much a woman as a man (like Agathon) doing his best to look like a boy (cf. Ach. 117-19; Ra. 422-4). For d\\d before an imper. in the sense 'Come!', V. 428, 1009; GP 13—15. irpaTT(e): 'go ahead!'; cf. Men. Dysk. 746 (with colon after oiVoi); adesp. tr. fr. 710. 2; Wilamowitz and Bond on E. HF 326 (with additional parallels). ei aoi 8oK€i ('if you think this is a good idea') and variants thereof signal assent to—if not necessarily enthusiasm for—another individual's plans (e.g. 234; Ach. 338; Nu. n with Dover ad loc.;Z/ys. 167; Pherecr.fr. 163. 3); cf. FraenkelonA.^g'. 944; BeobachtungenSy n. i; Barrett on E.Hipp. 507-8. tj: 'otherwise', i.e. 'if I'm not going to let you do as you wish, . . .'. Cf. Austin (1987) 75. is Dawes's correction of R's unmetrical •y' ainov, the product of a series of clumsy majuscule errors and attempts at correction. For emSiSa),iu, 213 with n. For a general defence of the line as printed here and in particular of ^,1) ... a>>e\6v wore ('I ought never to have'), Beobachtungen 115—16. p.ri and more = ^iroTe, as at 344; Ach. 221. 218—65 Cf. Ach. 414—79, where Dikaiopolis borrows a long series of items from Eur., but Eur. himself remains largely passive throughout the proceedings (esp. Ach. 432), as Agathon does here (cf. 219-20 with n.). For borrowing household items and the like from friends and neighbours, Olson on Pax 261. 218-35, 236-45 Two roughly parallel incidents: (i) Eur. gets the equipment he wants and issues Inlaw orders, with which Inlaw complies (21821, 236—9); (2) after part of the work is complete, Inlaw complains about his suffering (222—6, 240—2); (3) Eur. offers reassurances and convinces the old man to complete the process (226-9, 243-5); and (4) Inlaw offers some weak jokes with sexual overtones about the transformation he has undergone (232—5, 245—6, 248). 218—20 Cf. 249—52; less substantial parallels at 257—62, esp. 257—8. For fievroi with au in the parenthesis, 'giving the reason why this particular person is addressed in this particular way' (GP 400), cf. Av. 933-4. 'you carry a razor'. A hapax legomenon; cf. 161—3 n is late 5th- and 4th-c. vocabulary; absent from tragedy but common in comedy (e.g. Eq. 1070*; Av. 1440*; PI. Com. fr. 168. i; Anaxandr. fr. 58. 3) and prose (e.g. Hdt. ii. 25. 3; Th. i. 68. 2; PI. Euthphr. 3b), and presumably colloquial. ^pr\aov TI . . . £upov: 'Would you mind
L I N E S 2l6-23
127
lending us a razor?' The indefinite softens the imper.; cf. Men.Epitr. 381 ('Have you such a thing as a box?'). Razors are referred to first at H. //. 10. 173, where the image of 'the razor's edge' (subsequently at Thgn. 557; A. Ch. 883 (MSS); fr. **gg. 22; S. Ant. 996; E. HF 630; Hdt. vi. n. 2) seems already to be proverbial. Razors were used by women (and—at least according to the comic poets—effeminate men; cf. 191 withn.)to shave unwanted body-hair (Ec. 65-7; cf. 2i6-i7n.; fr. 332. i (in a catalogue of women's accessories; from Th. II)). The 'split anapaest' at change of speaker is paralleled at ^4c/i. 165. r|fiiv: Cf. 250 with n. auros Xdfipave / KT\.: Throughout this scene, Agathon himself seems never to hand anything to Eur. or Inlaw, but merely points out items they can have if they wish (also 252, 261-2). i.e. from the foot of Agathon's couch. IK rfjs £upo8oKT]s: This is the sole surviving mention in Greek literature of a 'razor-case' (although cf. Mart. xi. 58. 9), and whether Agathon's contains only one razor or a number (like Odysseus' SovpoSoxi] ('spear-rack') with its 'many spears' (H. Od. i. 128—9)) is unclear. Y€Vva'°S et: A very general commendation ('you're a good man, a gentleman!'; cf. Ra. 179 xprjaros ei KO.I yewdSajwith Dover, Frogs, p. 46; DennistononE. El. 253; Dover, GPM 95; Stevens 4) equivalent to an expression of thanks. For generosity as a mark of a good man, Dover, GPM 175—80, esp. 178; contrast 757 (being grudging as a mark of a bad man). Eur. steps over to Agathon's couch and takes a razor from the case. 221-65 Inlaw must sit on something to be shaved (221), and Eur. (who has already approached Agathon's couch to get the razor) must get from his right side (221) to his left between 223 and 230 in order to complete the process. On the simplest staging, Agathon's head is to stage right and Inlaw comes over and sits on the other end of the couch, giving Eur. access to his right cheek. When Inlaw runs away at 223—6, he heads for stage left, and Eur. chases him just far enough to be able to turn around and shave Inlaw's left cheek once Inlaw has been lured back into position (228-9). During the singeing scene, Inlaw leans on the end of the couch, pointing his arse toward Eur. (and stage left). 221 Addressed to Inlaw. There must be a brief pause between and c|>uoa, as Inlaw walks over to the couch and sits down as directed. rr|v yvaQov. 'your cheek'. yvdBos (first attested at Hes. fr. 302. 13; Hippon. frr. 79. 4; 132) is a widely distributed (e.g. Pax 237; Epich. fr. 18. 2; A. Ch. 280; Hdt. ix. 83. 2) equivalent of Homeric (e.g. //. 13. 671; found occasionally in late 5th-c. poetry metrigratia (e.g. S. fr. 507. 2;E. Hipp. 1223)); LSJs.v. ('Prose form of -yvaO^os, alsofreq. in Poets') is misleading. For puffing out one's cheeks, D. 19. 314 (evidence of pride); Batr. 56 vai-yva&os (the name of a frog). 222-3 Eur. begins to shave Inlaw's right cheek with the razor—somewhat
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inexpertly (225-6). Stage-beards were detachable (cf. Ach. 117-22 with Olson on nj—i8;Ec. 118-21,493-4, 501-2), and what must actually happen is that Eur. (whose right hand is occupied with the razor) rips off half of Inlaw's beard with his left hand during the second half of 223. Cf. 230 with n. In Ar., oifioi is normally an expression of physical pain, as here (cf. 241), or grief (232, 237); cf. Labiano Ilundain 251-65, esp. 258—65; contrast 625 withn. R's caipoL (i.e. capoi) is also attested atNu. 925 ((j3ip.oi R: o'lp.oi V). Scribal conflation of capoi and o'lp.oi is unlikely, as caipoL is attested as early as 400-350 BC on a funeral stele in Egypt (CEG 718). Note also Sapph. fr. 94. 4; A. Pers. 253 (u>ifi,oi M: u>fi,oi cett.); S. OC 820 (wtjtAot L: WjtAot cett.); EM, p. 822. 34 €K rov OC^LOI Kara €KTO,GIV TOV o els o> W^LOI (cf. Lex. Mess, f. 283v 23). u>fi,oi or u>fi,oi appears to be the high poetic form of the word, whereas Dindorf's of^oi is colloquial Attic and thus more appropriate for Inlaw; cf. Barrett on E. Hipp. 799. KeKpayis: Pf. with pres. sense, as routinely (e.g. 692; Ach. 335; V. 198; Ra. 982; Eup. fr. 113; S. Ai. 1236; [A.] PF743; Men. Sam. 226,239). IfipaXuaoiTrciTTaXov: A reference to a procedure (described in more detail at Eq. 375-81, where see Neil's n.) in which a butcher stuck a wooden peg into the mouth of a pig— or probably any animal—to jam its jaws open and grabbed the tongue to inspect it for signs of disease (although in this case the effect will be to silence Inlaw's protests). For the image, cf. 237 withn., 239 n. For similar threats, Herod. 3. 85; Luc. Vit. Auct. 22. t]v [ir\ audrras: 'unless you keep quiet'. d-rraTai laTrarai: An inarticulate cry of grief, as also (with slight variations in the form of the exclamation) at 1005*; Ach. ngo;Nu. 707; S. Ph. 743, 790; cf. 945-6 n.; Headlam on Herod. 3. 79; Labiano Ilundain 97—103. For the double exclamation both with and without the initial L, cf. V. 1338 laipoi alj3oi. Inlaw leaps up and runs off to stage left, clutching his wounded face; Eur. chases him. 224 OUTOS au, TTOI 0€is;: Cf. 610 / av-nj av, TTOI arpef/iei;; Ach. 564*; V. 854*; Lys. 728 avri) KrX.* OVTOS av is 'Hey you!' (also at e.g. 689b, 930, 1083 (all OVTOS tantum); Pherecr. fr. 135 OVTOS av, TTOL*; S. OT 532*, 1121*); a brusque, colloquial way of calling attention to an indignant question (Anredeformen 208-12; Austin, Gnomon 39 (1967) 125; Stevens 37-8 (where the references to Crates should be to Pherecrates); Moorhouse 31; Lopez Eire 112). For TTOL Dels;, cf. 1223. Sc. lepov; cf. 83 with n. The sanctuary of the Zf^val Seal ('August Goddesses'; often identified with the Erinyes) was located probably on the saddle between the Areopagos and the Acropolis and contained statues of Pluto, Hermes, and Earth (Paus. i. 28. 6 with Frazer ad loc.; Judeich 300-1). Some of the followers of Kylon sought sanctuary at their altars (Th. i. 126. n; cf. Paus. vii. 25. 1-2), and Inlaw too is eager to escape to the place to avoid being cut to pieces by Eur. (225—6), like the young
L I N E S 222-9
I2
9
triremes Hyperboles plans to send to Carthage at Eq. 1311-12. For the— occasionally precarious—protection afforded suppliants at altars, 726-7 n. For what little is known of the cult of the August Goddesses and its personnel, Sommerstein, Eumenides, pp. 10—11; Lloyd-Jones, in 'Owls to Athens' 203-11, esp. 208-10; Athenian Religion 298-9. 225 Cf. Nu. 814 ovroi [id T-IJV 'Ofj.i^X-rjv eV Ivravdoi Bevels; V. 1442 rrjv Arnj,y]rp' €r' evravdot fj,€V€ts', PI. 65 ou yap f*a Tr|v Ar|fir]Tp': Cf. Eq. 1021 ^d TT\V Armrirp'*', Ra. 42, 668, 1222; PL 64, 364. Only men swear simply by Demeter in comedy; women add the adj. $l\i)v (Antiph. fr. 26. 2; Men. Epitr. 955; Philippid. fr. 5. 4-5). Cf. Werres 45—6. Person (Advers. (Cambridge, 1812) 33) notes that 'Post iusiurandum, qualia sunt vrj Ala . . . et cetera huiusmodi, nunquam sequitur particula ye nisi alio vocabulo interposito' (cf. 20, 623-4), hence his Ar|fiT)Tp' ir' (p. 37) for R's Ar/p.-rfrpd y (in origin a majuscule error, T mistaken for P); cf. Dunbar on Av. n; K—A on Eup. fr. 286. can be used to refer not just to direction but to location; cf. Schwyzerii. 158; Starkie on V. 1442; Dover on Nu. 8i4and_Ra. 273. 226 T€fiv6fi€vos: Cf. 222-3 with n. OUKOUV . . . 8f)T(a): Common in Ar. in impatient questions; cf. 211—12 n.; Ra. 200; GP 431—2. an object of hostile laughter, mockery'; routinely presented as an intolerable situation (e.g. 936-44 with 941-2 n.; Ach. 76 with Olson ad loc., 1081, 1194-7; Eq. 713; Nu. 1238; V. 515-16, 1406; Av. 1407; PL 880; cf. Halliwell, CQ NS 41 (1991) 279-96, esp. 286-7). For a half-shaved face making a man look ridiculous, Hermipp. fr. 13; Hdt. ii. 121. S. 6 (where How and Wells compare 2 Sam. 10: 4, although the correct reading there may well be LXX's 'their beards' rather than MT's 'half their beards'); cf. D.L. 6. 33. 227 rr|v r||-uKpcupav rr|v irepav: 'one of your two cheeks'; cf. Dover on Ra. 1415. rifj:iKpaipa (first attested here) is properly 'half the head' (cf. Hsch. TI 496; K 3931-2), as also at Amips. fr. 7. 2, and thus by extension 'half of anything, as atIG IP 1356.4—5 (etc.)r]ij.iKpaipavxopo'f)s('half the sausage'); 1359. 8, and most likely Crobyl. fr. 6. I tender half of a young pig'). v|n\r|v: 'smoothf-shaven]'; cf. 232 withn., 583 yvdBovs t/iiXds ('smooth cheeks' (of Kleisthenes)). 228—9 6\iYOVfi€\€ifioi('I don't much care') and variants thereof are a regular Aristophanic expression of ostentatious indifference to a threat, warning, or the like (e.g. Eq. 1195; Nu. 1142; V. 1411, 1446; Av. 1636; Ra. 1136). |-ir)8ci|.ia)s . . . / -upoStis n«: Cf. 210; Inlaw's own words are turned back against him. ^TjSa^oiy is used routinely in desperate (or mockdesperate) pleas (e.g. 714; Ach. 590*; V. 1164*; Pax 322 p.ri&ap.tusTposTtijv 926; Av. 145; EC. 562 172* n. X^P61 Seupo: 'Get over here!' (Pax 301; Av. 1186*; Lys. 738; EC. 730). KaKoSaipuv eyu: 'Poor me!'; * at 604, 650;
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Ach. 1094; Nu. 698; V. 1166; cf. 1225 with n. KaxoSaijucw is attested in tragedy (which generally uses SuaSaijuaw) only at E. Hipp. 1362, and the distribution of the word (common in comedy; attested elsewhere at PI. Snip. I73d; Men. 78a; R. 44oa) leaves little doubt that it is colloquial. Cf. 209-10 n. Inlaw reluctantly returns to Agathon's couch and sits down; Eur. prepares to shave his left cheek. 230 ix' drpejia aaurov: 'Keep yourself still!'; cf. Hdt. ix. 54. I But Dobree's €%' a.Tpep.as ainov ('Stay still right here!'; adverbial avrov, as in 61 o) is tempting (cf. Av. 1200* (where the punctuation is disputed)), and elsewhere the pron. is always omitted with sim.(akoNu.2,6i, 743*; Av. 1244*, 1572; Ra. 339; Pherecr. fr. 6. 3; E. Or. 258). The error wouldbe a simple one; cf. Austin (1987) 76. is poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. Od. 13. 92; Bacch. 5. 7; E. Hipp. 1358 with Barrett ad loc.); first in prose in Antipho (3. 3. 10,4.7). 'keep your head up!' (imperfective), i.e. 'your chin up', so as to make his neck and cheek more accessible to the razor. TTOI €i;: Cf. 610. Inlaw (still less than entirely cooperative) twists his head away to the right, and Eur. twists it back (by grabbing hold of what remains of his beard, facilitating the action that follows?) and briskly shaves the old man's other cheek by ripping off what remains of his stage-beard (cf. 222-3 n.). 231 fiu fiu: An inarticulate nasal sound, here produced more likely in protest than in pain; cf. H.//. 4. 20; Sommersteinon Pt.Eu. 117; Labiano Ilundain 243—5; contrast Eg. 10. Why Inlaw does not speak is not explained, but the obvious conclusion is that he is trying not to move his face too much, so as to avoid further damage from the razor (cf. 224-6). 'Why do you go "p.v juti"?'; cf. 173—4 n.; A. Ag. 1307—8 <j>ev <j>ev. / (Xo.) TL 'It's all been satisfactorily completed'; cf. Lys. 1273 232 oifioi KdKoSaifiuv (* at e.g. 237, 1004; Ach. 105; Eq. 234; Nu. 504; V. 207; Ra. 33) is lit. 'Alas unfortunate [me]!', but is frequently little more than a colloquial expression of annoyance or grief ('Oh shit!' vel sim.). Cf. 222-3 n -; Labiano Ilundain 258-65. functions routinely as a generic term for light-armed troops (contrasted with hoplites at e.g. Hdt. ix. 29. i; Th. i. 60. i), including slingers and stone-throwers (for whom, War v. 1—67), archers, and peltasts (for whom, Olson on Ach. 160), as at e.g. Th. iv. 32. 4 'light-armed troops . . . fighting with arrows, javelins, stones, and sling-balls'; on occasion, the term is used specifically of peltasts, the light-armed troops par excellence (e.g. Th. ii. 79. 3—4; vi. 43). Although some Athenians fought as hoplites, the vast majority served in the fleet (on a voluntary basis); there may also have been some citizen archers (Th. ii. 13. 8 with HCT ad loc.). Lightarmed troops (useful in situations where mobility was more important
L I N E S 228-35
:
3:
than the protection afforded by heavy armour (e.g. Th. iii. 22. 3)), on the other hand, were drawn from the city's allies or mercenaries (e.g. Th. iv. 129. 2; vi. 43), and this must be the source of Inlaw's disgust: his shaved cheeks (227 with n.) mean that on future military expeditions he will have to serve among non-citizens. R's au has never been emended in a palaeographically convincing fashion. The paradosis is best taken, as Holford-Strevens suggests, in the sense '[now that I look, = am so much younger], I shall have to serve in the army again [having previously been past military age], and as a ijjiXos at that!' Contrast Lys. 14. 14 ('they would gladly have served a 233-4 sound like a parody of the sort of thing real barbers said (and continue to say) to their customers. Cf. 235 n. fir) (|>povTiar]s: 'Don'tworry about it!' (247*;-Eg. 1356; V. 25,228*, gg&*;Ec. 549; S.Ph. 1404; cf. Alex. fr. 129. 3; E. Ion 257; X. Cyr. ii. 2. 4); Eur. is eager to get on with the job. tbs: 36—7 n. euTTpemris • • • mdvu: For eu-n-pe-mjy, 192 n. TTO.VV (first attested at Xenoph. fr. B i. 18) is very common in comedy (e.g. 749 with n.; Ra. 137; Eup. fr. 166; Alex. fr. 194. i) and prose (e.g. Th. vi. 18. 6; PI. Snip. 2i8c; D. 56. 37), but is attested only eight times in tragedy (with an adj. at A. Pers. 926 (problematic); Ag. 1456; Theodect. TrGF 72 F 6. 2; also E. Cyc. 646; absent from lyric) and is presumably colloquial. For TTO.VV used as an intensifier with an adj. or adv., 259, 916; Thesleff §71; Dover, G&G 53—7, esp. 54—5. (3ou\€i GedaGai aaurov;: Eur. sets the razor down on Agathon's couch and picks up a mirror (cf. 95 n., 140 n.), which he offers to Inlaw. si 8oK€i: 216-17 n. For el SoKeivel sim. as a response to povXei . . .;, PI. Cra. 383a; Thg. I2ia. 'Give [it to me]!'; cf. 261, 1115, 1196*; Ach. 584; Eq. 118; Nu. 1297; V. 1164; etc. Inlaw takes the mirror, looks into it, and does a double-take. 2 35 ou [no. Ai', d\\ci KXeiaOevrj: If Eur. is in fact playing the parodic barber (233—4 n -)> the expected response to opas aeaurov; ('Do you see yourself!') is 'Not myself, but someone much more handsome' vel sim. (cf. 233). But Inlaw instead claims to see Kleisthenes (PA 8525; PAA 575540 ~ 575545), a politically and socially prominent individual (cf. V. 1187; Lys. 621; Ra. 48; Olson on Ach. 117—18) whom Ar. ridicules repeatedly elsewhere for his beardlessness, his general femininity, and his willingness to be fucked by other men (Ach. 117-21; Eq. 1373-4; Nu. 355; Av. 829-31; Lys. 1091-2; Ra. 57, 422-4; cf. Cratin. fr. 208. 2-3; Pherecr. fr. 143) and whom he brings on stage at 574—654 as a self-appointed ally of the city's women in their struggle with Eur. (cf. 576 n.). ov p,a AC is * at e.g. V. 193; Pax 1046 ov p,aA", dAA' 'IepoK\erjs', Ra. 493; EC. 556; PL 704. RS have KXeLaOevr/v, but -i] is the proper ending for the late 5th c. (cf. 763, 848; Nu. 355 KXeiaOevri E: -vi]v cett.; Threatte ii. 173—5). Inlaw sets the mirror down on the couch.
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236-48 The second stage of the process announced in advance at 215-16 (cf. 215-1711.). 236-7 dviaraa(o): Forthe form, cf. 643*; V. 286, 998; Lys. 929*; Men. Sik. 363; E.Hec. 499*. Ka(i !)YKu*|ms ix^: 'and after bending over, remain that way!', i.e. 'and [then] bend over and stay that way!' For eyKtWoi (first attested in Ar.), Nu. 191; Ra. 425, 804; PI. Phdr. 254d; R. 359d, 5556. LSJ mistakes the part, here for a form of avaKv-miu. The new entry in Moer. e 73 e'laKvijjov, OVK e-yKvijjov .MpiCTTO^avTjy (= fr. 81 i a ) is somewhat puzzling (cf. ofj.fj.aTO. T' IKKVTTTOVTO . . . KelaKv-rrrovra of the 'eyes' of a snail at Teucer.FGrHz's£274 F3). Forego) + aor. part, serving as a periphrastic pf. (a primarily poetic usage), KG ii. 61—2; Goodwin §47; Gildersleeve §296; Aerts 128-60; West on Hes. Op. 42; cf. 706 with n. Inlaw stands up but does not yet bend over, forcing Eur. to tell him to do so again at the beginning of 239. oifioi KdKoSaifiuv: Cf. 232* with n. 'I'mgoing to become apiggy', i.e. 'I'mgoing to be treated like apiggy'; for the expression, cf. EC. 1021; frr. 608. 2; 957; Eub. fr. 119. 5; E. Fraenkel, Elementi plautini in Plauto (Florence, 1960) 24. is a diminutive of Se'A>a| ('mature pig', as opposed to a ('piglet', but also colloquially 'cunt'; cf. Olson on Ach. 738—9); cf. Ar. Byz. frr. 170—1; Schaps, JHS 116 (1996) 169—71). Hsch. & 599 reports that SeXffxixiov was also used to refer to the female genitalia, which may be part of the joke (cf. MM §113). But the main point is that pigs were singed after butchering to remove their bristles (e.g. H. //. 9. 467—8; Od. 2. 300; 14. 73—5; Semon. fr. 24. i; A. fr. 310; thus2 R ). For Inlaw as a pig, cf. 222 with n., 239. In the context of the Thesmophoria, this is entirely appropriate; cf. Introduction pp. xlviii-1; Bowie 215-17. 238 For IveyKciTtd TIS used to order a slave to fetch something out of a house, Ach. 805 cvf/Kiiru} TIS ev&oOev*', Nu. 1490 (a torch); V. 529; Pax 1149; Ra. 1304; Cratin. fr. 271. 2. 8d8' f\ \uxvov: For torches, 101-3 n- F°r lamps, Olson on Pax 688-92. Women used lamps to depilate their genital region (216—17 n.), but the scene that follows is funnier if what is stuck (very briefly) under Inlaw's arse is a large torch, which is brought out through the central stage-door by an anonymous mute slave and given to Eur. Lighted torches are common props (e.g. 294 with n.; Nu. 1490; V. 1330—1; Pax 1319; EC. 978, 1150; PL 1041, 1194; cf. Nu. 543 (running on stage with torches and cries of woe treated as a tired old convention); PL 423-5 (Furies in tragedy always carry torches); Men. Dysk. 964 with Sandbach ad loc. ('a torch lends the play's conclusion the traditional aspect of the K(jjp.os')). 239 iTriKuTrre: 'Bend over!'; the compound is attested elsewhere only in prose (e.g. X. Snip. 2. 22; Arist. HA 522 b i8) and comedy (e.g. Lys. 1003; Anaxandr. fr. 38. i; adesp. com. fr. 368) and must be colloquial 'Mind the tip of your tail now!', as if Inlaw
L I N E S 236-42
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really were a pig (237 with n.). But Kepxos was also a colloquial term for a penis (Ach. 785-7; Eub. fr. 127; Herod. 5. 45 with Headlam ad loc.; Small Objects 159 no. 114 (an early 5th-c. vase with a phallic spout labeled KEPKIQ[); cf. Eup. fr. 471; S. fr. 1078; MM§92), and Eur. is actually referring to Inlaw's stage-phallus, which must be dangling loose (cf. initial n., 643 n.). For a«poy used in predicative position of the extremities of body-parts, Ach. 638; Lys. 443; Men. Dysk. 451; LSJ s.v. I. 2. a; Gildersleeve §636. For the mid. <j>vXa,TTov, Delphic orac. Qi44 Fontenrose ap. Hdt. vii. 148. 3 Ke>a\riv Tre>v\a^o ('guard the head'). Inlawbends over. 240 Ifioi fi€\r|<j€i KT\.: Elsewhere in Ar., ep.ol p.eXriaei (always line-initial) is followed not by an oath but by TO.VTO. •/' vel sim. (1064, 1207; Ach. 933; Pax 149, 1041, 1313; PI. 229) and serves to deflect an unsolicited or unnecessary order or suggestion ('I'll take care of that!'). That the standard phrase is left incomplete suggests that Inlaw is forced to abandon what he was going to say after vr) Aia, when Eur. thrusts the torch between his legs and he abruptly realizes that his person is on fire. ii\r|v Y' OTI: 'except for the fact that . . .'; cf. Nu. 1429; Pax 675; van Leeuwen on Eq. 27 -n-Xr/v ye ('His particulis utitur qui gravissimum incommodum, quo id quod alter proposuit premitur, cum leni quadam ironia indicat'). 241—2 For24i,cf.Paxjgoifj. Lit. 'Alas, miserable [me]!', i.e. 'Woe is me!'An almost exclusively comic expression (e.g. Ach. 174*; Av. 62*; Hermipp. fr. 51. i; Pherecr. fr. 56. 3*; Antiph. fr. 257. i*; Men. Asp. 504*), attested in tragedy only at S. OT 744*; Ph. 416*, 622*. Contrast 1038 with n. For the adj., 385 n., 644 n.; Chadwick 262-5. u8up u8up KT\. is a parody of a call to one's neighbours for help in fighting a fire (cf. Plu. Rom. 20. 6; Quint. Decl. 12. 6; Prop. iv. 8. 58; Sen. Ep. 17. 3; Juv. 3. 198), with ('arse, arsehole'; cf. below) appearingparaprosdokian for OIKMV ('house'; cf. 2R). The repetition reflects the speaker's excitement; cf. 508, 514, 634—5 n -> 9 I 3~ I 5- For the ellipse of the vb. (<j>epeTevel sim.), cf. Men. Sik. 364 (water needed to revive an old man who has fainted; cf. Xenarch. fr. 7. 14; Beobachtungen 31-2); Gildersleeve §87. For similar appeals to neighbours for assistance in emergencies, Nu. 1322-3; Pax 79 (above); Men. Dysk. 594. Small fires must have been common in Athens, where most buildings were constructed at least partially of wood (cf. Nu. 1494—7 (Strepsiades burns down the Phrontisterion); Olson on Pax 99-100), and it is surprising that we hear so little about them; perhaps they were too much a part of everyday life to require comment (although cf. D. 23. 24 (a reference to a law concerned with arson)). mpiv dvriXapeaGai KT\.: 'before another arsehole catches fire in turn', i.e. 'before the fire spreads to another arsehole', in the way that flames leap from one building to the next. Cf. Austin, ZPE 57 (1984) 58 (comparing Hor. Epist. i.
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18. 84—5). TTpuKTOv irepov: TrpwKTos (also 248, 1119; cf. 1124) is crude colloquial vocabulary; cf. MM §449 ('the vox propria for the anus in comedy . . . Its low tone assured that even in the absence of a joke its mere mention could be counted on to raise a laugh'). R (or R's exemplar) lost erepov (restored to the text by Medaglia, Boll.Class.Line. iii. 3 (1982) 154-9 (cf- 4 (rp^s) 137; i? (1996) 96-100), on the basis of 77,) when the scribe's eye leapt from the first -ov to the second. 243 Gdppei. —TI Gappu;: Cf. Plaut. Cure. 182—3 face. / —quid taceam?, 553-4«a/e. /—quidvaleam?, sggpropera. —quidproperem? 8dppei is * at Ach. 830; EC. 796; PI. 328, 452, 1188. Bappw is deliberative subjunc. ('having been utterly burned up') carries on the metaphor of the house (241—2 with n.). The prefix serves as an intensifier; cf. 1215 n. For the simplex, 727 with n.; Nu. 1497; V. 1079; Av. 1580; cf. E. Supp. 640; Hel. 767; Miller 176-7. The compound is attested nowhere else before the 2nd c. 244—5 d\V OUKCT' ouSev ^payf-id aoi: 'But there's no longer anything for you to worry about'; explaining why Inlaw ought not to be afraid, despite having been burnt in his first encounter with the torch (243). Colloquial; cf. Pax 244; Ra. 1215; EC. 462, 670; Nicom. Com. fr. i. 24; PI. Euthphr. 3c; Stevens 55. For ovKer' ov&ev, e.g. Eg. 1243; Pax 685; cf. KG ii. 203—4. ('You've finished most of it', i.e. 'We're almost done') leaves no doubt that Eur. applies the torch to Inlaw's arse again, and (|>€u must be the old man's inarticulate expression of unhappy astonishment at the amount of soot that covers his rear end; cf. Lys. 312 ^euTouKcmvoti, j8aj8aid£('Aargh, the smoke! Damn it!'). Dindorf proposed >v; but at Lys. 295a = 3O5a this is surely the noise the old men make as they blow their fire (cf. Lys. 293), which will not do here. Eou rfjs For an unhappy lov (Labiano Ilundain 219—25; for the accent Dover on Ra. 653) followed by exclamatory gen. (Poultney 125), cf. Lys. 295b = 3O5b lav lov rov KO.TTVOV. aajSoXos ('soot') is said by Phryn. PS, p. 28. 1—3, to have been treated as masc. by Hipponax (= fr. 185) and is elsewhere occasionally first-declension (e.g. Semon. fr. 7. 61). 246 cu66s: 'dark' or 'black', as also at Bacch. fr. 4. 69 (of spiders); S. fr. **2&9a. 54 (probably of an Egyptian); Call. Dion. 69 (of ash); cf. the use of the cognate adj. aWoijj (frequently glossed 'black' by 2) in Homer (cf. LfgrE s. aidcm-, and note the use of aWoi/i and aidwv in this sense in Oppian (H. i. 133, 510) and the term AlBiotji ('dark-face') of men who live nearest the sun's rising and setting). Y€Y^VTlhiai: * a^ 846; PI. 148; cf. yeyeV»]<7ai* at Eq. 1255; PI. 1043; yeyeVijrai* atEq. 945; EC. 551; PI. 652. -uavra TCI rrepi rr|v rpdjuv: 'my whole arse' (ace. of respect), i.e. 'all over my arse', as at Luc. Lex. 2 TO. dp^l rrjv -rpa^Lv (probably an echo of this verse). For rd irepi, cf. 256 rd -jrepl TO; aKeXei. Tpap.is is used of
L I N E S 241-63
135
both the perineum, i.e. the area between the base of the penis and the anus (e.g. Poll. ii. 173; Erot. T 13; Hsch. S 1392; cf. Ruf. Onom. 101; also called and the anus itself (e.g. Lysim. ap. Erot. T 13; Hsch. T 1243; cf. 647 with n., and the similar ambiguity with Treplveos). The latter would seem to be the sense intended, as also at Telecl. fr. 72 TepmjTpa^is- ('getting pleasure from the rpd^iij'; glossed 'sexual pleasure' by Photios) and Hippon. fr. 133 '(corrupt) someone would pluck his arse (corrupt)'). In any case, this is a specific term for an exceedingly 'improper' part of the anatomy, and the word is accordingly attested outside Lucian, the lexicographers, and medical writers (above) only in comedy (in compounds at Stratt. fr. 84; Telecl. fr. 72 (above)) and iambic (Archil, fr. 283; Hippon. fr. 133 (above)). 247 [ir] (|>povTiar]s: Cf. 233* with n. irepos: 'someone other than you' (not 'someone other than me'), the point being that Inlaw need not worry about how black and sooty his arse has got, for the problem will be taken care of for him (by a slave). <J<|>OYYI€': A rare vb., first attested here; for the spelling, Threatte i. 469. For sponges used to clean one's person, Ra. 482—5 (where Dionysos coyly asks Xanthias 'give a sponge for my heart!', but actually wants it to wipe his arse, much as Eur. proposes having someone clean up Inlaw here); fr. 59; Crates Com. fr. 17. 7; Pherecr. fr. 58; Theopomp. Com. fr. 41. i (a catalogue of the equipment needed to make oneself vomit and then wash off afterward); H. //. 18. 414—15; Ginouves 143 n. 5; cf. Daremberg—Saglio s. spongia. 248 is perhaps only a bit of sexual posturing, as Inlaw makes it clear that he does not share Agathon's personal predilections and that anyone who touches his arsehole will be sorry. But the remark (which brings the singeing-scene to a close) ought to be funnier than that, and since had the colloquial sense 'abuse' (cf. Ach. 381 with Olson ad loc.), more likely ei TIS TOV Ifibv rrpuKTOV rrXuvei is a pun that means not just 'anyone who's going to wash my arse' but 'anyone who's going to speak ill of my arse'. Or perhaps the proverbial -n-piuKros -n-Xwopevos ('an arsehole getting a washing' (of a pointless and impossible task); cf. V. 604) is in the background. oifiti^er' dp', ei TIS: 'He'll regret it, then, if anyone . . .', i.e. 'Anyone who . . . will regret it'; cf. 916—17 with n.; Goodwin §§444, 447. For olfula^ca (lit. 'say otjuoi'; cf. 173—4 n -) used in this sense (colloquial), e.g. Nu. 217 olfjLw^ead' apa; Pax 466; Av. 1207 with Dunbar ad loc.; PI. 876; Alex. fr. 115. 19. For the text (Brunck's correction of R's unmetrical olpuai^fT' ap' els), Austin (1990) 19. Eur. hands the torch back to the mute slave who brought it on at 238 and who now exits with it through the central stage-door. 249-63 pick up the action where it broke off at 214 to allow for the shaving and depilation-scenes (215—48); cf. 215—17 n.
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249-52 Cf. 218-20 with n. 249-51 aauTOV euiSouvai <|>0ov€is: A hostile characterization of Agathon's straightforward motives for refusing to cooperate (203—7; cf. 193—7). F°r oavrov €7Ti8ovvai, 213—14 n. dXX(ct) . . . y ouv = &AAd ovv . . . ye (71 o with n.), 'still, at least' (GP 444, 458-9); cf. Lys. 877. 2i3-i4n., 261 withn. r\[ilv TOUTUI: 'to us for this fellow'; for the double dat., cf. K. Hel. 1248 ri ooi Trapdo^w Srjra rw redvyKori;', Bruhn, Anhang §45. 2. The reference to Inlaw in the 3rd pers. suggests that iijuv stands for e^oi, as probably also in 219 (cf. 154-6 n.), although it might simply beanethicdat. ('please'). Kai<jTpo<|nov: I39n. i.e. ov yap epei? a>? ravrd y' OVK eoriv aot; prolepsis (KG n. 577~$). Agathonis wearing a woman's himation and astrophion (137—9), but Eur. is asking to borrow instead items that (like the razor in 219-20) are already visible on the couch, which must be the point of this remark. 252 ou (|)0ovt5 (sc. vjuv TOVTIUV, cf. E. HF 333 ov (j>0ovfa -jre-jrXiuv) is a sarcastic echo of (j>0oveis in 249. ri ouv \d|3(d;: Addressed to Eur.; cf. 253-5 n. 253-5 The assignment of these verses is problematic. R gives 253 and av£,iuaov avvaas in 255 to Agathon, and 254 and I8ov in 255 to Inlaw, and has a dicolon indicating change of speaker before aipe in 255. In general, Agathon does little more in this scene than point out items of clothing which his interlocutors can have (252, 257-8, 261-2; cf. 219-20, 264-5), whereas Eur. and Inlaw work actively together to dress the old man up like a woman (esp. 255—6, 260), and Wilamowitz 487, must be right to argue that Eur. speaks both 253 and aipe vvv arp6>iov in 25 5. Van Leeuwen (who assigns 253 and ISov in 25 5 to Agathon, and aipe vvv arpoffnov in 25 5 to Inlaw) assumes that Agathon strips off his own krokotos and strophion and gives them to Inlaw. But this makes the staging excessively complicated while distracting the audience from Inlaw's gradual physical transformation into a woman, and does not explain why Agathon fails to offer his own himation as well (261). 2 53 F°r ° Tli preceding the answer, cf. Ach. 106; K—A on fr. 305. 4. The def. art. is anaphoric, the object in question having been referred to in 138 (where see n.); contrast 255. -uptdTOV is adverbial, as again in 380, 476, etc. A a (Bio v: Cf. 212 with n. 254 Inlaw takes the krokotos from Agathon's couch and sniffs at it dubiously. vr| rr|v At|)po8iTT)v: Elsewhere in comedy, oaths by Aphrodite are offered only by women (esp. EC. i89*-9i; cf. Lys. 858*; EC. 558*;P/. loGgpa.T'fjvjifipoSiT'rjv*; Phoenicid. fr. 4. i; Men.Epitr. 480), and Inlaw has thus perhaps already begun to play his part; cf. 517 with n. For other women's oaths, 225 n., 383 n., 517-19 n., 533 n. But part of the joke must also be that the scent he catches is appropriate to the goddess of physical love. r|8u y' o£ei woaGiou: 'it smells sweetly of a
L I N E S 249-58
137 R
little dick!' (para prosdokian for p,vpov ('scented oil') vel sim. (thus 2 ; cf. Crates fr. 2)). The 'little dick' (a mock-affectionate diminutive?; cf. 515, 1188 with n.) in question is Agathon's. For the use of a neut. adj. with e.g. Ach. 193; V. 38; PI. 1020. TToaOiov (cf. 291 withn., 515—16 n.) is a diminutive of TroaBij (Nu. 1014; probably cognate with Woy (59-62 n.) but less overtly offensive). 255 <ju£td<jov: 'gird me together', i.e. 'fasten my belt'; cf. 656; Lys. 536. For the ^ujvri/^iuviov ('belt, waistband, girdle'), Lys. 72; fr. 332. 7 (from Th. II; called f,wp.a, as also at S. El. 452 (where Jebb ('= f,wvrjv, a sense which recurs only in later Greek') misses the parallels here and in the Brauron dedications (IG IP 1514. 15; 1523. 16)); A. Supp. 457 e'^oi arpcxjxivs £aWj re, avXXapas -jre-jrXiuv ('I have bands and belts, things that hold robes together'), cf. 462); Stone 183. The staging is difficult to reconstruct, but Inlaw has perhaps stepped into the krokotos and is holding it halfway up his body. After Eur. ties the belt about Inlaw's waist and the breastband about his chest (below), the old man pulls the upper half of the garment up over his shoulders and fastens it there. dvuaas + imper.: 'hurry up and . . .' (e.g. Ach. 570-1; Nu. 181; V. 30; Lys. 920). 'pickup [and hand me]', as at Pax i; S.Ai. 545; H. //. 6. 264. responds to irpunov in 253. i8ou:25*n. Inlaw picks up a strophion from Agathon's couch and hands it to Eur., who wraps it about his companion's upper chest and ties it; cf. I39n. 256 161 vuv: A common line-opening formula (e.g. Eg. 105; Nu. 237; V. 843; Lys. 861; Ra. 494). KardareiXov: 'put in order'(cf. Apollod. Com. fr. 19. 2; E. Ba. 933) + ace. of the whole (fie) and the part ( )(KGi. 289-90). The parallel scene at E.Ba. 935-8(cf. E.Med. 1163—6) makes it clear that the effect of a woman's chiton depended in large part on how it hung. Eur. arranges the lower portions of Inlaw's krokotos. 2 57~8 K€Kpu<|>d\ou 8ei KCU fiirpas: Addressed to Agathon; cf. 262 inroSyjfj.dToiv Sei. For the KfKpixjxiXos, 137—8 n. For the pirpa, 161—3 n - F°r the two combined, as here, Posidipp. 46. 3—4. r|8i KT\.: Agathon picks up something that will pass for the items requested (cf. below) from his couch and holds it out to Eur. jiev ouv is strongly adversative; 'Here instead . . .'. Cf. Av. 292, 341; GP475. At 941, Inlaw describes himself as wearing a krokotos and a mitra, and the object in question here might simply be an elaborate poeticism of a sort typical of Agathon. More likely it is a kind of wig (prefitted, for staging purposes, with something resembling a mitra) intended to help Agathon avoid recognition in disreputable places, like the capillamentum supposedly worn by Caligula (Suet. Calig. n); cf.fr. 187 ap. Poll. x. 170 (irfpidfTov ABC, -8eaiv FSL); Aristomen. fr. 5. 2 ireplBerovirpoaumov; Page on FGE 1062—3. *lv ^V"1 vuKTtop <j>opb>: i.e. when he is out trying
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to find men to fuck him (thus 2R); cf. 35 (where there is no mention of Agathon's use of female disguise) withn., 204—5 n. 259-60 Eur. takes the wig (or whatever the object in question is) from Agathon, inspects it, and (260) puts it on Inlaw's head. The repeated vr) TOV Ai' d\\d, vr) Ai' d\\' marks Eur.'s growing enthusiasm for his plan. d\\d Ka(i IJirmfSeia mdvu: 'Why, it's just what's needed!' dAAd marks 'a sympathetic reaction to the previous speaker's words or actions' (GP 19-20), as again in 260, while KO.I adds emphasis to the adj. (GP 317), as in 639. For the repetition of dAAd (probably colloquial), Bond on E. HF 622ff. For the intensifying use of -jravv, 233—4 n is not an unreasonable question, but serves primarily to cover the stage-action; cf. 263*. dpiar'ixei: 'it's perfect!' Cf.Ra. 1161 with Stanford ad loc.; Aeschin. i. 17. 261—2 <|>€p(€): 233—4 n. <JYKUK\OV: A woman's himation (cf. 213—14 n.) of some sort (also mentioned at 499; Lys. 113,1162; EC. 536; fr. 332. 8 (from Th. II); IG IP 1514. 48-1517. 154-5; I 5 2 4- 2°6, 223 (all women's dedications at Brauron); cf. Stone 164—5; Perusino, QUCC 72 (2002) 129—33); according to Phot. p. 388. 13, it had purple 'round about' it, i.e. a purple border (TO Se KVK\vpav e\ov eyKVK\ov; cf. Phot, e 977 l^uiriov mpnropfivpov), hence the name. TOUTI: 'this one here'; accompanied by a gesture. \dp' (= Xaj3e) (Kuster's emendation of R's unmetrical Xap.j3av', which reflects the influence of 262) is 'Take!', in response to Eur.'s >e'p(e) ('Give me!' (233-4 n -))- Sometimes pres. at end of 262) and aor. impers. appear one after the other with little or no apparent difference of meaning (e.g. Ach. 1103—4; 'E-HeL 663— 5; cf. Denniston on E. El. 888). K\ivi8os: A word for 'couch' (more often K\anj) otherwise attested only at Cratin. fr. 148 (probably one of the couches used by the suitors in the story of Odysseus) and at Poll. x. 33 and Hsch. « 3001 (a seat spread on the wagon that took a bride to her husband's house; appropriate for the effeminate Agathon). For couches (generally made of wood, and in the case of luxury items covered with veneers or featuring inlays of ivory or the like), e.g. Ach. 1090 with Olson ad loc.; EC. 840; PL 527 ev KXivrj KaraSapOeiv ('to sleep on a couch'); PI. Com. fr. 230; cf. C. L. Ransom, Couches and Beds of the Greeks Etruscans and Romans (Studies in Ancient Furniture: Chicago, 1905) 24-8, 39-54; Pritchett 226-9; G. M. A. Richter, The Furniture of the Greeks Etruscans and Romans (London, 1966) 52—63. uiroSr^cmdv 8ei: Cf. 257 K€Kpv<j)dXov Set Kal ^trpas. vTroStj^a appears to function in this period as a generic term for footwear of all sorts (cf. Bryant 72), although what Agathon offers may well be KoBopvoi, high, loose (cf. 263) boots worn by women (Lys. 657; EC. 344—6; cf. 292—4 n.) and effeminate men (Hdt. i. 155. 4; cf. Ra. 47; Bryant 87-9; DFA 206-8; Stone 229-32; Dunbar on Av. 994). Shoes were not normally worn indoors, whichiswhere
L I N E S 257-68
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Agathon is supposed to be, at least by men (Eq. 888-9; V. 103; cf. Eub. fr. 29; Pherecr. fr. 162. 4-9; Bryant 57-61), and rdfid rauri is thus more likely 'these here that belong to me' (accompanied by a gesture), in reference to a pair of shoes lying on the floor by the couch, than 'these I am wearing'. 263 Eur. picks up the shoes or boots Agathon has pointed out (262) and helps Inlaw (who has in the meantime taken off his own shoes or sandals) put them on. dp' dpfioaei fioi;: Cf. 260* with n.; here the question also serves to set up the remark that follows. KT\.: Addressed to Agathon but—like most of Inlaw's remarks in this part of the scene—seemingly not heard by him; cf. 45 n., 264—5 n. As ZR observes, this appears to be a veiled insult, the point of which is that what has really been stretched loose is Agathon's arsehole; cf. Lys. 414-19 (a naive husband asks a well-hung leatherworker to 'loosen up' his wife's sandal-strap/anus); Pherecr. fr. 155. 4—5 (Music complains that a lover's abuse left her 'looser' than she was);7kf7kf §342; La Fontaine, Les Freres de Catalogue 120 ((Euvres completes i: Paris, 1991) 615 'Frere Roc a vingt se chaussait' (his shoes were like his morals—rather loose). Reiske was right to assign this remark to Inlaw rather than Eur. (thus Brunck), given that (i) Inlaw is elsewhere routinely insulting to Agathon (e.g. 130—45, 153, 157-8), whereas Eur. is obsequious (e.g. 179-80, 220); (2) Inlaw is the one putting his feet into the shoes and ought thus to be the one who comments on the fit; and (3) av TOVTO •yiyviuaK(e) in 264 is clearly a response to dp' app.oaeip.oi;, which is more difficult if the rest of the line is not abomolochic aside by the same speaker. youv adds a snide note, as also in 845; 'Yourfo like . . .!' (GP455; Stevens 45). 264—5 °v TOUTO Y'YvtdCTK(€) ('You see to that!', i.e. 'That's your problem, [not mine]!'; cf. A. Th. 650; E. Hel. 1257; Men. Epitr. 493) is a response to the question that begins 263 rather than to the nasty insinuation that follows (and which Agathon seemingly does not hear). and yap form a unity ('Well, since . . .'), as atNu. 798. For dAAd + imper., GP 13—15. For 265, cf. 96 n. (on the ekkuklema), 238 with n. (for the use of TIS + 3rd-pers. imper. to give orders to a mute slave); Eq. 1249 KvXlvSer' ewjo) -rovof TOV ovaoai^ova ('Roll this wretch within!'); Men. Dysk. 758 e!ai<]vKXeir' e'lmu pe ('Roll me in!'; irrefutable evidence for the use of the ekkuklema in the late 4th c.). us rdxioTa: For the ellipse ('as quickly [as possible]'), cf. 662, 1214; LSJ s. raxvs C. II. 2. Agathon (along with all his paraphernalia) is pushed through the central stage-door by the same mute slave or slaves who pushed him out at 95. The himation and shoes Inlaw discarded (214, 263 n.) are removed on the ekkuklema as well. 266-8 266 and the first three words in 267 are addressed to the world at large (and thus to the audience in the Theatre), r/V XaXfjs KrX. to Inlaw.
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and yuvr| neatly balance one another at the beginning and end of the line. 'We have at length transformed this man into a woman!' (Seager, CJ 3 (1810) 499). The contrast Eur. draws is between Inlaw's physical transformation (already accomplished) and the care the old man must still take to sound like a woman, which is to say that [isv (which belongs after the first of the two corresponding elements) is—as often—strictly speaking out of place (cf. GP 371—2). KOI 8r| marks 'the completion of something required by the circumstances', i.e. the successful transformation of Inlaw into someone who can pass for a woman; '—there you are!—,—ta-da!—' (GP 251-2; cf. 213-14 n.). TO Y' etSos: 'as to looks'. eiSoyis found elsewhere in Ar. only at PL 317 (lyric) and is perhaps intended as a bit of high-style vocabulary. t]v \a\fjs 8': Inlaw is taking on the mission Agathon refused (cf. 211-12), and Eur. presumably expects him to speak in the women's assembly on his behalf (cf. 90-1, 184—6 with n.). He none the less uses not the neutral vb. Xe-yiu but the more judgemental AaAe'oi ('and if you're going to open your big mouth' vel sim.; cf. 137-8 n.), prefiguring the disaster to come. onus + fut. is a colloquial equivalent of an imper., '[See] that you . . .!' Cf. 1204-5; van Leeuwen on Nu. 489 (with further Aristophanic examples); KG ii. 376— 7; Goodwin §§271, 273; Stevens 29—30 (add Arar. fr. 17); Lopez Eire 192. Cf. 192 yvvaiKowvos ('with a woman's voice' (of Agathon)); contrast EC. 149 (of women imitating men) ('Come now! See to it that you speak in a good masculine fashion!'; cf. Crates fr. 24). This order (and Inlaw's consent to it) is most naturally taken to suggest that the actor playing Inlaw speaks in falsetto whenever he takes a woman's part in the rest of the play (e.g. 27994, 466—519; cf. Quint, xi. 3. 91 (= Men. fr. 355), on actors who utter a woman's words tremula vel effeminata voce; Handley, in P. Easterling and E. Hall (eds.), Greek and Roman Actors (Cambridge, 2002) 180). But it might just as well be the case that the lines serve to inform the audience in the Theatre that, however Inlaw actually sounds, he is to be understood as offering a credible imitation of a woman's words. •yvvaiKit^iu (ill-attested 5th- and 4th-c. colloquial vocabulary) is 'play the woman's part'; cf. 863 yvvalxiais ('imitation of women'); Diocl.Com.fr. 4; Hp.Aer. 22 (ii. 78. 18). adds specific content to eu, 'very persuasively'; cf. V. 153; EC. 253, 638; Cratin. fr. 6. 2; Alex. fr. 138. 5; PI. Grg. 52ia; Lg. &48c; TheslefT §366. wiBavos 'was chiefly used, in fifth-century Athens, to describe the effect of speeches delivered in the Assembly or the Council' (Fraenkel on A. Ag. 485 (p. 242)); cf. 464 -jriOava iravra (of a speech in the women's assembly); Eq. 629 •mOavunaff (of a speech in the Council); E. Or. 906 (a demagogue in the Argive Assembly); Th. iii. 36. 6; iv. 21. 3 (both of Kleon); vi. 35. 2 (of Athenagoras in the Syracusan Assembly). 'I'll do my best'.
L I N E S 266-72
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269-76 As far as Eur. is concerned, the conversation is over; for his failure to tell his defender what to say, an omission that leaves Inlaw free to adopt a wild—and ultimately disastrous—tack in 466—519, cf. 184—6 n. Inlaw, on the other hand, has some reservations—and not unreasonably so, although the sudden case of cold feet is in striking contrast to his reckless enthusiasm in 211-12. But the real point of these verses is to prepare the audience for the action in the second half of the play, by raising in advance the possibility that the plan may go awry and Eur. may need to come to the rescue. Cf. 651 n. 269-71 pd8i£e TOIVUV: Cf. 25 withn., 157 withn. The sense of the remark is repeated in 277 eKa-jrev&e ra^eoij* (where see n.). This is the standardAristophanicsela{i,aTaKalTTdaas{i,'r]xavds; Gildersleeve§652); an allusion to Eur.'s skill in 'devising' (94 with n.). tjv fioi TI TrepiTriTrrr] KCIKOV: Normally it is the individual who 'falls in with' trouble, which is in the dat. (e.g. Ra. 969; E. Hec. 497-8; Hdt. vi. 106. 2). But the reverse construction (cf. A. Th. 834, where the trouble is in the nom. and the individual afflicted with it in the ace.; Philostr. VA I. 33 Sei. . . Tnrepnreaeiv', Holzinger on PL 550) effectively casts Inlaw as the hapless, innocent victim of circumstance who will deserve whatever aid Eur. can offer. 272 ~ E. fr.487 ojuvtyiiS' lepovaWep', oiK-r)aivAios('l swear by the holy aither, residence of Zeus'; perhaps an echo of H. //. 2. 412 For al&rip/AiOrip, 14—15 n. Whether the word ought to be capitalized here is unclear (contrast Dover's text at Nu. 265 and Ra. 892) but is in any case a purely modern dilemma; cf. Fraenkel on A. Ag. 14; Olson on Pax 221. For Eur. as religious innovator (or 'atheist'), 451 with n.; Ra. 891—4 (where the poet's 'private gods' include not just but the pivot of his tongue, his cleverness, and his nostrils), A LOS is treated as a particularly memorable phrase at Ra. 100 = 311, where Dionysos' paraphrase al&epa Aios Siup.a.TLov ('the aither, Zeus' bedroom')
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leaves little doubt that what seemed odd was the presentation of the semidivine upper air as something concrete and arguably pedestrian, as Inlaw's question in 273 also makes clear. 6|_ivu|-u roivuv: Repeated * in 274, as Eur. tries again to satisfy Inlaw of his commitment to his safety. For the use of roivw, 157-811. 2 73 TifidXXovrj;: 'Why [swear by this] rather than by . . .?', i.e. 'How'sthat anybetterthanswearingby...?'; cf. Plaut.Merc. 4.S6—"jquipotiusquam ...? According to Aeschin. i. 124, a avvoiKia is a building that a group of (implicitly unrelated) individuals rent and share, i.e. a 'tenement house' vel sim. But the descriptions we have of the operation of such buildings suggest something more like cheap boardinghouses or single-room-occupancy hotels catering to transients: [X.] Ath. 1.17 (owners of avvoiKiai do better when there is a constant traffic of foreigners in town for trials); Is. 6. 19-21 (two avvouciai, both with resident managers; one located in Piraeus (which was full of sailors, traders, and foreigners), which doubled as a brothel (cf. fr. 137); the other by a gate in the Kerameikos (another high-traffic area) and visited frequently by the owner, who came by to pick up the rent); Aeschin. i. 43 (Timarchos discovered eating lunch in a awoiKia with a group of foreigners to whom he had allegedly just sold his body). In any case, such buildings were clearly capable of producing a steady flow of cash-income and are routinely included in catalogues of large estates and the like (e.g. IG I 3 424. 11 (part of Alcibiades' property); Is. 2. 27; Aeschin. i. 105; D. 29. 3; 36. 34; 38. 7; 45. 28 (a avvoiKia worth 100 minae); 53. 13; Philem. fr. 68. 3-5); at Eq. 1001 the Sausage-Seller claims to own two AvvoiKiai (plus an attic) as a way of proving how much space he has stuffed full of oracles. The name Hippokrates is not particularly rare in Attika (46 examples in LGPN II s.v., the majority from the 5th and 4th c.), but 2R assumes that the man in question here is Perikles' nephew, Hippokrates son of Ariphron of the deme Cholargeus (PA 7640; PAA 538615), whose three sons are ridiculed as fools at Nu. 1001 (where see Dover's n.) and Eup. fr. 112, and are said to have been mocked for their 'swinish' behaviour (sources collected by K-A at fr. 116); avvoiKiav (Starkie, Acharnians, p. lix, for R's £vv-) may thus be intended to suggest avonciav ('pigsty'). If that is not the case, it is hard to say why Hippokrates' building had caught the public eye enough to be mentioned on stage in a comedy. Perhaps the point is that Eur.'s private gods are no better than the riff-raff who tend to congregate in such places. Baffoni, Maia i (1948) 194-7, revives the suggestion (first made by Triller in 1719 (cf. Littre, CEuvres d'Hippocrate i (Paris, 1839) 31)) that the allusion is to 'all the gods' in the Hippocratic oath; but cf. Kudlien, Episteme 5 (1971)279-84. For other avvoiKiai called after their owners (or former owners), Aeschin. i. 125; Herod. 6. 52-3. 274 Ofivuju roivuv: Cf. 272* with n.
L I N E S 272-78
143
'absolutely all the gods, all the gods without exception'; 'post specialem invocationem transit ad generalitatem, ne quod numen praetereat' (Serv. on Verg. G. i. 21; cf. 334; Fraenkelon A. Ag. 513). apSr/v is first attested at A. fr. **73b. 5 and is elsewhere in the 5th c. exclusively tragic vocabulary (e.g. S.Ai. 1279; Ant. 430 (both in the sense 'high'); E.Hec. 887; PA. 1146 with Mastronarde ad loc.; [A.] PV 1051; cf. Miller 177); in 4th-c. prose the word serves as a stock intensifier in descriptions of the 'utter' ruin of someone or something (e.g. PI. Lg. 7o8b, 7i6b; Isoc. 14. 19; Aeschin. 3. 93; D. 27. 26; cf. Men. Kol. 87; Diph. fr. 105. 2). 275-6 fi€fivr)<jo introduces urgent final entreaties, offers of advice, and the like also at 1134*; Eq. 495; Nu. 887, 1107; Ra. 1520; cf. Lys. 931. Tau9' is preparatory and roivuv is an ironic echo of the word * in Eur.'s oaths in 272, 274 (cf. 269*). Inlaw wants Eur. to remember three things: that his mind has sworn an oath; that it was not just his tongue that swore; and that the oath was not coerced. 'Your mind swore, and not your tongue [alone] has sworn'. A comic inversion of E. Hipp. 612 ('my tongue has sworn an oath, but my mind is free of it'), which must have been a notorious line, given the allusions to it also at Ra. 101—2, 1471; adesp. com. fr. *832; PI. Tht. I54d; Snip. I99a; Cic. Off. iii. 29. 108; Theophyl. Simoc. (7th c. AD) ep. 67; and the story preserved at Arist. Rh. I4i6 a 28-3i, according to which someone quoted the verse against Eur. in court in an attempt to prove that he encouraged perjury. Cf. Avery, TAP A 99 (1968) 19-24; Dillon, G&R 42 (1995) 141-4; Kloss24-8. ouS'upKua(a) eyu: op«oa) is (inter alia) 'make someone swear an oath' (e.g. Lys. 187; Th. viii. 75. 2; D. 19. 151, 278; cf. Isoc. i. 23; Harp. E 75), and Inlaw's point is that Eur. has not acted under external compulsion and is therefore all the more securely bound by his pledge. 276 is followed in R by the intrusive stagedirection oXoXv^ovai. TO lepov wBeirai (cf. 77, oAoAuf, with a coronis indicating change of scene (cf. Stephen, Scriptorium 13 (1959) 3—14, esp. 6) in the margin; 2R), 'they ululate (in reference to the women attending the festival); the sanctuary is thrust out (i.e. on the ekkuklema (96 n.))'. None of this is necessary or likely, and like most such notes, this one preserves no reliable information about the original performance; cf. 99 n.; Austin, Pap.Flor. 7 (1980) 12; Russo 194-5. 277-8 €K<jTT€u8€ Tax«ds marks the resumption of the action after the interruption in 269-76 (where see n.). For imper. + ra^eou in the sense 'hurry up and . . . ! , . . . and make it snappy!', e.g. 638, 731; Ach. 777; Eq. 95; Ra. 188, 605. The vb. is ahapaxlegomenon, but for e«- cf. ion eK&pap.ij}v',Av. 991 eKrpexwv. Cf. Austin (275-6 n.). Inlaw moves down into the orchestra in response to Eur.'s order (cf. 280-1 n.), but the more important point is that he is to be imagined as having left Agathon's house and made his
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way to the Thesmophorion (for which, 83 n.). The beginning and end, respectively, of meetings of the Athenian Assembly were indicated by the Assembly herald (for whom, 295—382 n.) raising and lowering a 'signal' of some sort (2R; And. i. 36 with MacDowell ad loc.; for another 'signal' used to mark the beginning of law-court sessions, V. 689-90). The women's Thesmophoria assembly functions from the first as a parodic version of a regular state Assembly (295—382 n.), and the addition of this detail sets up the homology in advance. At the same time, the remark serves to introduce the change of setting completed by Kao^cviav KT\. in 280-1: the celebration of the second day of the Thesmophoria is about to begin somewhere in the close vicinity, and Eur. (as a man, as well as the object of the women's collective wrath) hastens to get away (279). Although the names of sanctuaries often end in -eiov(e.g. Sfjaeiov, Kopeiov, 'HpaKXeiov, 'OXv^Trieiov) and is used by both Polybius (xv. 29. 8, 33. 8) and Aelius Theon (98. 5), R's Scaliger) is confirmed by inscriptional evidence (e.g./GIP 1177. 24; 2498. 12 (both 4th c.)), including that from Delos (P. Bruneau, Recherches sur les cultes de Delos (Paris, 1970) 269-74); cf. 880. 279 lyto 8' direifu: Cf. 457 dAA' els a-yopav IITTZLJU . Eur. exits into Wing A. Like 280, 284—5, 293—4, addressed to an imaginary slave-girl, who is supposed to be carrying a basket containing the sacrificial cakes Inlaw needs for the first stage of the ceremony (284-5 withnn.). For the combination Sevpo . . . e'-jrov, EC. 1005, 1058, 1074; E. HF 724 cf. Ach. 204 rfjSe . . . e'-jrov; Men. Sik. 146 Plaut. Cure. 215 sequere me. For the use of vvv, 27 n. is the most common slave-name (actually an ethnic; cf. 1112 ('Skythian'); Headlam on Herod, i. i; Fraser, in S. Hornblower and E. Matthews (eds.), Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence (Proceedings of the British Academy 104: Oxford and New York, 2000) 1 52-3) in Ar. (also Ach. 273; V. 828; Pax 1138), reflecting a high percentage of Thracians among real Athenian slaves; cf. Olson on Ach. 273, and add SEG xxi 97. 12; FRA 7705—18. Mute Aristophanic slaves are commonly called by name when given orders; cf. 280, 284, 293, 728 with n., 739, 754; Olson, 'Names' 309-10; contrast 37 with n. 280—1 cover Inlaw's movement down from the stage to the altar in the orchestra, where he makes his prayer and his offering (282—91). 279 n. For the synizesis of ea in 8eaaai, cf. 26 n.; Pax go-;; Lautensach 122. Kaojievuv TUV \afmd8uv must be gen. abs., given the presence of the def. art. For the use of torches in the Thesmophoria, 1152—4; cf. 101—3 with n., 292—4 n., 655 with n.; IG IP i184. 15-16 (4th c.); LSAM 61. 4 (Mylasa, 3rd c.); and the note at ID 1417 A I. 49-100 (Delos, 2nd c.) on the SaSm apyvpa dedicated in the local
L I N E S 277-83
145
Thesmophorion. See also Richardson on h.Cer. 48. 'What a crowd [of worshippers] is ascending [the Panathenaic Way]!'; cf. 83 n. Colloquial; cf. Pax 1192 oaov TO ('what a crowd [of guests] has come!'); EC. 394 TOOOVTOV ('so large a crowd'); Stevens 21 (a collection of similar expressions, albeit with dependent gens.). For cWp^o^ai vel sim. used elsewhere in the play of movementtowardthewomen'sassembly, 585 draire'^i/iai, 623 avl)X&es, 893 and possibly 657 (where see n.); and note that the name of the first day of the festival was AvoSos ('Ascent' (Hsch. a 5234)). Cf. Introduction p. xlvi. UTTO TTJS Xiyvuos: 'under the smoke' (Poultney 191), i.e. 'wrapped in a cloud of smoke'; cf. H. //. 18. 492 Inlaw is to be imagined as at the entrance to the Thesmophorion, looking back at the other women (who arrive at 295) making their way up from the Agora toward him. The sacrifice and prayer in 282-91 serve inter alia to cover the time it takes the imaginary procession to catch up to him, and the chorus accordingly enter at 295. Xi-yvvs is thick, sooty smoke of the sort produced by incense or pinewood full of pitch (Arist. Meteor. 387b6, 388a3-5; cf. 101-3 n.). The word is first attested at A. Th. 494 and is in the 5th c. exclusively poetic vocabulary (also Av. 1241 (paratragic); Lys. 319 (iambo-choriambic tetrameters); S. Ant. 1128; Tr. 794); first in prose in Aristotle (also Meteor. 374*24, 26). 282-3 Ford\\(d) introducing a prayer, cf. Nu. 1478; V. 323; S. EL 67; OC 101; Ausfeld 537; GP 16. mepiKaXXei is used for the sake of its elevated tone. Epic vocabulary (of heroic women or goddesses at e.g. H. 77. 5. 389; Hes. fr. 193. 11; h.Cer. 405, 493 (both of Persephone); h.Merc. 244; h.Hom. 13. 2 (of Persephone); subsequently at Stesich. PMGF S8. 2; Ibyc.PMGT^SiSi. 10 (conjectural); Thgn. 1277; Hdt. v. 60 (adedicatory inscription, not an oracle, pace LSJ s.v.), 61. i). Otherwise attested in the 5th c. only at Hdt. vii. 5. 3; despite the implication of LSJ s.v., Hellanic. FGrHist 4 F 55 is merely Athenaios' paraphrase and cannot be treated as evidence for classical usage. The witnesses have the ending but the proper 5th-c. form is -ei; cf. Introduction p. xcv n. 110. For appeals to a deity to 'accept' a worshipper, suppliant, vel sim.,e.g.Pi.N. n. y,Pae. 5. 45; 6. 5; A. Supp.z-j; S. OC 44, 487; X. Cyr. ii. i. i. aY
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he may be caught and detained (cf. 269-71, 275-6, 287-8). The old man's wish is granted in 1204-9. oiVaSe is routinely * in Ar. (e.g. 1206; Ach. 84; Nu. 32; Av. 449 -jraXiv oiVaSe*; Ra. 1167). 284 Tr)VKiaTT]v: Acoveredbasketmadeofwickerorbark(Thphr._ffPiii. 10. 4, 13. i; v. 7. 7) used to store or transport supplies, especially food, and routinely fetched or carriedby slaves (e.g. Ach. 1086 with Olson ad \oc.;Eq. 1211—18; V. 529; Pax 666; Poll. vi. 13; vii. 79; cf. Stone 250—1; Briimmer, JDAI100 (1985) 16-22). K(i0€\€ Kar' igeXe: The basket (like the ('ritual basket') carried by Dikaiopolis' Daughter at Ach. 242-7) is to be imagined as balanced on Inlaw's head, so that his servant must first 'take it down' (from the speaker's head) onto the ground and 'then take out' the offerings from it; cf. E. EL 140—1 (Elektra to a slave-girl) ('Take this vessel from my head and set it [on the ground]!'). For the verbal jingle, cf. Lys. 1279 Trpoaaye . . . fr. 708. 2 fKir\vva.L «ai SiairAwai. But Herwerden's KaraOov (Mnemosyne 2 (1853) 211) is possible, if we suppose that Thratta is carrying the basket herself (cf. Ach. 244) and postulate scribal anticipation, as in 393. For women habitually carrying things on their head, EC. 2,2,2, with Ussher ad loc.; Sparkes plates XVa—b; La Czte'plates 9, 2ib, 26, 135. 285 TCI TfOTfav(a): Flat-cakes of some sort (Hsch. 77 3004; Phot. 77 443 = S 2051; cf. EC. 843; probably a generic term), very common in sacrifices (e.g. PI. 660; Men. Dysk. 450-1; Arist. fr. 489; IG IP 1195. 12; 1367. 2, 910, 12; 4962. a. 3—10; Brumfield, Hesperia 66 (1997) 150—70). R's sing. gives the forbidden 'proceleusmatic' (i.e. a resolved long followed by double short for single short) ^^w. Cf. Newiger, Hermes 89 (1961) 176. \a|3ouoa: Inlaw is now quite self-consciously playing a woman, and he therefore uses a fern, part., as again in 288. Firstdeclension duals in -O.LV are very rare (although not entirely unattested) in the epigraphic record but common in the MSS of literary texts, which represent a different stylistic level, and we retain the parodosis Cobet, Var. Lect. (Leiden, 1854) 70). Cf. 297, 948; Cooper, TAPA 103 (1972) 97—125, esp. I2i—2; Threatte ii. 18—20, 91—3, esp. 93. Inlaw places several imaginary cakes on the altar (280-1 n.). 286-8 The series of titles recapitulates the ideology of sacrifice and prayer: stresses the goddess' power and thus the reason for approaching her (cf. Barrett on E. Hipp. 88—9); Tro\uTifir]T€ reminds her of the honour being paid her via sacrifice; and t|>i\r] defines her persuasively on that basis as a 'friend' who ought to grant the favours that will now be asked (287—91; cf. 1230—1 with n.) and which implicitly promise further sacrifices in the future, if the speaker is preserved (287—8). Sea-jroiva is a very common title of goddesses (e.g. Pax 271 (Athena); Av. 876 (Kybele); Anacr.PMG348. 3 (Artemis); A. fr. 388. i (Hekaie);E.Hipp. 117(Aphrodite); SIG1 1179 (Seo-jTOLva Aap.aTep on a lead tablet from Knidos)); cf.
L I N E S 282-90
147
gSSb SeaTTor' with n.; Usener 222-6; Henrichs, HSCP 80 (1976) 257-76. is common in invocations (e.g. 594; Ach. 807; Pax 1016; Ra. 323/4, 337 (Persephone); Antiph. fr. 143. 2; Eub. fr. 115. 6; Men. Dysk. 202; fr. *457). 0€pp€<|>aTTa (/7,) appears to be the standard 5th-c. Attic form (regular in inscriptions and dipinti) of the name of the goddess commonly referred to as Phersephone/Persephone (Eup. fr. 41); cf. Ra. 671; A. Ch. 490; PI. Cra. 4O4C (Socrates observes that 'many people fear this name'); Moer. <j> 29; Jebb on S. Ant. 894; Carnoy, in Melanges Bides (Brussels, 1934) 71-7; Richardson on h.Cer. 56; Threatte i. 450-1. reinforces -iroXXdias, 'many many times'; cf. EC. 1105; E. Med. 1165; Tr. 1015; D. 20. 3; Luc. Dem.Enc. 38; Gygli-Wyss 35-6. Colloquial, like KaX"f] KaXtus (e.g. Ach. 253) et sim. Dover suggests taking as the obj. of both e'xovaav and dveiv, but this seems less likely. For the desire to sacrifice often again in the future, cf. 950-2; Headlam on Herod. 4. 86—7. Daubuz compared E. El. 803—7, and Fraenkel, Beobachtungen 118-19, added/G I 3 728 = CEG 227. Gueiv and \a6eiv, like in 289 and e%eiv in 291, are optatival infins., which typically appear after an invocation of a deity and express a wish for the future (e.g. Ach. 250-2; Ra. 387-8; Pi. P. i. 67-8; A. Th. 253; cf. 157-8 n.; E. Supp. 3; El. 805; KG ii. 22—3; Goodwin §785; Bers 182—3). Xa&eiv appears paraprosdokian for dveiv, as Inlaw's real concerns (282-3 n.) slip through into his prayer, is generally * in iambic trimeter in Ar. (408, 419; .Eg. 74; EC. 23, 26). 'having [the resources to do so]', i.e. 'and be rich enough to do so' (for f^ca in this sense, Bond on E. HF 636), the implication being that some return is expected for the current gift, if future gifts are to be forthcoming. For Inlaw's use of the fern, form of the part., 285 n. 'or at all events, not to be found out today'; cf. X. Mem. iii. 3. 7 el8e furj, dAAd vvv ye ireipdaofnai', GP n—12. For the synizesis of juiy, , cf. 476, 646; KB i. 229. 289-90 Inlaw prays for the welfare of his children in the same way that the dying Alcestis prays to Hestia for hers: ('Pair a beloved wife with him, and a noble husband with her' (E. Ale. 165-6)). rr|v 0uY
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that she may dominate him' (2R), the alleged goal of all Aristophanic wives (e.g. 413), and get away with having as many lovers as she likes (cf. 476-501). A polar reversal of the sort of praise one expected to hear of an eligible young man: (PL 976 'poor, but in other respects handsome and well built'). For the wish for a rich husband, cf. Phoen. fr. i. 11, p. 233 Powell (of an unmarried girl) Kafoeiov avSpa . . . et;evpoi ('and may she find a wealthy husband'). R has T (T' M), but a strong contrast is wanted and we adopt Hermann's &' (Adnot. ad Vigerunf (London, 1824) 620); cf. i^gn.;Av. 1476-7; PL 976 (above). Whatever the early history of rjXlBios (Fraenkel on A. Ag. 366), the adj. (first attested in Aeschylus (in the sense 'vain') and at Simon. PMG 542. 37; Pi. P. 3. n) is absent from extant tragedy in the sense 'foolish' but common in comedy (e.g. 593; Ach. 443; Cratin. fr. 45; Eup. fr. 172. 7-8 avSpa / rjXlBiov, irXovTovvra S' ('a man who is a fool, but rich'); Ale. Com. fr. i; in satyr play at E. Cyc. 537) and prose (e.g. Hdt. i. 60. 3; Lys. 10. 16; PI. Chrm. i&2b; X. Mem. iii. 9. 8), and by this period, at least, must not be elevated vocabulary. So too apeXrepos (first attested in Ar.) is found exclusively in comedy (e.g. Nu. 1201; Ra. 989 (where the reference to EC. 297 in Dover's n. ought to be to this passage); PI. Com. fr. 65. 3 apeXrepoKOKKvt; ^AiSioy ('a foolish stupid-cuckoo' (conjectural)); Anaxandr. fr. 22. i) and prose (e.g. PI. R. 4O9c; D. 9. 14), and must be colloquial vocabulary. jioi:'please'(64-5 n.); cf. 291. For the optatival infin. TUX^IV, 286-8 n. 291 Dindorf's FloaGaXiaKov ('my little Dickie, my little Willy'; cf. 254 n., 289—90 n., 515; Taillardat, RPh iii. 35 (1961) 249—50, drawing attention to an inscription published by Robinson, Hesperia 27 (1958) 74-8, in which the name TloadaXiiav appears; cf. L. Robert, Noms indigenes dans I'Asie-Mineure greco-romaine (Paris, 1963) 18 n. 9) is based on ('Her little boy. But perhaps [the poet] made [the word] up as a parody of TroaBij ("penis")'; cf. 2R 289 'But perhaps [the poet] is making a riddling allusion to the female genitalia'). See K—AonEpilycus' KiupaXioKos(PCGv. 170). Cf.theuseof as a boy's nickname at Pax 1300; IG I 3 1399 ter (late 6th/early 5th c.; UoaBov written thrice); Augustus' purissime penis (Fraenkel, Horace 19 n. 4); Rabelais's 'couillon mignon' (Le Tiers Livre ch. xxvi); Herter, RE xxii (1953) 862—3. R's Tpos 9a\i]Kov is metrical and most likely represents an awkward attempt to make sense of a defective exemplar. i.e. in order that he may escape the anticipated fate of his sister's husband (289-90 n.). Cf. Men. frr. 58. i ('this is good fortune: a son with sense'); 818; Hor. Ep. i. 4. 8—9 quid voveat dulci nutricula mains alumno / qui sapere . . . possit ('What more would a nurse pray for her sweet charge, if he were able to think?'). For the hendiadys vovv . . . Kal>pevas('good sense, intelligence'), cf. 462-3
L I N E S 289-94
:
49
Lys. 432; Ra. 534b; Cratin. fr. 71 (adapted by Eupolis (fr. 99. 48)); D. 18. 324; 25. 33; Rutherford 9-10; Handley, 'Words' 209 ('hardly poetic; perhaps it had a limited currency in elevated or emotional discourse'); Sansone, Glotta 62 (1984) 16—25 (onhendiadys generally). For the optatival infin., 286-8 n. 292-4 With 'her' offering and prayer complete (282-91), the speaker returns to more mundane considerations. i.e. 'Where, where's a good place for me to sit?'; the repetition of the interrogative reflects the speaker's agitation (cf. 689b, 1093). Average members of the Athenian Assembly sat on the bare rock of the Pnyx (e.g. Ach. 29, 59; -Eg. 750, 754, 783-5;Ec. 86, 152; cf. 663-4 n.), although wooden benches seem to have been provided in front for the prytaneis and visiting dignitaries (Olson on Ach. 25), and speakers stood to address the crowd (cf. 384). ev KaXut ('in a good [place]') is probably colloquial; cf. EC. 321; PI. Com. fr. 199. i*; Ael. VH ii. 13 = Ar. test. 32. 47; Gow on Theoc. 15. 73; Stevens 28. T&JV prfroptov is 'the speakers', as at e.g. 382; Ach. 38 rovs pr/ropas*; EC. 195 prrjropwv*, 244*; cf. IG I 3 46. 24-6; Hansen (1987) 50-1. e£aKouu: The prefix implies 'even at a distance', i.e. 'clearly', as at E. Heracl. 677 (and probably A. Eu. 397; S. Ph. 676; X. Cyr. iv. 3. 3 (v.l.)). The vb. is attested elsewhere in the classical period (as a strengthened form of O.KOVIO) only in tragedy (also S. EL 553; Ph. 378, 472) and paratragedy (Av. 1198). isnot 'leave this place and go elsewhere' (as if Inlaw were sending 'her' slave home) but 'step aside out of the way' (cf. 36; EC. 134). Thratta (never referred to again) is thus to be imagined as still in the vicinity, even if barred from participation in the official proceedings, and 5 37, 609, 728, etc., show that many of the other women are also to be thought of as accompanied by wet-nurses and handmaids. According to a law referred to (but not quoted) at Is. 6. 48-50, slaves and/or women who had led a 'shameful' life (a reference in the first instance to prostitutes and those who had been caught in adultery, borne illegitimate children, or the like) were barred from participation in certain rituals associated with Demeter and Pherrephatta and from entering the goddesses' temple to watch the rites carried out there, and 541 is most naturally taken as meaning that participation in the Thesmophoria was restricted to female citizens (cf. 329—30). All the same, Inlaw's insistence that ('slaves are not permitted to listen to the speeches') means only that they are required to move away 'out of earshot'. Cf. Introduction p. xlvii. For the potential difficulty of hearing even for members of the primary audience, cf. 292—3. Inlaw moves away from the altar toward the stage. As he does so, the chorus of 24 Athenian women (probably dressed in fancy himatia and chitons, with kothornoi (261-2 n.) on their feet, and carrying torches (cf. 238 n., 280—1 withn., 655 withn.))
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enters the orchestra via one of the eisodoi. The coryphaeus carries a garland (380 with n.). Two other women, one of them ('Mika') accompanied by a slave ('Mania'; cf. 728 with n.) who carries what looks like a little girl but eventually turns out to be a wineskin dressed in a himation and slippers (690-761, esp. 730-1, 733-4), enter along with them. 295-382 Cf. 84 n.; Haldane passim; McClure 228-31; Bierl 174-98. The scene that follows can be staged using three actors if the coryphaeus speaks the lines traditionally assigned to a 'Heraldess' (295—311, 331—51, 372—9, 380-2), or if the actor playing the Heraldess exits after 382 and returns sometime probably before 433 as the second woman (whom we identify as Kritylla; cf. 443 n.). The second alternative assumes an awkward and ill-motivated exit followed by an equally awkward and ill-motivated entrance, neither of them signalled in the text (contrast 457-8, where the second woman offers an explicit explanation of her need to leave the assembly early), and it seems clear that the coryphaeus speaks the lines in question. Cf. Introduction p. Ixix n. 65; Austin, Dioniso 45 (1971—4) 316-25. Actual meetings of the Athenian Assembly (similarly parodied at EC. 128-267, a 'practice session' by female insurgents) began with the sacrifice of a piglet, which was carried about the perimeter of the Pnyx to render the area ritually clean (Ec. 128 with 2; Aeschin. 1.23 with i. 53b Dilts; D. 54. 39; Istros FGrHist 334 F 16). After calling for silence (cf. 295-6 with n.), the Herald of the Council and the Assembly (an elected, paid position; cf. IG IP 145. 8—9; Boule 84— 5) uttered a prayer (295—311 n.) and a curse on traitors and other enemies of the state (331—51 n.). After the first item on the day's agenda had been read aloud for public consideration (cf. 372-9), the Herald threw the question open for debate with the formula TLS ayopeveiv fiovXerai; ('Who wishes to speak?'; cf. 379 with n.), with those over 50 years old allowed to speak first (Aeschin. i. 23; 3. 4). Anyone who had something to contribute to the discussion then stood up (cf. 384), stepped forward to the jSfjfi,a ('speaker's stand'), and put on a garland (cf. 380; EC. 131, 148). For additional details, 277—8 n -> 375~6 n.; Kleinknecht 33-8; Horn 106-15; Hansen (1987) 88-93; Olson on Ach. 43-5. For the handling of motions, 431-2 n. Ar. could not reproduce on stage the actual procedure of the Thesmophoria, about which he himself probably knew little or nothing (cf. Introduction pp. xlv—xlvi); but it was amusing to turn the whole thing into a parody of the city's Assembly. One consequence, however, of the poet's desire to stick close to real procedure is that the play has no proper parados. 295—311 The coryphaeus (taking the part played by the Herald in a real Assembly) bids the women to prayer. Prose, as also in a parody of a prayer at Av. 864-88. For prose elsewhere in comedy, Ach. 43 (an Assemblyformula), 123 (a remark by the Assembly Herald), 237 = 241 (requests for ritual silence); Eg. 941 (adapted from the heliastic oath); Pax 433—4
L I N E S ZQZ-Q
151
(ritual cries); Av. 1035-6, 1040-2 (mock decrees), 1046-7 (an indictment), 1661-6 (a law of Solon); Eup. fr. 401 (a scholium asserting that the poet frequently used prose); Archipp. fr. 27 (a parody of a peace treaty). The prayer is doubtless modelled closely on the one pronounced by the Herald at the beginning of real Assemblies (for which, Aeschin. i. 23; Din. 2. 14; Agora xix (1991) L 3. a+d. 2; cf. Boule 36-7), although the women's private interests are here put on the same level as the general interests of the demos, and the choice of gods invoked is determined by the festival. 295-6 €u<|)T)fiia iaru, eu<|>r]fua €<mo: Cf. 39-40 n.; EC. 129 (Praxagora, playing the part of the Assembly Herald, at the very beginning of the meeting) 'Ariphrades, stop chattering!'; E. Hec. 532—3; Supp. 669. Hieratic repetition (e.g. Pax 433-4; 'E.Hipp. 58, 61, 63); cf. 311; Norden on Verg. Aen. 6. 46. 297—301 For the catalogue of divinities at the beginning of the prayer, cf. 331—4 with n.; Av. 864—88; IG II 2 112. 6—9 ev^aodai ^v roy Kr/pvKa avrtKa ('the Herald is to pray immediately to Olympian Zeus and Athena Polias and Demeter and Kore and the Twelve Gods and the August Goddesses'); 114. 6—8. 297 TCUV 0€<jfio<|>6poiv: For the ist-declension dual art. in -aiv, 285 n. After these words, R has rfj Ar/p.-rfrpi KO.I rfj Kopij (Brunck's 298; expelled by Velsen), which must represent an intrusive superlinear gloss on 'the two Thesmophoroi'; cf. 300—1 n., 1230 06ap.o(j>opiu (where 2R thinks it necessary to note fj Aj)jij)rt)p KO! r/ Yltpatfyovt]). 299 TU nXouTto: Ploutos ('Wealth') was the son of Demeter and the mortal lasios/Iasion; cf. Hes. Th. 969—74 with West on 969; h.Cer. 488—9 with Richardson on 489; carm. conv. PMG 885. 1—2; IG I 3 5. 5 (included by conjecture in a catalogue of deities offered sacrifice in connection with the cult at Eleusis). In art, he is almost always represented by a naked young boy holding a cornucopia or a bunch of grain stalks, and he seems to have played an important part in the Eleusinian Mysteries; cf. Clinton 49-55, 91-4, 103-4; LIMC vii. i. 416-20. In the popular imagination he was conceived of as blind (PL passim; Amphis fr. 23. i; Men. fr. 74. i; Hippon. fr. 44. i; Timocr. PMG 731. i; PI. Lg. &3ic; Theoc. 10. 19; Diggle on E. Phaeth. 166). Plouton (Lord of the Underworld and husband of Pherrephatta/Kore) was also worshipped in Attica in conjunction with Demeter and Kore (IG IP 1363. 20-2 = LSCG 7. B. 22-4 = SEG xxiii 80. 24-5 (Eleusis, c.ioo BC; see Robertson, GRBS 37 (1996) 337—44) ffi T°v nXovrwvos tepeta I . [ . . . ] . . . oas rolv 0€o^io [(fropoiv ('to the priestess of Plouton for . . . the two Thesmophoroi'); IG IP 1672. 169 ('the [sanctuary] of Plouton' (on which construction work is being done)), 182 e-jrapx'f] Arnj.riTpi Kal Ropy KO.I nXovriuvi ('first fruits
152
COMMENTARY
[offered] to Demeter and Kore and Plouton') (Eleusinian accounts from 329/8 BC); SEG xxxv 113.1 [^ijjurp-pi 06ap.o](j>opiu . . . 7 IT]XovT(uvi (cult regulations for a local Eleusinion at Olympos in Attica, £.300 BC); Clinton 111-12), and he seems to have had a sanctuary somewhere very near to the Eleusinion (Clinton 18—21; cf. Miles 101—2). The two figures appear to be confused occasionally even in the classical period ([A.] PV8o6; S. fr. 273 with Pearson ad loc.; cf. the etymologies at fr. 504. 1-2 and PI. Cra. 4O3a; Clinton 105-10), and the original text glossed by 2R may well have read ('to Plouton'); cf. nXovnavi for TTAoirro) at PL 727. Although the deities listed in 297—301 were all associated with Demeter and Pherrephatta/Kore, and thus presumably with the Thesmophoria festival, the order in which the final four are invoked also traces the trajectory of a parent's wishes and concerns: for a safe birth, the opportunity to raise one's children rather than seeing them die in infancy, and the hope that they will mature into handsome young men and women (under the aegis, respectively, of Hermes and the Graces). rfj KaXXiYeveia: Kalligeneia ('Fair Birth') was the name of the third day of the Thesmophoria (cf. Introduction p. xlviii), to which the goddess referred to here gave her name (which must represent what the city's women prayed for when they made sacrifice)—or from which she perhaps borrowed it. For worship of Kalligeneia at the Thesmophoria, cf. Plu. Mor. 298b—c (where the fact that the women of Eretria did not invoke her at the festival is treated as a puzzle). According to 2R, Kalligeneia spoke in the prologue of Th. II (cf. Butrica 73-4), and the implication of Phot. « 118 (which together with 2R makes up fr. 331) is that she presented herself as Demeter's nurse (cf. Introduction pp. Ixxviii, Ixxxvii; Usener 122—4; Jacoby on Apollod. FGrHist 244 F 141; Martina, AION(filol) i (1979) 36-9. 300-1 rf) Kouporpotfxo: Kovporpof/ios ('rearer of children') is an epithet of gods, places, and natural and social phenomena (e.g. H. Od. 9. 27 (of Ithaka); Hes. Th. 450 (of Hekate); Pi. fr. 109. 4 (of civil strife); Theoc. 18. 50 (of Leto); Paus. i. 22. 3 (of Earth)), but here the reference must be to the independent deity who speaks PI. Com. fr. 188 (cf. v. 7) and is offered sacrifice at IG IP 1358 col. II. 6, 14, 31, 46; SEG xxi 527. 12, 85. Cf. Usener 124—8; T. H. Price, Kourotrophos: Cults and Representations of the Greek Nursing Deities (Studies of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society viii: Leiden, 1978), esp. 106-17 (arguing that Kourotrophos is to be identified with Earth; cf. below). R has rfj Ffj after these words, and Earth appears together with Hermes and the Graces in IG I 3 5. 3, a sacrificial catalogue dating to £.500 associated with games at Eleusis (cf. Deubner 91-2) F]ei : hepfiei 'Evayovloi : Xdpiaiv : alya ('a she-goat to Earth, Hermes god of contests, [and] the Graces'), while ('Earth Rearer of Children') was worshipped along with Demeter Chloe in a temple most likely on the south slope of the Acropolis
L I N E S 299-305
153
(Paus. i. 22. 3; for the cult of Earth in Athens, Dunbaron^4«. 586; Olson on Pax 188-9). But (i) the presence of Frj in the Eleusis inscription does not prove that her name ought to be retained here, and (2) ('either Earth or Hestia') leaves no doubt that the version of the text the author of the scholium had before him did not include the words which must be an intrusive gloss, like rfj Ar/p.-rfrpi xal rfj Kopij after in 297. A 2nd-c. AD inscription from the Acropolis (IG IP 4778) records that a certain Eisidotos dedicated rrp Kovporpcxjxiv 'to Demeter Chloe and Kore in accordance with a dream' (KO.T' oveipov; cf. G. Sfameni Gasparro, Misteri e culti mistici di Demetra (Rome, 1986) 239 n. 54). Tto'Epfifj: Hermes had no major rites or sacrifices in Athens in this period, although wrestling schools celebrated a Hermeia (PI. Lys. 2o6d-e; Aeschin. i. 10); offerings of boiled seeds were made to Hermes Chthonios during the Chytroi festival (Theopomp. Hist. FGrHist 115 F 347); and occasional small sacrifices were made to the statues of him that stood throughout the city (PL 1120—33). His association with the Eleusinian deities presumably reflects the role he played in the recovery of Persephone/Kore from the Underworld (h.Cer. 334-79), although Pausanias notes that Hermes was said by some to be the father of the hero after whom Eleusis was named (i. 38. 7) and that the Eleusinian genos of the Kerukes traced their ancestry back to him as well (i. 38.3; cf. Olson on Ach. 46). (TCUS) Xdpiaiv: For the Graces, LIMC iii. i. 191—3; Olson on Pax 41—2. The Graces appear immediately after Hermes in/G I 3 5. 3 (above) and in a list of deities favourable to Peace at Pax 4.56; cf. Plu. Mor. 446 ('the ancients gave Hermes a place with the Graces'); I38c; Paus. i. 22. 8 (a sculpture by Socrates of Hermes and the Graces at the entrance to the Acropolis). 302—3 'That we convene this assembly and the current meeting in the fairest and best fashion'. The paired synonyms (cf. 304-5 are a typical feature of official language. For cf. 375 withn.; Eq. 746; D. 19. 185. awoSoy perhaps occurs in this sense already at Ale. fr. 13ob. 15 (thus LSJ Suppl. s.v.), although the text there is lacunose and obscure. For KaXXiara Kai apiara in similar contexts, Th. i. 129. 3 (a letter of Xerxes) 'Accomplish your business and mine in whatever way will be KaXXiara KO.I apiara for us both'; X. An. iii. i. 6 'Xenophon asked Apollo to which god he ought to pray and sacrifice in order to make the journey KaXXiara xal apiara'; v. 6. 28 'I make as many sacrifices as I can in order that I may say, think, and do whatever things will be KaXXiara KO.I apiara for both you and me'; Vect. 6. 3; Fraenkel, KIB i. 266-7. 304-5 The antithesis 'for the city . . . and ourselves' is regular in such contexts; cf. 352-3 withn.; A.Supp.410-11 ('that what we do first of all be harmless
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to the city and turn out well for us ourselves'); Aeschin. 3. 120 ('you are about to ask the gods for their blessings on you both collectively and individually'). That is borrowed from the language of prayer is suggested by X. Eq. Mag. i. i (the only other attestation of the word before Aristotle): 'First you must make sacrifice and ask the gods to grant that you think, say, and do the things from which you would serve as a commander in the fashion most pleasing to the gods and most friendly and glorious and to yourself, your friends, and the city'. is attested before Aristotle only here and at Ach. 250 (Dikaiopolis' prayer to Dionysos) and A. Ag. 464, and is most likely religious language (thus Fraenkel ad loc.). The speaker is amember of the assembly and ought not to be distinguished from it, and R's Fritzsche) should be printed, as also in 310 (cf. 350). 306—9 Cf. 355—6. rr|v Spiiaav Kai dyopeuouaav TCI (JeXriaTa: A standard formulation; cf. Lys. 1046—9 D. 18. 57 Trpdrrovra ml Xeyovra rd jSeXriara . . . ru> Sr^ai with Wankel ad loc.; IG IP 657. 32-3 (a decree of commendation) is an archaic word, the simplex of which is generally found only in fixed expressions, as here and in 379 (where see n.); cf. 786 (solemn style); Dover, G&G 235; Olson on Ach. 41. The phrase -uepi TOV Sfjjiov TOV AGrjvauov is common in decrees of commendation (e.g. IG I 3 65. 10—n; IP 26. 9; 31. 7—8, 25—6; 51. 7—8; 76. 9—10; 657. 59—60; cf. Ach. 697 with Olson ad loc.) and is another echo of official language, expanded parodically in 308. Cf. 335-6 with n., 1145-6. viKav: 'prevail [with her arguments], carry the day', as at e.g. 356; Ach. 626 (cf. Olson ad loc.); Nu. 99, 115, 432; V. 594; E. Or. 944; D. 18. 86. For the idea, cf. D. 4. 51 ('May whatever is likely to be to the advantage of us all prevail!'). 310—11 TOUT' euxeaGe resumes the initial order in 297; cf. Men. Kol. fr. i. 3-7
('Let us pray to all the Olympian gods and goddesses that they grant us security, health, and much good! Let us pray for all this!'). For Kai r|juv KT\., cf. Pax 45 3 (the conclusion of Trygaios' prayer in preparation for the recovery of Peace) J^LLV S' dyaBd yevoir'. o) waidav, Ir/ ('But for us may there be good things! le Paion, Ie!'). T(CI) oV/aBa: 'the good things [that the gods decide to give us]'; a standard locution in prayers (Ec .781; K—A on fr. 504. 14; X. Mem. i. 3. 2; Aeschin. 3. 120 (304-5 n.); D. 25. 101 ('to pray for all rd dyaBd for all of us'); Prooem. 54; Theopomp. Hist. FGrHist 115 F 104 ('they used to pray to the gods that they grant
L I N E S 304-30
ISS
to the Chians and themselves'); IG V. 2 344. 10-11). is equivalent to a plea for divine assistance and good fortune at the beginning of an enterprise, and thus reinforces the prayer; cf. V. 874; Pax 453 (above) with Olson ad loc. For the hieratic repetition, 295—6 n. is the comic form of the word; tragedy normally has mudv (cf. L. Deubner, Kleine Schriften (K6nigstein/Ts., 1982) 208; Wackernagel, KS ii. 869-72; Barrett on E. Hipp. 1371-3; Cromey, Glotta 56 (1978) 62-5). is 'Let us rejoice [in certainty that the prayer just proposed has found favour with the gods]!', to which the chorus respond (312) 'We accept [your proposal]!' Cf. 714 with n.; Av. 645-6; Eup. fr. 131. 2 (A.) xaipere -jravTes. (B.) &exop.eaOa ((A.) 'All of you rejoice!' (B.) 'We accept!'); S.El. 668. 312-30 A 'cletic hymn' (cf. 1136-59; Eq. 551-64, 581-94; Nu. 264-6, 26974; Fraenkel, KIB i. 355-63), which summons a series of gods to come in person and asks that the women's assembly be successful (328—30), just as the coryphaeus ordered (302—9). The gods appealed to (315—26), however, are mostly major Olympians rather than the Eleusinian divinities listed in 297-301. Cf. Habash, GRBS 38 (1997) 28. The metre is primarily iambic and dactylic; non-responding. Cf. Wilamowitz, Aristoteles und Athen ii (Berlin, 1893) 352—4; Parker 406—9; Furley and Bremer ii. 346-9(0312
(2)313 (3)314 (4)315-16
(5)317 (6)318/19 (7)319
(8) 320 (9)321 (10) 322
(11)323 (12)323/4
(13)324 (14)325-6
(i5)327a (i6) 3 2 7 b (17)328-9 (18)330
2ia iaba iaba D (prolonged) ia cho lek 2ia 2iaba D (prolonged) par par P par adon 6da ith ba adon 6da ith
as here), (4, 8) For 'enoplian' cola (including those beginning cf. Parker 77-8 (but without specific reference to these verses).
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COMMENTARY
(14) For the treatment of the line as a single verse, Austin (1990) 21. (17) Cf. (14); or perhaps to be treated as D — D —. (15) The ithyphallic underlines the flippant echo of Pi. P. i. i (16) For la- scanned^—, cf. Page on E. Med. 149; Dover's metrical n. on Ra. 217; Kannicht on E. Hel. 1147. 312—14 SexofieGa: 310—11 n. 0€t5v y^vos — TOVS Oeovs; cf. 959—60 (also lyric). The periphrasis is a mark of elevated style (46-8 n.), as is the absence of the def. art. XirojieGa: A rare,
exclusively poetic metri gratia variant of AMJCTO^CU (1040 (lyric; probably adapted from Eur.); H. 77. 16. 47; Od. 14. 406; h.Hom. 16. 5; Mel. AP v. 165. 1-2 = 777?4254-5). 'to take pleasure at these prayers', i.e. 'in response to these prayers' or, more precisely, in response to the song by means of which the prayers are expressed; cf. 327b—8 ITT' ev^ais / rnj.eTepa.is with n. For the repetition of the prep, in the prefix of the vb., cf. A. Ch. 149 is normally used of rejoicing over the misfortune of another (e.g. Pax 1015), but cf. S. Ai. 136. For the idea of the gods taking pleasure in rites or songs performed in their honour, 111—13 with n., 977—Sob. (|>av€VTas: Forms of <j>aiviu (most often aor. pass, participles and imperatives) occur routinely in cletic hymns and parodies thereof (e.g. 1143; Ach. 567 with Olson ad loc.; Eq. 591; Nu. 266; Ale. fr. 34. 3; S. OT 164; cf. Ausfeld 516). 315 Zeu fieyaXtivufie: Like Aratos (Phain. i), the chorus 'begin with Zeus' (cf. also Theoc. 17. i), to whom they return in 368-9. They quickly concentrate their attention, however, on deities of more importance to contemporary Athenian cult (315—21), who are left unnamed but described with rich clusters of epithets; cf. Nu. 563—74 with Dover ad loc. ('renowned'; cf. Hsch. ^,481; Phot.^, 169) is rare, exclusively poetic vocabulary, first attested at Sapph. fr. 44A. a. 3 (of Zeus); subsequently at Nu. 569 (lyric; ofAither); V. 1518/19 (lyric; of Karkinos' sons); S. Ant. 148 (lyric; of Nike). xPUCTO^upa is first attested here, despite LSJ s.v. (corrected in the Suppl.); subsequently at Posidipp. 118. 2; Orph. h. 34. 3. Apollo is associated with the lyre and similar instruments (for which, 120—2 n., 137—8 n.) already in early epic (H. II. i. 603; 24. 62-3; h.Ap. 130-1, 184-5, 201; h.Merc. 514-15; [Hes.] Sc. 201-3; cf. g6gEv\vpav;Av. 217-19; Ra. 231/2; Hes. Th. 94-5; E.Ion 164; etc.); cf. LIMC ii. 2 s. Apollo no. 83-238. For his instrument specifically described as made of gold, [Hes.] Sc. 203; Simon. PMG 511 fr. i. a. 5; Pi. P. i. i; Timoth. PMG 791. 202 xpvaeoKi&apiv, Call. Ap. 32—3; and probably Bacch. 3. 28 (cf. Maehler ad loc.) and Pi. P. 5. 104 (cf. Bernardini et al. ad loc.). Cf. io8n., 327-8. For Xvpa as a generic term, i37-8n.; cf. 327a
L I N E S 312-19
157
with n. The list of deities in the form A B re is typical of hymnic style; cf. Dover on Nu. 263-74. 316 AfjXov os esP- 64-5. The hyperbaton AfjXov . . . lepdv is elevated style; cf. 318—19 -jroXivI. . . irepi^d^TjTov. e^eu is 'inhabit', as at e.g. Nu. 596, 598; Ra. 659 = Anan. fr. I. I 'AiroX\ov—os TTOV A-rjXov rj Tlvdcov' ex6is ('Apollo!— you who inhabit Delos or Delphi'); Pi. O. 4. 8; cf. 1140 with n. 317-19 TraYKpares: Elevated 5th-c. poetic vocabulary (e.g. Simon. PMG 541. 5; Pi. N. 4. 62; Bacch. 17. 24; S. Ai. 675; [E.] Rh. 231 (lyric)), most often used of Zeus, as at 368 (also lyric, and the only other attestation of the word in comedy), where seen. For the idea, cf. 1140-1 (of Athena) with n. Any doubt the audience may feel about the identity of the 'all-powerful maiden' referred to in 317 is immediately put to rest by the further description of her as Y^QUKUTII ('grey-eyed' vel sim.; cf. 45 n.), a standard epic epithet of Athena (e.g. H.7/. i. 206; Od. 2.433 yXavKamiSi Kovpfi; Hes. Th. 895 Kovprfv yXavKonriSa Tpiroyevemv; h.Ap. 323; h.Ven. 94; subsequently at e.g. Stesich. PMGF 814. 3; Pisand. fr. 7. i; Pi. O. 7. 51; S. OC 706). Cf. 1138—9 (also of Athena) irapdfvov a^vya Kovpr/v, Anderson 57—68. For the adj. (attested nowhere else in comedy), Jessen, RE vii (1912) 1404-7; Chantraine, in Melanges Carcopino (Paris, 1966) 193-203; Braswell on Pi. P. 4. 249 (with further bibliography). XPUCTO^°YX€: Attested elsewhere only at E. Ion 9 (Athens 'called by the name of Pallas of the golden spear'). The image is unexceptional (cf. 108 n.), but if a reference is intended to any particular representation of the goddess, what follows suggests that it is to the west pediment of the Parthenon (where Athena was almost certainly depicted holding a gilded spear); cf. below. For AoyCT ('spear'; elevated 5th-c. poetic vocabulary), cf. 826; Olson on Ach. 1226. -uoXiv / oiKouaa TT€pifiaxr]TOv: A reference in the first instance to the quarrel between Athena and Poseidon over control of
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COMMENTARY
Attica (e.g. Hdt. viii. 55; PL MX. 237c-d; cf. Frazer on Apollod. iii. 14. i; Olson-Sens on Archestr. fr. 14. 8) depicted on the west pediment of the Parthenon (Paus. i. 24. 5). There may well be a contemporary political point as well; cf. Introduction pp. xliii—xliv. For the hyperbaton, 316 n. For oiWo) applied to a god, Av. 836; cf. the use of vaiia at E. Hipp. 68; El. 992. TTepifidxyTos is first attested here and at Av. 1404, but is otherwise prosaic (e.g. Th. vii. 84. 5; PI. R. s86b; X. Snip. 3. 9; Isoc. 10. 40; Aeschin. i. 134). For l\0€ Seupo et sim. in cletic appeals, e.g. 1137, 1146, 1148, 1155; Ach. 665 with Olson ad loc.; Eq. 559, 586, 591; Lys. 1263, 1271; Ra. 675; Sapph. fr. i. 5, 25; Anacr. PMG 357. 7; S. OT 167; E. Or. 1300; cf. 987/8; Ausfeld 516; Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. c. i. 2. 30 venias. 320-1 Cf. 114-19 with nn. -uoXutivufie: Cf. Call. Dian. 6-7 (the young Artemis asks her father Zeus for perpetual virginity and can mean either 'renowned' (e.g. Hes. Th. 785; cf. 315 pfya\ii>vvpf with n.) or 'of many names', i.e. 'many cult-titles' (e.g. S. Ant. 1115 with Jebb ad loc.; cf. PI. 1164), and either sense would do here. Poetic vocabulary (also at e.g. Hes. fr. 388; h.Ap. 82; Pi. P. i. 17; /. 5. i; Theoc. 15. 109 with Gow ad loc.); first in prose at PI. Phdr. 238a. 0T]po<|)6vT] ('slayer of beasts'; cf. 114—16 n.) is an epithet of Artemis at Thgn. n; E. HF 378 (lyric); cf. 8-rjpoKTovr) ('killer of beasts') at Lys. 1262 (in the Laconian form aypo-; lyric); E. I A 1570. Elevated poetic vocabulary (also E. Hipp. 216 (anapaests); Phaeth. 76 (lyric); Lycophronid. PMG 844. 3). R has Or/poi^ove TTO.I, which must represent deliberate correction after TTO.I (a superlinear gloss on epvos in 321) made its way into the text. Aarous XR^^'Sos ipvos: Cf. 118 with n.; Pi. N. 6. 37 €pv€oi ylaroy?; E. Ph. 191—2 ^pvoeoj^oorpv^ov . . .
For Leto, 120—2 n. xpvatu-jris (attested elsewhere only at Titan, fr. 4. i (offish)) is a slightly over-the-top compound modelled on Homeric etc., and Euripidean -^pvaiairos (EL 740) and (Ba. 553 with Dodds ad loc.). Cf. 108 n. epvos is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 18. 56; Alcm. PMGF 3 fr. 3. ii. 68; Pi. fr. 33C. 2; A. Ag. 1525; E. Tr. 766; cf. Gow on Theoc. 7. 44); attested elsewhere in comedy only at EC. 973a (lyric). 322—3 No major festivals were celebrated in Athens in Poseidon's honour, although he had a temple at Sounion and he and Athena were said to have quarrelled over control of the city (317-19 n.). For -uovTie as an epithet of Poseidon, e.g. Eup. fr. 149; h.Hom. 22. 3; adesp. PMG 939. 2; 5. OC 1072; E. Hipp. 44; Hel. i58s;Erecth. fr. 65. 56 Austin with Austin, RecPap 4 (1967) 51; cf. PI. 1050 novTO-jroaei&ov. Poetic vocabulary (e.g. Anacr. PMG 427. i; adesp. PMG 92sd. 5; Pi. O. 2. 64; A. Pers. 112; S. Ant. 586; first attested in prose at Arist. Meteor. 368b33); used by Ar. only in paratragedy and lyric parody (872 with n.; Pax 140; Av. 250; Ra.
L I N E S 317-26
1341).
159
aejive: 117-19 n.; cf. E. Erecth. fr. 65. 93 Austin with Austin, RecPap 4 (1967) 59. dXifieSov: 'lordofthe sea'; cf.Ra. 664-6 (~ S. fr. 371) ('Poseidon, you who rule in the depths of the grey sea'). A hapax legomenon modelled on Trovro^eSaiv (an epithet of Poseidon at Pi. O. 6. 103; A. Th. 130 (lyric); E. Hipp. 744 (lyric); cf. V. 1532/3). In Posidipp. 93, Poseidon is called TTOVTOV Trdrep (3) and TTOVTOV SeoTrora (6). 323—4 For the request that the deity 'leave' his or her favourite spot as a feature of cletic hymns, 3i6n. irpoXiinbv fiuxov ExOuoevra: Despite LSJ s. l^Bvoeis, the reference is not obviously to the Bosporus is primarily poetic vocabulary (e.g. 927; H. Od. 3. 314; Tyrt. fr. 2. 14; Pi. P. 9. 30) and is particularly common in tragedy (e.g. A. Pers. 18; S. Ai. 507; E. Med. 1000; in prose at Th. i. 74. 2; ii. 87. 8; vii. 75. 4; PI. _R. 6oib). is also used of the depths of the sea at Pi. P. 6. 12; [A.] PV 839. is poetic (primarily Homeric) vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 16. 746; Od. 3. i77;h.Cer. 34; Thgn. 248; Sol. fr. 13. 45; Anacr. PMG 346 frr. 11+3 + 6.17; anon, epigram ap. Hdt. iv. 88. 2 = 'Simon.' FGE 696); not attested elsewhere in 5th- and 4th-c. drama. oi<jTpo86vr]TOv: 'driven by a horsefly' (with an allusion to the story of lo), i.e. 'raging, turbulent'; attested elsewhere only at A. Supp. 573 (but cf. H. Od. 22. 300 A. Supp. 16 olarpoSovov; [A.] PV 580 oMJTpTjAdro); Timoth. PMG 791. 79o«jTpolu,a«;'s-(ofthesea)). For the horsefly (or 'gadfly'; sometimes called P.VIUIJJ), e.g. A. Supp. 306—8 with Johansen—Whittle on 308; PI. Ap. 306; X. Eq. 4. 5; cf. Davies and Kathirithamby 159-64; Beavis 225-9. 325-6 Nrjpeos eivaXiou . . . Kopai: For the Nereids, Hes. Th. 240-64 with West ad loc.; LIMC vi. i. 785—7; J. M. Barringer, Divine Escorts: Nereids in Archaic and Classical Greek art (Ann Arbor, 1995). For Nereus (one of the names given the Old Man of the Sea), Hes. Th. 233-6 with West on 233; LIMC vi. i. 824. eiVdAioy is poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. Od. 4. 443; Archil, fr. 122. 8; Thgn. 576; Pi. P. 4. 27 with Braswell ad loc.; A. Pers. 453; S. Ant. 345 (lyric); E. El. 450 (lyric); attested nowhere else in comedy), and it and related words are normally attached to Nereus' daughters (e.g. Pi. O. 2. 29 ^.erd Kopaiai Nypfjos aXlais; Prop. iii. 7. 67 o centum aequoreae Nereogenitorepuellae), although cf. Simon, eleg. fr. n. 2O Kovptjs elv\a.\iov JV^peo?; Orph. h. 24. I Nypeos elva\iov vv^ffrai. Here the adj. serves to link the Nereids to Poseidon (322-4), just as (below) connects the Nymphs with Artemis (320-1; cf. 114-16 n.). For the particle sandwiched between the genitive-group and the noun that governs it, cf. Av. 257 Kiiiviav ep-yiuv T' ey^eipTj-nj?; E. Tr. 1064—5 (lyric) For nymphs inhabiting mountains, e.g. 992-3; Av. 1098; Ra. 1344; H. //. 6. 420; Od. 6. 123; Hes. Th. 130 with West ad loc.; Anacr. PMG 357. 1-5; Pratin.
l6o
COMMENTARY
PMG-jo8.4; E. Cyc. 4; Orph. h. 51. 9 ovpeal>oiToi ('mountain-roaming'); cf. Larson 8-9. opiVAayieros- ('mountain-wandering') is attested at Emped. P. Strasb. gr. Inv. 1665—6. a(ii). 26 Or/pfav opnrXa-yKTiuv (with short i; cf. Martin—Primavesi ad loc.); subsequently at [Opp.] C. 3. 224; Nonn. 21. 189 (both with long i). For similar formations, cf. oplyovos (Timoth. PMG 791. 77 with Hordern ad loc.), BaXaaaoTrXayxTOs ([A.] PF 467; E. ffec. 782), and dAiVAayKToy (S. Ai. 695). 3273 xpuaea • • • opfuy£: An echo of Pi. P. i. i. The golden phorminx in question is Apollo's instrument, referred to in 315 (where see n.) as a The poets frequently use Xvpa and ^op^iyl interchangeably (esp. E. Ph. 823-4); c f- !37~8n.; Maas and Snyder 79-80; West, AGM 50-1. 32yb—30 iaxi1<J€i€v: 'may [it] resound', la^eoi (e.g. h.Cer. 20; h.Hom. 28. n; adesp. SLG 460. 9; E. Hel. 1147 (lyric) with Kannicht ad loc.; Or. 965 (lyric); adesp. tr. fr. 629. 9 (anapaests)) is a high poetic (generally metri gratia) variant of id^oi (also poetic); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Ra. 217 (lyric). eir' €ux
I&2
COMMENTARY
curse only if it disadvantages the Athenian people. emiajpuKetJo^ai is 'send messages via herald' (e.g. Hdt. iv. 80. 4) and thus by extension 'offer (or seek) terms forpeace', as at e.g. 1163; Th. ii. 64. 6; iv. 27. 2; D. 20. 52. Late 5th- and4th-c. prosaic vocabulary, also at e.g. Hdt. i. 69. 3; Th. iv. 132. i; PI. MX. 243b; D. 32. 24. EupmiSr) Mr|8ois T': Eur. is introduced into the curse paraprosdokian, and the mention of him in the same breath as the Persians (cf. Lys. 283, where he is comically linked to the gods) implicitly identifies him as the women's bitterest traditional enemy (cf. 82-5, 181-2, 377-9). Athenian policy in early 411 was precisely to seek the support of the Persian king, Darius II, who had so far generally taken the side of the Peloponnesians (esp. Th. viii. 53—4; cf. Introduction pp. xxxvi—xl). But as reference to the Persians was a standard part of the curse, there is no reason to take this passage as the poet's criticism of such efforts. ITTI pXdpr) rivi / rfj ™v yuvaiKuv must echo a phrase along the lines of em pXap-r] rfj rcov AOr/vaLiuv in the actual curse (cf. on 335—6, above). For em pXap-r] ('with an eye to causing injreury'; a normal prosaic construction echoed in 366), e.g. Th. i. 40. 2; viii. 72. i (the men sent to Samos by the Four Hundred in summer 411 were instructed to say that 'the oligarchy was not established ('with an eye to causing injury to the city and its citizens')); PI. Euthphr. I3c; Isoc. 8. 72; X. Mem. ii. 3. 19; D. 24. 204 emfiXd/Si]rov TrXr/Bovs; IG I 3 38. 6-7 em] | jSXdpei rei A8ev[alov; IP 1258. 5-6, lO-n. As Dover notes, the combination of TIVI and rfj looks like a linguistically bold conflation of two distinct formulas (pXdp-r] TLVL and pXdp-r] rfj Adrfvaiiav) to suit the plot. For ,8A lengthening the previous syllable (like the other strong combinations of mute + liquid or nasal yA, yv, yp,, Sv, and Sp,), cf. 131 n., 360, 366; Ra. 1049 TI flXa-jTTOva', 1151 TO flXafios, 1428 is also probably drawn more or less direct from the actual curse (cf. D. 20. 107), where the clause is only one of a number of official Athenian condemnations of or decrees against tyrants and their supporters, the oldest known being a law (of Drakon?) quoted at [Arist.] Ath. 16. 10 ('If any individuals raise an insurrection with an eye to a tyranny, or if anyone joins in establishing that tyranny, he and his family are to be regarded as outlaws'). Cf. 1143—4 with n.; V. 486—507; Av. 1074—5 with Dunbar ad loc. (noting that charges of 'aspiring to a tyranny' remained a staple of Athenian political rhetoric throughout the Peloponnesian War years); Lys. 630; And. i. 97 with MacDowell ad loc.; Agoraxvi (1997) no. 73 (with further bibliography); D. 24. 149; Ostwald, TAPA 86 (1955) 103-28; Rhodes on [Arist.] Ath. 16. 10. 'The tyrant' referred to in the curse is Hippias son of Peisistratos (cf. 2R; Henderson, in K. A. Morgan (ed.), Popular Tyranny (Austin, 2003) 155—79; V. 502; Lys. 618/19), who was expelled from Ath-
L I N E S 335-41
163
ens in 510 and whose attempt to return in 490 foundered in the Persian defeat at Marathon (Hdt. vi. 107; cf. Th. vi. 59. 4); members of the family also accompanied Xerxes during the invasion in 480, presumably hoping to be restored to power (Hdt. viii. 52. 2; cf. Hdt. vii. 6. 2; 'Philip' ap. [D.] 12. 7). eTTivoew is late 5th-c. vocabulary; attested in comedy at e.g. Eq. 1202; Nu. 1039; Pax 1268; Hermipp. fr. 4. 2, and common in prose (e.g. Hdt. iii. 31. 2; Th. ii. 8. i; PI. Cri. 52a; Lys. 6. 31), but found in serious poetry only at [E.] Rh. 195. Cf. 766 e-jrivoi(a) withn. 339-48 rj -uaiSiov / KT\.: Essentially a catalogue of women's crimes (most of them related to adultery), involvement in (or at least active sympathy for) which those pronouncing this curse implicitly confess by asking that anyone who makes such misbehaviours more difficult be punished for it (349-50). Cf. 1168-9 n 339-46 Each complaint is linked to the next by one or more key elements: (i) Information is laidby someone against a woman (339—40); (2) information is laid against a woman by her slave-girl (340—1); (3) a slave-girl tells lies (342); (4) lies are told by an adulterer, who fails to supply promised gifts (343-4); (5) an adulterer is offered gifts by an old woman, the implicit complaint being that this brings about a transfer of his affections (345); (6) a courtesan's affections are transferred as a result of gifts (346). 339-41 -uaiSiov / u-n-opa\\0fi€vr]s KaT€m€v: 'denounced a woman as she was trying to pass off another's child as her own'; cf. 502-16 (a very similar scene, but with a different ending; motivation left unspecified) with 505 n. For the phenomenon of supposititious children, also 407—8 (a counterfeit pregnancy motivated by an inability to conceive), 564-5 (desire for a male child rather than a female); Hdt. v. 41. 2 (suspicions aroused by a woman who became pregnant after having been unable to do so for a long time); Telecl. fr. 44. 1—2 (political slander involving a male child allegedly purchased by its putative mother); E. Ale. 637-9 (a hypothetical case involving a male child, with motivations left unspecified); D. 21. 149 (wild political slander involving a male child allegedly purchased by its putative mother, with motivations left unspecified). See Kassel, KS 61—2. This is a common theme in New Comedy (cf. Menander's TTro^oAi^aioy; Epinicus' and is mentioned in a list of hackneyed motifs in the epilogue of Plautus' Captivi (1031) and the prologue of Terence's Eunuch (39); cf. Ter. Andr. 506—15 (groundless suspicions). Kcrrem-eyis late 5th-c. vocabulary (e.g. Pax 377; EC. 495; E. Hec. 243; Hdt. ii. 89.2; PI. Tht. I49a). Cf. the use to which the seducer Eratosthenes puts Euphiletos' slave-girl at Lys. i. 8, 20. This item must correspond to a reference to the betrayal of state secrets in the real curse; cf. 363—4. A iipoaYWY°S is a 'pander, procurer', i.e. someone who arranges sexual liaisons between others; cf. 558 n.; Nu. 980; V. 1028; Ra. 1079; PI. Tht. I5oa (described as 'unjust' behaviour); X. Snip. 4. 61—2 (Antisthenes is
164
COMMENTARY
shocked and insulted to be called this). According to Aeschin. i. 14, 184, a 'Solonian' law made anyone convicted of acting as a irpoaywyos for a free boy or woman subject to death, although the individuals referred to there are assumed to be operating for profit (Aeschin. i. 184 enl p.iaOa)), unlike the slave-girl mentioned here or the interfering Nurse in Euripides' Hippolytos. For the knowledge some domestic slaves must have had of their masters' affairs and the power it gave them within the household, Policing 70—95, esp. 72—5, 94—5. IverpuXiaev: Pollux reports that the simplex -rpvXi^ia is the proper term for the sound made by a quail (vi. 89; presumably onomatopoeic, although common quail (Coturnix coturnix) actually make a three-syllable call that sounds like 'whip-whipwhip' pronounced at the cadence of English 'wet my lips'), and adds at another point that eVrpuAi^ai (otherwise attested only here) refers to how one handled birds that had been defeated in the sport of 'quail-tapping' (for which, Dunbar on Av. 1297—9), by 'calling into their ear to make them forget the victor's voice' (ix. 109; cf. vii. 136). Here the sense must be 'whispered' vel sim.; perhaps 'cooed', if the point is that the slave-girl plays up to her master. 342 D. 19. 68—70 suggests that the curse contained a clause condemning ambassadors who bore false messages. •nmwo\ikvr\'. 'when she is sent', i.e. by her mistress to a lover or potential lover. No motivation for this behaviour is specified, but it is easy to imagine that real slaves acted out of simple meddlesomeness, a malicious delight in troublemaking, the hope of extracting and appropriating gifts and other favours, resentment or disapproval of their mistress's actions, loyalty to or fear of their master, or the like. 343-4 D. 18. 282 ('And yet, who is it that deceives the city? Is it not the man who does not say what he thinks? And on whom does the Herald rightly call down a curse? Is it not on someone like this?'); 23. 97 ('In every Assembly the Herald calls down a curse on anyone who makes a speech in which he deceives the Council or the people or the Heliaia'); and Din. i. 47 ('having deceived both the people and the Council in defiance of the curse'), along with the echo in 357, leave no doubt that one action subject to the actual curse (with the clause here adapted to fit the women's more parochial concerns) was misleading the Athenian people. jioixos: For adultery and its punishment, Henderson on Lys. 107; Olson on Ach. 264—5 and Pax 980 (both notes with extensive bibliography); Harrison i. 32-8; Todd 276-9; Cohen, Law 98-132, 167-70; R. Omitowoju, Rape and the Politics of Consent in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 2002) 72—115, esp. 88—9. For
L I N E S 339-48
165
women's allegedly almost inexhaustible desire for extramarital liaisons, 397, 415-17, 478-501; Lys. 212-16; EC. 225, 522-3; fr. 191; the vigour of the theme is an index of the depth of male anxiety about female behaviour generally and the extent to which it could (or could not) be supervised and controlled. l^a-n-ara: i.e. 'convinces a woman to have sex'. An Athenian law referred to at [Arist.] Ath. 43. 5 and probably echoed in the curse made it a crime to promise something to the Athenian people and fail to deliver. 344 is essentially a gloss on 343: the lies in question are the promise of gifts the seducer has no intention of delivering. For 'gifts' to a beloved as a discreet way of purchasing sex, 345—6 with nn.; PL 153—9. F°r withholding something promised in return for sex as despicable behaviour, Ra. 148 ('or niched the money when he screwed a boy'; in a list of evildoers in Hades). jir| and more are to be taken together as equivalent to jiHjiTOTe, as at 217. 345 Cf. PL 975—1024 (a decrepit old woman describes how she gave her handsome young lover money, clothes, and food, and complains that he deserted her the moment he became rich); Plu. Sol. 20. 5. For the treatment of older women in Old Comedy, Oeri passim; Henderson, TAP A 117 (1987) 105—29. That the man in question is referred to as a ('adulterous lover'; cf. 343-4 n.) brings out the point of the complaint: the crone's gifts have got her control of someone who might otherwise be illicitly servicing a younger (and thus more deserving) woman; cf. 346 with n.; EC. 877—1111; PL 959—1096. For ypius ('hag' vel sim.; generally deprecatory, as at e.g. 505 withn., 512, 896, 1073) treated as an adj. with yuvr| ('woman'), KG i. 271-2; cf. E. Hec. 323; Tr. 490. 346 The chorus are concerned throughout 339—48 with injuries done to women by various parties and can here scarcely be condemning the fact that some prostitutes cheat their customers. Instead, the point must be that the courtesan is convinced by gifts to sleep with one man behind the back of another (who is her regular customer), taking another potential adulterous lover at least temporarily out of circulation (cf. 345 n.). 'oragain' (e.g. E.Med. 42; cf. GP3o6). cf. KGii. 98-9. The actual curse referred to individuals who had been bribed to act contrary to the city's best interest (Din. i. 47; 2. 16), and TOV <|>i\ov ('her lover'; cf. 479; EC. 931-2; PL 975) appearsparaprosdokian for TTJV iroXiv. 347-8 Probably a parody of an otherwise unattested clause in the curse directed at anyone who debased the city's coinage; cf. the law cited at D. 20. 167 ('Your penalty for those who debase the coinage is death'; cf. D. 24. 212). is perhaps used rather than f/ to avoid confusion before (and fern. KcmrfXis) are generic terms for local retail merchants
l66
COMMENTARY
(cf. Olson on Pax 296-8). But here the words are used specifically of barmaids (as also in 737), who are similarly accused of cheating their customers at PI. 435—6 ('Is this the local barmaid, who routinely cheats me with her kotylaiY); Nicostr. Com. fr. 22; Luc. Herm. 59; cf.Ec. 154 with Ussheradloc. Neighbourhood bars were common (PL 435 (above); Eub. fr. 80. 1—5 (the speaker describes how he settled down to wait in a 'big new bar' just opposite the house he was watching, after ordering the bartender to mix him up a chous of wine and water); Antiph. fr. 25 (the speaker praises the local bartender for mixing wine exactly to her taste), and some sold food and torches as well as alcohol (Nicostr. Com. fr. 22; Lys. i. 24; Isoc. 7. 49). Cf. Davidson 53—61. For women's alleged overfondness of wine, 630 n. TOU x°"S / r\ TUV KOTU\UV: 2R ~ S % 394 insists that a xoetJs is three times as large as a x°vs, but these are more likely variant forms of a single word, and we print Brunck's ^ooiy for the paradosis Xoos. Cf. KB i. 497-8; K-A on Cratin. fr. 199. 3; Austin (1987) 77. A chous was a liquid measure equivalent to 12 kotylai ('cups') or about 3.2 litres; cf. 746-7 n.; Young, Hesperia 8 (1939) 278-80. 'spoils, debases the standard measure'. vop.Lap.a (first attested at Ale. fr. 382. 2) is properly 'what is customary' (A. Th. 269) but is most often used specifically to mean 'coinage' (e.g. Ra. 720; Antiph. fr. 42. 4; E. Cyc. 160; Hdt. i. 94. i;IG I 3 52. A. 4), hence the pun; similar wordplay at Nu. 247—9; S. Ant. 295—6; E. fr. 542. SiaXvp.aivoij.ai is attested first at Hdt. ix. 112 and E. Hipp. 1349 (lyric; elsewhere in serious poetry only at E. Or. 1515), and is primarily comic (also Ra. 59, 1062; PL 436 (above)) and prosaic (also Isoc. 4. no; Arist. fr. 603; Thphr. CPii. i. 6; [D.] Ep. i. 12) vocabulary. 349—51 KCIKIOS dmoXeaOai TOUTOV aurov KOIKICIV: According to D. 19. 71, the actual curse contained a clause directed against anyone who committed one of the crimes it listed, asking that the gods ('utterly destroy him and his family and his household'; a standard formulation (cf. below)). Doubtless a blessing similar to the one in 350-1 was included as well. For the traditional coupling of a curse on malefactors with a prayer for prosperity for those who behave properly, e.g. Pax 435-53; S. OT 269-75; decree ap. And. i. 98; D. 18. 324; SIG3 997; PSI 1162 (3rd c. AD); 1290 (ist c. AD). As Rogers notes, 'Women have figured largely in the list of offenders . . ., yet the imprecation . . . is applicable to men only (airoXfadai TOVTOV), whilst the blessing . . . is applicable to women only (rais • • • aXXaiaiv)'. Cf. 367/8 n. For the inclusion of the malefactor's household in the curse, Ra. 586—8; And. i. 126 ('that both he himself and his household be utterly destroyed'); Antipho 5.11 ('uttering a curse of utter destruction upon yourself and your
L I N E S 347-71
167
family and your household'); Agora xvi (1997) no. 73. 20-1; D. 19. 71 (above); 23. 67 Siojueirai Kar' e^aiAeiaj avrov «ai yevovs «ai OIKICIS ('he will swear an oath invoking utter destruction on himself and his family and his household'); 47. 70; Aeschin. 3. in ('that they be utterly destroyed, both themselves and their households and their family'); SIG1 37-8 = M-L 30 (Teos, £.470); cf. E. Cyc. 266—9; Lycurg. 79. KaKtas does little more than intensify the negative sense of a-jroXeaOai ('perish utterly' vel sim.); cf. 757 withn.; Nu. 4ib; Eub. fr. 115. 2; Olson on Ach. 734. otVta (first attested at Archil, fr. 35. i and Semon. fr. 7. 101, 106, in the form ooar;; the MSS's otVta at Sapph. fr. 150. i is corrupt) is absent from serious poetry (which uses OIKOS for 'household' and words like &op.oi and Sahara for 'house') but common in 5th- and 4th-c. comedy (e.g. 402; Eq. 4; Eup. fr. 162. i) and prose (e.g. Hdt. i. 17. 3; PI. Grg. 472b). For R's spelling K oiKiav (KWKMV Brunck), see Introduction p. xciv. For the crasis, Lys. 388 ^01 (^oi Lex. Mess.); Ra. 511 K&VOV, Cratin. fr. 43 ap. 2 R r Lys. 575 («ai ola-n--); Theoc. 15. 75 (Wackernagel, KS ii. 960, cites in addition KolvoTrlS-rjs in an inscription from Chios, but this is Ionic.) See also 426 olKorpaji (WK- R); E. Cyc. 560 OLVO^OOS . . . OLVOS (oi olv- and &v- L; corr. Canter); KB i. 220. Schwyzer i. 401, is in favour of 01 for o 01 (Hermipp. fr. 24. 2 is corrupt, but cf. Herod. 4. 75 & = o of), as Greek did not have a long diphthong ovi-; but see Dover on Nu. 92 ToiKiSiov (TO>- R'E@N), who notes that 'possibly Attic was not consistent' (cf. 284 Kara but 347 «ef; V. 1070 Kijvpv- (MSS) but_Ra. 758 Kevpi-). TOUS Geous: The dat. is expected, but the ace. is used to avoid confusion after the other dats. in the line, as also at S. OTz6g Kdl ravra TOIS pr) Spwaiv ev^of^ai deovs ('and for whoever fails to do these things, I pray that the gods . . .'). moXXci . . . K(XY] -rroAAd ^LOI Ka.ya.Qo. e'ltjoav ('If I abide by my oath, may there be many benefits for me'; balanced by a clause asking for the utter destruction of the speaker and his family if he violates his oath); LSJs.TroAiij II. 2. For the use of «ai (not to be translated into English), cf. D. 37. 57 iroAAd «ai Sewd; KG ii. 252. 352—71 The chorus' response to 331—51 repeats some of the items in the list of unacceptable behaviours given there, adds a few others, and conspicuously omits any reference to Eur., on the one hand, and general female depravity, on the other. Although one might have expected this song to respond to 312—30, only the first few lines are written in the same metre and even they do not respond exactly; and after that all trace of responsion disappears and the bulk of the central section of the ode is in glyconics. Cf. Parker 408—13.
l68 (l)352 (2)353 (3)354 (4)355
COMMENTARY
baia iaba 2ba anacr
(5)356-9
(6) 360 (7)36l
(8) 362
(9) 363-6
(10)367/8 (11)368
(12)369-70 (13)371
ia 4ch gl gl gl gl
4gl A da
3da
do 4ia iaba
(i, 3) Despite Parker's reservations (412-13), we accept Dale's defence (Lyric Metres2 80) of R's resolved bacchiacs; cf. E. Tr. 564. For the rare combination ba ia, see metrical n. on 1015. (6) is weak (since the actions denned in 357—9 do not need to be done 'for profit with an eye to injury' to be reprehensible) and clumsy before 366 f^oipaj ovvfK enl j8Adj8j)f, and disrupts the catalogue of criminal behaviours in 357—66, which otherwise consists of a neat series of clauses of roughly equal length (357—9, 361—2, 363—4, 365—6). In addition, the hiatus pXdpi] / f/ is awkward in the middle of the string of glyconics; contrast 366-7, where the hiatus marks the speaker's pause for breath at the climax of the curse (but see n. ad loc.). Perhaps the verse represents a variant for 366 inserted into the text here by an over-ambitious copyist. (10, n) The solitary dochmiac underlines the emotional call to Zeus; cf. 700-1 n. The sequence could also be analysed as an anapaestic dimeter followed by an iambic metron (all in one verse), but this is less likely. 352-4 T€\ea: 327b-3O n.; cf. PI. Lg. SSQC; Waanders §205; Chadwick 268. For the anaphora of the adj., cf. eiVoAoy and p.e-ya repeated at Ra. 82 and 759 (Slings, in Willi 101—3). F°r ^v • • • T€ > c f- Nu. 563—6; Pax 162-3; Lys. 262-3; PL 665-7; GP 374-6. S'lKV is 'the people in Assembly, the Assembly' (as at e.g. Nu. 432; V. 590; EC. 96), and the antithesis with TTO\€I is precisely like that between 'the city [generally]' and 'ourselves' in 304—5 (where see n.). euY^ira: Rare, exclusively poetic vocabulary (H. Od. 22. 249; A. Th. 267; Ch. 463 (lyric); S. Ant.
L I N E S 352-62
169
1 185; [A.] PV 585 (lyric); Call. Lav. Pall. 139); the prosaic equivalent is
355~6 TCI 8' cipiaG' KT\.: 'and that to however many women it belongs to speak what is best, that they prevail when they speak' (thus 2R). Cf. 306-9, where VIKCIV has the same sense. TTpoar|K€i (first attested at A. Pers. 143) is 5th- and 4th-c. vocabulary; common in both poetry (e.g. S. OT 814; E. Ion 434) and prose (e.g. Hdt. i. 91. i; Th. i. 68. 2; PI. Phdr. 233a). Xeyouacus (properly ace.) has been attracted into the dat. by oacus357-66 The catalogue consists of five items arranged in the order A re (358) B tj (361) C re (363) D tj (365) E, with the misbehaviours that are condemned escalating gradually from deception of the people (357), a relatively passive (but still quite dangerous) form of aggression; to the violation of oaths of office (357-9), which is more active and strikes much more at the core of the city's social, religious, and political structures; to attempts to overthrow the state (361—2), but without any reference to outside assistance; to actively conspiring with an external agent against the city's government (363-4); to actually bringing the enemy into the land (365-6). 357—62 Cf. the outraged birds' condemnation of Tereus at Av. 331—2 ('He transgressed our ancient statutes, he transgressed the oaths of the birds'). 357—9 l^cuTcmoaiv: 343—4 n.
irapa|3aivou<7i KT\.: Oaths of office
were a basic feature of Athenian political life (e.g. D. 39. 40 with Harrison ii. 48; [Arist.] Ath. 3. 3; 22. 2; 55. 5; IG I 3 105; cf. Lycurg. 79), and there is little reason to doubt that the actual curse condemned individuals who violated one. That impafiaivu} in the sense 'transgress' is first attested in Aeschylus (Ag. 59, 789; Eu. 768; cf. Th. 743; Supp. 1048; Eu. 553) must be accidental, given TrapaijSaal-rj at Hes. Th. 2,2,0; fr. 164. For the repetition of the def. art., cf. PI. 914 and the numerous parallels collected at Gildersleeve §625. 360 K€p8&jv OUV€K' eni |3\d|3r|: Xenophonhas at Mem. iv. 2. 19, and at Cyr. ii. 2. 12. For KepSwv ovveic , cf. Ra. 360; Eup. fr. 192. 147 361—2 v|/r](|>i<jfiaTa Kai vojiov: Before the revision of the law code at the very end of the 5th c., the Athenians drew no procedural distinction between a i/nj^ia^a ('decree') and a vop,os ('law'); cf. Ach. 532, 536 (the Megarian Decree referred to as both a vop.os and a i/nj^ia^a); Av. 1037—8 ('I am a decreeseller, and I have come to sell new laws'); F. Quass, Nomosund Psephisma (Zetemata 55: Munich, 1971) 2-5, 14-30; Hansen (1983) 162-3. Dover's suggestion (AC 170—1) that these verses mean 'or seek to replace decrees
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by law and law by decrees' and allude to the oligarchs' proposal (probably already under discussion in the city; cf. Introduction pp. xxxviii-xl) that the Assembly pass decrees (i/nj^Mj^ara) annulling the traditional constitution (vop.os) and replacing it with a new one, thus seems unlikely (but cf. below). v6fi,ovs (Blaydes) might have been expected (e.g. PI. Tht. I73d but R's sing, is the lectio difficilior and ought to be retained. avTifieGiardvai (first attested here; elsewhere in the classical period only in Aristotle; cf. Andrewes, HCT v. 191; Renehan 151) is 'to trade places', i.e. 'to substitute one thing for another' (here a completely different set of laws for the set the city currently uses), so that 361—2 as a whole mean something like 'or seek to overthrow our [democratic] government and replace it with something fundamentally different'. Cf. 335-6 (where equally vague fears are expressed about plots against the Athenian people); Introduction p. xliii. 363—4 TairoppTfTa KT\.: Cf. 472 with n. d-iroppTjTa (lit. 'prohibited things'; first attested at S. Ant. 44) are '[state] secrets' of the sort occasionally entrusted to Athens' Council in emergencies (e.g. And. 1.45; Lys. 13. 21; cf. Eq. 648; EC. 442-4; LSJ s.v. II. 2; Boule 40-2; contrast Eq. 282; Ra. 362, where the word means 'contraband' (LSJ s.v. I)) and disclosure of which may well have been condemned in the actual curse; cf. SIG3 360. 26-8 (the oath of the citizens of the Thracian Chersonese, c. 300-280) ('I will not reveal any secret likely to damage the city to Greek or barbarian'). But there is also a play on the sense '[ritual] secrets' (e.g. EC. 442-3 -ra.iioppt]-r . . . / eV 0eafi,o>6poiv ('the ritual secrets from [the shrine of] the two Thesmophoroi'); Lys. 6. 51; cf. E. IT 1331; LSJ s.v. II. 2), i.e. of the Thesmophoria festival (cf. 626—9 with nn.; Introduction p. xlv). 365-6 For the fear of Persian intervention in Athens' internal affairs (echoing one or more clauses in the actual curse), cf. 336-9 with n. For emxyo) in this sense, e.g. Hdt. ix. i; 'Philip' ap. [D.] 12.7. The end of 365 and the beginning of 366 is a notorious crux. R's ('for the sake of the country, to [our] detriment') is nonsensical, and even if 360 is a misplaced variant for this verse (see 352-71 n.), one brings the Mede in not 'for the sake of profit' (TOW / KepStav OVVCK, with to be understood as a superlinear gloss on em pXap-r] (for which, 335-9 n.) that has driven out the other gen.; for the def. art., cf. S. Ant. 1047 rov KepSovs y^dpiv, O T 3 88 Iv TOIS KepSeaiv) but to get power, might do, with R's version of 360 and 366 to be understood as in origin a pair of attempts to correct the text after XAPHZ vel sim. was written for APXHZ. 367/8, however, is a remarkably flat end to the catalogue of wrongdoers in 356-66, and the invocation of Zeus in 368-9 arguably calls for something strong in the immediately preceding verses. One might
L I N E S 361-79
171
instead assume that 360 (as emended by Bentley) is sound and that here is an intrusion from there (although no straightforward mechanical explanation for the error presents itself), and suggest vel sim. (Cf. Sommerstein as quoted by Austin, PCPS NS 40 (1974) 2; eneiy emphatic, 'since indeed', as at e.g. E. Cyc. i8i;Hipp. 955.) But whether Ar. wrote this is impossible to say, and the only safe course is to print the paradosis with obeli. Cf. Austin (1987) 77-8; (1990) 21-2. 367/8 If the text of 366 is sound, this is a lame statement of fact in place of the anticipated imprecation (cf. 349). But the effect is to save the chorus from having to curse fellow women (o-jroaai 356); cf. 349—51 n. For the combination of ideas, which serves to associate the interests of the gods (who will be asked in 368-71 to 'ratify' the curse and support those offering it) with those of the human beings addressing them, cf. 670-1, 684; X. HG ii. 3. 53; Cyr. v. 2. 9; viii. 8. 7. daepoua': First attested at A. Eu. 270, although the cognate adj. appears already at Thgn. 1180; adesp. ia. fr. 35. 6; cf. Hippon. fr. 87. 4. 368-70 to-uaYKpares / Zeu: 315 n. For miyicpa-nys, 317-19 n.; used of Zeus elsewhere in the 5th c. only in tragedy (A. Supp. 816; Th. 255; Eu. 918; S. Ph. 679; fr. 684. 4 = E. fr. 431. 4; subsequently at Cleanth. fr. i. i, p. 227 Powell). Here the point of the epithet is that, if Zeus is 'all-powerful', he can certainly accomplish what is being asked of him and force the other gods as well into action (369—70). raura refers back to all the requests in 302—67/8, of which &<J(T€) KT\. is a very quick final summary: the gods can 'stand by' the city's women both by rewarding them and making their assembly a success and by punishing their enemies. ('make Kvpios', i.e. 'ratify'; first attested at A. Supp. 603; nowhere else in comedy) is solemn legal and political vocabulary (e.g. Hdt. vi. 130. 2; viii. 56; E. Or. 862; cf. IG IP 466. 34; 652. 31) and is commonly used of decisions reached by the Athenian Assembly (e.g. Th. viii. 69. i; And. i. 85; cf. Johansen—Whittle on A. Supp. 603): Zeus is being asked, like a presiding magistrate, to confirm the proposal brought to him in the preceding verses. -n-apaaTareiv: Also used of divine assistance and support at Ra. 38sb av^TrapaaraTei (in an invocation of Demeter); Archil. fr. 94. 2; S. Ai. 92; El. 917; adesp. tr. fr. 527. 371 Kaiirep yuvai^iv oiiaais: 'women though we be'. An acknowledgement not of any lack of confidence on the chorus' part but of the generally low esteem in which their sex is held; cf. 786-8; Lys. 649-50 'and if I am a woman, do not hold that against me, if I offer something better than our present troubles', 1124 'I am a woman, but I have some sense'; E. Hipp. 406-7. 372-9 Under normal circumstances, the Athenian Assembly acted only on decrees that had been approved in advance by the Council and forwarded
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to the people in the form of probouleumata (e.g. X. HG i. 7. 9; D. 19. 185; [Arist.] Ath. 45. 4 with Rhodes ad loc.); the standard prescript to any decree therefore notes that it 'seemed good to the Council and the people' (e.g. IG P 34. 1—2; 36. 1—2; 40. i; cf. 372—4 n.). But this is (a parody of) something considerably rarer, an 'open probouleuma', i.e. a proposal by the Council that an item be placed on the Assembly's agenda but without any recommendation as to what should be done about it. Cf. 431—2 n.; [D.] 59. 4; Boule 52—60, esp. 58—9; R. A. de Laix, Probouleusis at Athens (University of California Publications in History 83: Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1973) 3-45, esp. 25-9. 372—4 A parody of the standard prescript of any decree (and presumably any probouleuma), but without the name of the prytanic tribe (omitted to avoid tying the women's decree too close to the real world, since decrees in which the authority of the Council alone is referred to record the prytanic tribe (e.g. IG IP 6. 4-5; 12.30-1; 13.4-5; 32. 3-4)): (i) ('It seemed good to the Council'; * at 943); in Assembly decrees followed by «ai rut STJ^OI ('and to the people'); (2) (after the designation of the prytanic tribe) o Seiva sirsararsi ('So-and-so was epistates', the presiding officer of the Council for the day; cf. Rhodes on [Arist.] Ath. 44. i); (3) o Seiva €YpdfificiT€u€v ('So-and-so was grammateus', the 'scribe' of the city for this prytany; cf. Rhodes on [Arist.] Ath. 54. 3); (4) ('So-and-so said', giving the name of the man who formally proposed the decree; cf. Ussher on EC. 356). Cf. IG I 3 17. 2-6; 23. 2-5; 31. 3-6; 34. 2—5; (etc.); A. S. Henry, The Prescripts of Athenian Decrees (Mnemosyne Suppl. 49: Leiden, 1977) 1-18. The solemnity of the words is heightened by the absence of any resolution before 376. axoue -uda': For the sing, imper. addressed to a group (often with mxy/miaa), e.g. 106, 381, 663-'6 passim, 953—86 passim; Ach. 204; V. 422; Av. 1186; Ra. 1125; cf. KG i. 85-6; Kaimio 129-31. For the use of the 2nd rather than the 3rd pers., Beobachtungen 121. As this is a female assembly, Voss' iraa' (Anmerkungen und Randglossen (Leipzig, 1838) 115; 'all' und jede' already in his 1821 translation (iii. 25)) is needed for R's (cf. 336 TO) TOW yvvaixwv* with n.) is little more than explicit notice that what follows is a parody, butcf. LSAM6i. 5 (a3rd-c. cult law from Mylasa) 019 e'So^e rais ywai[|i. Satyros' ApxiK\€i(a) is otherwise attested in Attica only at IG IP 1529. 15 (4th c.) and is thus the lectio difficilior, whereas there are eight other examples of R2RS's (cf. LGPNiis.v.). Masculine ApxiK\fjs is common (a dozen 5th- and 4thc. examples in LGPN ii s.v., vs. 25 examples of Tip.oKX'ljs), making the lack of attested Archikleiai most likely an accident of preservation; and since either Satyros or the consensus of the other witnesses is in error, we print the less common name as given by the oldest authority. For other examples of women's names in -«Aeia, Bechtel, AFzi—2. Respect-
L I N E S 372-8O
173
able living women other than priestesses are generally named on stage in Aristophaniccomedyonlybyotherwomen(Sommerstein, 'Naming' 3936), and the use of personal names in the decree increases the male audience's sense of witnessing something special (and forbidden). Cf. 605 n. A common woman's name (seven additional examples in LGPN ii s.v., including Nu. 684 (despite 2V, not obviously a prostitute)). For other women's names formed from Xvaai, Bechtel, AF 24. An exceedingly common woman's name (47 additional examples in LGPNiis.v., including Nu. 678; V. 1397; EC. 41). For other women's names formed from aws and awaai, Bechtel, AF 33. 375—6 €KK\r]aiav iroeiv: Properly 'that we hold an assembly' (cf. Ach. 169; D. 21. 9), as opposed to 302 fKK\i]aiav . . . -jro-ljaai ('convene an assembly'); but the distinction is not maintained systematically (e.g. Th. ii. 22. i; Aeschin. 3. 6-j;'K.HGi. 7. 9). iroeiv is an imperatival infin. of a sort typical of decrees etsim. (e.g. Ach. 1001; Pax 551; Av. 449—50; IG I 3 10. 6, 9, 14; 31.6; 34. 7—8, ii, 17; 36. 8; 40. 3, 16; cf. K. Meisterhans, Grammatik der attischen Inschriften (Berlin, 1900) 244-6). iuGev: 2 n. Meetings of the Athenian Assembly (parodied here) regularly began at dawn; cf. 789 n.; Ach. 19-20 with Olson ad loc.; EC. 20-1, 84-5, 739-41; IG I 3 68. 30 Son. 'on which day in particular we have free time', explains 'for on the other days they are occupied with sacrifices'; cf. Introduction pp. 1—Ii. 377 XPTlhiaT^€lv: 't° do business'. Otherwise exclusively prosaic vocabulary (although cf. A. fr. 429 (corrupt)), used of political 'business' of one sort or another at e.g. Hdt. iii. 118. i (the earliest attestation of the word); Th. i. 87. 5; v. 61. i; Isoc. 4. 157; D. 18. 169; 21. 9, but here functioning as something approaching a technical term, 'do assembly business' (e.g. IG I 3 61. 52; IP 103. 16; 106. 9; n7b. 4-5; 128. 12; 181. 9); that the business 'about Eur.' is to be taken up first (-upum) is a clear indication of its significance. 378—9 o TI xp1! Tra0€iv |K€IVOV is an echo of a standard legal formulation (PI. Ap. 3&b with Burnet ad loc.; IG IP 1103. 9; cf. D. 21. 25; 24. 105; Aeschin. i. 15; 3. 121). d8iK€iv y^p 8oK€i / i\\iiv dudaais: 'we all agree that he is guilty'; for the idiom, e.g. Av. 1584—5; Lys. 6. 14; 20. 15; X.ffGi. 7. 10; D. 23. 28. TIS aYopeueiv POU\€TCU;: Cf. EC. 130-1
('Who
wishes to speak?' 'I do.' 'Then put the garland about your head, and may good fortune accompany you!'). TIS a-yopeveiv povXerai; is the actual formula used by the Herald to initiate general debate on a question being put to the Assembly (Ach. 45* with Olson ad loc.; Aeschin. i. 27; D. 18. 170, 191; Alcid. Soph. 11; cf. 295-382 n.). For dyopetJo), 306-9 n. 380 eyu: Spoken by one of the two women who entered with the chorus at
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294, and who now steps over to the coryphaeus and is offered a garland, which she puts around her head (cf. 443 n., 466—8 n.). This character remains anonymous until 605, where she identifies herself as 'Kleonymos' wife'. At 760 (where see n.) another character refers to her as Mika, and we have used this name in the text, although this arguably misrepresents the situation on stage at this point in the action. rovSe: Sc. as the context makes clear; cf. EC. 171; Men. Dysk. 964. 'The demonstrative is often used in a way that would be perfectly intelligible on the stage, though less so to the reader' (Rennie on Ach. in; see Olson adloc.; Kasse^ZPT? 145 (2003) 26); cf. rdaSeat 726androuTi'at 1203; Ach. 331 (Adp«oy), 346 (-rpi^iav), 1227 (xoa)', Dover on Nu. 1146. For the garland worn by speakers in the Assembly, EC. 131 (above), 148, 163, 170-1; cf. Av. 463—5. For garlands generally, 447—8 n. "S, S. OC 681 asserts that garlands of flowers were forbidden at the Thesmophoria (<j>aai . . . rais but as Richardson (h.Cer., p. 142) notes, 'this may mean that crowns were only of myrtle or smilax, rather than that no flowers were used at all'. R's is far less common than the Suda's-jTpoTepov-jrpLv(e.g.Ec. 620; Hdt. vii. 8. j8. 2; Th. v. 10. 9; Isoc.4. 89), but is protected by Ach. 383 (also and ought to be printed as the lectio difficilior. 381—2 Trochaic tetrameters, which elsewhere in Ar. regularly introduce the agon, for which the assembly-debate here stands in; cf. 383—530 n. Cf. Theoc. 15. 96, 99 ('Be quiet, Praxinoa! She's going to sing the Adonis song. She'll give a fine performance, I'm sure; she's just clearing her throat'). Cf. Cratin. fr. 315 aKove, aiya, -n-poae^e rov vovv, Sevp' opa ('Listen! Be still! Pay attention! Look in this direction!'); Plaut. Poen. 3 sileteque et tacete atque animum advortite ('Be silent! Hush! Turn your attention here!'); Ter. Eun. 44 date operam, cum silentio animum attendite ('Pay attention! Give heed in silence!') with Barsby ad loc. The request clearly approximates the sort of things heralds said routinely at the beginning of meetings of the Assembly; cf. E. Hec. 529—33; Supp. 668—9; I A. 1563—4; fr. 773. 75; Luc. Dear .Cone. I aKove, aiya. TLS a-yopeveiv fiovXerai; ('Listen! Be still! Who wishes to speak?'); Beobachtungen 119-20. For 25 n.; Isoc. 7. 19; A. Burckhardt, Spuren der athenischen Volksredein der alien Komddie(D\ss,. Basel, 1924) 15—16, andcf. the common exhortation to the audience at the beginning of parabases Trpoae^ere TOV vovv (Eq. 503; Nu. 575; V. 1015; Av. 688; Pherecr. fr. 84. i). ('she is clearing her throat'; onomatopoeic) is attested elsewhere before Theokritos (above) only in comedy (Eup. fr. 176. 4; cf. adesp. com. fr. noo), satyr-play (E. Cyc. 626), and Hippocrates (e.g. Epid. 5. 78 (v. 248. 15); Viet. 62 (vi. 576. 23)); cf. Perpillou, RPh iii. 64 (1990) 9-12; La
L I N E S 380-432
175
Fontaine, Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon I ((Euvres diverses: Paris, 1942, 131) 'ayant tousse pour se nettoyer la voix, il commenca par ces vers'. 01 pr|TOp€s: 292—4n. jiaKpdv construes as an internal ace. with Xe^eiv ('to speak at length'), and no noun is to be supplied; cf. A. Ag. 916 with Fraenkel ad loc., 1296; S. Ai. 1040; EL 1259; E. Med. 1351; I A 420; Wilamowitz on E. HF 681. For other examples of a fern, adj. in agreement with an unexpressed abstract implicit in the vb. and construing as an internal ace., Eq. 121; V. iz^i',Ra. igi;Ec.SS^. 383-530 The debate consists of three speeches (383-432, 443-58, 466-519), each followed by a short ode (433-42, 459-65, 520-30). The first and third speeches are of nearly equal length (50 and 54 lines, respectively), the arguments in the third respond directly to those in the first, and the first and third odes respond. The second speech is much shorter and can be regarded as an appendix to the first, and Inlaw ignores it in his reply. The ode that follows the second speech stands on its own, but like them is written in trochaics. All three speeches contain (especially at the beginning and the end) rhetorical topoi typical of forensic speeches, and the first and third are notable for the citation of a wealth of examples and parallels, strung one after the other. Both are also much indebted to Euripides' plays, the first because it deals with themes treated by the tragedian and even cites him verbatim a few times, the third because (like Dikaiopolis' defence of his private peace at Ach. 496-556) it is modelled directly on Telephos' speech in the eponymous Euripidean tragedy. The second speech is also inspired by Euripides, but its strongly personal focus contrasts with the more general accusations of the first. The second speech and the long narrative sections of the third (476-89, 502-16) are also characterized by a decidedly popular style, which stands in clear contrast to their more solemn surroundings. The Aristophanic agon is normally written in anapaestic or iambic tetrameters and takes the form of an epirrhematic syzygy. But because the poet has put an adaptation of a tragic speech in iambic trimeters in Inlaw's mouth, the first speech (to which the third replies) must for reasons of symmetry be in trimeters as well, and the second is carried along with it. 383-432 A full-scale attack on Eur. for denouncing women in his tragedies, thus raising the suspicions of the city's men. The two issues of most concern to the speaker are sexual misbehaviour (396—409, cf. 410—13) and stealing from the household stores (418-28); as a penalty for the man who has let word of such crimes slip to the city generally, she proposes death (428—31). Like Inlaw (who is, however, rather more open about the nature of his argument) in 466—519, Mika does not deny the validity of Eur.'s accusations but instead blames him for having revealed the truth to the city's men, who are now in a position to prevent much that used to go on routinely unimpeded.
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383-4 <|n\OTifua KT\.: Speakers in the lawcourts and the Assembly often begin by offering a brief apology for their decision to become involved in this case or debate (e.g. Lys. 5. i; 8. 2; 14. 2; D. 27. i; 30. 1—3; cf. 385 n.; Ra. 866 with Dover ad loc.; EC. 151—2; Beobachtungen 138—40); for the specific excuse offered here, cf. D. 39. i ('It was not out of any taste for trouble, by the gods, gentlemen of the jury, that I brought this suit against Boiotos'). ^nAori^ia ('ambition' vel sim.) is in this period generally presented as something destructive which is to be avoided (e.g. Hdt. iii. 53. 1-3; Th. ii. 65. 7; iii. 82. 8; viii. 89. 3; Lys. 19. 56; cf. PL 192). The word is first attested at Pi. fr. 210. i, but is thereafter generally restricted to comedy and prose; in serious poetry also at E. Ph. 532; I A 527. That the speech opens with jiev is probably intended to echo the style of real arguments made in the Assembly and the lawcourts; cf. 466, 575; GP 383. fici ™ 0€ti: In Attic, oaths by 'the twin deities' refer to Demeter and Kore; they are used exclusively by women (esp. EC. 155—8, where one of the female conspirators swears by the two goddesses while practising an Assembly speech and is reprimanded for not correctly imitating a man; cf. 254 n., 566, 594, 718, 897*; V. 1396; Lys. 112 EC. 532*; Pherecr. fr. 75. 3 vi) TO) $eoi*; Alex. fr. 172. 2 vi) TO) $eoi*; Phot. p. 147; Rutherford 281). Like to Y uva ' K€ S (aparody of the voc. w avSpes with which speakers in the Assembly and the lawcourts routinely addressed their audience (e.g. Ach. 53; V. 950; cf. 466; EC. 165—8)), therefore, this represents a deliberate attempt by the poet to keep the topsy-turvy nature of a mock Assembly attended by women before the audience's eyes. The voc. raises the emotional level of the speech momentarily and is used routinely at the beginning (cf. 466, 533) and end (455) of orations, as well as with appeals for action (e.g. 540, 551, 598, 696, 983). 292-4 n. d\\(x Y»p marks 'the contrast between what is irrelevant or subsidiary'—here the fact that the speaker is not driven by any desire for personal distinction—'and what is vital, primary, or decisive' (GP 101), i.e. her concern for the good of the city's women generally (385—8). Also preceded by p,ev at S. OC 1615. 385-8 Cf. EC. 174-7 (Praxagora explains her willingness to enter the debate about how to rescue Athens) ('But I feel grief and take all the city's troubles ill; for I see her always employing wretched leaders'). 385 (3aplus 4><=poj: 'I take it ill'; a late 5th- and 4th-c. prose idiom (e.g. Hdt. iii. 155. i; Lys. 2. 77; P\.Mx. 248c; X.Mem, ii. 7. i; Aeschin. i. 62; also in Ar. at e.g. 474; V. ii4;Ra. 26). rdXaiva ('wretched') represents a brief irruption of poetic vocabulary (e.g. 559 with n.; A.Ag. 1107; E. Ba. 1200; cf. 241—2 n., 644 n., 760—1 n.; Dickey 162—3) into an otherwise pro-
L I N E S 383-94
177
saicpassage. -uoXuv tjSr) xpovov: 'for a long time now'. A late 5thand4th-c. prose idiom (e.g. Hdt. v. 106. i; Lys. 17. 4; PI. Ap. i8c; X.HG i. 1.35; Isoc. 8. 36; D. 10. 12), also in comedy at Pax 407*; Henioch. fr. 5. 3*; cf. anon. Dor. com. fr. 2. 5. Better taken with the following line than with >e'po). The fact that the speaker has suffered in silence for a long time serves as further proof of the purity of her motives; cf. 383-4 withn. 386—8 represent the accusation (given more specific content in 389—94, esp. 392—4) on which the speech as a whole expands. fievas: 'being grossly abused'; cf. 389 n. The vb. is first attested at S. OT 427 (where see Jebb's n.; the cognate noun TTpomjAaKia^os- appears at Hdt. vi. 73. i). It also occurs in comedy at Men. fab.incert.i(iv) 17 Arnott,butis otherwise prosaic (e.g. Th. vi. 54.4; Lys. 9.4; And. 4. 16; X.Tkfem. i. 2. 49; Agora inv. IL 1702. 4(a4th-c. letter inscribed on a lead tablet, published by Jordan, Hesperia 69 (2000) 91-103); D. n. n). rifids (Cobet, Mnemosyne 2 (1853) 211) is needed for R's vp.ds in view of rnj.ds in 389. UTTO: Enjambement with prepositions is extremely rare in iambic trimeter (cf. O. Bachmann, Conjecturarum observationumque Aristophanearum specimen i (Gottingen, 1878) 136; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1271; Maas §136) and serves here—after a slight pause—to put maximum emphasis on the name 'Euripides' at the beginning of 387. : According to Philoch. FGrHist 328 F 218 (ap. S e 3695), the historical Eur.'s mother was TOW a>6Spa evyevwv ('from one of the very best families'). Ar. none the less persists in referring to her as a hawker of vegetables, and as the ground for calling other socially prominent individuals 'sellers' of this and that (esp. Eq. 129-36) is that they owned large businesses involving these commodities, the most likely conclusion is that the father of Eur.'s mother grew or traded vegetables on a wholesale level. But whatever the precise historical point, the characterization is patently intended as an insult; cf. 456, 910 n.; Ach. 478 with Olson ad loc. (with further bibliography); Eq. 19; Ra. 840 with Dover ad loc., 946—7; Renehan, JHS 120 (2000) 167 (identifying a striking modern parallel). Aa^avoTroiA^rpia (a hapax legomenon) is an alternative form of the only very modestly better attested Xaxavo-maXis/XaxavoiTiiiXris (V. 497; Critias 88 B 70; 'Alexander' ap. 2VMEeBarb Ra. 840 (= Alexand. Com. fr. 7K); several late citations in LSJ Suppl. s.v.). For the ending (almost entirely confined to Attic), 392, 624, 1059; Silk, Eos 73 (1985) 239-46. For Aa^ara (a generic term for cultivated vegetables and potherbs), Olson-Sens on Matro fr. i. 14. A late 5th- and 4th-c. idiom (467; Eq. 1276 Nu. 1329 iroAA' O.KOVIUV Kal Ka.Kti', [PI.] Hp.Ma. 3O4d; cf. 85 n., 786 with n.; S. Ph. 607, 1313; E. Hel. 615); more often Kaxws aKovia (i 167 withn.). 389-94 A pair of rhetorical questions, the sense of which is virtually identical, although the second takes a more extended form. Cf. Aeschylus'
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denunciation of Eur. atRa. 1078-82 'What evils is he not responsible for? Did this fellow not present panders, and women giving birth in temples and having sex with their brothers and saying that being alive is not being alive?' For the repeated question, cf. the more common velsim. at e.g. PL 786; S.Ai. 1006, 1012; E.Andr. 299; Ph. 878; Or. 467-8; Hdt. vii. 21. i; Herod. 6. 74-5. 389 For the hostile OUTOS, LSJ s.v. C. I. 4 ('Attic law-language'); cf. 399, 450. ap.aiu (identified by ancient scholarship as an Attic variant of the more commonCT^TJ^O);cf. Rutherford 321-2; Bulloch on Call. Lav. Pall. 32)isetymologically 'smear' (e.g. JVM. 1237; Antiph. fr. 146.4; Alex. fr. 192. 5). But eiua|4rj is here used metaphorically (as also, according to 2R, by Cratinus (= fr. 97)), like irpoTrr)\a.Ki£(o (properly 'trample in the mud') in 386. 390 SiapepXrjx': For the vb. (first attested at A. fr. 69. 3 in the sense 'cross'; first attested in the sense 'calumniate, slander' at Hdt. v. 96. i (etc.); E. Hipp. 932), Chadwick 87—94. Cf. 411, 1169 with n.; contrast 1214 n. ('in a word, in short') is paraphrased avv-ro^ias KOL airXios in the scholia on Plato that refer to this passage (see testimonia), and is always used to qualify a relative (here omouiiep); cf. Wyse on Is. 9. 11. Colloquial Attic vocabulary, attested elsewhere in the classical period only in comedy (V. 1120; Cratin. fr. 274) and prose (e.g. Lys. 13. 92; PI. Snip. 2173). 391 The cumulative effect of the KCU'S in R's ('spectators and rpayoiSoi and choruses') makes it preferable to Z PL's ('spectators and tragic choruses'), and is best taken as 'tragic actors', as at e.g. Av. 512 (cf. Richards, CR 14 (1900), 204-6; DFA 128-32). 392—4 A series of seven charges, the first three quite specific and dealt with at length in the balance of the speech, the last four more general and subsequently less richly developed. TCIS . . . TCIS KT\.: The def. art. before the predicate with vbs. such as KaXuv functions like quotation marks; cf. Ach. 103, 640; fr. 494; S.OT 1288—9; Bruhn, Anhang§88; Page on E. Med. 207; Barrett on E. Hipp. 589-90 (the latter two with additional examples). For similar lists of abusive terms, each with its own art., Fraenkel, Glotta 41 (1963) 285-6 (citing Pax 241; Men. Pk. 172-3; A. Th. 572; S. El. 300—2; And. i. 95; Hyp. 5. 32, and arguing that this must be a colloquialism). fioixoTpomous ('inclined toward adultery') and dvSpepaoTpias ('inclined to fall in love with men'; for the formation, 386-8 n.), like oiVomVaj in 393 (cf. below), are not attested elsewhere outside the lexicographers and may be Aristophanic coinages. The consequences of Eur.'s making these charges are taken up, respectively, in 395— 7, 400-6, and then again in 414-17. For fiot^eta ('adultery'), 343-4 n. The stock Aristophanic examples of sexually depraved Euripidean women are Phaidra and Stheneboia (153 with n., 403—4 n.; Ra. 1043 with Dover
L I N E S 389-97
179
ad loc.). Cf. E. Andr. 229-30 (to Hermione of Helen) ('Don't try to outstrip your mother in fondness for men'). For R's pv-^o-, cf. 417, 501; Introduction p. xcv. R offers olvo-jroTi&as ('wine-drinkers'). But Symmachos (the 2nd-c. AD commentator on Ar.) ap. 2R, the author of the anonymous note there criticizing him, and the Suda all seem to have known oivo-uiiias, 'gaping after wine' (cf. Lys. 426—7), a hapax legomenon formed by analogy with Homeric7rap5ei'077M77jy(//. 11. 385), like-n-upommjyat.£5.407and Cratin. fr. 484. olvcnriTms is also reported as a variant reading in another note in R, is far more expressive, and must be right. The reading in R reflects the influence of -jrpo&oTi&as. For women's allegedly habitual drunkenness, 630 n.; cf. 347—8. The consequences of the charge are discussed at length in 418—28. ('traitresses') is otherwise in the classical period exclusively Euripidean vocabulary (of Medea at Med. 1332; of Helen at Cyc. 182; Andr. 630; El. 1028; Hel. 834, 931, 1148). Cf. Miller 177-8. For 'chattering' (137—8 n.) as typical of women, EC. 120 with Ussher ad loc.; cf. 717, 1097; Men. fr. 804. 12-13; Philem. fr. 154; E. Herad. 476-7 'silence and prudence are best for a woman' (an unfulfilled ideal); Andr. 936—8. For gossip generally, 577—8 n. 'nothing sound', i.e. 'utter rottenness'. Colloquial; cf. 636 with n.; Ach. 956 with Olson ad loc.;Pl. 37 (of a person), 355; E.Andr. 448 with Stevens ad loc.; Ph. 201; Gomme-Sandbach on Men. Pk. 187; Stevens 25-6. A very old sentiment and scarcely confined to Eur.; cf. 786—7 (presented as a commonplace); Lys. 260—1 'women, whom we keep in our house, although a patent evil'; Susar. fr. i. 3; Hes. Th. 592, 600; Semon. fr. 7. 96-8; 'E.Andr. 273 (of women) 'so great an evil are we to mankind' (interpolated?); Men. fr. 804. 16; Introduction pp. lii—Iv. 395—428 Concrete examples of the damage Eur. has done, interrupted at 398-400 by another generalizing complaint. 395-7 Picking up on rds ^OL-^OTPO-ITOVS in 392. Whether the audience in the Theatre included women is impossible to say (cf. Henderson, TAPA 121 (1991) 133—47; Goldhill, in R. Osborne and S. Hornblower, Ritual, Finance, Politics (Oxford, 1994) 347-69), and this passage shows only that the average respectable woman did not attend—as one might have guessed in any case. Adverbial euGus (first attested in a temporal sense at Hes. fr. 43a. 63) is older and more widely distributed than (first attested at S. Ai. 31 and in Hippocrates), but Ar. uses both metrigratia. ev8vs goes with the main vb. (i5m>j8Aem>t>(j'), not the part.; cf. V. 1081-2; Schreiner, PCPS NS 16 (1970) 100 n. 4. 'when they enter [the house]' (e.g. 495; V. 107; Ra. 981 (part of a very similar complaint); Ephipp. fr. 6. i; Antiph. fr. 216. 24), i.e. 'when they come back home'. duo TUV iKpiiov: In Homer and Herodotus, are 'planks, decking' (e.g. H.77. 15. 676, 685; Od. 3. 353; 5. 163; Hdt.
l8o
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v. 16. i). In Athens, the term was used of temporary stands of scaffolding set up to accommodate spectators for processions and (at least before a famous—and presumably catastrophic—collapse in Pratinas' time) theatrical shows in the Agora (Pratin. TrGF4 T i. 3-4; Hsch. a 1695; i 501; 77513; Phot. 195). After the dramatic festivals were transferred to the Theatre of Dionysos, the word continued to be used of the rows of seats there, as also at Cratin. fr. 360. 3. Cf. Martin, RPh iii. 31 (1957) 72-81; Agora iii (1957) 162-3; xiy ( I 97 2 ) 126-8; S. Scullion, Three Studies in Athenian Dramaturgy (Beitrage zur Altertumskunde 25: Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1994) 52—61 (arguing that there were no shows in the Agora and that the iVpia to which the lexicographers refer were wooden benches in the Theatre of Dionysos); J.-C. Moretti, Theatre et societe dans la Grece antique (Le Livre de Poche, references 585: Paris, 2001) 121—2. 'give a narrow glance at' + ace.; normally an expression of hostility or suspicion (Lys. 519 (also of a husband toward his wife); Pherecr. fr. 162. 5; E. HF 1287; PI. Cri. 53b; Snip. 22ob; contrast Phd. n7b with Burnet ad loc.). For the theme of the jealous husband, cf. 414—17; EC. 520—6. For Eur.'s plays arousing men's suspicions generally, cf.Ra. 958, 971-88. aKOTTOuvrai.. . / [ i r ] . . . f\: 'they check to make surethereisn't'(Goodwin§366). fioixosivSovKrX.: 05.499-501; EC. 225 (in a list of women's habitual practices) ^oi^oiy e^ovaiv evSov ('they have adulterers within [the house]'). For a real situation similar to the one described here, Lys. i. n. 398 &
L I N E S 395-404
l8l
(1987) 78. For Siy before the indef. pron., cf. E. Hipp. 513; GP 212-13. Cf. 448 with n., 458 with n.; Alex. fr. 54 'she is taken [by her husband] to be in love [with someone else]'. eic|3a\r|: 'should drop', as at Lys. 156; cf. LSJ s.v. I I I . For the idea, cf. 738 with n. OKCUOS (a generic term for an 'implement' of any sort; here 'a pot') appears in the sing, in this period only in comedy (also Eup. fr. 307; Anaxandr. fr. 12. i; Eub. fr. 30. i)andprose(e.g.Th. iv. 128.4; PI. Grg. 5o6d; X.Mem, i-7- 5). 349-51 n. -uXavufievT) seems an odd choice of vb., since it implies that the subject is wandering distractedly through her house (for no obvious reason), which again suggests that the scenes imagined in these verses are all part of the allusion to Stheneboia (cf. above). 403-4 (6) dvr|p: 'her husband'. TU KareaY^v KT\.: rut is 'to please whom?'; cf. Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. c. i. 5. 4 cuiflavam religas comam? An allusion to E. Stheneboia (undated beyond the terminus ante quern established by the references to it at V. n i, 1074; Cratin. fr. 299 (below); and probably Pax 124-6; cf. Cropp and Pick 90-1), which told of the Corinthian hero Bellerophon's visit to King Proitos, whose wife Stheneboia fell in love with their house-guest. When Stheneboia's advances failed, she accused Bellerophon of attempting to seduce her, and Proitos sent him to lolaus (Stheneboia's father) with a letter asking that he be put to death. The Aristophanic husband's suspicion alludes to E. fr. 664, which is preserved by Athenaios, who observes (10. 4276) that 'they assigned the bits of food that fell from the table to dead friends, on which account Eur. says of Stheneboia ('Nothing that falls from her hand escapes her notice, but immediately she says "To our Corinthian guest!"')'. The passage must have been notorious, given the allusion to it also at Cratin. fr. 299. 3-4 ((of a woman playing kottabos) 'as she drinks from an ankule, calling on [it] by name, she lets fly the wine-lees "To the Corinthian dick!"'); note the paratragic absence of resolution in 404 (as again in 406). For Stheneboia, Webster 80-4; Collard, in Collard, Cropp, and Lee 79-97; F. Jouan, Euripide viii. 3 Fragments (Paris, 2002) 1-27. A is a common cooking pot, made of clay (and thus easily broken) and normally used for stewing meat, boiling beans and other vegetables, or the like; cf. 505 with n.; Amyx 211-12; Olson on Pax 201-2; Olson-Sens on Matrofr. 1.48-9. ouK€<j0' onus ou ('there is no way that. . .not') is equivalent to a strong affirmative ('certainly! assuredly!'; cf. 847—8). A common Aristophanic line-opening formula (e.g. 882;-Eg. 238; Nu. 1307; Lys. 1092). TU Kopiv0iu pvu: A direct quotation from Euripides (cf. above), which makes the point of the allusion clear for anyone who may have missed it.
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405-6 An allusion to a scene in some lost Euripidean tragedy; note the paratragic absence of resolution in 406. This is an imaginary scene. But in actual situations of the type to which it refers, the girl's father would presumably be dead and legal authority (Kvpm) over her would have passed to her brother (Harrison i. 108-11), hence his concern about her behaviour (and ultimately her marriageability). For the construction of 405, in which the proposition Ka^ivei Kopr] TIS functions as the equivalent of an 'if'-clause (as in 400—2), cf. 407—8;Av. 76—7', EC. 179, 197; Anaxandr. fr. 35. 4-8; Alex. fr. 103. 7-21; Timocl. fr. 6. 13-16; Men. Dysk. 58-9; D. 3. 18; 18. 274; Gow on Macho 473-4. Ka^vei: 'is sick', asate.g.fr. 479; PI. Com. fr. 102. 2; Hdt. iii. 100; PI. R. 489^ euGus: 395~7 n.; cf. Eup. fr. i is 'the colour of her skin, her complexion' (e.g. Eq. 399; Nu. 120; Alex. fr. 167. 8; E. PA. 1246; Hdt. iv. 109. i), and the point must be either that the girl is wasting away like the lovesick Daphnis in Theoc. i. 64—145, or that she appears to be suffering from morning sickness, ^poi^a (first attested in Ar. and Hdt.) is late 5th- and 4th-c. colloquial vocabulary; serious poetry uses xp^s (cf- Lys. 127 (paratragic)). The position of fi(e) is due to the tendency for enclitics to thrust themselves forward in the colon; cf. 629 n., 1134— 5 n.; Wackernagel, KS i. 1—104. 407-9 For supposititious children, 339-41 n. For Euripides' treatment of the theme, cf. SatyrosPOxy. ix. n76fr. 39 col. vii. 10-11, where ('substitution of children') is included in a list of themes New Comedy derived from him; the only known example is the wife of Polybos atP/i.28-3i (but cf. Ale. 636-9). etiv is used colloquially in Attic when the speaker is proceeding on to the next point in the argument (e.g. Nu. 1075 ;E.H ipp.zg-; with Barrett ad loc.; PI. Phd. 95a; cf. nSSwithn.; Stevens 34; Lopez Eire 92—3). umopaXeaGai (JouXerai: Cf. below; Hdt. v. 41. zfiovXofAevTjvinrofiaXeadai. dmopouaaiiaiStdv: Marriage was entered into 'for the production of legitimate children' (Men. Dysk. 842—3; Pk. 1013—14 with Gomme—Sandbach on 1010 (sic); [D.] 59. 122; cf. X. Mem. ii. 2.4), who were expected to support their parents in old age (cf. 469-70 n.; Dunbar onAv. 1353-7), and infertility (or the inability to carry a baby to full term) was therefore a terrible thing—and probably a common cause of divorce (cf. E. Med. 490; Mastronarde on E. Ph. 16). 'it is impossible for this'—i.e. the attempt to sneak the child into the bedroom, so as to pass it off as the husband's; cf. 5056—'to go unnoticed'. For the scene imagined in 409, cf. Hdt. v. 41.2 where, when the wife of one of the Spartan kings was suspected of feigning pregnancy in order to pass off another woman's child as her own, 'the ephors sat around the woman and kept watch on her as she was giving birth'. (01) dvSpes: 'her male relatives'. tj8r): 'now' (as opposed to before Eur. began making trouble), as also in 415, 421.
L I N E S 405-414
183
First attested at Pax 46 and in Hippocrates (Fract. 13 (iii. 464. 5)), and absent from serious poetry. 410—12 For the theme of old men marrying much younger women (a course of action regularly presented as misguided or unseemly; cf. 413 n.), Lys. 595 with Henderson ad loc.; EC. 323-4; Men. Asp. 257-9; c f- adesp. com. fr. 738. For Tipo TOU ('before this [time]'), e.g. 418, 424; A. Ag. 1203; Hdt. i. 122. 2; cf. Schwyzerii. 507. ^icipaicas: ^eipa! (used only of girls) and its diminutives (all applied to children of either sex) are colloquial late 5th- and 4th-c. Attic vocabulary (e.g. EC. 696; Cratin. fr. 60; Anaxandr. fr. 34. 12; Lys. 3. 4; PI. Ap. I7c; absent from serious poetry). t]YOVTo: 'used to marry'. For other 5th-c. examples of the vb. used in this way, e.g. E.Andr. 104; HF 12; Hdt. ii. 47. i; v. 16. 2; Lys. i. 6; cf. A. fr. 267. 2; [A.] PV560 (both act. rather than mid.). The bride was in fact fetched from her house by the groom in a procession that represented the most significant public aspect of a wedding; cf. Oakley and Sinos 26—34. &<JT(€) KT\. does little more than restate the situation described in 410 and the first half of 411, but now in the negative and the sing., and with the content of the alleged slander (8iapep\T]K€v; cf. 390 n.) specified (413). R's OeXei is metrical, but Ar. uses the disyllabic form of the vb. only in the fixed phrase fjv 8eos deXrj (e.g. Pax 1187; PL 1188), in parody (e.g. Ra. 1468), and in tragic quotation (e.g. 908). Cf. N. I. B. Kappeyne van de Coppello, Obs. crit. i (Nijmegen, 1850) 2; Wilamowitz on E. HF 18; Arnott, in Willi 197—8. For the seemingly pleonastic use of with yifieiv, e.g. Antiph. fr. 58. 2; Eub. fr. 115. 2-3; H. Od. 15. 241; Isoc. 15. 156. TOUTTOS ro8i: 'this line' (cf. Nu. 541 with Dover ad loc.; Lys. 1038; Ra. 862, 1381; fr. 340; Hdt. iv. 29; Th. i. 3. 3; iii. 104.
4-5).
413 = E. fr. 804. 3 (from Phoinix) and is also one of Menander's Sententiae (191, although the MSS have ya^owm for ye'poim). The sentiment is actually a commonplace (e.g. fr. 616; Theophil. fr. 6. i; Thgn. 457; E. fr. 317. 4; and cf. 289—90 n., 410—12 n.). 414-17 Perhaps an allusion to the plot of E. Danae; cf. E. fr. 320 (414 n.); [E.] fr. 1132. 58-9 (from a Byzantine Danae, possibly based on Euripides) ('But her father locked her in her rooms and guards her body with sealings'); Hor. c. iii. 16. 1-4 Inclusam Danaen turris aenea / robustaeque fores et vigilum canum I tristes excubiae munierant satis / nocturnis ab adulteris ('A bronze tower and strong doors and the gloomy guard set by watchful dogs had kept imprisoned Danae quite safe from nighttime adulterers'). 414 etra: 'Next'; adding an item to a list (here of Eur.'s crimes against women). rais Y uvaiKUV ' TlCTlv: Athenian houses were conventionally divided into a men's quarter (av&piav or av&piuviris), which was
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open to male visitors (e.g. fr. 69; X. Snip. i. 4), and a women's quarter within which an unmarried girl might have her own bedroom or TTcipdevcav (E. IT 826; Ph. 89; I A 738, 1175; [A.] PV 646), generally on the upper floor), which was not; cf. Men. fr. 410. 1—2; Lys. i. 9; 3. 6; X. Oec. 9. 5-6 with Pomeroy on 9. 5. The house of Xenophon's aristocratic Ischomachos included a women's quarter 'separated from the men's quarter by a bolted door' (Oec. 9. 5), and there are scattered references elsewhere to locking and sealing doors to keep women safe within and adulterers and other troublemakers out (Apollod. Car. fr. 6; E. Andr. 950-3; fr. 1063. 9-11); cf. Lys. 1.13 (where the door leading to what used to be the women's quarter in the speaker's house is secured by a bolt within). But this is all regularly presented as wasted effort (esp. E. fr. 320 'no wall or property or anything else is as difficult to guard as a woman'), and a formal division of domestic space may have been more an ideal than anything else (cf. Lewis 135—8); and although there were informal restrictions on the ability of respectable Athenian women to move freely about the city (cf. 505 n., 790-9 with 789-90 n.), it is difficult to believe that more than a very few belonging to extremely wealthy families were kept in anything that approached isolation, despite Lys. 16 ('Getting out of the house is difficult for a woman'—but only, it seems, because she has so many domestic chores to do!). Interior doors were probably rare in Greek houses except for women's quarters and storerooms (415 n.); cf. Pritchett 248. 415 apciY'SaS: Doors to storerooms in particular were often not just locked (cf. 418-23) but sealed with clay (Lys. 1197-9; Hdt. ii. 38. 3) in which impressions were made with a ring belonging to the owner (or, in the case of state treasure-rooms and the like, the official to whom the material within had been entrusted); cf. 424—8 with nn.; Eg. 947—8 with Olson, ZPE 113 (1996) 25 3-4 (on the Athenian state seal);/G I 3 52. A. 1718 (duties of the treasurers on the Acropolis, 434/3 Be) ('let them lock and seal the doors of the Opisthodomos'); A. Ag. 609—10 with Fraenkel ad loc.; Eu. 827—8; E. Phaeth. 223 with Diggle ad loc.; Men. Asp. 357-8 ('he'll go around wearing keys, putting seals on the doors'); adesp. com. fr. 1084. 34; D.L. iv. 59 (the story of the foolish Lakydes, who used to seal up his storeroom and throw his signet ring in through a slot in the door; when his servants noticed this, they broke open the storeroom and took whatever they wanted, and then sealed the door and threw the ring back in); Plaut. Cas. 144; Epid. 308. appears to be the voxpropria for 'applying' sealrings and thus seals (Av. 559-60, 1213-15 withDunbaron 1213; Hdt. iii. 128. 2; Men. Asp. 358 (above); Luc. Tim. i3;cf.Thgn. i9);jioxXous—for which the correct vb. is 6p.j3a.XXiu (e.g. Lys. 246; Thphr. Char. 18. 4)—is
L I N E S 414-21
185
used by zeugma. For doorbars, e.g. V. 113 with MacDowell on 154; fr. 379; and cf. 421-3 n. tj8r): 407-9 n. 416—!7TT]pouvT€sr|nITOV: 'barley groats' (a collective sing., as in Homer; elsewhere in Ar. always pi.), like olive oil and wine (below) a basic household commodity (e.g. V. 300-1; Men. fr. 218. 2-3); cf. Olson-Sens on Archestr. fr. 5. 7. ('olive oil') appears in lists of basic household commodities, kitchen
l86
COMMENTARY
supplies, and the like at e.g.y4c/i. 3 5 with Olson ad \oc.;Av. 5 33; Antiph.fr. 71. 2; Alex. fr. 179. 5; Timocl. fr. 38. i; Philem. fr. 105. 3; Men. Sam. 227; fr. 218. 4. otvov: 630 n. Another basic commodity. 'these (opportunities) no longer exist'; cf. 418 n. 421-3 A twofold complaint: (i) the men now keep control of the household keys themselves (auroi; contrast 418-20), and (2) the keys they use are impossible, three-toothedmonstrosities rather than the simple, conventional sort, which fit locks that are much more easily picked. 'they wear keys', i.e. on strings or chains about their necks; cf. 1140-2 n.; Men. Asp. 357-8 (415 n.); Mis. fr. 8 ('it seems I've got to carry about a Lakoniankey' (for which, see below)); adesp. com. fr. 252 o &' dyopd£ei KXfjS' e^ow ('he does his marketing wearing a key'). «Aei9 is the colloquial spelling of the word (cf. fr. 15); contrast 40 with n. Kpu-irrd: 'hidden [from us, when the men do not have them on their persons]', 'thoroughly nasty', for reasons hinted at in 423. KaKor/Oris and its cognates (first attested and extremely common in Hippocrates, who uses it of diseases and the like rather than of persons) are late 5th- and 4th-c. vocabulary (e.g. Pax 822-3; Men. &• 811. 2; PI. R. 40ib; Isoc. 15. 223; Aeschin. 2. 4); cf. Dover, GPM56—7. AaKioviK(d) . . . rpeisixovra YOfi<|>ious: 'Lakonian keys' are referred to also at Aristopho fr. 7. 4; Men. Mis. fr. 8 (above); Crit. 88 B 37; Plaut. Most. 404. The multiple teeth must have served to lift individual 'pins' (paXavoi) that secured the bar, but the details of how they worked are obscure. Cf. Daremberg—Saglio s. sera (although the key illustrated on p. 1244 is not necessarily of the ' Lakonian' variety); H. Diels,Parmenides(Berlin, 1897) 141-5; Hug,_R_BSuppl. ii(i923) 5659, esp. 566—7; R. F. Willetts, Selected Papers (Amsterdam, 1986) 181—99, esp. plates i—iii; Whitehead, CQ NS 40 (1990) 267—8. yopuj>ios (properly an adj., 'peg-like [tooth]', as opposed to an incisor; cf. Olson on Pax 33-4) is colloquial vocabulary (e.g. Ra. 572; Phryn. Com. fr. 73. i; Hdt. ix. 83. 2; Arist. GA 789"!); first attested at Epich. fr. 18. 3. For the word used to refer to the 'tooth' of a key, cf. Lat. dens (Tibull. i. 2. 18). ('some, certain'; equivalent to TWO) is common in comedy (e.g. Nu. 630; Ra. 173; Sotad. Com. fr. i. 22) and prose (e.g. PI. Grg. 49&c; X. Cyr. iii. 3. 8; D. 55. 19) but absent from serious 5th- and 4th-c. poetry; cf. (587-8 n.). 424-8 A separate problem from the one just described, this time involving storerooms that are sealed but not locked (contrast 421-3), and thus simple theft rather than abuse of authority (contrast 418—21). 424—6 Tipo TOU fiev ouv ^v d\\' . . . / . . . / vuv 8': Cf. 449—50 Pax 690-2; PI. Euthd. 272a. p,ev is prospective, ovv transitional (GP 470-2); cf. 1174. For dAAd meaning 'at least', cf. 449 (above); GPi^. uiroi^ai: The prefix implies secrecy, as at EC. 15; Alkimos
L I N E S 419-29
187
FGrHist 560 F 2 (the only other attestations of the compound, both in very similar contexts). rr|v 0upav: 'the [storeroom] door', 'after getting it made'; cf. Pax 69 KrAi^aKia iroioii^evoy ('getting some light ladders made'). SaKruXiov: 'a signet-ring', like the one worn by the Paphlagonian as Demos' steward and the other given to the Sausage Seller at Eq. 947-59, in this case equipped with a copy of the husband's (apparently quite conventional) seal. For makers and engravers of signet-rings, PL 883—4 (where a ring intended to provide supernatural protection of some sort costs a drachma, the same price as at Antiph. fr. 175. 5); Philyll. fr. 14; Pherecr. fr. 234; PI. Ale. I I28c. For actual examples (all much more elaborate than the inexpensive item referred to here), J. Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings (London, 1970) 189-302 (with plates 444-822). Tpuop6\ou: A proverbially small amount (Pax 848 rpidajSoXov*; PL 125*; Nicopho fr. 20. 3; Eub. fr. 87. 3; Epicr. fr. 3. 18; Phoen. fr. 6. 21, p. 236 Powell; cf. PL 329). An oiKorpufj is properly a slave born and brought up in the house, like Dromon at Men. Sik. 78 (see Austin on Men. Asp. 176); cf. (of a slave taking refuge in the Theseion) at fr. 475. Here the word is used as a term of abuse against Eur. because 'no-one knows better than a slave born and raised in the house how household affairs ought to be managed' (Fritzsche ad loc.). Cf. D. 13. 24 ('human pestilence, second-generation oiKorpipes'). For the crasis, 349—51 n. 427—8 ISiSa^e: Cf. 399 with n.
0pnrr|8€<jT(a) . . . at^payiSia: For
the use of signet-rings with seals made of wood damaged by wood-boring beetles (dpmes', cf. Beavis 181-2), creating an intricate and unique design, or perhaps of wood deliberately carved to look this way, cf. Thphr. HP v. 1.2; Luc. Lex. 13; Paus. Gr. 0 18 Erbse; Hsch. 0 761. This might be another allusion to the action in a lost Euripidean tragedy (with the ring in question serving as a birth-token or the like); or perhaps the speaker means nothing more than 'as a result of what Eur. has taught them (i.e. about our general treachery and thievishness), they now wear special rings'. SpiTTr/Searo; is first attested here; subsequently before the Roman period only at Hyp. fr. 82 (metaphorical); Thphr. HP iii. 8. 5; ix. 14. 3. 'to put on and wear' (LSJ s. e^a-m-ai A. II. 2). For this use of e^a), 733—4 n. Ifioi. . . 8oK€i: Also used to introduce a definite proposal for action at Eq. 654 (in the Council), 1311 (in the triremes' debate). 429 KupKdvdv: Lit. 'mix up' (cf. Epinic. fr. i. 8 (of producing a drink made of honey, wine, and flour); Hp. Mul. 57 (viii. 114. n)), i.e. 'plot, devise'; cf. 75 (asimilar culinary metaphor) with n., 852; Taillardat §421. 'in one way or another', and thus little different from in 430. An Attic idiom (despite Moer. a 103); also attested at Lys.
l88
COMMENTARY
fr. 103 Sauppeap. Harp. A 103; PI. Ti. 520; Arist. Ph. 196*16; GC 333 b 2&; Metaph. 1022*2; Rh. 1415b3o; cf. Ach. 608 d^HjyeVij with Olson ad loc. 430 For r ] . . . r ] . . . y€, cf. Th. vi. 34. 2 r/ ^>avepa>? r/ e^ evo? ye rov Tpowov; KG 11. 173. <|>apfiaKoiaiv: Cf. 561; Oeri 23. That women work against their enemies by preference by means of poison is a Euripidean trope (e.g. Med. 384-5; Hec. 876-8; Ion 616-17, 843-5; &• 464). ('by some device') = eviye rca rpo-jriu (PL 402; PI. Phdr. 242b; Men. 9&d; D. 58. 65); cf. 64-5 n., 429 n.; Th. vi. 34. 2 (above); Luc. DMeretr. 12. 2. 431-2 onus d-n-oXeiTdi is not really necessary after 428-9, but the repetition serves to bring out the speaker's main point as forcefully as possible: Eur. must die. Taur(a) KT\. presumably echoes actual procedure in the Athenian Assembly: when the Council had put forward an open probouleuma (372-9 n.) or when someone wished to propose a course of action different from that recommended by the Council, a man might speak generally in favour of an idea and draft the specific language of the decree afterwards 'in consultation with the secretary' (in this period probably the same man as the 'secretary of the prytany' referred to in 374). For Gvyypdffro^ai, cf. PI. Gig. 45ib ol €v ra> STJ^LW ovyypaffro^evoi ('those who arrange the drafting of [amendments to motions] in the Assembly'); Dover, G&G 31-3. For the various state secretaries andunder-secretaries and their duties, [Arist.] Ath. 54. 3-5 with Rhodes ad loc.; Boule 134-41. 'publicly, for everyone to hear'. Cf. 90—1 n., 672 n.; with the same sense in 465. rfjs YPafifiaT^tds: Pollux draws attention to the comic fern.; cf. 292 and K-A on Cratin. fr. 475. Mika returns the garland to the coryphaeus (cf. 380 with n.) and goes back to where she was standing before she began her speech. 433—42, 459—65, 520—3ob Each speech is followed by a short ode in which the chorus comment on what the speaker has just said. In the first and second ode, they praise the eloquence of the woman; in the third, they express shock at Inlaw's impudence. All three odes are written in trochaics; the first and third are strophe and antistrophe. 433-42 ~ 52O-3ob Mostly trochaic; cf. Parker 412-17. (i)433/4 = 520 (2)434/5 = 52i (3)435 ~522 (4)436 ~523 (5)436/7 ~524
par 2tr 2tr 2tr 2tr 2tr
L I N E S 429-35
189
2tr (6)437/8 ~525 2tr (7)438/9 ~ 526a lek (8)439 ~526b 2tr (9)440 = 527 (10)440/1 3 tr ~ 528/9 2tr (11)4423 ~ 529/3° lek (i3)442b = 530 (i) R's ov-mimoTf is unmetrical, and the simplest solution is to follow Dindorf (1825) 424, in deleting -jrore, which must have been added mechanically by an inattentive scribe. (3) For the dactyl in the strophe, cf. (6); dactyls frequently crop up in trochaic tetrameters (e.g. Ach. 318; 1^.496). There is thus not necessarily anything odd about Seivorepov (435), which is in any case needed for the sense, and the meaning is clearly 'a woman who speaks more cleverly'. (5-6) As Parker 415, notes, 'R's text is thoroughly garbled' and 'the colometry . . . is wildly disordered'. 436/7 probably represents a case of 'corruption by paraphrase' (cf. Parker 118) and thus requires substantial rewriting. Once R's ei&eas (ISeas S) arose out of scriptioplena ei&e, the further alteration of iravra S' to iraaas S' became inevitable. For the dactyls in 437/8, see on (3). 'Normal' trochaics can be restored via Enger's TTO.VT' epdaraaev (with to be deleted as a gloss, as suggested by Thiersch). But the resulting asyndeton (for which, see Denniston, GP 164, and (more fully) Greek Prose Style (Oxford, 1952) 99-123) would be awkward, and following Dale, Lyric Metres2 91, we hesitantly print R's text.
433-5 Cf. the very similar praise of Philokleon's speech by the chorus at V. 631-3 ('Never did we hear anyone speak so clearly or so cleverly'). 'not yet', i.e. 'never before'. Taurrfs: For the omission of r/ after the comparative, cf. Ach. 425; KG ii. 309-10. fJKOuaa: In contrast to 312-30, 352-71 (where the ist pers. pi. is used consistently), the chorus speak in the ist pers. sing, repeatedly in the ode and antode (also 442a, 52&a, 528/9), as if they were individual members of the assembly commenting on the proceedings. -iroXu-n-XoKUTepas refers to the ' intricate' wiles of the speaker's mind (Latin multiplex), as also at 463 (lyric) andThgn. 215 (of the octopus). The adj. and its cognates are attested first in Thgn. (also 67); subsequently at E. Med. 481; I A 197 (lyric), and in prose (e.g. Hp. Oss. 14 (ix. 188. 6); PI. Phdr. 23oa). On the metaphorical
igo
COMMENTARY
use of irXfKia in general, cf. Miiller 228-30. 'a more compelling speaker, more Seivrj Xeyeiv'; cf. EC. 516 (the chorus praise Praxagora after her great success in the Assembly) ('I don't know that I've associated with a woman who was more brilliant than you'). 436 SLKCUCI: 'true', as at e.g. 542; Ach. 373, 501; Eq. 510; Nu. goo. 436/7 Tiavra 8' €18': Aglowing compliment (contrast e .g. E. Ph. 745 but the text is conjectural (see metrical n.). is first attested at Thgn. 1016, but is primarily prosaic (in the tragic poets at S. Ai. 586; OC2ii; 'E. Ale. ion; Supp. 391). 437/8 ipdaraae: The vb. is literally 'hold, balance, weigh [in the hand]' (e.g. Hermipp. fr. 47. 2; H. Od. 21.405; S. PA. 657; OC 1105) and thus, by a natural extension of meaning, 'weigh [in the mind], consider' (e.g. Eup. frr. 76. 2; 326.4; adesp. com. fr. 949; [A.] PF888); cf. Fraenkel on A.Ag. 35; Dale on E. Ale. 19. Poetic vocabulary, first attested in Attic prose in Aristotle (Mu. 4OOb2; fr. 197). <|>p€vi: Handley, 'Words' 217-18. 'shrewdly', a poetic sense of the word; cf. Ach. 445 ('shrewd mind') with Olson ad loc.; Eq. 1132; EC. 571 ('shrewdmind'); Amphisfr. 33. 5—6 Xe-n-rfas xal -jrvKvtijs/TTOVT'
efeT
examine everything shrewdly and subtly'); H. II. zi. 293 TTVKLV(JJS. 438/9 -n-oiKiXous: 'intricate', i.e. 'cunning', as at e.g. Eq. 196, 686; Alex. fr. 115. 20; Pi. O. i. 29 withGerberadloc.; A.Eu. 460; E. fr. 16. 2; PI. Phdr. 23&b. dvr]up€v: In Greek, one 'discovers' an idea or technique (e.g. Nu. 76; Av. 362; Lys. in; PL 492) rather than 'inventing' it, but the chorus clearly mean the latter; cf. 23. 439 eu 8i€^T)TT)fi€vous: 'carefully worked out' vel sim. The compound is first attested at Eq. 1292; elsewhere before the Roman period only at PI. Pit. 258b;Thphr. HPv'n. 13.7. € 440-1 For the repetition of civ, 195-7 n ' Xeyoi map' aurr|v: Lit. 'if he should speak in comparison with her', i.e. 'if the two of them should engage in an oratorical contest'. E€VOK\€T]S 6 KapKivou: 168—70 n. 442a—b Since mdaiv ujuv is masc., this must be a reference to the audience in the Theatre rather than the other members of the assembly. 'to talk absolute nonsense', avrixpvs is used in a very similar fashion atEc. 339 raina . . . avriKpvs ('absolutely the same things'); cf. Ra. 741 with Dover ad loc.; PI. 384; Anaxandr. fr. 38. 3. The adv. is a 5th-c. variant of Homeric avriKpv; first attested at A. Ch. 192, but otherwise confined to comedy and prose (e.g. Th. i. 122. 2; Lys. 13. 78; Is. 11. 23; PI. Snip. 223b; D. 19. 36). For ouSev/^Sev Xe-yeiv (colloquial), e.g. 625, 634; Nu. 644; V. 1194*; Av. 66 with Dunbar ad loc.; Antiph. fr. 192. 6; S. fr. 314. 171 (satyrplay); E. Ba. 479 with Doddsadloc. (nowhere else in tragedy); Hdt. viii. 20. i; PI. Ap. 3ob); cf. Stevens 25. 443 A second woman, at this point anonymous but eventually identified
L I N E S 447-56
193
'writing poetry (153 n.) in his tragedies' (cf. Av. 101); cf. Hdt. iv. 16. I ev roiai emeu Troiewv ('writing poetry in his epic verses'). TOUS avSpas KT\.: A reference to embittered comments such as E. HF 1263, 1341—6; Or. 418; fr. 286. 1—2 ('Does anyone claim that there are really gods in heaven? There are not, there are not!'). For the alleged atheism of the historical Euripides (i.e. as represented on the comic stage), an issue not brought up by the first speaker or addressed by Inlaw in his response, Ra. 889—93; c f- Satyros, POxy. ix. 1176 fr. 39 col. x. 15-22 (Eur. supposedly prosecuted by Kleon for impiety); Renehan, CP 93 (1998) 176-7. TOVS avSpas is emphatic; 'he has persuaded the men'. dvcureueiKev: Late 5th- and4th-c. vocabulary, common in comedy (e.g. Eg. 68; V. 116; Antiph. fr. 188. 18; Men. Dysk. 838) and prose (e.g. Hdt. vi. 66. 2; Th. iii. 70. 6; PI. Grg. 493a), but attested in tragedy only at E. Hel. 825. 452 IfiTioX&Jfiev is used absolutely, as at Pax 448; the vb. (for which, Chantraine, RPh iii. 14 (1940) 21—4) is pi. because the reference is to all the workers in the garland-market. For the use of garlands in cult (alleged to be radically curtailed now, owing to Eur.'s atheistic teaching), Blech 181—312; Bezantakos 84—94. ou8' eis tjfiiau: 'not as much as half, i.e. 'not even half as much'. For this limiting use of els, LSJ s.v. I I I . 453-4 Cf. Mika's summation at 428-31 (which also begins vuv ouv). The pleonasm -uapaivti Kai \€Y" adds solemnity to the pronouncement. First attested at S.Ai. 1108, 1160, and widely distributed thereafter in both poetry (e.g. Nu. 1405; Eup. fr. *2O3; E.Andr. 740) and prose (e.g. Th. i.40. 5; Pl.Euthphr. sb; X.ffGv. 3. 7). 'for many reasons' (cf. Nu. 6*, 1508*; EC. 559*, 659), implicitly referring back to all the charges made by Mika in 385—428; cf. 455—6 n. But Kritylla seems unaware that her accusation against Eur. is in fact much graver. As Leo Strauss noted (Socrates and Aristophanes (New York and London, 1966) 221), 'She does not add, as Hermes added at the end of the Clouds, "But chiefly since you know that he acted unjustly against the gods". Euripides' atheism is of interest to her only because of its ruinous effect on her livelihood.' 455-6 Good rhetorical strategy: having used her own case as an exemplum, Kritylla at the very end of her speech insists that Eur.'s crimes are much larger than this, for he does wrong to the city's women generally and ought therefore to be condemned by their assembly (453-4). For the heightened emotional tone, cf. 383-4^ (on the use of the voc.), 465 with n. For the slur in 456 (intended inter alia to degrade the object of the attack and thus make him all the more deserving of a brutal punishment), 386-8 n. For causal + part, (also e.g. Pax 623; Av. 75; EC. 37), GP 525; perhaps colloquial. For 'wild potherbs' (with word-play—in a
194
COMMENTARY
list of passages denounced by Plutarch as 'inopportune and frigid'—on ('wild evils, savage evils'); C. F. Angus (unpublished version, 1922) translates 'His treatment of us could not have been grosser, / Brought up, as he was, to the grocer trade'), cf. PI. 298 For the predicative position of the adj. in the prepositional phrase, cf. S. Ant. 556; Gildersleeve§63O. 457—8 The tritagonist is needed to play Kleisthenes at 574—654, and these verses serve primarily as an excuse to get him off stage with time to rest and change costume before his return. d\\(d) is often used with the fut. indie, (especially of vbs. of motion) in continuous speech as 'the speaker breaks off his reflections, and announces his plan of action' (GP 8). Cf. 924 (where the verbal adj. takes the place of the fut.). Athens' marketplace was a sufficiently well-known spot that dyopd can function as a proper noun, and the def. art. is therefore sometimes dispensed with in phrases such as eis dyopdv (e.g. 578; Ach. 21; Ra. I35ob; EC. 62; contrastNu. 1003; Pax 1010; EC. 759); cf. KG i. 602-3; Neil onEq. 146Scarcely a contradiction of 450-2: that business is 7down does not mean that there is none at all; these garlands are just as likely intended for a symposium (cf. Blech 63—74; Olson—Sens on Archestr. fr. 60. i) as for a sacrifice; and the speaker's unwillingness to let this order go, despite the significance for her personally of the question under debate in the women's assembly, underlines her desperation. Blaydes may have been right to add p.' (presumably omitted via haplography before AN) after ydp, providing a subject for i.e. for a private party. -uXe^ai dvous: Cf. 400-1, 448 with n. 'contracted for, bespoke'; attested elsewhere only in citations of or glosses on this passage, but probably a normal commercial term, like the adjs. discussed in 743 n. eiKoaiv: Added last for effect (cf. 479-80 n. on eWe'riv); her survival is at stake. Kritylla gives the garland (443 n.) back to the coryphaeus and exits into Wing A. 459—65 The chorus praise Kritylla even more extravagantly than they did Mika (433—42), and at the end take up the matter they failed to address earlier: the need for Eur. to pay the price for his crimes (464/5-5). Trochaic, like the two other odes (43 3-42, 520-30), and non-responding. Cf. Parker 416-17. (i)459 (2) 460 (3)46i (4) 462 (5) 463/4 (6) 464/5 (7) 465
2tr 3tr lek 2tr 4tr 3tr lek
L I N E S 4SS-SI9
195
(3) The first syllable of ola scans as short; cf. V. 318; West, GM 104 n. 76. (5) For-n-oAiVAoKoy, cf. 115/16 with metrical n. (6) ^ for ", as in 684/5/6 (see metrical n. ad loc.); or read vppeius by synizesis? 459~6° For irepov au, e.g. Ach. 9; Eg. 949; E. Or. 1537; PI. Phd. iO4b; cf. 664 aAAoy a;? with n., 700—1 n.; MacDowell on V. 28. \fjjia is the subj. (not the obj.) of avr]V€v (always intrans. in the pf. in this period (e.g. S. OC 1222; Hdt. ii. 15. 2; X. HG iii. 5. 12)). \rjfj,a is poetic vocabulary (e.g. Eq. 757 (lyric); Nu. 457 (lyric) with Dover ad loc.; Ra. 6o2b (lyric); Epich. fr. 178 (trochaic tetrameter); A. Supp. 364 (lyric; corrupt); Th. 448; 'Simon.' FGE 737; Pi. P. 8. 45; S. El. 1427 (lyric)); absent from Attic prose but found in Herodotus in the sense 'courage' (e.g. v. 72. 4). 93 n. 461—4 oTa is exclamatory; 'what timely things!' Cf. Ra. 1160 a) KaT€araifi,v\fi,€V€ (of Eur.; the only other instance of the compound). arwfi,v\\ai/aTaifi,vX\ofi,ai and its cognates are attested in the classical period only in comedy (e.g. 1073—4; Ach. 429 with Olson ad loc.; adesp. com. fr. 115; subsequently at Theoc. 5. 79; [PI.] Erx. 397d) and are probably colloquial. Cf. Peppier 152-3. cmofuiAia is not normally praised (cf. Dover, Frogs, p. 22), but Ar. is doing two things at once, allowing the chorus to play the part of a discriminating audience enjoying a brilliant oratorical display (cf. Eq. 1375—80), while simultaneously putting a vb. in their mouths that undercuts their expressions of appreciation. For the litotes, which removes any reservations that might be thought to linger in the positive form of the adjs., KG ii. 180. aavveros/afiiveTOs is first attested at Ale. fr. 67. 2; Demod. fr. i. 1-2 (both omitted by LSJ s.v., the former added in the Supplement). (|>p€vas . . . / Kai . . . voT)fi(a): 291 n. •uoXuuXoKov: 43 3—5 n. Here the word is doubly appropriate, since Kritylla is a 'weaver' by profession (448, 458). inOavd: 266—8 n. 465 rauTT) s rf) s ii Ppeio s adds an angry, emotional note and explains (for which, 431-2 n.): Eur. has not merely injured the city's women but has done so openly and insultingly (63 n.), and his punishment must be equally open to public view. Cf. 673—7, 679—86. A 5th-c. idiom (e.g. 543-4; Eq. 710; E. HF-J4O; Hdt. iii. 69. 2; IG IP 125. 9), first attested at A. Supp. 733. 466—519 Inlaw's speech, like Dikaiopolis' at Ach. 496—556, appears to be modelled directly on the disguised Telephos' defence of his people and himself to the assembled Greek army in E. Tel.; cf. Introduction pp. Ivi-lviii. The specific points of verbal contact between the Aristophanic speeches (all doubtless echoes of the Euripidean text) are: (i) 469—70 ~
196
COMMENTARY
Ach. 509; (2) 471-2 ~ Ach. 501, 504, 507; (3) 473 ~ Ach. 514. Cf. nn. ad locc., 518-19 ~ E. fr. 711, 540-1 n. Inlaw admits that Eur. has done everything he is accused of, but defends him (incompetently, although to tremendous comic effect; cf. 184—6 n., 269—76 n.) by arguing that that is not really so bad, since all the poet's charges are true and there is in any case a great deal he has not revealed (cf. Giacomoni, QUCC 63 (1999) 91—5). The speech (which responds to 383—432, ignoring 443—58) consists of (i) a prologue that sets up the argument (466—75); (2) an extended inset narrative intended to prove that women are every bit as bad as Eur. claims, and supposedly based on personal experience (476—90); (3) a catalogue of other alleged female misbehaviours that Eur. never mentioned (491—501), culminating in (4) a second long inset tale illustrating women's depravity (502-16); and (5) a final summary which echoes the key point of the prologue (517-19, cf. 473-5). For the simple narrative style, in which the sentences are linked to one another with the same connective particles, which appear again and again (482 486 487 488 and then 483 in the second inset narrative 504 5°5 5°7 Beobachtungen 126—7; Dover, 512 51° 5ii G& G 28-9; EGPS 76-7. 466-8 Inlaw steps forward, takes the garland from the coryphaeus and puts it on his head (cf. 380 n.), and begins to speak. For the rhetorical strategy, cf. Th. ii. 60. i; X. An. vii. i. 25 am not surprised, soldiers, that you are angry and think you are suffering terrible things by being deceived'). The point is resumed in 518 383—4 n. to Y uva ' K€ s: 383—4 n. The vb. is attested elsewhere in the classical period only at V. 501 (also with dat.); E. Andr. 689. But the cognate adj. o^vdv^os (first at A. Eu. 705) is more common (e.g. Eq. 706; Phryn. Com. fr. 19. 3; E. Med. 3K);Hp.Epid.n. 5. i6(v. 130. 19); Hyp. fr. 79; cf. S. O C i i 9 3 , and the image is by this time probably banal; cf. Taillardat §357. For atfioSpa + vb. (very rare in serious poetry but common in comedy and prose, and presumably colloquial), cf. 613; Thesleff §§119-29; Dover, G&G 57—9. TOLCIUT'ctKououaas KCIKCI: A reference to the catalogue of crimes at 389—428, esp. 389—94, 411—13. For the idiom, cf. 388 withn. 6au|-iaaLov: Common in Plato (e.g.Phdr. 242a; Grg. 49&a) and the orators (e.g. Lys. 6. 20; Is. i. 28; D. 19. 87; Aeschin. 3. 152), but attested in serious poetry (which uses Oavp.aoTos; cf. 520) only at Hes. Th. 584; h.Merc. 443; incert. lesb. fr. 37. 7; Pi. P. i. 26. Cf. Braswell on Pi. P. 4. 241. l-ui^eiv rr|v x°Mv: Anger and the like are routinely said to 'boil' or 'boil over' (e.g. [A.] PV 370; Anaxipp. fr. 2. 1—2 rrjv %o\r]v I • • • £ec?at; Luc. Fug. 19
L I N E S 466-73
197
cf. 680-3 n -; Pherecr. fr. 208; Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part i, v. 4. 120-1 'boiling choler chokes / the hollow passage of my poison'd voice'; Rutherford 17; Taillardat §352; Nisbet—Hubbard on Hor. c. i. 13. ^fervens difficili bile tumet iecur; Arnott on Alex. fr. 46. 3—4; Olson on Ach. 321—2. For^oAij ('bile') in the extended sense 'anger, combativeness', e.g. V. 403; Lys. 465; Eub. fr. 93. 9; Alex. fr. 150. 5; Theoc. i. 18; Herod. 6. 37. 469—70 Cf. Ach. 509 (near the beginning of Dikaiopolis' Telephos-speech) eyo> Se |U,tao> ^i€v AaKeSai^ovtovs o<j)68pa ('I really hate the Spartans'). Kaurr) Y»p : 'For I myself, in fact' (cf. Eq. 252; GP 108-9). OUTUS ovaifiTjv TUV T€Kvuv: Expressions of this sort generally include a balancing oij-clause (e.g. Nu. 520—1; cf. Ter. Heauton. 686—7 ^a me di ament ut ego nunc . . . / laetor) but sometimes omit it (as here), especially when the vb. in the main sentence is an imper. (E. Med. 714-15; Men. Dysk. 299-300; Epitr. 264-7; Pk. 400 with Gomme-Sandbach ad loc.; Herod. 5. 69—71); cf. KG ii. 494—5. For the specific wish to gain advantage from one's children (i.e. by receiving support from them once they reach adulthood; cf. 407-9 n.), Philem. fr. 143; D. 28. 20; Herod. 5. 69-71 with Headlam ad loc.; Luc. Philops. 27. For a wish with OVTWS at the beginning of a speech, Men. Sik. 224; Herod. 3. 1—2; Hor. c. i. 3. i sic te divapotens Cypri. ei fir) |-icuvo|_icu is used in dogmatic affirmations also at Nu. PLEuthd. 2836; Prt. 3496; cf. 196 oV pa.ivoiptff ay with n. 471 Iv: 'among'; cf. 52&a; Ach. 498, 630; Nu. 892; V. 1185; PL 1061; LSJ s.v. A. I. 5. b. Souvcu \6yov: 'to have a [frank] discussion'; cf. Hdt. i. 97. 2; iv. 77. i; X. HGv. 2. 20. 472 Probably a parody of aline fromE. Tel., given the echo at Ach. ^o^ 'we are alone' (e.g. Ach. 504 (above) with Olson ad loc.; V. 255; PI. Prm. I37a; Herod. 6. 70 with Headlam ad loc.; Luc. DDeor. 14. 2; cf. Plaut. Cas. 197 nos sumus; KG i. 652—3). 'there is no-one who will carry a report of our discussion off [to the city's men]' (thus 2R); cf. PI. La. 2Oia MSS; contrast p.vOos 6K(j>opogat Cratin. fr. 305). For the idea, c f- 363— 4 with n. Valckenaer (on E. Hipp. 294 (Leiden, I768)p. I94)proposed eK>opd on the ground that eK>opos cannot have an active meaning. But compounds with ->opos can be used both actively and passively (e.g. ; cf. Chantraine, Formation 8—9; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 12. For a gen. dependent on a verbal adj. used actively, cf. Pax 678 aTro^oAi^aioy TOW oVAaw; KG i. 371. 473—519 For the idea, cf. fr. 9 ('Not without reason, ladies, do our menfolk always pound us with every sort of abuse; for they catch us doing terrible things'). 473 The echo of this verse at Ach. 514 ('Why do we blame the Spartans for these things?') suggests an allusion
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toE. Telephos. Intransitive ixouacu'adds a notion of duration to that of present action' (LSJ s. e'^oi B. IV. 2; cf. 852 n.). Meineke suggested ''icfivov, but if this is paratragedy (cf. 472 n. and above), the paradosis Keivov (also in tragic parody at 784; V. 753) is right. 474-5 (3ap€us . . . <|>€pOfi€v: An echo of 385 (where seen.). For the rhetorical device of minimizing the claims made by one's opponent while inflating the number and significance of one's own , cf. [Arist.] Rh.Al. I439 b 5. ^uveiSus goes with KCIKCI (cf. fr. 207. 2), and et-ue governs both «a«d and Spuoas (for the double ace., cf. 5 51-2); 'if he, aware of two or three of our misdeeds, has told of them against us who do countless such things'. For p.vpm in the common sense 'countless', e.g. 927; Nu. 685; Av. 231; Ra. 143; cf. 555. 476-516 By offering a personal anecdote in support of the argument made in 473-5, Inlaw both lends more credibility to his case (cf. the similar strategy at 444—52) and momentarily avoids speaking evil of anyone else (476—7). But this initial caution rapidly yields to wild slanders of women generally (491-6) and racy anecdotes about other anonymous individuals (499-516). Cf. S. Trenkner, The Greek Novella in the Classical Period (Cambridge, 1958)80—4,86—7. Unlike Mika, Inlaw focuses almost exclusively on sexual treachery, although he later insists that, had he wished, he could have discussed other sorts of matters as well (555-65). 476-7 fi(r|) d\\T)v: For the synizesis, 286-8 n. A syllable is missing from the text, and Seivorarov in 478 provides good support for adding Sew(d), as Bentley was the first to see; but Dawes' iio\\(d Seiv'} lends more emphasis to the crucial word than does Bentley's 'sums up the main import of details which have been . . . omitted as unnecessary' (GP 4.63; cf. E. Or. 14—15), here all the other terrible things Inlaw has supposedly done. 478 vufi<|)T).. . rp€isr|H€pas: 'a bride of three days, three days wed'. The addition of this detail significantly increases the outrageousness of the story in 481—9: although she has been married only a very short time and her husband is there in bed beside her, the narrator cannot resist her desire for another man. Cf. 479-80 n., 483-6 n., 488 n. For what is at least presented as a more typical attitude of a recently married woman to sex with her husband, Ach. 1056—60 with Olson on 1058—60. f\: 173— 4n. 479—80 6 8' dvr)p map' Ifioi KaGrjuSev: That a woman shared a bed with her husband on their wedding night is to be expected (e.g. Nu. 49-52); but there is no reason why married couples should have slept together routinely thereafter, even if they visited one another's beds for sex. This passage, however, along with EC. 536—42; adesp. com. fr. 1084. 2—7; Lys. I. 10; and perhaps E. HF 68 (l-n-icnjfAov evv-ijv 'HpaKXei avvoiKiaas (lit. 'coinhabiting a famous bed with Herakles')), leave little doubt that Athenian wives (like their Homeric counterparts) normally spent the night in their
L I N E S 473-84
199
husbands' beds rather than in the women's quarters (414 n.). Zanetti's -rjv- rather than the paradosis -ev- (mid-4th-c. and later; further corrupted into the infin. inR) is the proper form for this period; see K—Aonfr. 291. introduces an important new element into the story; cf. Lys. I. 22 2arpaTOs rjv poi em-njSeioy ml i\os ('I had a close friend named Sostratos'; introducing events on the crucial final night of the narrative). 'a lover' (346 n.). 8i€Kopr]<j€v: 'deflowered', e.g. Ephor. FGrHist-jo F i; Luc. Tax. zs;DMar. n. i;DMeretr. n. 2; Ael. NA n.
16; Artem. 2. 65; Sor. i. 7. 2; cf. Antiph. fr. 76. 2 SieTmpBevevaa; Anacr. PMG 366 dAA' d) rpls K€Kopijfi,€V€ I 2fj,epSirj; Petr. Sat. 25 devirginatur . . . puella satis bella et quae non plus quam septem annos habere videbatur. Seven is too young for any normal girl to engage willingly in intercourse with a man, and Inlaw is not obviously referring to being raped. Instead, the point is to cast the narrator as a preposterously shameless sexual prodigy (cf. 478 n.), rather like Helen according to Tzetzes on Lye. 102—3 ( c f- Isoc. 10. 18—19), and the crucial word is accordingly reserved for final position in the line. 481 -n-oGu: Also used of specifically sexual 'longing' at e.g. Lys. 888; EC. 956; Alex. fr. 236. 4; PI. Phdr. 2536. (<J)KVU€V . . . rr|v 0upav: For scratching on the door as a means of calling a woman out of a house without her husband's noticing, EC. 33-6. 482 R's KO.T' is awkward before etra in the middle of the line, and we print Lenting's Kctyio (Observationes criticae (Zutphen, 1839) 21), which fits in nicely between eyo; ydp in 476 and eyo; Se in 487. KAFQ must first have been written KAF by someone uncomfortable with the synizesis (for which, cf. 269-71 n.) and then corrupted to KAT. At EC. 397, KO.T' evOeius is followed more naturally by Ka-jreiO' in 399. recognized [the sound]', the implication being that she and her lover had done this sort of thing many times before and that this was their regular signal. KdTcipcuvio: i.e. from the second floor, where she shared a bedroom with her husband (cf. 479—80 n.); cf. Lys. i. 10 (although this is presented there as an exceptional arrangement). A vivid narrative pres. (Goodwin §33). 483-6 Something closely resembling 487 could easily have followed directly on 482 and Inlaw's tale of adultery would still have been complete. But the addition of this incident, in which the sleeping husband (479) unexpectedly wakes up and asks his wife where she is going, only to be taken in by her clever response, both allows the narrator to show off her fast thinking (484—5), justifying her earlier insistence that this was the SeivoTarov ('most terrible/clever') of her crimes (477—8), and converts her husband from a simple cuckold into a hapless buffoon (cf. 488 n.). 483-4 6 8' dvr|p KT\.: For the suspicious question, very much in the style of a man who has learnt something about female behaviour from Eur. (but
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to no avail!), cf. 403-4. For quoted speech in Ar., Niinlist, in Willi 2253i,esp. 229. 'colic and a terrible pain is gripping my stomach'; cf. Pax 174—5 ^ E^E / yl&f] orp€(j)€iTi77'V€i)^ia77'€plTov O|U,^>aAw ('since some gas is causing me colic in the middle of my stomach'); PL 1131 ('I think pain is causing you some colic in your guts'); fr. 477- * OC^LOI rdAa?, ri^ov orp€(j)€i rrjv yaorepa; ('Alas, what colic is gripping my stomach?'); Antiph. fr. 175. 3—4 ('if I should suffer colic in my gut or the middle of my stomach'); Hp. Aph. 5. 41 (iv. 546. 2-3) 'and if she suffers colic in her gut'). For the double ace. (of the whole and the part), cf. A. Supp. 379 (j>oj3os p.' e%ei <j>pevas ('fear grips my mind') with Johansen-Whittle ad loc. For a woman addressing her spouse simply as tovep ('husband'), e.g. 508; Lys. 518; EC. 531, 542; Men. Sik. 306; Phasm. 203; cf. Dickey 84-6, 270. Contrast 614. For the similar use of yvvai ('wife'), cf. Ach. 262; Dickey 86—8. 485 eis TOV KOTfptiv(a): 'to the latrine', which often consisted of nothing more than a pit somewhere in the courtyard (cf. Ussher on EC. 320-2; Olson on Pax 99—100; Kub. 52. 2—3 ('each man has a latrine at his door') is meant to be comic, a joke against Boeotian 'pigs'); getting out into the street requires a further step (487-8 with 487 n.). For the reference to defecation as inherently funny, 570 with n., 611—12 n. (3a§i£e vuv: 'Off you go then!'; cf. 25 n.; Men. Sik. 145. 486 irpipe: 'he began to grind' (inchoative), i.e. with a mortar (8vem; cf. Olson on Pax 228-9) and a pestle (aXfrpifiavos or SoiSvt;), as also at e.g. EC. 404; PL 718—20 (Asklepios himself producing 'medicine'); Antiph. fr. 47. 2 (a doctor, perhaps Asklepios); Eub. fr. 125. 2; and frequently in Hippocrates (e.g. Epid. ii. 6. 9 (v. 134. 16); Morb. ii. 14 (vii. 26. 14)). Cf. 488 n. KeSpiSas: Juniper berries (Thphr. HP i. 12. i), used inter alia, according to Plin. Nat. 24. 20, to calm an upset stomach. The paradosis avr/Oov is probably unmetrical, as also at Nu. 982 (where see Dover's n.). The simplest emendation in both places is Dindorf's (1830) ('dill'; cf. Eub. fr. 35. 3; Alex. frr. 132. 5 with Arnott ad loc.; 179. 4; Mosch. 3. 100), and the two readings then support one another, although here aw7j(jov('anise'; cf. Alex. fr. 132. 7 with Arnott ad loc.) would also do. For the medicinal use of dill, Plin. Nat. 19. 167; Olck, RE 5 (1905) 641-2. A wildherb (Cratin. fr. 363. i; Eup. fr. 13. 3; Alex. fr. 132. 8 (in a catalogue of kitchen spices); Men. Dysk. 605; Thphr. HPvi. i. 4, 2. 5), probably to be identified as sage (Latin salvia). For its medicinal uses, Plin. Nat. 22. 146-7 (employed inter alia as a treatment for dysentery). 487 Karaxeaaa TOU €tds u8up: i.e. to keep the door that leads from the courtyard out into the street from squeaking as it opens; cf. Plaut. Cure.
L I N E S 483-9
201
158-60 placide egredere et sonitum prohibe forium et crepitum cardinum, / ne quae hie agimus erus percipiat fieri, mea Planesium. / mane, suffundam aquolam ('Step out quietly, Planesium my dear, and don't allow the door to make a noise or the hinges to creak, in order that our master may not realize what we're doing here. Wait; let me pour a little water over them'). The arpcx/ievs is the door-pin or -pivot and the socket set into the ground in which it turns (fr. 266; Hermipp. fr. 48. 9; Thphr. HPv. 3. 5; cf. PL 1153; S. OT 1261), and making sure it produces no noise is a necessary precaution; in the story told in Lys. i. 14, 17, it is the unaccustomed sound of the doors to the narrator's courtyard and house opening by night that makes him realize that his wife was in fact visited by a lover. Cf. Men. fr. 883 with K—A ad loc.; adesp. com. fr. 1071. 4 with K—A ad loc.; Nisbet— Hubbard on Hor. c. i. 25. 5. 488 That the narrator has sex with her boyfriend in the street rather than going inside somewhere is further proof of her shamelessness; cf. 478 n., 479—80 n.; Thphr. Char. 28. 3. r)p€iS6|_ir)v: 'I was being pressed hard', i.e. 'fucked vigorously'; cf.Ec. 616; fr. 715. 3. Rhas epeiSop.-rjv, and Fritzsche printed epei'So^ai (cf. 482 KarajSalvw with n.). But Kuster'simpf. is closer to the paradosis and neatly captures the idea that the speaker has an extended lovemaking session outside while her husband is within, doing some equally vigorous (but less enjoyable) 'pounding' of his own (486). This is the first of three crude vbs. used by Inlaw to describe intercourse (also 492, 493; cf. McClure 231—5), all of which tacitly endorse the notion that what women want out of sex is simply to have an erect penis thrust into them as hard and as often as possible (no cuddling, leisurely foreplay, or the like are wanted or required); which is to say that the perspective attributed to them here (as also at e.g. Lys. 23—4, 122—35, 142—3) is in fact unambiguously male. 489 TOV Ayuid: 'the [statue of Apollo] Aguieus ('of the street')'; actually an aniconic pillar that stood before the average Athenian house, sometimes in combination with or replaced by an altar. Cf. 748 with n.; V. 875 with MacDowell ad loc.; Cratin. fr. 403; Men. fr. 481 with K-A on fr. 893; A. Ag. 1081 with Fraenkel ad loc.; S. fr. 370; E. Ion 184-7 with Lee ad loc.; Ph. 631 withMastronardeadloc.; SandbachandHandley onMen.Dysk. 6^g;LIMCii. 1.327-32,2.279-83. Ku(38(a) ('bent forward') also describes the sexual position in which the woman leans forward and the man stands behind her ('doggy style'; cf. 1195-7^; Pax 8g6a with Olson ad loc.) at Macho 308; cf. Archil, fr. 42. 2. The opposite is AopSooi ('bend backwards'; cf. EC. 10; fr. 147; Mnesim. fr. 4. 55), and at PI. Com. fr. 188. 17 (in a passage full of sexual double-entendres) two women's deities are called AopSwv and KvjSSaaos. KvjSSa is attested elsewhere (always in abusive or obscene contexts) only at Eq. 365; Pax 8g6b (probably intrusive), and in satyr play (S. fr. 314. 128), and must be colloquial.
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'clinging to the laurel [bush]', which was sacred to Apollo (e.g. PI. 213; fr. 805; h.Ap. 395-6; E. Ion 422-3; Paus. ix. 10. 4) and had been planted near his statue or altar. Cf. LIMC ii. i. 213—14. Cf. Theoc. 5.117 TO.S opvos ei'^eo rr/vas ('y°u clung to that oak tree' (Komatas reminding Lakon of how he coped with his sexual onslaught)). 490 Summing up the significance of the anecdote in 476-89 for the argument put forward in 473—5. Echoed in 496—7; cf. 492, 498, 501. For parenthetic 6pdr(€) or opas (colloquial) 'pointing (often reproachfully) at a proof or illustration of something that the speaker has been saying or expecting', Stevens 36-7; cf. 38 n., 496, 556. 491—2 Tt5v8ou\tdVT€K(ai6)p€tdKOfitdv: For the omission of the second def. art. (here intended to signal that the two groups are to be thought of as one), e.g. Eq. 320; Nu. 622, 1465; Ra. 773; EC. 51; Gildersleeve §605; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 314. For free women having sex with servants, cf. frr. 592. 29—30 (following a discussion between two women about the unsatisfactory nature of dildos) ('Say, what if we shared this matter with our servants? In secret. . .'; perhaps from Th. II; cf. p. Ixxxviiin. 88); 715 (to a slave) ('you who, passing the night in a sweet-smelling bed, bang your mistress'); Eup. fr. 192. 100-2; Herod. 5; Juv.6. 331-2; Headlam-Knox,.Hero
L I N E S 489-501
203
treated as a casual expansion of the text (cf. below). rr|v vux6': 'the [whole] night long', as at V. 93; Timocl. fr. 24. 2; Diph. fr. 34; Men. fr. 110. 3; cf. Men. Dysk. 755 rr/v rnj.epav ('the [whole] day long') with Sandbach ad loc. Elsewhere in Ar. generally rrp vvy^ff SXr/v vel sim. (e.g. Nu. 36, 75, 1129;-Be. 39, 55, 1123; cf. above). Either to remove any fear that someone else might have wanted to kiss them (cf. Lys. 798; X. Snip. 4. 8; Philoch. FGrHist 328 F 89) or to cover the smell of perfume (Lys. 944—6) or of sex. Garlic cloves were in fact sometimes eaten as a snack or appetizer (Lys. 692; Ra. 555; Lync. fr. 1.7). R's aKopoSia {i,aaa>{i,e8a is a simple haplography. 495 R'spres. part. oa<j>paivoij.evos (unmetrical) is a careless error for Kuster's aor. 6ap6|_i€vos. For the form, Ach. 179 caa^povro; V. 792 R); Eup. fr. 7 oa>pea8ai (oa>palvea8ai MSS); Philonid. fr. 2. zoat/ipofi.ev'rjv. duo reixous: Since the occupation of Dekeleia in 413, Athens had been a beseiged city, and a constant, manpower-draining guard was kept on the walls (Th. vii. 28. 2; viii. 69. i; cf. Introduction p. xxxvi, and the situation described at Lys. 5 5 5-64, where armed men are said to fill the city's marketplace). eiauov: 395-7 n. 496—7 firfSev KaKov 8pdv uTroTOTrfJTai: 'not suspect us of doing anything evil'. (late 5th-c. vocabulary, restricted in this period to comedy (also _Ra. 958 Kax'iVoTOTTewjflai (what Eur. taught the Athenians to do); cf. f r g^^ and prose (e.g. Hp.Art. 33 (iv. 148. 14); Hdt. iii. 70. i; Th. i. 20. 2)) is a variant of the slightly more common and widespread (first attested at Epich. fr. 113. 10; cf. A^.Ag. 1637). rauG', opas,/ Cf.49owithn. OaiSpav: I53n. 'rails against, reviles'. 5th-c. vocabulary, first attested at Pi. O. 9. 37; A. Eu. 206, and widely attested thereafter in both poetry (e.g. 571, 650; Pherecr. fr. 152. 9; E. Hec. 1237) and prose (e.g. Th. iii. 62. i; Is. 6. 59). 498 rifuvri TOUT' ear';: 'What's this to us?', i.e. 'Why should we care?' Colloquial (e.g. Eq. 1198; Lys. 514; EC. 520-1; Diph. fr. 31. 18; Men. Epitr. 133; Sam. 362; D. 54. 17; Herod. 2. 18-19; Plaut. Cure. 395 quididrefert mea?); cf. Stanton, RhM NF 116 (1973) 89. Cf. 490 with n., 501 499-501 In the scene imagined here, the wife is inside the house with her lover when her husband unexpectedly returns home. Thinking fast, she pretends to be happy to see him and displays a piece of clothing on which she has supposedly been working in his absence, spreading it out so wide that it conceals the adulterer's escape from the house. The tale as Inlaw tells it is too condensed to be readily comprehensible for anyone not already familiar with it and may thus have been a commonplace; note the def. art. r| ('the woman [of whom you already know]'). 261-2 n. 500 is a troubled verse; for the various conjectures, Coulon, REG 38 (1925) 90—4, and in Melanges Bidez
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(Brussels, 1934) 122. (i) R's VTT avyds olov eariv at the head of the line is unmetrical. Hermann (Opusc. viii (Leipzig, 1877) 300) suggested (with IOTLV to be expelled as a mechanical intrusion and then lost when the line became too long), whereas Bachmann (Conjecturarum observationumque Aristophanearum specimen i (Gottingen, 1878) 27) proposed olov {•/} v-n av-yds eariv (for exclamatory ye transplanted to reported speech, GP 130). But the simplest solution is Hermann's earlier uTTauycuj' oTov lariv (Z.Alt. 5 (1838) 683), 'to see what it looks like under the sun's rays', inravya^ia would be a hapax legomenon, but the simplex is used at S. Ph. 217-18 in the act. sense 'see', and other compounds are attested in both the act. (eo-, ev-, -n-po-) and the mid. (air-, ITT-, KO.T-) with the idea of 'beholding, looking at, examining' foremost. For R's tendency to split up compound vbs. and write the prep, separately, Introduction p.xciin. 103. The infin. is 'final-consecutive' without ware, as often with vbs. of seeing (799—800 n.); cf. A. Ch. 798 loeiv, S. Tr. 999 Schwyzerii. 362—5. See Austin (1987) 79. (2) Coulon rightly observes that R's €-yK€Ka\vfi,fi,€vov must go with TOV fioixov in 501 and mean 'wrapped up' (cf. Nu. 11 €-yK€Ka\vfi,fi,€voi*), and suggests that the point is that the lover will thus be able to make his escape without being recognized in the street. But what matters is that the man not be spotted by the husband, and even if he is 'wrapped up', he can still be seen. We therefore print ('well-concealed, well-hidden'), a very slight change. For in this sense, e.g. Antiph. fr. 76. i; H. 77. 16. 360; Od. 8. 503; Hes. Th. 9; Archil, fr. I9&a. 45; cf. Austin, in Le Monde grec: Hommages a Claire Preaux (Brussels, 1975) 186-7. °"K €ipr)K€ ITU: An emphatic echo of 498oi5S' eVeiV' eiprjice TTW /. Cf. Nu. 334 jSoaKova', picking up poaKovai from 331. 502—16 For supposititious children, 339—41 n. 502-3 (i)<|>aaK€v: The 'complexive' or durative aor. is expected with definite numbers like 8ex' rjfiepas (Gildersleeve §243), but when there is a notion of interruption (as here) or of continuation into another, overlapping stage of action, the impf. is used instead (Gildersleeve §208). 'Ten days' is a ridiculously long time for contractions to continue but the anecdote (like most of Inlaw's stories in this speech) depends on the husband being a fool. yuvr\ (properly yvvaiKa, to agree with has been attracted into the case oft] in the rel. clause; cf. Ra. 889; PI. 933; E. Hec. 771; IT 63-4; etc. ius eirpiaro -uaiSiov: For the vb., Rutherford 210-13; Olson onAch. 811-12. That supposititious children are purchased rather than got for free is also specified at Telecl. fr. 44. 1—2; D. 21. 149. Whether this rep resents social reality or not, the effect is to make the child indistinguishable from a slave and thus an even less satisfactory heir; cf. 564-5. 504 A description of the general situation over the course of the ten days of
L I N E S 499-507
205
feigned labour (502-3): the husband kept running about buying things. At the moment the 'birth' is about to occur, on the other hand, he is at home (510). Tr€pir|px€T(o): 'was going around [the stalls of the drug-sellers in the marketplace]', as at Lys. 557—8. The impf. ^PX^W 's extremely rare (Rutherford 103-11), but cf. Men. Dysk. 534o with Sandbach ad loc. >apfi,a,KcnTa>\ai ('drug-sellers') sold not just herbs, roots, andberries(Thphr._ffPvi. 2. 5;ix.8. 5), but also charms and amulets (JVM. 766—8 with Dover on 766; cf. PL 883—4), as well as venomous insects and snakes (fr. 28; Arist. HA 594a2i-4, 622b33-4). ('things encouraging swift birth-giving') were also known as TIKTIKO, (fr. 902) and might be either potions or amulets (Hp. Mul. 77 (viii. 170. 9—
172. 13)). Cf. Hanson, inM. Wyke(ed.), Parchments of Gender: Deciphering the Body in Antiquity (Oxford, 1998), 82-4. 505 TO 8' ...
TO TraiSiov: For the apposition, cf. H. //. i. 348; J. Wacker-
nagel, Vorlesungen fiber Syntax ii (Basel, 1928) 133. 'was bringing it in [to the house]'. That the individual who imports the child is a ypaus ('old woman, hag') reflects both the fact that women beyond childbearing age were relatively freer than others to move about the city (cf. 414 n., 789—90 n.; Hyp. fr. 205) and the generally disreputable character of Old Comic crones (cf. 345 with n.). Whether the old woman is supposed to be a midwife, an old nurse, or a neighbour is unclear. Iv xufpa: Unwanted children were (at least conventionally) sometimes exposed in pots, presumably so that they could be buried in them after they were dead (cf. Ra. 1189—90; Hdt. i. 113) and to keep them from being eaten by pigs, dogs, or birds in the meantime; cf. Patterson, TAPA 115 (1985) 103-23. But here the point is that the child must be brought into the house secretly (cf. 506), and a covered cookpot (cf. 403—4 n.) is used to transport it simply because so common a vessel is unlikely to arouse suspicion. 506 i'va [ir] POUT): 'to keep it from crying out' and thus betraying the plot (cf. 505) to the husband (cf. 507—10) or any other man in the vicinity. Krjpiu (Jepuafievov: Sc. TO aTop.a (510—11 with n.; Pax 645; PL 379; Hdt. vi. 125. 4), 'plugged as regards its mouth', i.e. 'with its mouth plugged with a honey-comb'. For the pf. part., cf. Ach. 463; fr. 733- F°r bee-keeping and honey production (an important agricultural activity; cf. 1191—2 n.; Nu. 43—5; Philem. fr. 105. 1—3), Jones, Graham, and Sackett, ABSA 68 (1973) 397-412; E. Crane, The Archaeology of Beekeeping (London, 1983), esp. 45-51; Anderson-Stojanovic and Jones, Hesperia 71 (2002) 345-76. 507 iv€u<j€v: 'nodded', i.e. 'gave an affirmative signal'(e.g. 1020 with n.;Pax 883; Alex. fr. 95; H. Od. 16. 283; E. Ale. 978; Hec. 545), indicating that she had at last got a male baby and the plan could proceed. The subj. is the wife (last referred to in 502—3).
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508-9 drreXO' drreXO': For the repetition, 241-2 n. This is a deliberate ploy to get the husband out of the way (cf. 510), but the implication of the request is none the less that giving birth was regarded as exclusively 'women's business', from which men were normally excluded; cf. N. Demand, Birth, Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece (Baltimore and London, 1994) 63-70. uvep: 483-4* n. jioi SOKU: 'I think'; confined to comedy (e.g. V. 250; Ra. 1421 with Dover ad loc. (both with fut. infin.); Chion. fr. 2. i; Men. Dysk. 445) and prose (e.g. Hdt. iii. 63. 4; Lys. 8. i; PI. Phd. 9ia), and presumably colloquial. For the enclitic after a voc., cf. Barrett on E. Hipp. 327. re^eiv: Both re'loi (e.g. Eq. 1037) and rf^opai (e.g. Lys. 744) function as the fut. of TIKTOI; cf. LSJ s.v. The subj. of the vb. is TO muSt'ov. The joke is complicated. The rjrpov (according to Moer. rj 14 an exclusively Attic word for the common moyaarpiov; cf. Theodoridis on Phot. rj 294) is the portion of the belly between the navel and the genital region (Tim. on PI. Phd. n8a), and rfjs X"TPaS (an anaphoric art.; cf. 505 €v yinpa) appears para prosdokian for rfjs p.-rjrpos (thus Fritzsche; 2R and S understood as 'the womb', but their paraphrase of 'membrane' or 'lining', is misleading): the baby kicks from inside the pot just as energetic children often kick against their mothers' stomachs from inside the womb. But the woman wants her husband out of the house or room in any case, so that the baby can be removed from the pot without his noticing; and Inlaw accordingly gives her some additional motivation (yap) by specifying that the child was about to spoil the elaborate effort to keep it hidden (506), a fact that called for a bit of quick thinking. For a word properly referring to human anatomy used to describe part of a pot, Taillardat §273. 510—11 x" Hfiv KT\.: 504 n. <jrp€X€v: 'went running [out]'. Sc. TO KTjpiov (cf. 506); the subj. is again the wife, to whom the baby has now been given. Hirschig (Ar. Vesp. (Leiden, 1847) 155) actually replaced TOV TTO.I&IOV with but the reference to the child serves to introduce TO S' aveKpayev (which in Hirschig's version of the text would most naturally be taken to refer— nonsensically—to the behaviour of the honeycomb). As any healthy child does at birth (e.g. A. Ch. 608—9; Arist. HA 587a27). 5i2-i3fuapd: 'disgusting, dirty', with overtones of'shameless, brazen'; colloquial and very insulting. Cf. 649, 1092, 1097, 1133, 1222a;Miasma4-5; Dickey 167; Dover, inWilligs—6. The adj. is added in anticipation of the description in 513—16 of the old woman's nasty, treacherous behaviour in convincing the husband that this is really his son (a sort of ne plus ultra of female crime); and a reminder that she was also the one who brought the child into the house in the first place is accordingly appended for good
L I N E S 508-19
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measure (fj (i)<|>€p€v TO-iraiSiov; cf. 505). 0€iKr\.: Forthe motif of the servant rushing to tell the master of the birth of a son, e.g. Hdt. vi. 63 2; Thphr. Char. 17. 7. The mention of the old woman's smile serves to underline her insincerity. 514 \€tov \€tov: i.e. 'someone who will grow up to be a great and powerful man'. Similar prophecies of the birth of a 'lion' at Eq. 1037 (a mock oracle); Delphic oracle Q6o Fontenrose ap. Hdt. v. 92. j3. 3; Hdt. vi. 131. 2 (a prophetic dream); for the image, e.g. Ra. 143 la—b; E. Supp. 1222—3 with Collard ad loc.; Ph. 411; Dyson, CQ 23 (1929) 186-95; Taillardat §318. For the repetition, 241-2 n. aureKjiaYna aov: 'your very image'; cf. Cratin. fr. 275 eKeivos O.VTOS eKp.ep.a-yp.evos ('the very image of the man himself). The metaphor is from modelling with wax; cf. 56—7 n.; Ra. 1040; Miiller 114. For the prefix, cf. Nossis,^4Pvi. 353. i = HE 2819 (of a portrait; 'Melinna has been wrought here to the life') with Gow—Page ad loc. To tell a father that his child resembles him is not just to flatter him (Thphr. Char. 2. 6) but also to assure him that it is legitimate; cf. Av. 767; Gow on Theoc. 17. 45; West on Hes. Op. 235; Aristaenet. i. 19. 35 Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale II. iii. 95—107. 515—16 rd T' d\\(a) KT\.: Ace. of respect with avreKpa-ypa aov in 514. is in the classical period exclusively comic vocabulary (e.g. 550; Eq. 845; Av. 1539; Ra. 161; Archipp. fr. 14. 4; Antiph. fr. 132. 6; Men. Mis. 669); presumably colloquial. In Modern Greek a-jTafa-jravTes is still used to mean 'one and all'. ('his little dick'; cf. 254 n.) appears para prosdokian for TO piviov ('his little nose') vel sim. For the paroxytone accent on dactylic trisyllabic diminutives ('Wheeler's law'), see J. Vendryes, Traite d'accentuation grecque" (Paris, 1945) §206. The remark has an acid undertone (for the alleged connection between the size of a man's penis and the adequacy of his sexual performance, Av. 1255-6; Lys. 414—19), and there must be some humour in the fact that the old woman is so well-acquainted with the physical appearance of the father's cock. 'twisted', i.e. 'curved, bent like a catkin' or 'ament', the dense, drooping male flower of various conifers (thus 2R; cf. Thphr. HP iii. 3. 8). The adj. is first attested at Eup. fr. 195. 2 and Hp. Aer. 14 (ii. 60. 4); Epid. ii. 6. 14 (v. 136. 4), and is absent from serious poetry. 517-19 TCIUT' ou -uooufiev KT\. extends the indictment of individual (allegedly representative) women in 476—516 to the sex generally, providing Inlaw the ground for his final, main point in 518—19. is perhaps an echo of a line from E. Tel.; cf. Ach. 555 ('I know you would have done these things') with Olson ad loc. A women's oath (569, 742*; Lys. 435, 922*, 949*; EC. 90
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136*; Epicr. fr. 8. 2; E. Hipp. 713; cf. Antiph. fr. 59. 6 ~ Eriph. fr. 2. i, where this is the only indication of the sex of speaker A) and thus appropriate to the part Inlawis playing, as again 01569. Cf. 254n. K T 'we certainly [do]!' (GP 122—3). ) rather than a call to action, but they none the less also serve to set the stage for Mika's demand for summary justice at 536—9. 520—3 TOUTI points forward to the questions posed in 521— 3. fievroi adds emphasis to Gaujiaarov (GP 399-400). For the adj., 466-8 n. The indirect questions in 521-3 define what the chorus find astonishing (520): that a 'creature' like Inlaw could be found at all and that any land could have produced 'her'. Cf. 524—6b, where this is made explicit. The implication is that Inlaw is barely human and certainly not an Athenian, and that wherever 'she' was brought up, it must be some rough, awful place to have produced so vile a monster; cf.A.Eu. 58—9; E.Med. 1339—43. For the augmentation (evpeOri R), cf. 439, 794; Threatte ii. 482—3. 'the creature' (cf. Pax 38 with Olson ad loc.; Lys. 677), i.e. Inlaw with 'her' outrageous arguments. X*1TIS epSpe^e x&pa: 'and which country reared . . .'; cf. Bacch. 5. 86—8 ('Who raised such an offspring [and] in what land?'); A. Ch. 585-6 iToXXd. p,ev yd rpe>ei / Seivd Seifidraiv d^ ('the earth nourishes many terrible, fearful woes'); Eu. 57-9 ('I have not seen what land boasts of rearing this race'). Gpaaeiav: 'brazen, impudent, insolent', as at e.g. Eg. 181; V. 1402; E. Ba. 491; PI. Prt. 3&ob. 524-6b A complex bundle of closely related ideas and terms: Inlaw can be denounced as Travoupyov ('willing to do anything', i.e. 'crook, scumbag') because 'she' has done something any normal woman would regard as unthinkable (OUK av tbofiTjv) by saying things openly in the company of others cf. 471 n. for this use of Iv) that ought not to have been said at all, thus displaying the lack of concern for
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basic social values ((58' dvai8(is; cf. Cairns passim) and (what is virtually the same thing) reckless daring (roXfifjaai) typical of the individual who is 'willing to do anything'. Cf. 702 with n. -jmvovp-yos and its cognates (first attested at A. Th. 603; Ch. 384) are 5th-c. Athenian vocabulary and are widely distributed in both poetry and prose; the adj. rapidly becomes the other characters' favorite term for Inlaw(55i, 727, 762, 858 with n., 893, 899, 929, 944, 1112). For a similar outburst of incredulity, cf. Lys. 258/9. For the phrase itself, adesp. com. fr. 1017. 18; S. fr. 314. 15; E. Ale. 1088; HF 1355; Gomme-Sandbach on Men. Epitr. 369; cf. Antipho 2. 3. i; Lys. 3 . 1 . reinforces the preceding OVK, 'I should not have imagined that she would have even dared'; cf. H. //. 17. 641 ov p.iv oiopai ov&e Tre-jrvaOai; GP 196-7. 527 d\\d Tfdv Y^VOIT' dv: The idea that 'anything could happen now' was proverbial (e.g. Eup. fr. 391; Philem. fr. 173; Men. fr. 685; Archil, fr. 122. ('nothing is unexpected'); Hdt. iv. 195. 2; v. 9. 3; E. Med. 410 avw Trora^tav lepwv ^wpovai mxyai ('the springs of the sacred rivers run backwards'); X. An. vii. 6. n; Macho 51; cf. Pi. O. 2. 17; [A.] PV 981), but rj8r] ('nowadays') suggests that this is not just a rhetorical topos but a direct reference to the immediate political context; cf. Introduction pp. xliii-xliv. 528—30 rr|v rrapoifuav . . . rr|v TfdXaidv: For explicit appeals to ('proverbs'), 'old sayings', and the like in 5th- and 4th-c. Athenian poetry, e.g. Cratin. fr. 182; PI. Com. fr. 188. 3-4; Alex. fr. 88. 3-5; A. Ag. 264 with Fraenkel ad loc.; S. fr. 282. urro \i0to KT\.: An allusion to the proverb also preserved in various forms at Praxill. PMG 750 mo ('Look out, my friend, for a scorpion under every stone'); carm. conv. PMG 903 ('A scorpion creeps under every stone, my friend. Watch out lest it sting you!'); S. fr. 37 ('for a scorpion keeps watch in every stone'). Here 'orator' appears para prosdokian for 'scorpion', just as 'sycophants' is attached to 'scorpions and snakes' at Eup. fr. 245. fir) 8aKT): Cf. PL 885 ('a sycophant's bite'); Taillardat §296. 531—71 Iambic tetrameters catalectic, used in lively scenes of heated discussion (e.g. Eq. 335-66; Lys. 350-81, 467-75; Men. Dysk. 880-958); cf. F. Perusino, // tetrametro giambico catalettico nella commedia greca (Rome, 1968) 61-2. For the relationship of this scene to the action in E. Tel., Introduction pp. Ivii—Iviii. 531—2 The two tetrameters beginning with dAA(d) round off the preceding ode, and thus have the outward form (although not the content) of a proper katakeleusmos (cf. 350-1, 726-7; T. Gelzer, Der epirrhematische Agon bei Aristophanes (Munich, 1960) 154). For the sentiment exploited
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here, e.g. Lys. 369 (supposedly quoting Eur.) ('for no creature is as shameless as women'), 1014-15; Alex. fr. 291 OVK ear' dvaio^vvrorepov ovQev Qtypiov / yvvaiKos ('there is no beast more shameless than a woman'); S. fr. 189. 2—3 ('there is nothing worse than a woman and never will be'); E. fr. 494. I— 2T-rjs^fv KaK-rjs KaKiovovSevyiyverai/ yvvaiKos('there is nothing worse than a bad woman'). For d\\(d) . . . yap resuming the main topic after the more general reflections in 527—30, GP 103. €is amavra: 'in all respects'; cf. Ra. 968 Seivos els TO. mivra', PI. 273 S. Tr. 489 els a-rravd' Tjaawv; Th. viii. 76. 3 For ap(a) in a conditional protasis denoting that the possibility represented by the hypothesis has only just been realized, cf.Av. 601 TrXrjveiTisap' opvis', Metag. fr. 14.2; GP37-8. appears para prosdokian: 'The Chorus are casting about for some object whose vileness is greater than that of the most shameless woman; and the vilest object they can call to mind is—womankind in general' (Rogers ad loc.). Cf. Men. fr. 400. 1—2 ('there couldn't be anything more wretched than an old man in love except another old man in love!'). 533—70 Mika is initially in control of the debate (and seemingly of the situation as a whole) and does her best to convince the women to punish Inlaw collectively (533-9, 544-8). But the old man gradually begins to dominate and his interlocutor is reduced to curses (557, 562) and spluttering, ineffective protests (551—2, 559, 563), and finally attempts to attack him alone (566-70). 533-9 Cf. 566-7 with 540-65 n. 533 OUTOI. . . eu <|>pov€iT€: 'You are not in your right minds' (e.g.Nu. 817; Ra. 705; PL 479; S. Ant. 755; E. EL 568—9; Ba. 196); cf. 965 ('he is seriously mistaken'). For OVTOI with an oath, cf. 34, 5&6*-7; Av. 1335; Ra. 42, 668; PL 64, 364. 'AyXaupov is Daubuz's correction of R's aypavXov (for a similar error, E. Ion 496) and is supported by the inscriptional evidence (Threatte i. 478). According to the 4th-c. Athenian historian Androtion (FGrHist 324 F i), Kekrops, king of Athens, had three daughters, Aglauros, Herse, and Pandrosos. Philochorus (probably dependent on Androtion) reports that Aglauros was a priestess of Athena (FGrHist 328 F 106), and Apollod. iii. 14. 2 adds that the girls' mother was named Aglauros as well (cf. E. Ion 23, 496). Euripides (Ion 21-4, 267-74) reports that Athena gave two of Kekrops' daughters a chest containing the baby Erichthonios (who, Apollod. iii. 14. 6 reports, was produced when Hephaistos' semen spilled on the ground after he tried to rape the goddess). Although Athena ordered the girls to keep the chest closed, they were overcome by curiosity; and when they opened it and saw a snake curled about the baby, they went mad and threw themselves
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down from the Acropolis. Philochoros (once again probably drawing on Androtion) told a very different story, according to which Aglauros threw herself from the Acropolis to save the city from an invader in response to an oracle of Apollo (FGrHist 328 F 105); this version is presumably to be connected with the fact that the city's ephebes swore their oath to defend their fatherland in Aglauros' shrine (D. 19. 303 with MacDowell ad loc.; cf. Tod no. 204. 17). This shrine was located on the east slope of the Acropolis, where the rock drops off sharply (Hdt. viii. 53. i; Paus. i. 18. 2; Dontas, Hesperia 52 (1983) 48-63, esp. 57-62), and this must on either version of Aglauros' story have been imagined to be the spot where she fell to her death. Cf. Garland 86—7 (on the cult); Shapiro, in E. Reeder (ed.), Pandora: Women in Classical Greece (Baltimore, 1995) 39-48; LIMC i. i. 283-6. 'By Aglauros' must be another women's oath (cf. 254 n., 517-19 n.) but is attested only here; 2R reports that 'they used to swear by Aglauros and less often by Pandrosos' (cf. Lys. 439), 'but we have found no oaths by Herse' (who may be a relatively late addition to the story; cf. Henderson on Lys. 439-40). 534 TT€<|>dpfiax6': For madness allegedly caused by ^ap^axa ('drugs'), 561; A.Ag. 1407-9 with Fraenkel on 1408; E. Ba. 326-7; Is. 6. 21; 9. 37; 0.46. 16; cf. 430 n.; Men. Her. fr. 5 Sandbach ap. Phot, a 1548. 'there is something else seriously wrong with you'; forthe idiom, e.g. Ach. 912; Eq. 346; V. 995. 535—6 <|>96pov: 'destruction', i.e. 'destructive creature', as at Eq. 1151; D. 13. 24; Theoc. 15. 18 with Gow ad loc.; cf. 860 J>Xe&pe withn.; PI. Com. fr. 201. 4 exBtar-rfvTOCTOV('most hateful disease'; used of a politician); D. 25. 80 ('thisman, aplague'); L,at.pestis;Anredeformen6i. The word stands in apposition to Tavrr/v, cf. S. El. 301; Ph. 622 KGi. 273; Schwyzerii. 613—14. Very similar charges were originally levelled by the women against Eur. (esp. 386-7, 464/5), but Inlaw instead now becomes the most significant object of their wrath (536—8); cf. 539 (an echo of 85, 182). The prefix intensifies the sense of the vb. (LSJ s. -jrepi F. IV); the compound (elsewhere in Ar. at Eq. 727; V. 1319 (also with double ace.)) is attested elsewhere before the Hellenistic period only in Herodotus (e.g. i. 114. 5; ii. 152. 3). €i fiev KT\.: Addressed to the audience: 'If there is anyone [prepared to punish her, well and good]; if not, we will do it ourselves.' 'The apodosis to the first of two alternative suppositions is suppressed, because the speaker passes on to emphasize the second' (Pearson on S. fr. 458); for other examples of the idiom (the schema anantapodoton), PL 468-70; PI. Com. fr. 23; Men. fr. 659; H. //. i. 135-9; carm. pop. PMG 848. 13; Th. iii. 3. 3; PI. Prt. 325d; cf. KG ii. 484-5. For the synizesis of jir|, i\\i-, 269-71 n. 537—8 Reiske proposed ainai re (re iam "S, H.), but y£ is needed for the
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contrast ('we, at least'), and Kai TCI 8ou\dpia ('with the help of our slaves') is merely added as an afterthought. SovXdpiov is identified as an Atticism at Luc. Lex. 25 and said to be used properly only of female slaves; the word is attested elsewhere before the Roman period only at Metag. fr. 20. For the presence of slaves at the festival, 292-4 n.; Introduction p. xlvii. T€<|>pav: '[hot] ash', i.e. ash mixed with quiescent coals, as at Sotad. Com. fr. i. 29; Archestr. fr. 60. 4; also used to burn off an enemy's pubic hair at Nu. 1083 (the punishment of an adulterer; cf. PI. 168; Philonid.fr. 7). TauTT)sdTfov|/i\tiaofi€VT6vxoipov: 'we'll strip her pussy bare', in contrast to the partial pubic depilation practised routinely by women (216—17 n.); cf. Lys. 827—8 [ ('[my pussy] stripped bare with a lamp'), although the reference there must be only to very neatly trimmed hair (cf. Lys. 825-7). is rare 5th-c. vocabulary; first attested at A. Ch. 695 and found thereafter in both poetry (above) and prose (Hdt. iii. 32. 4; Hp. Foet. Exsect. i (viii. 512. 7)). For this use of ^oipoy, 289—90 n. 539 yuvr) Yuvaixas ouaa: 'here the tendency to put similar words next to each other leads to the separation of the words which belong together, (Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1318 cf. KGii. 602; Gygli-Wyss 137—42; Fehling232—3. 535-6 n. TO XOITTOV: Adverbial, 'for what remains', i.e. 'from now on, in the future' (first attested at Pi. P. 5. n8; N. 7. 45; A. Eu. 683, 763, and widespread thereafter in both poetry and prose). Cf. 1160 with n., 1163. 540-65 The condemnation and threat in 533-9 are repeated (in much condensed form) in 566-7, and 540-65 merely furnish Inlaw—and Ar.—the opportunity to offer a few more reckless comic slanders of women before the plot moves briefly forward again at 566—70. 540-52 The focus of the discussion returns briefly to Eur. and his crimes (542-8; contrast 535-9), before Inlaw inadvertently diverts the charge of slandering women onto his own head again (549—52). Cf. 535—6 n., 551-3 n. 540-3 As Rogers notes, Inlaw 'is quite ready for a stand-up fight' (cf. 56770); 'but he naturally deprecates a mode of attack which would lead to his immediate detection' (cf. 643—50). 540—1 fir) STJTCI . . . Y^: Sc. a-jroifjiXitiariTe. A passionate negative command (GP27&; cf.Eq. 960; Nu. 696; Lys. 36; Ra. n); 'Pleasel [Don't strip] . . .!' The emphatic repetition of xoipov from 538 must reflect the fact that Ar.'s audience found public use of the obscenity funny. 383—4 n. ei Y&P KT\.: Perhaps an echo (mutatis mutandis) of a remark made by the still-disguised Telephos in Eur.'s play after someone raised a protest against his initial speech in defence of his people; cf. 4665i9n., 544—5 n.; Introduction pp. Ivii—Iviii.
L I N E S 537-48
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the freedom to say whatever one wants about matters of public concern) and layyopm (the equal right of 'however many of us citizens as are present to speak' without regard to wealth or family connections) are fundamental to the ancient concept of democracy and to the Athenians' understanding of their own democracy in particular (e.g. Eup. fr. 316. 3; E. Supp. 438-41 with Collard ad loc.; Moschion TrGF 97 F 4. 2—4 ('the freedom of speech that has been encouraged in Athena's citizens and the city of Theseus'); Hdt. v. 78; P1._R. 557a-b; Mastronarde on E. Ph. 391-5). («)£°v: Ace. abs. (Schwyzer ii. 401-2); after a gen.abs. also at e.g. Th. iii. 53. 2; Lys. 14. io;X.^4w. v.8. 3 292—4 n., 327b—30 n.; Introduction p. xlvii. 542-3 The use of €ir(a), cWira, Kara, or Kaneim after a participial clause where we would expect no connection is an Attic colloquialism; cf. 55, 559, 564; Starkie on V. 49; Pearson on S. fr. 636. 2; KG ii. 281; Olson on Ach. 23—4. a (€)YiYvtdCTKOV • • • Sixaia: 'what I took to be the truth'(cf. 436 n.). Souvai SIKTJV: 465 n. u<|>' ujiuv: To be taken with TiXXofievrjv (which here must mean 'by being made hairless' vel sim. rather than more specifically 'by being plucked', as comparison with 537—8 with n. makes clear). 544-8 Addressed to Inlaw but intended primarily for the ears of the other women (cf. 533, 540), who need to be reminded of why speaking on Eur.'s behalf (542) is so terrible, and whom Mika addresses directly again in 551-2. 544-5 Perhaps another echo of the debate-scene in E. Tel. (cf. 540-1 n.; Introduction pp. Ivii-lviii), given the similarity to the chorus' condemnation of Dikaiopolis for being the only Athenian reckless enough to speak on behalf of the Spartans at e.g. Ach. 311—12, 315—16, 493. 'The question is rhetorical . . . and implies that the speaker throws doubt on the grounds of the previous speaker's words'—which are here echoed from 543; 'the tone is dissentient' (GP 77). 'What!' is until the middle of the 4th c. exclusively poetic vocabulary (e.g. PI. 280; H. //. I. 228; Thgn. 825; E. Tel. fr. 703. 'to argue the contrary case'. The vb. is first attested in Sophocles (e.g. Ant. 1053, 1232) and Euripides (e.g. Tel. fr. 706. 3 Socaidy' avre Lirfivf-^iav (from a speech by Telephos)) an at [A.] PV 51, and is common in the orators (e.g. Lys. i 2 . 2 6 ; D . i 8 . 8 3 ) . Cf. 455 (Kritylla's summary) 546—8 eiuTT|S€s: 'deliberately'. R'se^e-n-mjSej (the stronger form of the adv.) is a careless error which spoils the metre. XOYOUS: '[traditional] stories', on the basis of which a tragic plot can be constructed; cf. Olson on Pax 50—3. For the contrast between iiovT]pd and ob>c|>p(dv, Dover,
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GPM 65. MeXaviimas TTOUV OaiSpas re: Cf. 157-8 n.; Ra. 1043 (Aeschylus addressing Euripides) ('I didn't write about whores like Phaidra and Stheneboia'). Melanippe, the daughter of King Aiolos, was raped by Poseidon. After she bore twin sons, she exposed them, but they were rescued by herdsmen. Later she was forced to plead for the boys' lives with her father, and when her connection to them came out, he threatened her with blinding (although whether he carried out the threat is unclear). Eur. wrote two plays about Melanippe, Melanippe the Wise (4205?) and Captive Melanippe (4105?). Cf. Cropp and Pick 83-4; Cropp, in Collard, Cropp, and Lee 240-80, esp. 240—7; LIMC viii. i. 829—30; H. Van Looy, Euripide viii. 2 Fragments (Paris, 2000) 347—96. For Phaidra, 153 n. Forthepls. (which signal venomous contempt), cf. 941 with n.; Ach. 270 with Olson ad loc.; Av. 558-9, 1701 ;Ra. 963 KvKvovsTToa>vKalMefi,vovas('writing about Kyknoses andMemnons'), 1051; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1439. Aristotle famously observed that neither the Iliad nor the Odyssey was a rich source of tragic material (Po. i459b2-4), and Eur. in fact seems never to have written a play in which Penelope figured (although his contemporary Philokles did (TrGF 24 T i)). The argument is none the less exaggerated, for some Euripidean tragedies do feature noble female characters, including Alcestis (cf. Ale. 182 ('[no other woman] could be more sophron')), Makaria, Polyxena, and Iphigenia. The anapaest in the last metron in 547 is highly unusual, as 2 R points out. yuv11 wci<|>pci>vI8o§eveivai: Cf. Ischomachos' young wife at X. Oec. 7. 14: 'My mother said that my job [after I was married] was to be sophron'. Cf. above; H. North, Sophrosyne (Ithaca, NY, 1966), esp. 85—120. 549—50 For the repetition of yap, Call. Com. fr. 15. 2; GP 58. T(O) airiov: For the crasis (of a sort seemingly confined to Ar.), cf. Ra. 1385; Diggle on E. Phaeth. 165. juav . . . OUK av eiirois: Emphatic for the expected ovSe^tav . . . av eiTrot?; cf. Fldt. vin. 119 Herod. 6. 35—6 withHeadlamadloc. For the sentiment, cf. Eub. fr. 115. 8-15 (spoken by someone allegedly reluctant to slander women)
('If Medea was a bad woman, Penelope was something great. Someone will say that Clytaemestra was bad; I set against her Alcestis as good. Perhaps someone will slander Phaidra; but, by Zeus, there's the good . . . who? Who? I'm in trouble! I've already run out of good women, and I still have many bad ones left to mention!'). Cf.adesp.com.fr. 1106. 10. For the anapaest in the second metron
L I N E S 546-57
215
in , cf. 560; Nu. 1050 (personal name), 1427; Ra. 912 (personal name), 932; fr. 581. 5. 8' is needed for the contrast, and its absence from R must represent a majuscule error (A omitted by haplography before A). The M-scribe added the word instinctively but then deleted it, presumably after he checked his copy against R. 5i5-i6n. 551—3 r| iravoupYOs: 524—6b n. auGis au: A common pleonasm in late 5th-c. Attic poetry (e.g. 862; Ach. 854 with Olson ad loc.; Lys. 1150; E. Herad. 796 with Wilkins ad loc.) and in Plato (e.g. Cra. 42ie; Prm. I3&b). Kdi vr| Ai' KT\.: Cf. the very similar character of Inlaw's defence of Eur. earlier: the poet actually knows more about women's misbehaviour than he has said(esp. 474—5; cf. 556—7 n., 1167—9). Forvrj Ai(a) used in support of anegative statement, 640; Pax 218; EC. 445; Diph. fr. 31. 25. euei: 'since [that is true, but you probably don't believe it,] . . .'; cf. Nu. 786; Dodds on PI. Grg. 474^7; MacDowell on V. 73; Johansen-Whittle on A. Supp. 330. 554 An unexpected twist: rather than denouncing Inlaw as a liar, Mika merely insists that he must by now be out of material, implicitly conceding the truth of much of what he said in 466—519; cf. 339—48 n., 1168—9 n - The immediate dramatic effect is to give the old man an opportunity to offer further, increasingly nasty slanders of women (55565). Hirschig's fj8r]a0(a) (Ar. Vesp. (Leiden, 1847) 146; is the correct Attic form; cf. EC. 551; Eup. fr. 454; KB ii. 242; Jebb on S. Ant. 447; Dover on Nu. 329 (although he reluctantly retains the paradosis Alpers on Orus fr. B 77. lpx€as: F°r tne image ( a poetic commonplace), e.g. 1041 with n.; Emped. 316 39. 3; A. Ag. 1029; S. fr. 929. 3; E. Supp. 773; cf. Taillardat§5O4. 555 Sc. e^e'^ea. ouSe rr|v . . . fiupioaTT|v fioipav: Cf. 474—5 n.; Lys. 355 pcpos y' rffAWV opaY' oiVa) TO f^vpioarov ('you don't yet see the tiniest portion of us'); Lys. 14. 46 ('I have not mentioned the smallest fraction of their misdeeds'); Plaut. Mil. 763—4 hau centesumam / partem dixi ('I have not told you the hundredth part'), fivpioaros is first attested here and at Lys.355 (above) but is otherwise exclusively prosaic vocabulary (e.g. PI. Lg. 6566; X. Cyr. ii. 3. 6). For Faber's (Y^), cf. Ra. 559 556-7 rd8' OUK €ipT)x', opas: Cf. the very similar remarks in defence of Eur. at 490, 496-7, 498, with 551-3 n. For parenthetic opas, 490 n. <jT\€YY'SaS' Strigils were curved scrapers properly used to remove sweat, sand, and oil from one's skin when one bathed after exercise in a wrestling school (cf. 139 n.), and were normally made of metal; cf. DarembergSaglio s. strigilis; I. Raubitschek, Isthmia VII: The Metal Objects (Princeton, 1952—89) 121—4, 129—30; E. Kotera-Geyer, Die Strigilis (Frankfurt,
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1993). But Plutarch claims that in Sparta they were made of reed (Mor. 23 gb) and Aristotle refers in passing to the possibility of using one not as intended but as a tool to draw off a liquid (Top. I45 a 23—5); and it must be to such a reed strigil—clearly a simple, homely device—that Inlaw is referring. eueira: 542—3 n. aicJHdvi^o^iev TOV oivov combines two themes already established in Mika's speech: that women routinely pilfer household supplies (esp. 418—20) and that they drink secretly and to excess (cf. 630 n.). A siphon is an inverted U-shaped tube that, once filled with liquid, drains a container from the top into a lower one; cf. Hippon. fr. 58 atywvi AeTTTWTOiW&j^aTeTp-ijras^'afterpiercingthelid [of a winejar?] with a thin siphon'); Alex. Aphr.Pr. 2. 59 ('by sucking air out of the siphon we drain off the wine'). The vb. is attested only here. The ancient witnesses have alrov; but grain cannot be 'siphoned' out of a storage vessel and Kuster's olvov is certainly correct. euiTpipeirfs: That this was a common, colloquial curse is clear fromAv. 1530 (cf. adesp. com. fr. 1112. 51 emTpijSfeiijy), as well as from the use of emVpm-Tos- as an imprecation (e.g. Ach. 557; Sannyr. fr. 11; Alex. fr. no. i; And. i. 99). 'Damn you!', 'To hell with you!' vel sini.; cf. EC. 776; Taillardat§64. For the interruption with a curse, cf. 562; Holzinger on PL 180. 558 &ST' au is used in place of ovo' 019(491*, 493*, 560*, 564*) for the sake of stylistic variation. TCI Kpe' l£ ArfaTOupiuv: The Apatouria festival was celebrated by Athens' phratries (kinship-groups whose precise number and average size is unknown) some time in Pyanepsion (October/ November); cf. Deubner 232-4; Parke 88-92; S. D. Lambert, The Phratries of Attica (Michigan Monographs in Classical Antiquity: Ann Arbor, 1993) 143—89, esp. 143—78; Palagia, Hesperia 64 (1995) 493—501. The second and third days of the festival featured sacrifices, from which shares of meat not eaten on the spot must have been taken home by individual phratry-members; cf. Ach. 145-6 (where Sadokos is said to enjoy 'sausages from the Apatouria'); V. J. Rosivach, The System of Public Sacrifice in Fourth-Century Athens (American Classical Studies 34: Atlanta, 1994) 9-67 (on the distribution of meat from large-scale sacrifices generally). rais fiaaTpo-uois 8i8ouaai: At X. Snip. 4. 57-60 (cf. 8. 5, 42), a p.aoTpo-jTos is defined as someone who tries to make one party in a potential sexual relationship attractive to the other, and at 4. 61 this is distinguished from the behaviour of the apparently even less reputable (339-41 n.), although Theopomp. Hist. FGrHist 115 F 227 treats the terms as equivalent. For other references to paarpoTroi (always female where the sex can be distinguished, except in Xenophon), Epicr. fr. 8. i; Theophil. fr. n. 4; Diph. fr. 42. 22; Herod, i; X. Snip. 3. 10 (a 'craft' by means of which Socrates claims he could make considerable money). The word is first attested here. For sending gifts of sacrificial
L I N E S 556-63
217
meat to individuals whom one wants to honour, thank, or influence, Olson on Ach. 1049—50. 559 iireiTa: 542—3 n. rr|v YiArjv <|>afi€v: Sc. «Ae'i/iai ('stole [them]'). Weasels were kept in Greek houses to control rats, mice, and the like (Arist. HA 6o9b28-3o; Gow on Theoc. 15. 27-8; Benton, CR NS 19 (1969) 2603); for their tendency to steal meat, V. 363—4; Pax 1150—1 with Olson on 792-5; Plu.Mor. Sigd; cf. Semon. fr. 7. 50-6, esp. 55-6. 'Miserable me!, Woe is me!' (e.g. 690, 695; Lys. 735; Alex. fr. 100. 3; Men.Dysk. 189; cf. 385 withn., 625, 644 with n.). c|>\uapeis: The vb. and its cognates (first attested at Timocr. fr. 10) are widely distributed in comedy (e.g. V. 85; Eub. fr. 35. 3; Philem. fr. 178. i; Men.Pk. 3 36) and prose (e.g. PI. Grg. 4906; X.ffGvi. 3.12; Isoc.4. 188; D. 16. 3) but absent from serious poetry. 560 The Suda preserves a careless version of the text, with eVe'pa intrusive from 561. TOV dvSpa KT\.: Euripides refers several times to the TreXeKvs ('axe') with which Clytaemestra murdered Agamemnon (Hec. 1279; El. 160, 279, 1160; Tr. 361; the weapon is always a sword in Aeschylus, but cf. Garvie on A. Ch. 889 for an axe as 'part of the traditional version of Clytaemestra's defence of Aegisthus against Orestes'). Inlaw is referring, however, not to a traditional story but to what are at least alleged to be contemporary events, as 2R notes. For the anapaest in the second metron, cf. 550 with n. KaTeamoSrfaev: The vb. is attested elsewhere in the classical period only at A. Th. 809; here it probably means 'pounded hard, to destruction' (cf. 1215 n.; [Archil.] fr. 328. 6; Taillardat §633), i.e. 'chopped to pieces'. 561 <|>apfidKois • • • ifir]V€v: 43on., 534n. If aman was incapacitated by mental illness, control of the family property apparently passed to his son (cf. Dover on Nu. 845); but blame for his breakdown probably settled more often than not on his wife, who had had ample opportunity to poison him. Cf. Antipho i. 562-3 rf) TTueXu: 'her bathtub' (cf. Amyx 252-4; Ginouves 47-8; Olson on Pax 843-4), a heavy item of household equipment which would not normally be moved (cf. V. 141, where the mjeAoy is fitted with a drain leading outside the house, leaving no doubt that it is more or less permanently installed). !£6\oio: A bitter colloquial curse; lit. 'Might you perish utterly!', i.e. 'To hell with you!', 'Fuck you!' (also 887; Alex. fr. 125. 2; cf. 556—7n., 757 withn., 1051;Ra. 86, 226). Inlaw's story is oddly circumstantial (why an Acharnian woman? and why did she bury the body under abathtub, of all things? and why was the victim her father rather than her husband, as in 560-1?), and -HOT' ('once upon a time') suggests that he is rehearsing a well-known tale, as does the fact that Mika angrily interrupts him before he can get out what might otherwise seem to be the central details of the story. It thus seems likely that the old
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man is alluding to a famous local incident and that Dobree's should be printed for R's AxapviKr/ (cf. Introduction p. xciii). Acharnai was located north of Athens among the foothills of Mt. Parnes and was far and away the largest Attic deme, with a bouleutic quota of 22. Cf. Traill 50; D. Whitehead, The Denies of Attica $o8/j-ca. 250 B.C. (Princeton, 1986) 397-400; J. Travlos, Bildlexicon zur Topographic des antiken Attika (Tubingen, 1988) 1—5; Olson onAch. 177. 8fJT(a) injects a note of indignation; cf. 705; S. OT429 rj TO.VTO. 8rjr' dveKrd . . . K\vfiv;\ Ph. 987 GP 272. 564-5 Inlaw abruptly turns his venom on Mika herself; cf. 567 n. For the charge of passing off another woman's child as one's own, 339—41 n., 407—8, 502—3; andcf. S. OT 1062—3, where Oedipus, having just learnt that he was adopted as an infant, assumes that his birth-mother must have been a slave. For the preference for a son, Men. frr. 22; 58; Posidipp. Com. fr. 12 with K—A ad loc.; Olson on Ach. 736—7. Sc. muSiw; cf. EC. 549. etra: 542—3 n. 'your own infant daughter' (Petersen 140). Bv-ydrpiov is attested elsewhere only in comedy and related genres (e.g. 1184; Stratt. fr. 65. i; Xenarch. fr. 12. 2; Men. Dysk. 19; fr. 323. i; adesp. com. fr. 1008. 19; Macho 348) and in prose (D. 40. 13), and is most likely colloquial Attic. 566 Cf. 718—20; V. 1396 383-4 n. Kararfpoi^ei: Ionic vocabulary (Archil, fr. 200; Hdt. iii. 36. 6; vii. 17. 2; etc.); used in the colloquial Attic of Aristophanic comedy only in the 2nd pers. fut. with OVTOL and an oath and with either a part, (also Eq. 435; V. 1366) or a gen. (JVM. 1240; V. 1396). 567 IKTTOKUO aou Tas TTOKciSas: 'I'll shear off your wool', i.e. 'your pubic hair'; cf. Lys. 448 eyo>'KTTOKIW aov rds GT€VOKWKVTOVS rpt^a? ('I'll shear off your close-hairs and make you scream'; also said by a woman spoiling for a fight), 683-6; Taillardat §586. The argument has grown personal (564-5) and Mika now proposes to do by herself what she earlier urged the women to do as a group (537—8). IK-JTOKL^IU is attested elsewhere only at Lys. 448 (above; thus Blaydes for the paradosis IKKOKKJJ)', for the simplex, Theoc. 5. 26. TroKiis is secure only here. 'You won't get hold [of them], by Zeus!', i.e. 'You'll have to get hold of them first!' ovToipaAia is a mocking echo of Mika'soiVoi^aToi^eaiin 566. R has ovoe (unmetrical), for which Lenting (in the Addenda to his Obs. Crit. (Zutphen, 1839) 133) suggested OVTOL. Bothe'souSij would be an odd use of the particle, which rarely strengthens negatives (GP 222-3). F°r in similar contexts, Lys. 365; PI. Com. fr. 136. i; Men. Sam. 576. 568 Kdi fir)v E8ou. —Kdi fir)v E8ou: Mika takes off her himation (cf. below) and steps forward to fight, and Inlaw immediately does the same; cf. 637 n.; Lys. 362. For KOL ^v ('Look!'), GP 356-7. For ISov (here in response to the implied invitation to fisticuffs in 567), 25 n.
L I N E S 562-73
219
For throwing off one's outer robe to prepare for a fight (as for any vigorous physical action), V. 408; Hippon. fr. 121 ('Take my himatia, so I can punch Boupalos in the eye'); cf. 656 with n., 1181 with 1186 n.; Pi. P. 4. 232-3; E. Ion 1208-9. Mika's slave is named Mania (728 with n., 739, 754; cf. 608—9 n.), and Philiste is most likely a member of the chorus. The name is relatively common in Athens (12 examples in LGPN ii s. 0Mara and 0Mar-r) (four from the 5th and 4th c.), not including this passage). 569 Trp6a0€s fiovov: Sc. ^eipa ('just lay [a hand] on me!'); cf.Nu. 933; Cratin. fr. 309; E. Ph. 1699. A harsh ellipse, but the action on stage makes Inlaw's meaning clear. Threatening adverbial p,6vov appears in similar contexts at Lys. 365, 439; PI. Com. fr. 136. i. vr| rr|v'Aprejuv: 517-19 n. TI Spcujeis; is belligerent; 'You'll do what?' 570 TOV ar]aafiouv9' ov KdT€<|>aY€s: The 'Middle Day' of the Thesmophoria involved fasting (cf. 80 n.; Introduction p. xlviii with n. 35) and the nasty implication of Inlaw's remark is that Mika has been snacking surreptitiously. For ariaap.ovs ('sesame-[cake]'), Ach. 1092; S a 341; cf. IG IP 1184.11 withMichonad\oc.(UnDecretdudemedeCholargos(Paris, 1913) n). Sesame (a-qaa^ov, a Semitic loan-word; cf. E. Masson, Recherches sur les plus anciens emprunts semitiques en grec (Etudes et Commentaires 67: Paris, 1967) 57—8) was a minor summer crop; cf. Thphr. HPviii. i. i—2, 4; R. Sallares, The Ecology of the Ancient Greek World (Ithaca, NY, 1991) 363-4. KareaBlw ('gulp down') is an undignified vb., common in comedy but used elsewhere only of the greedy eating of non-human or sub-human creatures; cf. Olson on Ach. 973—5. Cf. Eup. fr. 173. 3 (njaa^i'Saj oe x^6L- Here a climactic obscenity (35 n.; cf. 611-12 n.), after which the action moves in a new direction (571-3). For involuntary defecation as a consequence of a beating, Eq. 69—70; Nu. 1385—90; Lys. 440; cf. Plaut. Cure. 295 ex unoquoque eorum crepitum exciam polentarium ('I'll knock a barley-fed fart out of every one of them'). xe'£o) is coarse, colloquial vocabulary (e.g. Eq. 998; Nu. 295; EC. 320). For -^eaeiv rather than -^eaai (Ec. 808) as the aor. act. infin., Ale. Com. fr. 5 with K—A ad loc.; KB ii. 103; Lautensach 226. For TTOTJCTO) used in threats, K—A on Hermipp. fr. 74. 571—3 For57I—2,cf. S.El. I/\.2& ('Stop [talking]! for I see Aigisthos in full view'). 'reviling one another, quarrelling' (496—7 n.). Kai yap: 'for the fact is that' (GP 108—9). Y UV1 1 TI S ( c f- 572 573 is a joke, for the bare-cheeked character who enters now—and whose passage across the stage these verses serve to cover—speaks from the very first as a man and must have been immediately recognizable as such. Cf. 574—5 n., 582—3 n. !<jTrou8aKuia: 'bent on business' (e.g. V. 694; Ra. 813; Antiph. fr. 182. 2; Men. Dysk. 148 with Sandbach ad
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loc.; fr. 607. 4). Tipiv . . . y^veaGai: Sc. gether [with us]' (e.g. Eq. 245; Pax 513; fr. 562; S. Ant. 1180; OC 1107; PI. R. 458c); identified by 2R (cf. Harp. O 22) as Attic for the common 'decorously', i.e. without any slanging (cf. 571) of the sort Inlaw engages in again at the first opportunity (592-4); cf. 8534, where KOCT^U'OIJ / e|eij means little more than 'keep quiet' . For ('decorousness'), a virtue routinely associated, especially for women, with alSiiis (cf. 524— 6b n.) and aiu^poavvi] (546—8 n.), e.g. Philem. fr. 4; PI. Chrm. 1 59b; Lycophronid. PMG 843 . KOCT^IOJ is common in comedy (e.g PL 565; Anaxandr. fr. 57. 3; Men. Sam. 18) and prose (e.g. Hp. Epid. iii. 3.17 (iii. 146. 15); Lys. i . 26; X. Mem. iii. 1 1 . 14), but is found in serious poetry of the classical period only at S. EL 872. 574-5 The character who enters from Wing A at 571 and speaks now for the first time is not addressed or referred to by name until 634, where he is identified as Kleisthenes (235 n.). But the ofif-hand way in which the name is used there leaves no doubt that his bare cheeks (which led the coryphaeus in 571-3 to the mistaken initial conclusion that he must be a woman) make his identity apparent from the moment he enters; cf. 3-4 n., 33 n. Nothing else specific can be said of Kleisthenes' costume; but perhaps he has a white mask or lacks a visible stage-phallus (cf. Introduction p. Ixx). c|>i\ai Y<JvaiK€s: Perhaps paratragic (Rau 47); cf. 1036; S. Tr. 225; E.Andr. 802; Hel. 255; fr. 399. i; etc.; and note the lack of resolution in the line. £uYY €V€ 'STOUfiouTp6TTOu: Lit. 'kinofmy personal style' (cf. 93 n.), i.e. 'who share my personal style, proclivities'; cf. Poultney 41. For the gen. rather than the dat. (e.g. Ach. 789) with the adj. 'when the idea of affiliation is in the foreground', KG i. 432; cf. PI. R. 487a (j>lXos re Kal avy-yevrjs aXr/Oems ('friendly to and a kinsman of truth'). on fi€v<|>i\os KT\. plays on the standard oratorical device of attempting to convince the people of one's deep affection for and devotion to them before offering them advice or the like (e.g. Eq. 732-4, 773-6, 790—1, 820—1, 860—3), and TCUS YV^OIS ('by my jaws') is accordingly reserved for the end of the line as a surprise for roiy e'pyoiy ('by my deeds') vel sim. For p,€v solitarium at the beginning of a speech, 383-4 n. R's euiSrjXos (with ei^u'to be supplied from what precedes) can probably stand (cf. Lys. 919 rj TOL-yvyf] <j>iXei p.e, Sr/Xi) 'arlv KaAoiy; PL 333; Denniston on E. EL 37), although Blaydes's em'S^Acy (cf. Av. 703—4 the nom. would be an easy error under the influence of is tempting. em'S-ijAos (first attested at Thgn. 442 ~ i i&2b) appear in the classical period in comedy (also 799 (adv.); Eq. 38; EC. 661; Men. Sam. 448; fr. 858. 3) and prose (e.g. Hdt. viii. 97. i; Hp. VMS, (i. 586. 8); Thphr. HP iv. 14. i), but is absent from elevated poetry. 576 YuvaiKopavw: 'I'm wild for women's ways'. Modelled on Homeric (II. 3- 39 = 13. 769); cf. Amphis' FwaLKopavia (frr. 9—11),
221
L I N E S 57l-8l
(Av.
I28l), OpVlddfMVW
(.
As if the city's women were foreigners forced to rely on an influential Athenian insider (cf. 235 n.) to protect their interests among the men; cf. 602 (Kleisthenes addressed as -n-pofeve by the coryphaeus), 652-4 n., 1162-3 n -; Lys. 620-4 (Spartans and women imagined meeting in Kleisthenes' house, as if he were the official representative of one party or the other); M. B. Walbank, Athenian Proxenies of the Fifth Century B.C. (Toronto and Sarasota, 1978) 2—9 (on the duties and privileges of the proxenos and the history of the institution). 577—8 Kai vuv: Cf. E. Andr. 59—60 ('I was well-disposed to you previously, and now I have come bringing you fresh news'). TrpaYna • • • fi^ya: 'an important matter';cf.58i*withn.; F.59o;Z/ys.23,5ii;_Ra.759,1099. 'a little earlier'; cf. Hdt. iv. 79. 2, 81. 2; vi. 69. 2; viii. 95 (all but vi. 69. 2 with a gen., 'a little before this'). 457—8 n. Eur.'s plan depends on secrecy (91—2), but if anyone in the audience in the Theatre wondered how word of the plot reached the city at large, the obvious answer would be that Agathon or one of his slaves let the cat out of the bag; cf. Ra. 750—3. For shops in the Agora as places where men hung about to talk, e.g. Ach. 21 with Olson ad loc. (with additional primary references); EC. 3O3a-b; Pherecr. frr. 2. 2-3; 70. 1-3; Men. Sam. 510-12; Lys. 24. 20; S. Lewis, News and Society in the Greek Palis (Chapel Hill, 1996) 13—19. For gossip and rumour in Athens generally, Cohen, Law 94—7; Policing96— 119. 579-91 contain no resolution except in 585 and are clearly paratragic; cf. 579-81 n., 582-3 n., 586 n., 587-8 n., 595-602 n., 598-600 n.; Rau 46-7; Sanchez, Emerita 65 (1997) 294—6. 579—81 In good paratragic fashion, Kleisthenes repeatedly says the same thing twice cf. 586, 587, 590, 599-600, 783-4 n.; Ra. 1153-7, 1172-4 (similar charges lodged against Aeschylus). Trfpfjre: Also used in this sense ('look out lest') in the act. at e.g. Pax 146; PI. _R. 442a; contrast V. 372, 1386 (mid.). Kai 2 adds emphasis to jir|, 'lest in fact, lest actually' (cf. EC. 29, 495, 870; GP 298; Johansen-Whittle on A. Supp. 399). TTpoameaT]: The compound is first attested in the second half of the 5th c. (e.g. S. Ai. 1181; E. Ale. 350; Hdt. iii. 40. 4), but cf. A. Pers. 152 TTpoaTTiTVW, Th. 95 TTOTimaui. cttfxipKTOLs: Lit. 'unfenced', i.e. 'off your guard, unawares'; cf. Th. i. 117. i ('after falling on the squadron when it was off guard'); Taillardat §872. Dindorf's -<j>api<- rather than R's -<j>pai<- is the proper 5th-c. form (Barrett on E. Hipp. 657; Threatte i. 477); parallel errors at e.g. Ach. 95; Eq. 567; fr. 382; S. Ai. 910. Cf. 577 with n.; Ach. 128 Seivov ep-yov Kai p.e-ya* (Dikaiopolis
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description of his plan to seek a separate peace); Pax 403* (an alleged plot by the Sun and the Moon against the Olympian gods). 582—3 Probably paratragic (note the lack of resolution); cf. V. 1297—8 ri ('What is it, boy? For it's right to call anyone who is beaten "boy", even if he's an old man') with MacDowell ad loc.; E. Andr. 64-5 with Stevens on 56; Dale on E. Hel. 1193. ri 8' lariv;: 95 n. Cf. 141—2 with 134—5 n -> and the joke in 571—3 with n.; whatever Kleisthenes is, he is certainly not a man. 'cheeks that are bare' or 'your cheeks bare'. For the adj. in predicate position in similar phrases (most having to do with the person), e.g. Ach. 120; Eg. 1170; Lys. 88; PL 1018, 1022 (all with forms of e^oi); cf. Gildersleeve §629. 584-91 Kleisthenes' report that Eur.'s agent was sent to infiltrate the Thesmophoria assembly disguised as a woman (584—5, 590—1) matches the tragedian's own initial account of his plan precisely (89, 92). Had Kleisthenes also noted that the interloper's basic job was to argue on Eur.'s behalf (90-1; cf. 186), Inlaw would have been identified with no further ado by the content of his great speech (466—519); but Ar. defers the climax of the action by having Kleisthenes say instead that Eur. sent his old relative only to listen to the women's discussion and learn their plans (587-8). This requires that Inlaw be caught in a different—more time-consuming and much funnier—fashion (esp. 610—48), and only after he has been exposed do the women put two and two together (649—50). Cf. 590—1 n. 584—5 <|>aa(i): Sc. ol Iv dyopd AaAowrej (cf. 578 with n.). is emphatic; 'a man'. KT)8€arr|v riva / aurou: The addition of the detail—which, unlike y^povra ('an old man'), will not help the women identify the interloper—implicitly answers the question raised explicitly in a slightly different form by Inlaw in 5 92-3: why should anyone agree to do something so reckless on behalf of another man? Cf. 74 n. 280—1 n. 586 upas TTOIOV ipyov t] rivos Y^f-11!? X"P IV > : For the paratragic pleonasm, cf. 579-81 with n. For gen. + ya.pu>, cf. 126/7/8 with n. For irpos . . . e'pyov, 966-8 n. The question (like 589) has very little content (587 could just as easily have followed directly after 585) and serves mostly to maintain the dialogue form; cf. 71—94 n.; Rau 47. 587-8 Amuch-inflatedwayofsaying"i/d (equivalent to ariva) is attested in comedy (e.g. Ach. 98; PI. Com. fr. 52. 3; Ephipp. fr. 16. 2) and prose (e.g. Hp. Mul. C 4. 9 (p. 98. 6 Grensemann), 9. 5 (p. 106. 28); PI. Grg. 497a; D. 4. 50), but is found in tragedy only at Agathon TrGF 39 F 5. 2 and may (like drra; cf. 421-3 n.) be colloquial. The word is none the less used here in a generally paratragic context to avoid resolution. (3ou\€uoia6e Kai fieXXoire 8pdv: Another para-
L I N E S 579-94
223
tragic pleonasm; cf. 579-81 n. KardaKoiios and its cognates are late 5th-and4th-c. vocabulary (e.g. Hdt. i. 100. 2; E.Hec. 239; Th. iv. 27. 3; Antiph. fr. 274. 2; X. Cyr. vi. 1.31). 589 A simple connective K(evaa (rather than f/f/ievaa,) as the aor. of d^etJoi, Semon. fr. 24. i dTrevaa. One might expect the condition of Inlaw's cheeks (which are visible) to get more attention in Kleisthenes' account than that of his pubic region (which no one would expect to see), but the latter is both much funnier and more scandalous; cf. 216-17 n. Cf. 249-68. Kleisthenes' story not only misstates Inlaw's mission (584—91 n.) but fails to give any specifics of his disguise, allowing him to remain unidentified a bit longer, and omits any mention of Eur. 's promise (made after Agathon exits at 265; cf. 577-8 n.) to come to the old man's assistance if he gets into trouble (269-76). Eur.'s rescue attempts in the final third of the play thus proceed without the women knowing what is going on (cf. 920—2 n.). laKeuaaev: 'he dressed him up'; cf. Ach. 121, 739; Ra. 523; Hdt. v. 20. 3. 592-4 571-3 n. The paratragic rhythm of 579-91 (cf. 595-602) is maintained as Inlaw begins to speak in 592, but is abruptly shattered in 593—4. 592—3 TT€i0€<j0€ TOUTU raura;: Cf. the sceptical response to the rumourmonger at Thphr. Char. 8. 6 av Se ravra Triareveis; ('Do you believe these things?'). For Trel8ofi,ai + dat. (of the person in whom credence is put) + ace. (of the thing believed), e.g. 879; Nu. 1000; Av. 661. For the polyptoton, e.g. Ra. 1526 rolaiv rovrov rovrov ^€\€OW, A. Eu. 642 S. Ant. 504 rovrois rovro Trdaiv; E. Med. 365 ravr-fl ravra', Gygli-Wyss 25-8. TIS 8' OUTUS KT\. is wittier if one assumes that Inlaw's hidden point is that he himself has not been 'plucked' (riXXofievos) but only singed; cf. 590—1 n. r|\i0ios: 289—90 n. For 3$ or used for ware in a negative or virtual negative clause, Ach. 736-7 S. Ant. 2,2,0 OVK eariv ovrw pwpos os', Hdt. i. 87. 4 X. An. 11. 5 . 12 res ovrw ^atverai Sorts', VII. 1 . 28; I. 1 5 ;45. 14; KG 11. 422— 3. 594 Strictly speaking, the answer to the rhetorical question posed in 5923 ought to be ovSels ('no one') vel sim. (cf. PL 499; D. 31. n), and is t ne answer one would expect after a question introduced
224
COMMENTARY
by interrogative eari ('Is there anyone . . .?'; cf. D. 38. 12). But Inlaw's meaning is clear enough ('I don't think [that there's anyone who's that much of a fool]!'; cf. 27 n.) and the anacolouthon should be regarded as colloquial. to iio\uTifir|Ttd 0€ti: 286—8 n., 383—4 n. The exclamation d) TToXvTip.rjToi 8eol seems always to be used by men (V. 1001; Antiph. fr. 143. 2; Men. Asp. 408; Dysk. 202, 381, 4~jg;fab. inc. i. 56 Arnott; frr. 106. 2; 508. 5), and Handley (on Men. Dysk. 202) detects here 'an amusing hybrid'. As D. Barrett puts it (Aristophanes: The Frogs and Other Plays (New York, 1964) 119), Inlaw is seen'remembering, just in time, to make it a feminine oath'—or at least something approximating one. 595—602 contain no resolution and are clearly paratragic; cf. 579—91 n., 598—600 n. 595-6 \T)peis: 'You're talking nonsense!' Colloquial late 5th-c. vocabulary (first attested in Ar. and Hippocrates); common in comedy (e.g. 1080/1, ni2',Ec. 1001; Pherecr. fr. 117. i) and found occasionally in prose (e.g. Hp.Epid. i. 13 (ii. 688. 15); PI. Phdr. 26od; D. 5. 10), but in tragedy only at S. Tr. 435 (where see Davies's n.). TUV acu|>(a) eiSoruv: An aggressive recharacterization (driven by a need to counter the scepticism voiced by Inlaw in 592—4) of the source of what was originally presented as anonymous marketplace gossip (577—8). Cf. Thphr. Char. 8. 4 '[the rumour-monger claims that he] has been visited by a soldier or a slave belonging to Asteios the pipe-player or Lykon the contractor fresh from the battle itself, from whom he says he's heard [the news]. The sources of his stories are of the sort no one can get hold of.' 597—600 i.e. cf.Ach. 135
597 €iaaYY^^€Tai: 'is announced within [our assembly]'; cf. Eq. 655. Late 5th- and4th-c. civic and administrative vocabulary (e.g. And. i. 37; Lys. 13.50; frequently in the technical sense 'indict'); attested in tragedy only at E. Ba. 173 (of announcing a visitor to those within the house; cf. PI. Prt. 3146; X. Snip. i. n). 598-600 IXivueiv: Ionian (e.g. Hdt. i. 67. 5; Hp.Epid. vi. i. 5 (v. 268. 7)) and poetic (e.g. Pi. N. 5. i; [A.]PF53;oracleap.D.2i. 53; Call. Cer.47;Theoc. 10. 51) vocabulary, attested only here in comedy. Another paratragic pleonasm; cf- 579~8i n. aKcmeiv is 'look for', as at Ach. 96; Av. 450; Lys. 427. 'in disguise'; cf. V. 351 paKeaiv Kpv>8els ('disguised in rags'). 'sitting in [our midst]', and thus in context 'lurking among us', as at 688; V. n 14; cf. 663—4 with n. Attested elsewhere in the classical period only in comedy (Ach. 343) and prose (e.g. Hp.Epid. ii. 2. 24 (v. 96. 16); PI. Tht. i84d; Aeschin. 3. 206); cf. 184 eyKa8e£,6fi,evos with n. 601—2 Kai au marks the shift to a new addressee (here Kleisthenes), as at e.g.
L I N E S 594-605
225
317;-Eg. 971; V. 457 with MacDowell adloc. ^uve^eup(e): A rare compound, first attested here and at E. Herad. 420. 'have our thanks, our gratitude' (LSJ s. ^apu I I . 2); normally 'owe thanks'. rau-rrfv re KaKeivrjv: i.e. gratitude for joining in the search (with OVTOS referring to the nearer thing) in addition to the gratitude already felt for the warning. to -upo^eve: 576 n. Kleisthenes' special relationship to the women is appropriately recalled at the moment services on their behalf are requested. 603-4 Kleisthenes steps over to Mika (who must be the character nearest to him on stage, with Inlaw on Mika's other side and closer to the wing; cf. 608—9 n -) and begins to question her. Maas (Kleine Schriften (Munich, 1973) 57) proposed transposing 603 and 604 (reading allowing Mika's response in 605 to follow directly on Kleisthenes' question in 603. But Mika's indignant tone in 605 helps explain her interlocutor's apparent need to apologize for his behaviour in 604, and the order of the verses in R ought to be preserved. Cf. Bain, Actors 93 n. i. 'All right, let's see...' (e.g. 630*; .Eg. 1002*; Nu. 21*; Eup.fr. 192. 90*; Pherecr. fr. 6. i*; Luc. Pise. 48). Colloquial; cf. Stevens 42; Lopez Eire 98—9. ris €i Tipiorr] au;: 'You first of all—who are you?', i.e. 'Who is your husband?'; cf. 605, 619. iioiTiSTp€v|/€Tai;: 'Whither will one turn [for safety]?', i.e. 'How can I getaway?'; cf.Ra. 296. A 'dramatic' aside which allows the speaker to give vent to his emotions; cf. below; 609; Bain, Victors 92—4. For the 3rdpers. in place of the istpers. in similar deliberative questions, e.g. PL 374—5; A. Ch. 408—9; S. Ai. 404; E. Cyc. 309; Or. 598; cf. Bruhn, Anhang §97; KG i. 662 'you must [all] be investigated, examined'; cf. 144-5. For verbal adjs. of necessity in -re'oy in Ar., cf. 924 (impersonal); Poultney, AJP 84 (1963) 373—6, esp. 374. KdKoSaifitdv eyw: 228—9* n. Another 'dramatic' aside; cf. above. 605 k[i' TJTIS (ein') tjpou;: An indignant question, 'You're asking me who I am?'; cf. below. For Bentley's {e'lp.'), cf. 603 TIS f l ; , 606 ('[I' m ] Kleonymos' wife!') is apparently regarded by Mika as something to be proud of (cf. above), but her husband's name is not generic and must be a joke. Kleonymos (PA i. 580, where for '8880' read '8680'; PAA 579410) was prominent in Athenian public life from at least 426/5 (IG I 3 6 i . 34; 68. 5; 69. 3-4; Ach. 88, 844) to 414 (Av. 289-90, 1473-81; And. i. 27), after which this is the only mention we have of him; but the fact that his wife Mika is carrying a 'baby' is most naturally taken to suggest that he was still alive in 411. Ar. attacks Kleonymos repeatedly for his size and alleged gluttony, his political duplicity, and his cowardice; cf. Olson on Ach. 88-9 (with primary references). Perhaps Mika's dominance of the women's debate (380-432), her eagerness to get the others to punish a member of their assembly whom she represents as a
226
COMMENTARY
traitor to their cause (533-9, 544-8, 551-2), and her hot temper (566-8) are all reminiscent of Kleonymos' public behaviour, so that it is funny to identify her as his wife; or perhaps she too is simply immensely fat (cf. 570 with n.). Cf. Halliwell, LCM 7 (1982) 154. When speaking to a man, Mika naturally keeps her own name back; cf. 372-4 n.; Sommerstein, 'Naming' 394-5. 606 Addressed to the chorus. In the absence of identity cards or the like, the only reliable way to establish who an individual was was to have someone else (preferably several people) vouch for him or her (e.g. Lys. 23). R's rjSe is unmetrical, and comparison with 608 suggests that Grynaeus'r|8i rather than M'sijS' 17 (i.e.ijS' rj', cf.Nu. 534) ought to be printed. 607 For 8f)T(a) used idiomatically with a word repeated from a preceding question, e.g. 613, 706; Ach. 323; Lys. 848; cf. GP 276. 'have a look at the others!, inspect the others!', as at e.g. Nu. 731; E. El. 826-7. 608-9 The individual being asked about (eventually given the slave-name Mania (728 with n.)) is a mute, and Kleisthenes therefore addresses his question not to her (as properly; cf. 603) but to Mika. * at V. 858. For &e Siy used colloquially in emphatic questions (in Ar. and Euripides always with a postponed interrogative), GP 259; Stevens 46; Lopez Eire 122. TIT0T) . . . lfir|: 'my wet-nurse', i.e. a slave (as here) or a poor free woman (esp. D. 57. 35) hired to nurse and care for a child, especially but doubtless not exclusively when its mother was missing, ill, or otherwise preoccupied, or when her milk was inadequate; cf.Eq. 716-18; Lys. 958 'Hire me a wet-nurse!' (said by a man left with an 'orphaned child'); Antiph. fr. 157. 4 (male moralizing on the evils of the practice; cf. Aul. Gell. xii. i. 17—18 with Hunter on Eub. H. Od. 19. 482-3 (Eurykleia described as Odysseus' wet-nurse); A. Ch. 750-62 (but without specific reference to nursing); PI. Lg. 7896 (rirdai carrying children, as here); Thphr. Char. 16. n; 20. 5; Petrikovits, RE xvii (1937) 1491—1501, esp. 1493—5. Elided vr) Ai' (87 times in iambic trimeter in Ar.) produces a divided anapaest only here; cf. Sandbach on Men. Dysk. 774. Sioixo^ai: Lit. 'I've come to the end!' (cf. Jebb on S. OC 574), i.e. 'It's over for me now!' Another 'dramatic' aside (cf. 603—4 n -)- Perhaps paratragic (cf. EC. 393 ~ A. fr. 138. 2 (although the scholiast who identifies the allusion does not actually assign rd^d yap Sioi^erai to Aeschylus); E. Ion 765; Or. 181, 855), although Inlaw's other interjections in this scene (603, 604) are distinctly colloquial. Realizing that he is next in line to be questioned (cf. 603-4 n -)> Inlaw edges toward the nearest wing. 610 Addressed to Inlaw. Cf. 224 with n.
aurou: Adverbial; cf. 230 n
L I N E S 605-16
227
'What the hell [is this]?'; cf. 1080/1, 1085-6 (where the def. art. is omitte. metri gratia); Pax 322 with Olson on 181; Av. 1213*; fr. 621; Eup. fr. 192. 74; Men. Dysk. 546; Austin on Men. Sam. 362; Olson on Ach. 156. Colloquial. 611-12 iaaov oupfjaai [i': Cf. 484-5 (a similar excuse used to avoid male scrutiny); EC. 1059-60. Pissing (like shitting; cf. 485, 570) is referred to elsewhere in a way that leaves no doubt that mentioning the act on stage fetched an automatic laugh (e.g. Nu. 373; V. 394; EC. 832; cf. 633). Men may routinely have pissed in public (Hdt. i. 133. 3 treats it as surpris ing that Persians did not; cf. X. Cyr. i. 2. 16; Olson on Pax 1265-7), but women probably did not, and it must in any case have been common courtesy to step aside to do one's business if one could. For other Aristophanic characters pissing or shitting on stage, V. 935-40; EC. 320-73. i.e. if he is actually willing to try to prevent someone else from urinating when (s)he needs to, as no decent person would. Traditionally assigned to Kleisthenes (cf. 638), but this is impossible before av S' ovv in 612 and the remark ought instead to be given to Inlaw, who recognizes that his best defence in this awkward situation is to attack his interlocutor. TIS (easily omitted via haplography after -TO?) serves to strengthen the adj.; 'someone quite shameless'. Cf. 639, 752; Bond on E. HF^47au 8'ouvTroei TOUT'is hostile; 'Go aheadanddo it! (generally with av vel sim. and a defiant or contemptuous tone, and almost always at the opening of a speech) 'is often used in the dialogue of drama . . . to denote that the speaker waives any objection . . . to something being done, or contemplated, by another person' (GP466-7); cf.Ach. i86;Nu. 38—9 Inlaw walks over to the side of the stage and squats down. Kleisthenes keeps a suspicious watch on him. 613-14 8f)Ta: 607 n. OKOTTSI . . . auTT|v a<|>68pa: 'examine her closely'; cf. 466-8 n.; Ach. 257 >v\a,TTea8ai a>6Spa ('keep a sharp eye out!'); Timocl. fr. 19. 4 rr/peiv . . . a<j>oopa ('to keep a close guard'); Theslefif §123. Y(E) stresses the addition made by Kai; 'Yes, and in addition' (GP 157). abruptly cuts short what should have been the (dramatically otiose) task of examining every woman at the festival, including the chorus (cf. 604). uvep: 'sir', as at PL 1025; contrast 484 with n. 615-16 TfoXuv Y« XP OVOV oupe'S au: Similar comments in parallel scenes (611-12 n.) at V. 940 dAA' en avy ovpeis;; EC. 351. to |_i<=Ae: Common in Ar. (e.g. Nu. 1338 vi) A" a> p.eXe*', V. 1400*; Av. 1216*; EC. 120 with Ussher ad loc.) and obviously colloquial; attested elsewhere only at PI. Tht. 1786; Men. fr. 345*. aTpaYYouPl": 'I'm suffering from strangury', i.e. difficulty and pain in urinating (esp. Hp. Aff. 28 (vi. 240. 5—14); cf. V. 810; fr. 371). Verbs in -do) generally denote bodily or mental
228
COMMENTARY
states, often illnesses (e.g. vavridw 882; j3ov\ifi,ida> PL 873; 298; ^eAayxoAdoi^fo. 14; o(f}da\^LaiaRa. 192); cf. Rutherford 152-6; Peppier 154—6. KapSa^ia: The pungent (^.45 5; Eub. fr. i8.2;Thphr. HP i. 12. i; cf. Henioch. fr. 4. 2 'as different as figs and KapSa^a') seeds of K
L I N E S 615-26
229
Thphr. Char. 15. 2), often signalling the speaker's or writer's sense that he need not give a specific name rather than his inability to do so, as here; cf. Moorhouse, CQ NS 13 (1963) 19-25, esp. 22-4; Chadwick 209-10; Lopez Eire 114—16. TOV IK KoGuKiSuv: The deme of Kothokidai was part of the coastal trittys of the tribe of Oineis and lay north-west of Athens, in the coastal plain between Aigaleon and Parnes (Traill 49). In the 4th c. it had a bouleutic quota of only two (Traill 68), and Inlaw (who is thinking as fast as he can, although not fast enough) presumably claims that 'her' husband hails from there on account of the relative obscurity of the place. For this way of referring to a deme, cf. fr. 870 contrast the use of the suffix -Oev in e.g. rap-yr/TToOev (898), 134), Kpia>9ev (Av. 645), 'A\i\6ev (Men. Sik. 355). 621-2 TOV Seiva; TTOIOV; : 'What's-his-name? Which What's-his-name?'; cf. 30 with n., 620 n.; PI. 391-2 ('I've got Wealth.' 'You've got Wealth? Which Wealth?'); contrast 874 with n. A delightfully dim response; cf. below. <ja0' 6 8eiv(a): '[My husband] is what's-his-name'. 8s Kai rrore ought to introduce an anecdote about something memorable Inlaw's husband once did to another man, although he fails to supply the relevant proper names and Kleisthenes cuts him off before he can come up with a vb. Kai 'emphasizes the fact that the relative clause contains an addition'—sorely needed here—'to the information contained in the main clause' (GP 294). fioi 8oK€is: 920*—2 n. 623—4 otvr|\0€s • • • 8eupo: 280—i n. t]8r| is to be taken with 'alreadybefore [this]', i.e. 'everbefore [this]'; cf. LSJs.TJSij II. Commonly (but far from exclusively) * (e.g. 745; Lys. 12; Ra. 6; E 433). Cf. 2on. 6<j€TT]: 'asmanyyearsasthereare', i.e. 'everyyear'; cf. [X.]y4f/i.3.4(ter);o(j7j^,e'pai(e.g. V.4jg;Pl. 1006; Hermipp.fr.73.6; Th. viii. 64. 3; D. 24. 23) withLSJ s.v. yeisexclamatory(GP 126-7). Kai TIS: 78—9 n. E. IA 619 828 A hapax legomenon, but cf. masc. avaKr/vos and 386—8 n. For the compound with cf. Ra. 411 avf^-n-aiarpias', frr. 487 avvdedrpiav, 894 avyy^opevrpiav. Participants in multi-day festivals, like soldiers on campaign (e.g. Th. vi. 75. 2), frequently lived in tents; cf. 658CTKTJWXJ;the skene of Dikaio in the 6thc. BC Bitalemi inscription (above, 101—3 n -)> Kron, AA (1992) 620—3; Pax 879-80 with Olson ad loc. 625 oifioi TaXas' ouSev MYEIS: Cf. 559 with n.; Eq. 887; Bain, Actors 93 n. 2. For o'lp.oi expressing annoyance or impatience (colloquial), e.g. 780, 920; Ach. 590; cf. Stevens 17; Labiano Ilundain 265—8; contrast 222 with n. is 'you're not saying anything [intelligible]', i.e. 'you're talking nonsense'; cf. 442a-b n. 626 Cf. Ach. 110 dAA' a-TTtr'* eya> Se flaoaviw rovrov ^ovos with Olson ad loc.
230
COMMENTARY
Mika treats Inlaw's blathering not as proof that he is an impostor (contrast 634-5) but as a sign that Kleisthenes has failed to carry out the interrogation effectively (hence the abrupt dismissal, 'Get out of here!', of him and his services; contrast 601—2), thus allowing for the third—and final—set of questions (619-34 n -)First attested at Pi. Pae. 14. 37-8, but otherwise absent from serious poetry and attested only in Ar. (e.g. Ach. 647; V.^,\l;Ra. 1121) and prose (e.g. Hdt. i. 116. 2; Th. vii. 86. 4; Lys. 13. 25; Thphr. Lap. 4); cf. 800-1. For the jSdaavos ('touchstone'; by extension 'evidence, proof), Olson on Ach. 110; Posidipp. 16. /\. 627 IK ™v Up&jv T&JV TT€pu<ji: 'on the basis of last year's rites'; cf. 144—5 n -> 629 with n. -jrepvai is first attested at Simon. PMG 602. 2, but is otherwise confined in the classical period to comedy (e.g. 808, 1060; Ach. 378; Cratin. fr. 79; PI. Com. fr. 102. 3; Men. Epitr. 476) and Attic prose (e.g. Lys. 17. 5; PI. Grg. 4736; D. 34. 39). jioi: 64-5 n. 628 i'vafir) (IJiraKouarfsawavrip: i.e. on the off-chance that the stranger may actually be a woman and thus be able to answer Mika's questions correctly. The average male member of the audience in the Theatre probably knew next to nothing about what went on at the Thesmophoria and other secret women's festivals, and no one would have expected such information to be given out on stage (especially by male actors speaking parts written by a male poet). All the same, the emphasis on the need for secrecy and the danger that a man may learn something he should not signals that an extraordinary revelation may be coming and prepares the way for the joke in 630-2. emxKotJo) is probably to betaken 'overhear', as at Men. Dysk. 821; PI. Tht. 1556 P.TI TIS TWV a^v-fiTiav emxKomj ('lest someone who has not been initiated overhear'). Cf. Dover on Nu. 263, although the sense of the vb. is less specialized than he implies and usually cannot be distinguished from that of the simplex (e.g. Eq. 1080; S. OT 708; E.Hipp. 1284; Hdt. v. 51. i), as arguably even here. au 8' KT\.: Addressed to Inlaw. 629 In 627 ru)v Ifpcov ru)v -jrepvai is clearly 'last year's rites', while in 630—3 Inlaw responds as if Mika had asked him 'What was the first thing we did?' vel sim. and she does not correct him. What she says here must therefore be not 'Which of the sacred [objects] was shown to us first?' (cf. Introduction p. xlix) but 'Which of the sacred [rites] was revealed to us first?' (cf. V. 831), i.e. 'What sacred rite did the priestess tell us to engage in first?' The use of OCLKW^L in this context serves in any case to evoke mystery cult (cf. Lys. 6. 51; X. HG vi. 3. 6). -upti-rov and belong together, but r|fuv (properly enclitic) has intruded into second position between them; cf. 405—6 n.; V. 657, 831; Av. 99 with Fraenkel, Beobachtungen 65-9, esp. 66, and MH 23 (1966) 65-8; PL 808; Barrett, Hippolytus, p. 425. 630 Cf. Nu. 787 (Strepsiades rackshis brain to recall the first thing he learned
L I N E S 626-33
2
3:
from Socrates) i8u: 6o3*-4 n. For jievroi in impatient questions, cf. Eub. fr. IZ 5 - Z 3 (549~5° n -)> GP 4.02—3. Imivofiev: Inlaw, at a complete loss a moment ago, has a sudden inspiration: 'We started drinking!' For women's allegedly habitual drunkenness (a comic motif), e.g. 347-8, 393, 555~6, 733-57, esp. 735-7; Lys. 193-208; EC. 227; PI. 644-5; Antiph. fr. 58; Alex. fr. 172. 1-2 with Arnott ad loc.; Xenarch. fr. 6; cf. 419-20, 632 n.; Oeri 13—18; Introduction p. Ixxxvii n. 87. 631 TTpou-uivofiev: 'We started drinking toasts'; a summary description of a standard style of symposium drinking, in which a 'loving cup' was passed about the circle of guests, with each man (or woman) praising the next, drinking his health, and passing him the wine so that he could repeat the process for the next person (e.g. Theopomp. Com. fr. 33. 9-11; Anaxandr. frr. i; 3; Alex. frr. 55; 293; Men. fr. 401. 2-3); cf. Olson on Ach. 983. 632 rauri . . . rJKouads TIVOS: i.e. 'you're right, but that doesn't prove you were here!' One would expect Mika to respond to Inlaw's seemingly wild suggestions in 630-1 by saying 'You're talking nonsense!', as she does in 634. The joke is that she instead implicitly confirms his (typically male) assumption that the first thing the city's women did, once they were alone, was get drunk (cf. 630 n.). R's ri Se rplrov; is unmetrical, and the simplest solution is to transpose the words and write (cf. Nu. 201 TOVTL Se ri;*, 1186 voei Se ri;*', Ra. 630 Xe-yeis Se ri;*', Austin (1987)80). 633 <JKCU|HOV . . . fj-rrjaev: 'asked [a slave] for a basin' (Ra. 544a Eup. fr. 385. 5; Epicr. fr. 5. 1-4; adesp. com. fr. 1088. 3; cf. Diph. fr. 42. 34—5; Pamphil. SH 597. 2). A OKCL^LOV is a small bowl or basin (838—9 n.), but Poll. x. 45, citing Eup. fr. 53 ('What would have happened, if she hadn't had her skaphionY) and this passage (and perhaps a fragment ofPolyidos which at some point fell out of the text), reports that the word was also used of a vessel into which women urinated (cf. Berlin 3757 (ARV2 404), illustrated by M. F. Kilmer, JHS 102(1982) 109 with plate I(d), and Erotica R 531). Kock suggested that both in Eupolis and here the point might be that the woman in question needed a bowl only because a ap.is ('pisspot'; see below) was not available. But the anatomical differences between the sexes mean that a vessel that would serve one would not work so well for the other, and Pollux's interpretation is supported by the similar use of Latin scaphium (Juv. 6. 264; Mart. xi. 11. 6; cf. Plaut. Bacch. 70); and Mika's reaction in 634 suggests that Inlaw's momentary confusion on this point serves to unmask him to the women. Eevu\\(a): The name is very rare in real life (attested in Attica only in a 4th-c. inscription (SEG xii 212), but is of a sort typical of comedy; cf. 898 KpirvXXa with n.; Neil on .Eg. 224, to whose
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COMMENTARY
list of related words add >8iw)(Xa (Ec. 935); Leumann, Glotta 32 (1952) 214-25, esp. 218-19. dfus: A dfus('pisspot') was an earthenware vessel into which men urinated at symposia and the like (e.g. Ra. 544a; Eup. fr. 385. 5; adesp. com. fr. *I33; Timae. FGrHist 566 F 50; Arist. Probl. 895b6-7; D. 54. 4; cf. Sparkes 128), and is to be distinguished from a chamberpot (TO, Xdaava), into which one might also shit (e.g. Eup. fr. 240). For the rough breathing, cf. Phot, a 1197, citing fr. 653. 634—5 ouSev \eyeis: 625 n., 633 n. Seup(o) is often repeated in Ar. when one character summons another (Eq. 148; Nu. 690, 866; Pax 79; Ra. 301; cf. 241-2 n.; Av. 259). Despite ('This is the man you're talking about!') and ainov ('him') in 636, Mika refers to Inlaw as a woman again in 639; only at 649—50 does she at last draw the obvious conclusion about his previous behaviour. Cf. 636-48 n. 636-48 These verses do not really advance the action, for the fact that Inlaw is an imposter has already been demonstrated repeatedly (619—34 n -) and 649—50 could easily have followed immediately after a line much like 635. But the decision to strip the old man of his women's clothes does allow for some funny stage-action, and these lines have been incorporated into the scene primarily on that account. 636 ouSev uyies: 392—4 n. Cf. PL 274 E . Cyc. 259 Ph. 2OI PI. Phdr. 2426 For yap in third position, e.g. V. 814; cf. GPg6--j; Dover, G©'G6i-3. 637 For KaTT€iT(a) used to introduce an indignant question (common in Ar. and Euripides, and presumably colloquial), e.g.Ach. 126; Av. 1217; Lys. 985 (all line-initial); cf. GP 311; Stevens 47. Contrast 188 eWrra with n. Ivvea maiStdv firfrepa: Nine is an enormous number of children (cf. 447—8 n.), and this is thus an implicit appeal for sympathy; cf. 618 n., 641 with n. For the rare split anapaest in evvea iraioiav, cf. Ach. 107, 1078; Pax 233 (R); Av. 1226; Cratin. fr. 24; Maas§m. Inlaw already took off his himation at 568, and if Kleisthenes can tell the old man to undo his breastband in 638, he must open the front of Inlaw's krokoton, or loosen its shoulder-fastenings, or the like (cf. 643 n.) in the course of this verse, prompting the indignant comment. 638 x^a • • • TO <jTpo<|>iov: Cf. 637 n.; Lys. 931dhflsndflnsgfnsldgflsdldl afmafasdflasdf ('I'm loosening my breastband'); fr. 664 ('but when my breastband was loosened, my "walnuts" popped out'). For imper. + Tax«os, 277-8 n. amounts to a comment on the order in the first half of the verse: no man with a proper sense of shame would be caught in the clothing Inlaw is being forced to remove. Cf. 702 with n., 708, 744, 939-42 with 941-2 n. Degani, Eikasmos 7 (1996) 119-20, proposes giving the first half of the line to Mika, the second half to Inlaw (cf. 611 with n.); but the instruction
L I N E S 633-44
233
need not be repeated and Kleisthenes is only too keen to carry it out (635). For the voc. added at the end of the sentence, cf. w jSSeXvpe av at the end of PL 1069. Inlaw does as he has been ordered, exposing his bare (male) chest. 639-40 Kdi anpapd TIS: 'someone quite sturdy'; for this use of «ai, 259-60 n. For TIS, 611-12 n. arijSapos is epic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 5. 400; 12 397; Hes. Th. 152; h.Bacch. 5; cf. Theoc. 22. 123; Call. Del. 24; Arat. 639; Nic. Th. 17) and is attested elsewhere in the classical period only at Emped. 31 B 82. 2 and Pi. fr. 111.4. The adj. is normally applied to bodyparts or weapons, but is used of a muscular individual also at Aristaeus Epic. fr. 6. 2. 31 n. 51—3 n. TiT0ous Y > : TIT&OS is the standard proper term for the female breast (cf. MM §200) and is attested only here in comedy. Contrast 143 with n. &<jTT€pr|fi€is: * at Pax 849; Av. 1287. 641 <jT€pi<|>r] yap KT\.: Inlaw's point is presumably that, because he never bore (or nursed) children, his breasts remain girlishly small, so that KOUK €KuT)aa Tni-uore means 'and [as a result] I never got pregnant'. But this is in any case another implicit plea for sympathy (cf. 618 n., 637 n.)—and another mistake (642). arepn^os is rare, prosaic vocabulary; first attested here and at 1185 (in the sense 'firm'; conjectural at Hp. Aer. 4 (ii. 22. 3)). For the use of yap, 11 n. 642 For a similar joke, Lys. 744-5: 'What are you babbling about?' 'I'm just about to give birth.' 'But you weren't pregnant yesterday!' 'Well I am today!' Tore: 'just a moment ago' (e.g. Av. 24), i.e. at 637. 643-53 Throughout these verses, Kleisthenes plays the ineffective, officious fool, with Mika always at least one step ahead of him. 643 In 638—42, attention is focused on Inlaw's upper body; now it shifts abruptly to his genital region. No mention is made of untying the old man's belt (contrast 255 with n.) and he has his krokotos on at 851 (cf 939-45), so it seems unlikely that he is stripped completely (despite 6367). More likely Kleisthenes lifts Inlaw's skirts and forces the old man to stand up straight (dviaraa' 6p96s)—perhaps he has been crouching forward, trying to pull the top half of his chiton up over his chest, putting his long, dangling phallus (cf. initial n., 239 n.) on full display—and Inlaw reacts by grabbing his tool with his free hand and shoving it down temporarily out of sight between his legs. For the action, cf. Pomponius 67—8 Ribbeck2 perii, non puellula est nunc. quid abscondidisti inter nates? ('I'm done for! This is no little girl now. What have you been hiding between your buttocks?'). TTOI TO rneos &)0€is Kcmo;: 'Where are you pushing your dick down to?' 644 To8i 8i€Kuv|/€: 'It poked its head through over here!', with a gesture toward Inlaw's backside, which Mika can see but Kleisthenes cannot. For the compound (first attested in Hdt. and absent from elevated poetry),
234
COMMENTARY
Olson on Pax 78. Kai jid\' euxpwv: 'with quite a fine complexion', i.e. 'nice and pink' (cf. Ach. 787; Nu. 539). For KO.I p.aXa used to intensify anadjective, Theslefif§§4i,43. ei'xpa)s-(lit. 'of a good colour'or'colourful') and its cognates are attested in comedy (e.g. Lys. 80; Telecl. fr. 28; Eub. fr. 101) and prose (e.g. Hp. Morb. i. 3 (ii. 610. 7); PI. Lg. &55a; Thphr. HP in. 10. i), but are absent from serious poetry of the classical period (but cf. H. Od. 14. 24). rdXav (properly masc.) is addressed in comedy to both men and women, but is used exclusively, where the sex of the speaker can be determined, by women (e.g. Lys. 102; Ra. 559*; EC. 124*; Men.Epitr. 434; Pk. 712; cf. Philetaer. fr. 18. i; Epigen. fr.4. 2); cf. 385 n., 760-1 n.; Bain, Antichthon 18 (1984) 33-5; Chadwick 265. Here the tone is mild reproach of Kleisthenes' inability to see where Inlaw's penis has got to. 645 Kleisthenes moves behind Inlaw to join Mika (cf. 644 n.), but as he does so, the old man pulls his phallus out from between his legs and back into full view of the audience. Kai TTOU 'ariv;: Cf. 78-9 n., 96 / with n. eis TO rrpoaGev: i.e. aviu ('upward'); cf. 643, 647—8. This use of the adv. is typical of 5th- and 4th-c. style (e.g. Ach. 43 with Olson ad loc.; Lys. 185; EC. 129; 'E.Hipp. 1228; Men.Dysk. 906; Th. vii. 43. 5; PI. Sph. 26ib; X. An. i. 10. 5). oix^Tai is * in 1218, as commonly (also Pax 2,2,2,, 721; Av. 86; Lys. 953; PL 619). 646 Kleisthenes lumbers back in front of Inlaw, only to be disappointed once again, as the old man thrusts his phallus back between his legs. '(^tested only here) = evravBiye. Cf. Ra. 965 Metag. fr. 6. 5 fvpfvrfvdfvi= evrevOevl p.ev. h*0l) d\\d: Contra dicting what has just been said; 'No; rather . . .' (cf. Ach. 458 with Olson ad loc.; Av. 109; Ra. 103, 6n, 745, 751). The old view (KB i. 219; GP 4 n. i) that this represents p,a dAAd (i.e. ov p,a AC dAAd, which becomes first and then ^d dAAd), is unlikely in view of the scriptio plena at A. Ch. 918, and cf. p.ri, dAAd at PI. Men. 75b; Ale. i 1146. 647-8 laGfiov nv(a): 'a sort of isthmus', the reference being to the narrow strip of flesh between Inlaw's thighs (cf. 246 n.); Pax 879-80 perhaps contains a similar joke. For the use of TIS, cf. EC. 351 ('You're shitting a sort of cable'). dvGpwnXe) ('Sir') is here hostile in tone, as at e.g. Ach. 95 with Olson ad loc.; Nu. 1495; Pax 164. Cf. Dickey 150-4. 8i€\K€is TruKvorepov KopivGiuv: An allusion to use of the diolkos, a paved roadway about 8 km long constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth in the late 7th or early 6th c.; the eastern terminus was at Schoinos. Two parallel channels about 1.5 m apart were cut into the roadway and served to guide the wheels or runners of heavy carts or sledges onto which trade goods were loaded. Use of the diolkos must have required payment of a toll but allowed merchants to avoid circumnavigating the Peloponnese; and traffic was heavy enough to require at least
L I N E S 644-54
2
3S
one switch-off or siding, where one cart or sledge could be pulled out of the way so that another going the opposite direction could pass. That the diolkos was used routinely to transport whole merchant-ships is less likely, although warships were dragged across the Isthmus on occasion (Th. iii. 15. i; viii. 7). Cf. Str. 8. 335; Plin. Nat. 4. 10; Cook, JHS 99 (1979) 152—3, and in Studies in Honour of T. B. L. Webster (Bristol, 1986) 65-8; MacDonald, JHS 106 (1986) 191-5; Raepsaet, BCH 117 (1993) 233-56; Tolley, ibid. 257-61. 649—50 584—91 n., 636—48 n. <jj |_uapos OUTOS: 'the bastard!' vel sim.; cf. 512—13 n.; Eq. 125 An exclamatory nom.; primarily poetic (e.g. V. 187, 900*; Ra. 921; Men. Asp. 313; S. Tr. 1046-7; E. Med. 61; cf. KG i. 47-8). 168—70 n. urriEp EupiTriSou: 'in defence of Euripides'. 651 Inlaw here blames only himself for the trouble he has got into, and in 689a-7&4 he makes—and botches—a similarly independent attempt to escape. In 766-7, on the other hand, he uses very similar language to blame Eur. for his plight and then tries to get the tragedian to rescue him, redeeming the promise made in 269-76 (where see n.) and setting up the action in most of the rest of the play. Cf. 652-4 n. eioeicuXioa: Thevb. (literally'roll into') is here 'merely an expressive synonym of 6p.j3AAofe f^av-rov ('to get myself into great trouble'); X. Mem. i. 2. 22 ('men who have got involved in love affairs'). 652-4 Echoed in 763-4 (where see n.), after the Telephos incident (689a761 with n.) has turned into a dramatic dead end and Inlaw is forced to adopt a different strategy to save himself; cf. 651 n. Kleisthenes is the women's liaison to official Athens (576 with n.), and now that the intruder has been identified, the initiative shifts again to him. * at Pax 2,63; Av. 1574; Ra. 277. For aye Siy (used here colloquially without regard to the number of persons actually addressed; cf. 788 n., 947), 213-14 n., 765*, 778. For imper. + Siy generally, GP 216-17. For o-utds [ir\ + fut. indie, after a vb. of care or effort (a construction typical of Attic authors and Herodotus), Ach. 26-7; Goodwin §339. Siatfiuyuv oixi1<J€Tai: As often with finite vbs. meaning 'come' or 'go', the leading idea is contained in the participle; cf. Ach. 91 with Olson ad loc.;Pl. 933 ofxeTai>ei!ycw('hehasrunaway'); KGii. 60-1; Goodwin §895. Like 763-4, 654 represents advance preparation for the entrance of the Prytanisat 923 (cf. 929 n.). Each of the ten Athenian tribes contributed 50 men to Athens' Council, and each tribal contingent served, in an order determined by lot,
236
COMMENTARY
as the state's executive officers or prytaneis for 3 5 or 36 continuous days in a normal year. Among the most basic duties of the prytaneis was setting the agenda for the Council and the Assembly (cf. 936-7 n.), and they ate in the Tholos near the Bouleuterion and one-third of them spent the night there, so as to be able to interview messengers and the like at any time (esp. D. 18. 169), including on holidays (cf. 78—9 n.). Cf. 923 n., 929 n.; [Arist.] Ath. 43. 2-3 with Rhodes ad loc.; Boule 16-25; Agora xiv (1972) 41-6. Kleisthenes, in his role as the women's proxenos (cf. 576 with n.), must therefore go to the prytaneis first if he wants the Council to act against Inlaw, and 943—4 leaves little doubt that they had the power to convene an emergency meeting of the Council when necessary. For the exact legal procedure (if any) involved here, 929-46 n. Kleisthenes exits into Wing B. 655—8 Anapaestic tetrameters catalectic; recitative. Verbal preparation for the dance that begins in 663; cf. 947-52 with n. 655 fierd TOUT(O): i.e. after the discovery of one man in their midst, which raises the possibility that there may be others (657). 'after lighting our torches' (cf. 101—3 n -)> for the use of the mid., cf. Call. Dian. 116. As at least some members of the chorus clearly entered carrying burning torches (292-4 n.; cf. 280-1 with n.), the simplest explanation of the expressed need to light them again is that these torches have not been on stage all along, but were given early on to prop-men, who took them off and now bring them back. 656 The actions are described hysteron proteron (since only after the chorus have stripped off their himatia can they hitch up their chitons), but both serve to allow the women to move more freely (cf. 5&8n.; T. B. L.Webster in rev. edn. of A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb Tragedy and Comedy (Oxford, 1962), 142 n. 5) in the dance that follows; cf. 1181 with 1186 n. 255 n. eu KavSpeius: 'in a good manly fashion' (a set phrase, here humorously applied to women), i.e. 'bravely' vel sim.; cf. (Eq. 379; V. 153, 450) with 1204-6 n.; PI. Com. fr. 117*; PI. Tht. I57d; Chrm. i6od; Lg. &48c. TUV .. . ificmuv d-uoSuaas: The vb. normally takes an ace. of the thing taken off (e.g. 214, 730—1) or the person stripped (e.g. 636), or is used intransitively (Ach. 627). The gen. cannot be partitive, for the chorus are not taking off some of their outer robes but all of them, and the sense must instead be 'after stripping [ourselves] of our himatia'; cf. H. Od. 22. i yvjaiiaOf] paKeiuv, Alciphr. iii. 6 (iii. 42) 657 R's elaeXr/XvOev is unmetrical, but Faber's superficially appealing is unlikely, since Ar. always uses ela- rather than ea- in compounds (Austin, CR NS 23 (1973) 133). Nor can the prefix stand for for the old man has not penetrated the temple itself and the Chorus do not search it but the precinct round about (658). The simplest solu-
L I N E S 652-60
237
tion is Handley's eu€\r|\u0€ (£77 read EIC); but Fritzsche's (with the prefix lost via haplography after dvr|p and ela- added in a clumsy attempt to mend the metre; cf. 280—1 n., 623, 893) is also possible. Cf. Austin (1987) 80-1. irepiGpe^ai: Fut. (1225; Nu. 1005; Pax 261; Ra. 193; PI. Com. fr. 26o)andaor. (also I222a; H.7/. 13.409; 'E.IA 1569; epigr. ap. Plu. Arist. 20. 5; cf. H. II. 18. 599) forms of rpe'^o) in #pe'|- are replaced by forms in Spap.- by the 3rd c. and appear thereafter only as literary archaisms (Call. Lav. Pall. 23 withBullochadloc.; fr. 383. 8; Lye. 108; Luc. Lex. 3). Cf. Lautensach 173-4. 658 TrivuuKvaiidaav: 'our entire assembly-place';cf. 84n., 295-382n. What the chorus actually run through and inspect is the orchestra. <jKt]vds: 623—4 n - To be taken with SiaOpTJaai rather than with in 657. rds 8i68ous: 'the pathways, passageways [between the tents]'. 5 th-c. vocabulary; first attestedatEmped. 31B 100.5 andin Herodotus (e.g. ix. 99. 3) and Hippocrates (e.g. Epid. vii. 67 (v. 430. 15)), and absent from serious poetry except at [A.] PV 1050. The compound is very rare and is attested elsewhere in the 5thc. only at Eq. 543*; Nu. 700; E. fr. 102. 2 (from Alkmene); an unlikely conjecture at h.Cer. 144. 659—62 Trochaic tetrameters catalectic, as the chorus prepare to break into rapid movement in the song that follows. A very simple ringstructure, which does little more than repeat the sense of 657-8 (but with no mention of the object of the search): '(A) First we must rush off and look everywhere (659—60) (B) and not delay (660—i), for (B) this is no longer the time for hesitation (661) and (A) I must instead be the first to run about rapidly in every direction (662)'. 659 eia: 'Come on!' (e.g. 663, 985; Ach. 494/5; Lys. 1303/4; EC. 496; Labiano Ilundain 143—8, esp. 143—5). Colloquial (Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1650, andSB.Munchen 1963 1.48-50; Stevens 33). For the rough breathing, Mastronarde on E. Ph. 970. As generally after adverbial (for the double superlative, KB i. 573), there is no second clause telling what is to be done next (cf. Starkie on V. 595), and jiev-solitarium merely adds to the effect. TrpwTiaros is almost exclusively poetic vocabulary; cf. Olson on Ach. 28. KOUC|>OV l£opfidv -u68a: Cf. 953-4 (lyric); Ra. 478 Spo^atov op^ir/ow -TroSa; S. Ant. 224 adesp. PMG 939. 6 Kov<j>oiai TTO&COV pippaaiv. Ar. treats both KOV<J>OS and and its compounds as elevated vocabulary, and uses them primar ily in lyric (KOV^OS also at Lys. 1303/4; op^aoi also at Lys. 1247; EC. 490) and in lyric and tragic parody (KOV<J>OS also atAv. 1372/3; Ra. 1352; also at .Ec. 6). Exceptions for KOV<J>OS at Av. 1453 (elevated style?); Ra. 1396 (Dionysos is speaking); for op^aoi at Nu. 607 (trochaic tetrameter); PL 257 (iambic tetrameter). 660 SicujKoireiv: Late 5th-c. Attic vocabulary; attested in comedy (e.g. 687;
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COMMENTARY
V. 246 -iravrri SiaaKOTraifi,€v; Alex. fr. 140. 3; Apollod. Com. fr. 13. 2) and prose (e.g. Th. i. 52. 3; PI. Ap. 2ic; X. Mem. iv. 8. 4), but absent from serious poetry. The chorus sing as they carry out their search (663—86), and aiwufj must mean 'quietly' (not 'in silence'), as at Eg. 1212; Av. 1217. But the point is still that they are to be imagined behaving as stealthily as possible in the hope of catching more male intruders unawares. mavTaxfj is first attested in the sense 'everywhere, in every direction' in Hdt. (e.g. v. 52. i); subsequently at e.g. 665; Av. 165; S. OC 122; Th. i. 49. 4. 661 Cf. PI. 255 cnrevSeB', 019 o xaipos ou^i jueAAeiv ('Hurry! for this is no time to delay!'); A. Pers. 407 KOVK^T' rjv p.eXXeiv aKfur/ ('and it was no longer the point to delay'); Ag. 1353 p/fi p.eXXeiv S' aKfur/ ('this is not the point to delay!'); S. El. 22 OVKCT' oicveiv xmpos ('it's no longer time to hesitate'); Bruhn, Anhang^go. pSpaSuveiv: A rare, primarily poetic vb. first attested at A. Supp. 730, and found subsequently at e.g. V. 230; EC. 493 500 (all trochaic tetrameter), 1140; S. El. 1501; E. Heracl. 733; first in prose at Hp. Oct. 13 (vii. 458. 18-19) and in Plato (Pit. 2-j-jb;R. 528d). 662 d\\(x rr|v TTptiTT]v Tpexeiv . . . (fi') . . . KuK\u: 'that I be the first to run in a circle', i.e. 'that I lead the way as we run in a circle together'; cf. 954—5 (where the chorus offer an even more explicit description of their dance). For adverbial KVK\W, cf. Pax 756. For {,(/}, Austin (1987) 81. 663-4-665-6 Trochaic; cf. Parker 418-19. A reiteration of 657-8, as the chorus adopt their leader's suggestion and encourage one another to action; cf. the very similar use of imperatives in 953—1000. The action perhaps recalls a similar scene in Eur.'s Tel., in which the chorus of Greek soldiers search for an infiltrator (cf. E. fr. 147 Austin, fr. 8 Austin (1990) 23; Introduction p. Iviii). For sing, imperatives used to address a group, 372—4 n. (1)663/4 -665/6 (2)664 = 666
5 tr lek
(i) Se in 665 is lengthened by the initial p in piijjov, which counts as a double consonant. 663-4 The chorus join hands (cf. 662 n.) and follow the coryphaeus in a circular dance around the perimeter of the orchestra. Cf. Lawler, TAP A 76 (1945) 60—2. For the use of 2nd-pers. imperatives in searching-scenes, Kaimio 134—7. eia:659n. ixveue: The vb. (first at H. //. 22. 192 in the compound avL-^vcvia) is relatively rare and unattested in prose before Plato (e.g. Phdr. 2526) and Xenophon (e.g. Mem. i i . 9), and may be elevated style; elsewhere in comedy only at Eq. 808 (anapaests). jidreue: parfviu is a metri gratia alternative for the
L I N E S 660-86
239
more common p.aoTeviu (see 663—4 ~ 665—6 n.); otherwise confined to serious poetry (e.g. H. //. 14. no; Pi. JV. 3. 31; Bacch. 10. 35; Pratin. TrGF 4 F 5. 2 = PMG 710. 2; E. Ph. 416 with Mastronarde on 36; Melanippid. PMG-js~j. 5). TrdvT(a): 'through the entire space' (KGi. 312-13; Moorhouse 44), i.e. 'everywhere'; cf. 666, 687. The members of the women's assembly are imagined as seated (292-4 n.; cf. 600), but the humour depends on the extradramatic fac that the Theatre seats are full of men and that the chorus, despite vigorous efforts (665—6), fail to detect them; cf. 687—8. For ev TOTTOLS, cf. S. OC 1523; Chadwick 282—3. e'Spaiby is attested in both poetry (E. Andr. 266 [E.] Rh. 783) and prose (Hp.Epid. vi. 4. 15 (v. 310. 10); PI. _R. 4O7b; X. Lac. i. 3). For the pleonasm d\\os au, e.g. E. P. 417 with Mastronarde ad loc.; And. i. 75; PI. Tht. i8od; cf. 45 withn., 700—1 n. 665—6 Cf. 957—8 ('but looking in every direction we must keep an eye on our choral formation'); E. IT 68 GKOTTov^ai 8' 6'|CA|U,a TravTfL'xfi GTpeffrwv ('I am looking, turning my eye everywhere'); Ph. 265—6 ('I must move my eye everywhere, both here and there, lest there be some treachery') with Mastronarde on 265; Verg. Aen. 12. 558 hue atque hue acies circumtulit. 665 and 666 say the same thing in different words. mavTaxfj: 660 n. 6|_i|_ia: 126— 6/7/8 n. For Kaibel's (KCU TCI Kslas) (which is needed to balance and restores responsion with 663/4), c f- Av. 423-5 EC. 487—8 A rare compound, first attested here andat_Bc. 827, and found elsewhere in the classical period only in prose (e.g. Th. vii. 42. 3; PI. Ti. 72d; Thphr. Vent. 44). 667—86 The argument of 667—77 is condensed and reworked in 678—86: (A) If another man is caught doing unholy things (667), i.e. by being caught in this place (cf. 663-6), he will (B1) pay the price (668), (Ba) thus showing men generally the consequences of such behaviour (668-70), which is specifically defined for the first time in 671 as an expression of godlessness; and he will (C1) acknowledge that there are gods (that is, because they have made him pay the price for his actions; cf. B1) (672) and (Ca) show human beings generally that they ought to display respect for the gods (that is, to avoid being punished as he has been; cf. Ba) (673—4) and (A) do the opposite of what he has done (675—7). But if people ignore his example and do what they should not do (678) and (A) if a man is caught doing what is not holy (679), he will (B-C) make clear to everyone by his madness—which is now presented as both the expression of his willingness to do what he ought to know is wrong and the punishment of his wrongdoing—that the god exacts a price for such actions (680-6). No
240
COMMENTARY
mention is made of the Thesmophoria, for the chorus are momentarily dealingwithmuchbroaderthemes. Cf. Bierl2Oi-i3. Anapaests, trochees, dochmiacs, and iambs. Non-responding, although there is a close relationship to 707—25 (where much of the content is also similar; cf. 715-16, 721-2). Cf. Parker4i8-23.
(1)667 (2) 668 (3)669 (4) 67° (5)671 (6) 672 (7)673 (8) 674 (9) 675/6 (10)676/7 (11)678 (12)679 (13)680-2 (14)683 (15)684 (16)684/5/6
2 an 2 an an an. 2 an an 2 an an 2tr tr A 2 do 2 do 2iaba 2iaba 4ia 2ia 2ia 2 ia
in recitative, cf. 829; Parker, CQ NS 8 (1958) (3) For 84. (9) For the resolution of the penultimate short in the dochmiac into two shorts (f(f}fiT-), cf. Av. 429; Conomis, Hermes 92 (1964) 49; and the tragic examples quoted by Parker 66. (13, 16) Double short for anceps or short in an iambic metron 'is exceedingly rare' in lyric (Parker 33); cf. 464/5 (read vj3pews?), 721 (text uncertain). R has e'lri Sparr] (a rambling unmetrical gloss on Spwv in 679; deleted by Bothe) after -jrapaKo-jros in 681. 667 R has p.-!] XdOfj (unmetrical), and Fritzsche and Bergk's p.e XdOfj mends the metre but makes no sense (since the individual in question must be caught if he is to be punished and serve as a warning to others (668-71)). Reisig's Xr)<|)6f) (Coniectanea in Ar. (Leipzig, 1816) 277) is confirmed by 679; the paradosis perhaps reflects the Hellenistic spelling Xrnj.(j>0fj (cf. Threatte ii. 555), which was first corrupted to p.-riXfiOf) via a transposition of letters and then 'corrected' to ^,1) Ad&j. dvoaia: Echoed in 684; cf. 675/6, 679, 720. For the sense of the adj., Dover, GPM 248, 252-3. 668-71 For the idea, cf. 464/5-5, 718-22, 943-4 withn.; D. 24. 101 ('after he is punished and pays an appropriate price, he will be an example to others').
L I N E S 667-78
241
('in addition to this') is otherwise prosaic (e.g. Hp.Epid. vi. 4. 2 (v. 306. 8); Hdt. ix. 27. 5; Antipho 6. 13; PI. Prm. 1356; X. Mem. i. 2. 59). Only men are in question at this point in the song, and Beer's (ap. Hermann, Opusc. viii. 300) should be printed for R's unmetrical 'an example of [what happens t those who engage in] hybris'. mxpdSeiy^a is late 5th- and 4th-c. vocabulary and is primarily prosaic (e.g. Hdt. ii. 86. 2; Th. iii. 67. 6; And. 3. 32; Lys. 12. 92); in poetry also at Pax 65; S. OT 1193; fr. 314. 78; E. EL 1085; fr. 644. 3; Men. Dysk. 484, 863; fr. 631. i. The malefactor's manners are 'godless' because his behaviour ignores the possibility of divine vengeance; the consequence of his punishment is thus not only that he himself admits that gods exist (672) but that other men realize that they too must do what is right (673-7, esP- 673-4). (elsewhere in comedy only at 721 (lyric); PL 491, 496) is first attested at A. Pers. 808; Pi. P. 4. 162; Bacch. 11. 109 ('god-forsaken'), and is common in tragedy (e.g. A. Eu. 151; S. Tr. 1036; E. Andr. 491). Cf. Latte 10. 672 etvai . . . Geous <|>av€ptis: 'that the gods manifestly exist'. >avepa>s is attested in serious poetry only at S. El. 832; [A.] PV1090, but is common in Ar. (e.g. 431; Nu. 291; Lys. 523; elsewhere in comedy only at Men. Heros 69; Mis. 572; fr. 841. 2) and prose (e.g. Hdt. ix. 71. 3; Th. i. 57. 2; And. i. 7; PI. Snip. i82d). For the idea, cf. E.El. 583-4 with Denniston ad loc. re is postponed to avoid collocation before 8(e), which Greek does not allow; cf. S. Ant. 327-8; GP 518. (At A. Ag. 179, read with Emperius). 673-4 Sei^ei is virtually 'he will teach', as at E. Andr. 706 (where see Stevens'n.). tj8r): 'at once'; cf. 684-6 with n. The chorus are offering a positive general prescription for proper behaviour, and ('to all human beings') accordingly casts a much wider net than does roiy aAAoiy dvSpdaiv ('to other men') in the warning to other potential malefactors in 669-71. aepi^eivSaifiovas: Cf. io6withn. 675—8 Hermann's It^eueiv (De metris (Leipzig, 1796) 446; for R's brilliantly restores grammar, sense, and metre at a single stroke; the paradosis reflects the influence of p.ySofi.evovs in 676/7. e>eVai ('take care for, honour') is rare, high-style vocabulary (e.g. H. Od. 12. 330; Archil, fr. 11. 2; Pi. P. i. 30; 4. 294 with Braswell on 133; A. Pers. 38 (anapaests)); elsewhere in Ar. onlyat^4i>. 1377 (lyric; Foroaioy, cf. 667 n. vop,ifi,os is first attested at Pi. fr. 2i5a. i; A. Th. 334, and is widespread thereafter in both poetry (e.g. Av. 1450; S. Ant. 455; E. Ph. 345) and prose (e.g. Hdt. ii. 79. i; And. i. 98; Lys. 3. 46). For the collocation of ideas, cf. Lys. 13. 93; Antipho 5. 8; PI. Lg. 86id, and perhaps Phd. io8a(v.l.); [PL] Min. 3i5b-c. 676/7 is essentially a gloss on 675/6, but also serves to set up 678 (moeiv o TI KaXus EX^I resumed Elevated poetic vocabulary; in
242
COMMENTARY
attested elsewhere in comedy only at Av. 689 (anapaests in a mock theogony). For the ace. after iraaiv dvBpanrois (674), cf. Eq. 1394-5 CTO' • • • AajSwra; EC. 1019—20 rat? TTpeoflvrepais . . . Xaflo^evas', KG 11. 24—7. 679 Cf. 667. The text is defective, and Burges' (fir|) (CJ 14 (1816) 236) is the simplest way to restore metre and sense. 680-3 navims <|)\€YWV: For the image, cf. 466-8 n.; A. Th. 52; PI. Lg. 7i6a; Taillardat §352. For pi. paviai ('madness'; e.g. 793; Nu. 832; Lys. 342/3 (lyric); S. Ant. 960 (lyric); Pi. O. 9. 39), Bers 36—8. <j>Xe-yiu is poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 21.13; Ibyc. PMGFz86. 8; Pi. O. 2. 72; adesp. tr. fr. 90. 2; cf. 1040-1 n.; first in prose in Plato); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Nu. 992 (anapaests); Pax 608 (trochaic); Lys. 1285 (lyric). Elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 9. 239; A. Ch. 288; Bacch. n. 102; E. Or. 326 (lyric)); not attested elsewhere in comedy Rare, elevated poetic vocabulary (E.Ba. 33, 1000 (lyric); [A.JPFsSi with Griffith on 133-4; Timoth. PMG 791. 67; cf. Taillardat §476; Olson on Ach. 517—18). mdaiv !fi<|>avr|s opdv / iarai: Lit. 'he will be manifest to all to see', i.e. 'the sight of him will make it manifest to all', with 684-6 defining what everyone will learn from his example. For the construction of efjujxivrjs opdv, 192 n. Y UV
L I N E S 675-93
243
Mika (who shed hers at 568) most likely does the same. At 608-9 Mika's wet-nurse is holding her 'baby', and Mika must take it into her arms either here (so that the nurse can drape her mistress' himation properly?) or during the song in 663—86; or else 690—1 (where she claims that her child has been snatched from her breast) misrepresents the situation to add pathos. Inlaw, at any rate, takes advantage of the general confusion to seize the baby and rush with it down to the altar in the orchestra. 6893—761 A parody of a scene from E. Tel., with Inlaw playing the desperate hero and the baby/wineskin standing in for the infant Orestes; cf. Introduction pp. Ivii-lviii; Ach. 325-34; Rau 48-50. 6893—91 Probably paratragic; note the lack of resolution before the second half of 691 (where see n.). 68ga-b d d: A sharp, inarticulate cry of protest; cf. V. 1379 (line-initial); PL 127, iO52a*; A. Supp. 825 (obscure); Hsch. a 2, 4; S a i; Dodds on E. Ba. 810-12; Barrett on E. Hipp. 503-4; Stevens on E. Andr. 1076; Labiano Ilundain 61—4. For the excited repetition of TTOI and cf. 292 with n., 1093 TTOiiroimvyfis;. For OIJTOJ ('you there!'), 224 n. 6i7n. 690—1 rdXaiv' lyto rdXaiva: Cf. 385 n., 559 n., 695; Lys. 735* (another allusion to the same tragic exemplar?); E. Ph. 1293; Phaeth. 270 = fr. 781. 61. Kdi expresses indignation and is closely linked to the words thatfollow; 'he's snatched my child\' (GP3i6). l^ap-udaas is * at E. I A 3 1 5 . fioi is a dat. of disadvantage. Hamaker (Mnemosyne 5 (1856) 297) proposed p.ov (cf. 706 with n.), but cf. Ach. 470 The adj. (in classical prose only at Antipho 5. 29) is common in Sophocles (e.g.Ant. I245;£Y. 1152) and Euripides (e.g. Med. Ill; Andr. io~jS;Hec. 160— i), and although not confined to paratragic contexts in Ar. (e.g. 794; Ach. 208-10; Lys. 106), must be paratragic here. Cf. Men. Dis Ex. 18 with Sandbach ad loc. (although he overlooks the occurence of the word at Men. Dysk. 776); Miller 178—9. The crude, colloquial (141—3 n.; cf. 639—40 n.) marks a distinct lowering of stylistic level at the end of Mika's paratragic protest. 692-3 K€Kpax6i: 'Shout [as loud as you want]!'; cf. 222-3 n -> 895 n.; Ach. 335 with Olson ad loc.; V. 198; Men. Sam. 580; Gildersleeve §406. 'will feed morsels of food (ifjiupoi)', sometimes chewed in advance to make them soft enough for a baby; cf. Eq. 715-17; Lys. 18-19 Democrat, ap. Arist. Rh. i4O7a7-8. Prosaic vocabulary, first attested in Hippocrates (e.g. Epid. vii. 3 (v. 370. 17); Mul. 92 (viii. 222. i)) and absent from serious poetry, upon the thigh-bones', i.e. 'on top of the altar'. A poetic periphrasis; that there are no thigh-bones on the altar and that there would not be on a day of fasting (80 with n.) is beside the point. The thigh-bones of sacrificial
244
COMMENTARY
victims were routinely cut out, stripped of flesh, wrapped in soft fat, and burned as part of the god's share of the sacrifice, which also included the blood (694-5 withn.), the tail, and some of the entrails; cf. 758-9 with n.; van Straten 118-44; Olson on Pax 1020-2. 694—5 UP to the hepthemimeral caesura in 695 are perhaps borrowed direct from E. Tel. (= fr. **i43 Austin). ^iax\€pas: 'its bloody arteries' (i.e. 'its arteries which will soon be pouring forth streams of blood'), with specific reference to the carotid arteries, which carry blood to the head; ace. of respect with ('struck in its . . .'). >olvios (a metri gratia variant of >6vios) is a poetic and especially tragic form (e.g. A. Ch. 836; S.Ai. 352; Ant. 1239; E Supp. 690; Ph. 252; Neophr. TrGF 15 F 2. 11; adesp. tr. fr. I4&a. 7; elsewhere in serious poetry at H. Od. 18. 97; adesp. PMG 931. n; attested only here in comedy). KaGai^aruaei PUJIOV: When a sacrificial animal was butchered, either it was held so that the blood streamed directly onto the altar (as seems to be envisaged here) or (with larger animals in particular) the blood was caught in a bowl (cf. 754—5 with n.) and poured over the altar later. Cf. Pax 1020; E. Andr. 260 ('Slaughter [me]! Make the goddess's altar bloody!'); Bacch. n. in; van Straten 104—5. Ka&ai[j.aTO(u ('pour blood down over') is otherwise in the classical period exclusively Euripidean vocabulary (HF 234, 256; Hel. 1599; Ph. 1161, 1368). rdXaiv'IY&) is routinely * in tragedy and especially Euripides (e.g. A. Ch. 743; S.Ai. 341; £7. 807; E.Med. 511; Hipp. 30o;_ffec.233;/T549). 696—8 Addressed to the chorus. dpr|^€T(€): Primarily poetic and especially tragic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 5. 833; h.Merc. 386; Pi. P. 2. 63; A. Supp. 377; S. Ai. 1183; E. Med. 1277; HF 494); attested elsewhere in comedy only at V. 402 (anapaests); Lys. 304 (lyric); PI. 476; in 5th-c. prose at Hdt. vii. 236. 2 and common in Hippocrates (e.g. Epid. v. 70 (v. 244. 19); Acut. 7 (ii. 276. i); Artie. 16 (iv. 130. 5)). : raise a great cry' (or perhaps 'a great war-cry', given what follows). A poeticism, although normally with the act. rather than the mid.; cf. Antiph. fr. 194. 2; A. fr. **4&a. 17; E. Heracl. 128, 656; IT
1307; Theoc. 17. 99 jSoav eardaaro; Barrett on E. Hipp. 903-4; Austin
245 (i99°) 3~4A victorious army that retained control of the field routinely set up a temporary monument (rpoiiaiov; for the accent in Old Attic, Cratin. fr. 514) made of captured military gear, at least in some cases at what was taken to be the 'turning[-point]' (rpoirjf) of the battle (Th. ii. 92. 5; vii. 54). If lawfully erected, such monuments wer inviolate, but they were also not repaired or renewed and were instead allowed to decay with the passage of time. Cf. Eg. 521 War ii. 246—75 (with extensive primary and secondary references). The zeugma (KG ii. 570-1) 'raise a cry and a trophy' is doubtless intended to be amusing. TOU fiovou / TCKVOU: The specification that this is the speaker's only child adds pathos to her situation; cf. 761 with n.; PI. 35; E. Tr. 701—19. p.ovov is always * in Ar. (also Eg. 1230; Nu. 668; V. 1314; Ra. 1201). TT€pi6v|/€<j0(€): Late 5th-c. vocabulary, attested in Ar. (e.g. Ach. 55; V. 439; .Ec. 1068), inMenander at Georg. fr.4- 3; Per. 6, an in prose (e.g. Hdt. i. 89. 2; Th. i. 25. 2; Lys. 33. 7; PI. J?. 343a), but absen from serious poetry (see H. Lloyd-Jones and N. G. Wilson, Sophocle (Oxford, 1990) 113 (on OT 1505)). 699-725 The suggestions in 726-7 could just as easily follow directly after a request for aid closely resembling 695—8, and this exchange does not advance the action but simply makes the (apparent) moral dimensions of the situation clear. The revelation in 733-4 is rendered evenmore bathetic by the elaborate emotional heightening here. The omission of def. arts, in the chorus' sections is paratragic. The chorus and coryphaeus begin with baffled expressions of outrage (699—703, 705, 707—8; further fanned by Mika in 706) intended for one another, and then move on to threats addressed to Inlaw (710-13, 718-25; cf. 715-16); the old man interrupts them repeatedly with words of defiance (704, 709, 714, 717). 699 ia ia: Extrametrical. A colloquial expression of surprise in response to an unexpected sight or sound (cf. 700-1); cf. 1009, 1105 (both e'a semel); Pax 60; Av. 327; E. EL 747; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1256-7 (p. 580 n. 4) Stevens 33; Labiano Ilundain 133—41, esp. 133—5 CiAy, ay!'). 700—1 Dochmiacs, marking the speaker's agitation in this mock-tragic out burst; cf. 675-7,914-15; A. M. Dale, Collected Papers (Cambridge, 1969) 254-6; West, GMioS. L I N E S 692-701
2
(1)700 (2)701
2do do
130 n. MoLpca: The Fates, referred to elsewhere in comedy atAv. 1734; Ra. 453; PI. Com. fr. 183. i, and somehow central to a play by Hermippos (frr. 42—50), are 'not Destiny in general but the particular fate which causes the appropriate penalty to follow inevitably upon every sin', and who thus safeguard the 'connexion between cause and effect, i.e. . . . between guilt and atonement' (Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1535—6
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COMMENTARY
(p. 728)). By invoking them, the chorus implicitly insist on the inevitability of punishment for Inlaw's outrageous actions (cf. 702-3, 705-8, 715-16); cf. 718—25, esp. 723—5. Forthe Fates, Hes. Th. 217—22, 904—6; Callin. fr i. 8-9; A. Ch. 306-8; PI. Lg. 9&oc; LIMCvi. i. 636-8. Elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H.//. 13. 86; Pi. P. 3.85;Bacch. 15. 51; A. Ag. 6oz;E.Hel. 34i;Critias TrGF^T, Fi. i), attested elsewhere in comedy only at Ra. 1336!} (paratragic lyric); first in prose at Arist. Phgn. 8o8a4. Cf. Ra. 1371—2 repas / vfo-^pov (lyric in a generally paratragic section), veo^oy is 'novel, new', i.e. in contrast to the previou marvel, the presence of a disguised man in their midst, as the presence of au (here 'in addition' vel sim., as commonly with forms of aAAoy (664 with n.) and e'repoy (459 with n.); cf. 703 withn., 967 705 roS' aAAo Kaivov av Xeyeis KdKov, Or. 790 riroSe KO.IVOV av Xeyeis;) makes clear, veo^oy is absent from Attic prose but well attested in tragedy (e.g. A. Pers. 693; S. Ant. 156; E. Hipp. 866; Ion TrGF 19 F 63. 2); elsewhere in comedy only at Ra. I372(above); Cratin.fr. 152. Cf. Rutherford 20. 702-6 Trochaic tetrameters catalectic. 702 A general complaint about the degraded state of the world ('Audacity and shamelessness have penetrated everywhere!'), introducing the specific condemnation of Inlaw in 703. us is exclamatory; 'How [true it is that] . . .!' vel sim. a-uavr' dp': R's airav -yap is a simple Cf. majuscule error (T read as F).
524-6b with n., 638 n., 708, 888; Pax 182 with Olson ad loc.; Antipho iii. y. i Kai dvaiSems; Dover, in Willi 91. The Suda's unmetrical a pedestrian error for its synonym jieard (thus Parson, Notae in Ar., ed. P. P. Dobree (Cambridge, 1820) Addenda 146; cf. Pax 554 / R's epya reflects the influence of in 703. Cf. Austin (1990) 24. ^earoj is very rare in serious poetry (Anacr. PMG 433. 2; Xenoph. fr. B i. 4; E. Cyc. 641; IT 804; S. OC 768), but is far more common in comedy and prose than is -n-Xeius, which must be the more high-style word. 703 oTov au . . . ipYOv: 'what another deed!', i.e. 'what a deed in addition to his first deed [of invading our festival]!'; cf. 701 with n. serves to stress the women's solidarity against the intruder. 704 oTov is a mocking echo of 703* and the subj. of the vb.: 'a deed such as to . . . " This is preferable to reading e|apa|ai with olov as its obj., 'what a knock-out blow I'm going to give . . .!' ujiuv l^apd^ei KT\.: For the image ('knock the stubbornness out of you'), Taillardat §628. For the compound (absent from prose and serious poetry in the classical period), .£5.641; H. Od. 12.422 (in'tmesis'); Semon. fr. 7. 17; Hippon. fr. 25;av.l. atNu. 1373. For aYav ('excessive'), Theslefif§i99; DoveronA^M. 1120. auGaSiav: Late 5th-c. Attic vocabulary, found elsewhere
L I N E S 7OO-25
247
in this period exclusively in tragedy (S. Ant. 1028; OT 549; E.Med. 621, 1028; fr. 339. 2; [A.] PV-jg, 436, etc.), although the cognate adj. is widely (if thinly) attested in prose (e.g. Hdt. vi. 92. 2; Hp. Aer. 24 (ii. 90. 7, 92. 8); Th. viii. 84. 2; Gorg. 82 B 6). Cf. Miller 179. The stubbornness in question must be the women's unwillingness to take Inlaw's defence of Eur. seriously; but the charge seems odd, and this is perhaps another echo of E. Tel. * at V. 417. For the use of STJTO, 562—3 n. 70S Cf. Av. 416 a-rriara Kal ire'pa; S. fr. 189. E. El. 1187 aAaara |U,e'Aea Kal ire'pa; D. 45. 73 i are 5th-c. vocabulary; widely attested inboth poetry (e.g. Av. 1500; Pi. O. g. 105; S. Tr. 663; E. fr. 928. 2) and prose (e.g. Th. iii. 43. 4; X.Mem. iii. 13.5). 706 8f)0':6o7n. 6rir| is Faber's correction of R'soVi; parallel errors at e.g. Pax 211; Av. 150; Lys. 1228; cf. K—A on Eup. fr. 50. Person pro posed oaris, but the reference is to a particular person (Inlaw), whereas in a sentence in which the rel. picks up a neut. adj. is used generally (KG ii. 441—2). <=x€i fiou (IJ^apTrdaas TO rraiSiov: An echo of 690—1. f%fi . . . (e)|apmx<7a9 is probably to be treated as a periphrastic pf. (236—7 n.), but might instead mean 'has snatched and keeps'. 707-25 Anapaests, one trochaic tetrameter catalectic, dochmiacs, andiambs. Non-responding, but closely related to 667-86. Cf. Parker 422-7.
(i)7°7 (2) 708 (3)709 (4)710 (5)7n (6) 7 i2 (7)7i3 (8)7i4 (9)7i5 (10)716 (11)717 (12)718-19 (13)720 (14)721-2 (i5)723-5
2 an
2an an an. an an. anan. 2an an 3trtr A 2do 2do 2iaba 4ia 2 ia " I I 4i
(4-5) For the text, cf. Parker 426-7, who finds 'significant merits' in Reisig's (Coniect. 297) dAA' ovv TJKCIS y odev ov avXws y ('y' post omissum malim' Meineke) / diroSpdj Ae'^eu, advocated also by Sommerstein ad loc. on the strength of the paraphrase in ('that is, you have come into our hands, whence
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COMMENTARY
youshallnot escape'). Handley proposes instead and suggests that the version in RS results from an attempt to correct an omission or transposition induced by the unusual word-order. (14) Double short for anceps occurs also at 680 (see metrical n. ad loc.). Parker 427, adopts Enger's {fir'} dBeois e'pyoiy and Hermann's But the solitary dochmiac is lame and tautologous after gi>v dSiVoiy e'pyoiy in 716, while the trochaic tetrameter comes out of the blue after the iambics in 717-20, with its main vb. deprived of an accompanying dat. 707—8 i.e. 'What defence could one offer in response to the denunciations (in 705-6), given that he feels no shame for what he does?' similarly introducing an opt. of perplexity at V. 348; Av. 198; Lys. 191. ore: Causal, 'seeing that' (Starkieon V. 1134). dvaiaxuvrei: Cf. 702 with n. For Inlaw's behaviour characterized as 'shameless', 638 with n., 744. 709 'Yes, and I haven't stopped [doing things like this] yet, I tell you!' (GP 410); verbal preparation for the 'murder' of the kidnapped 'child' at 730-57710 For d\\' ouv . . . Y(«) ('Well, at any rate') in an answer introducing a remonstrance, Starkie on V. 1129; GP 442. 'You have come whence you have come', i.e. 'Where you have come from is no concern of mine', the point being that whether (and whither) he will escape is a different matter (711-13). Cf. Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1171; Austin (1990)25. 711—12 'But you will not tell, after easily running off, what sort of deed you did and slipped away!', i.e. 'Rut getting away is going to be a very different matter, given what you've done!' cjmuXus ('casually' vel sim.; first attested at A. Pers. 520; six times in E.) is almost entirely confined in Ar. to anapaests, trochees, lyric, and the like (Ach. 214—15; Eq. 404, 509, 1292; V. 656, 1012; Lys. 566; EC. 666; exceptions at Pax 25; Av. 961 (the Chresmologue, who speaks in high style)) and was apparently regarded by him as elevated vocabulary. d-iroSpds: Common in comedy (e.g. V. 910; Av. 726; Cratin. fr. 75. 4; Pherecr. fr. 65) and prose (e.g. Hdt. vii. 210. i; Th. iv. 46. 5; PI. Cri. 53d), but attested in tragedy and lyric only at S. Ai. 167 (in hexameter at H. Od. 16. 65; 17. 516; Thgn. 927). 8ie8us: Attested in comedy (also V. 212, aSib, 352, 396) and prose (e.g. Hdt. ii. 66. 3; Th. iv. 110. 2; Lys. 21. 12), but absent from serious poetry. 713 \r|v|/€i... KCIKOV: For the expression (primarily prosaic), e.g. Thgn. 357; S. 00796; Hdt. vi. 9. i; Pl.Ap. 256; X. Oec. 9. n; cf.Nu. 13rob (corrupt) with Dover ad loc.
L I N E S 7O7-22
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714 nevTOi is here a strong adversative like p,€v ovv, 'No, no!' (GP 405). 228-9 n. drreuxofiai: 'I pray that it not!', i.e. 'I reject the prayer [implicit in your words]!' (cf. 310—11 n.). First attested at A. Eu. 608; cf. A. Ch. 155, 625; E. Hipp. 891. 715-16, 718-22 715-16 are a response to the appeal for divine support implicit in a,TT€vxofi,ai in 714. But the chorus' larger point is that the gods are on their side rather than Inlaw's, and in 718—22 they accordingly cast his deeds as impious (a theme not touched on in 702—13, which stress his violation of human norms) and themselves as the agents of his fitting punishment. Cf. 667-86 with n. 715-16 Cf. E. Hipp. 675-7 ('What god could appear to aid [me], what mortal as [my] companion or assistant in these unjust deeds?'). 'Who out of the number of immortal gods?', i.e. 'Who of the immortal gods?' Oeol adavaroi is a common epic pleonasm (e.g. H. //. 3. 298; 4. 63-4; Hes. Op. 289-90; cf. Tyrt. fr. 19. 10; Sol. fr. !3.64;Thgn.33o;DelphicoracleQi44Fontenroseap.Hdt. vii. 148.3). 'as your ally in these unjust deeds'. For gvv + dat. (elevated style), 101—3 n -> Ter. Eun. 153 egon quicquam cum istisfactis tibi respondeam? 717 \a\eire: 392-4 n. rr|v8(€) is the first explicit verbal indication that Mika's 'child' is a girl (contrast 690, 698, 706). But probably only female children were brought to the Thesmophoria, and the child's costume (730—1 with n., 734 with n.) may have made 'her' sex obvious to the audience from the veryfirst. For the synizesis of cf. 269-71 n.; Eq. 340; Nu. 1373; V. 416; Ra. 33. 718—20 rdx' • • • / • • • taws! 'quite possibly', a primarily prosaic Attic idiom (e.g. Th. vi. 10. 4, 34. 2; PI. Lg. 6zga; D. 19. 134; 21. 191; cf. X. HG vii. i. 24; in poetry at S. Ai. 691), here with a menacing tone, as also at V. 1456. ou x^iptov . . . Ivuppieis / Xoyous T€ Xe^eis: i.e. cf. iO94withn.;^4c/i. 5&3;_Ra. 843; Eup. fr. 106; Barrett on E. Hipp. 1416—22. The prefix in evvppieis is not 'simply intensive' (Rutherford 68), but makes the point 'you display hybris toward [\is]';cf.eyye\av(E.Med. 1355, 1 721—2 i.e. 'Since your crimes are godless, it is fitting that our punishment of you be godless as well', as they burn him to death despite his status as a suppliant at the altar (726-7 with n.). For the idea, cf. Austin (1990) 25-6. dGeois: 668-71 n. dvTafi€iv|/6fi€<j0a: Poetic vocabulary, in the sense 'pay back' also at Archil, fr. 126. 2; A. Th. 1049; Ch. 123; in classical prose only at Hdt. ix. 78. 3 ('reply, answer', as at S. Ph. 230; OC8i4, 1273; E.Andr. 154; Tr. 915; Ph. 286). occurs in lyric again at 974, 1144 (elsewhere in comedy at PL 662; fr. 632; Crates Com. fr. 27. 3 (trochaic)), but is attested in serious poetry only at
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E. Med. 1386 and is otherwise prosaic (e.g. Th. v. 9. 9; And. 2. 10; Lys. i. 6; PI. Pit. 2&3a; X. HG iii. 4. 24). 723—5 'Your luck has quickly changed and is turned in a different direction, aiming toward trouble'; cf. Nu. 812—13; Austin (1990) 26. The image is of fortune (or Fortune) as a fickle breeze (TTTOTJ) which blows now one way, now another (cf. 1226 with n.; Bond on E. HF 216), and is carefully if allusively developed in the course of these verses, with (which makes the point of the metaphor clear) reserved for the very end. erepOTpoiTOS is attested only here before the Roman period (e.g. Opp. H. 1. 379; Nonn. 2. 669 TV%r)s • • • eVepoTpomx Kvp,aTa; Agath. AP ix. 768. i rvx^isS' eVepoTpoTToyop^Tj, although in all these passages it appears to mean 'diverse, varying' vel sim.) and is probably an Aristophanic coinage modelled on poetic ^eraTpoTroy (e.g. Pax 944/5 (lyric); Hes. Th. 89; A. Pers. 943 (lyric); E. El. 1147 (lyric); Call. Del. 99; cf. ToiovrorpoTros (e.g. Hdt. vii. 226. 2; Th. iv. 25. 6; PI. Phdr. 24ob; Men. Asp. 211); Stevenson E. Andr. 492). 726-7 699-725 n. A katakeleusmos, urging a character to action. Trochaic tetrameters catalectic; addressed to Mika. Cf. Dover on Nu. 457—75. A suppliant clinging to an altar could not be injured (cf. 179—Son., 224n., 913—15 n.), and any right-thinking person would recognize that building a bonfire about such a person was sacrilegious violence cf. Men. Per. 1-12; Plaut. Rud. 768; Stevens on E. Andr. 43. That one could make a specious argument to the contrary ('I merely lit a fire; my hands are clean') must be why Euripidean villains occasionally threaten to do this (E. Andr. 257-8 with Stevens on 257-60; HF 240-6) and the Spartan king Kleomenes I (no respecter of religious taboos) actually did (Hdt. vi. 79—80). But 721—2 make it clear that, in the chorus' eyes, at least, Inlaw is merely getting his own back, and the coryphaeus therefore pointedly refers to him as TOVuavoupYOv(cf. 524-6bn.). What 'ought' to happen, after Inlaw takes his hostage, is that he be allowed (despite his threat in 693—5) to speak inhis own defence, as Euripides' Telephos did (cf. Introduction pp. Ivii—Iviii). But the women persist in wanting to punish him, and he ultimately kills Mika's 'child' (753-6) and is left exactly where he started (762-4 with n.). rdaSe: i.e. other chorus members and their slaves; cf. 537. Fritzsche's idea that 'torches' are meant was rightly rejected by Enger, RhM 2 (1843) 244. \apeiv: Cf. 763 74n.;HolzingeronP/.432. i.e. through the central stage-door, which for the moment represents a small temple or the like in the Thesmophorion; cf. 1007; K—A on fr. 545. i; Dover, G&Gz^Z', Introduction p. Ixxii. ™v£u\tov: '[some] of the wood' (KG i. 345; Poultney 80), i.e. that is kept within the building for use in sacrifice; cf. 728 withn.; LSCG-j. B. 20-5 =IG IP 1363. 19-24 (firewood to be purchased by a priestess of Plouton for sacrifices to the
L I N E S 721-32
251 251
two Thesmophoroi and kept in a building or cave); 17. A. b. 6 (firewood in a catalogue of sacrificial supplies to be purchased by a priestess); 96. 18 (firewood in a catalogue of sacrificial supplies under the control of hieropoioi); Suppl. 22. 7-9 (firewood available for sale in a sanctuary of Asklepios). KaraiGeiv . . . mupiioXeiv 0' is a high-style pleonasm, although the words belong to different registers: Karaidfiv (also 730) is tragic vocabulary (A. Ch. 607 (lyric); E. Andr. 258; Tr. 1296 (lyric); Or. 1620; frr. 629; 687. i; attested nowhere else in comedy; subsequently at Theoc. 2. 40; 7. 56; Lye. 48, 249, 459), while -jrvp-jroXeiv is Ionic (H. Od. 10. 30; Hdt. viii. 50. i) and, given the frequency with which it occurs in comedy (JVM. 1497; V. 1079; Av. 1580; Anaxil. fr. 22. 9; cf. 243; Men. Man. 278), probably colloquial Attic vocabulary. oaovrdxos: 'as quickly as possible'. Tragic idiom (e.g. S. Ai. 985; Ph. 576; E. Med. 950; Hipp. 973; Andr. 1066), attested only here in comedy; cf. KG i. 27—8. 728 Addressed to Mika's wet-nurse (cf. 608-9 n-)> wno is nrst called by name here (cf. 279 n.). eiri: 'to fetch'; cf. V. 854; Pax 1040; Av. 77, 79; Ra. in, 577, 1418. TCIS K\T]fiaTi8as: 'the [bundles of] brushwood, kindling' (lit. 'trimmings' (derived from «Ada)), and also referred to as (fjpvyava; cf. Pax 1026 with Olson on 1023-5); much easier to carry on stage (and to light) than large pieces of firewood (726 with n.), which would be added to the pyre later. Also used to start fires at Men. Per. 2 (conjectural, in a scene closely resembling this one); Th. vii. 53.4; D.S. xiii. 84. 2; in temple inventories atlG IP 1672. 129 (Eleusis); XI. 2 153. 10; 203. A. 51; 287. A. 48; etc. (Delos; regularly differentiated from pvp.oi ('logs') and fvXa ('[split] wood')). Ma via: A fern, form (also atRa. 1345) of Mavljs, a common personal name in Asia Minor, especially camong Phrygians (FRA 7247-8; L. Zgusta, Kleinasiatische Personennamen (Prague, 1964) §§858, 865), which is used routinely for slaves in Ar. and the other comic poets; cf. 279 n., 739*, 754*; Dover on Ra. 965; Olson on Pax 1146. 729 Addressed to Inlaw. diroSei^u: 'make [into], turn [into], render' (LSJ s.v. II. 2), as atRa. ion; PI. 210. GufiaXwua: 'a halfburnt piece of charcoal' (Ach. 321; Stratt. fr. 58. 2 ap. Poll. x. 101, cf. vii. no; Hsch. 0 862; Theodoridis on Phot. 0 256). For charcoal and charcoal production, Olson, Hesperia 60 (1991) 411-20. rr|fi€pov is used routinely to add vividness to threats and the like (e.g. Eq. 68; Nu. 1307; V. 643; Pax 243; Av. 1045; Lys. 685/6; Ra. 577). Mika and Mania exit through the central stage-door. 730-2 ii<|)aiiT€ Kai KaraiGe: 'light [the pyre] from beneath'—as one must 730-2 light any wood-fire—'and burn [me] up!'; cf. E. Or. 1618 S^xnrre, 1620 KaraiOe. For Karaidiu, 726—7 n. Cf. E. Andr. 258 (Andromache's response to Hermione's threat to apply fire to remove her from the altar where she has sought refuge) av S' ovv KiiraiBe- 8eol yap e'laovrai rdSe ('Go Go ahead
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COMMENTARY
and burn me up! For the gods will know of these things'). Addressed to the 'child' Inlaw is holding. Sc. lp.a.TLov ('himation'); also referred to at Eup. fr. 334. 2. Cf. 141—3 n. Denned by Hsch. « 4087 (cf. Phot. « 1090) as a light, short garment; Poll, vii. 77 reports that a KpyriKov was worn by the archon basileus, so perhaps it had some specifically ritual significance. The burst of short syllables emphasizes the urgency of the order. Why Inlaw should strip the child before killing it is not clear; perhaps this adds pathos (cf. E. Hec. 558-65), or is a way of ensuring that the murder is carried out efficiently. But the practical dramatic point is that only in this way can the hero—and the audience in the Theatre—discover what he is actually holding (733—4). TOU Gavdrou is gen. of charge with (Poultney 101). 732 is paratragic; note the lack of resolution, and for fiovrjv yuvaiKtov, cf. Pax 130 povos mTTjvwv* (a generally paratragic passage); Av. 154.6 /p.ovov&e(jjv with Dunbar ad loc. (hieratic style); Ra. i392 = A . f r . 161. i / p.ovos Oetuv. Inlaw puts down the knife (cf. 694), if he has not done so already, and rips the dress off his captive. Cf. 750 n. 733—4 TOUT! TI €<JTIV; : A stunned question; 'What's thisT Cf. 904*; Ach. 156 / TOVTL TieoTLTO KiiKov, with Olson ad loc., 284; Eg. 999 TavTiTieaTi;*', Nu. 1248*; V. 844*; _Ra. 181*; Pherecr.fr. 180*. The demonstrative-((absent from tragedy) is colloquial (cf. Martin de Lucas, Emerita 64 (1996) 15771; Dover, EGPS 63—4), and this may be a familiar set-phrase (cf. PI. Snip. 213b). CCOKOS: A whole goatskin, stitched together to form a bag to hold wine; cf. 758 with n.; Ach. 1002 with Olson ad loc.; Nu. 442. The ends of the legs were tied closed (cf. Hdt. ii. 121. S. i), and one of them served as the neck of the wineskin, while the other three hung down below the body of the bag once it was filled (e.g. La Cite plate 171); Mika has inventively fitted two of these with bootees (below). sets up not only the tirade in 735-8 but the action in 753-7 (where see nn.). KOI raura + part, adds information about a situation already described; 'and . . . at that!' (e.g. Ach. 349; V. 252; Pax 477; Lys. 378). DepoiKas: Probably soft women's slippers of some sort (Lys. 229 with Henderson ad loc.; EC. 319; cf. Nu. 151), like the bootees worn by the wineskin on the Wiirzburg 'Telephos' krater; Poll. vii. 92 claims that they were white and were associated with prostitutes. Cf. 141— 3 n.; Bryant 88-9; Stone 227-9; Athens and Persia 153-87, esp. 153-4. For the vb. in the sense 'wear', cf. 427, 943, 1220. 735—8 Addressed to women generally and thus actually to the world at large. 735-6 GepfiOTarai: 'utterly reckless, rash'; for 8epfi,6s (properly 'hot') in this sense, e.g. Ach. 119 with Olson ad loc.; V. 918 (with a pun on the common sense); PI. 415; Amphis fr. 33. 10; S. Ant. 88; X. Mem. i. 3. 9
L I N E S 730-42
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with Dover, EGPS 111-12; Taillardat §§313, 351. 'thoroughly bibulous'; cf. 630 n.; Plaut. Cure. 77 (anus) multibiba atque merobiba. A comic superlative < fern. TTOTIS (Epicr. fr. 3. i; Phryn. Com. fr. 77); attested nowhere else before the Roman period and probably an Aristophanic coinage. For similar superlatives in -iWaroy (chiefly comic), V. 923; Pax 662; PL 27; frr. 684; 920; Ecphantid. fr. 6; PI. Com. fr. 58; cf.Peppler,^yP39(i9i8) 183. (IJifiravros: 'fromevery [source]'; cf. Jebb on S. Ant. 3 loff. mieiv: Except where this sense is ruled out by context (e.g. Nu. 1382; Pax 49), Trivia without an ace. obj. generally means 'drink [wine]' (e.g. Eq. 535; Ra. 740; EC. 132); cf. the colloquial English 'have a drink'. 737 o> fieyi Kaiir|\ois (XY
COMMENTARY 254 (for this use of «ai, GP 520) means little more than 'to full term' (although cf. below); cf. Men. fr. 307 ap. Aul. Gell. iii. 16. 1-4; Plaut. Stick, i^gnam ilia me in alvo menses gestavit decem; Verg. Eel. 4.61. Forms of are used occasionally in poetry in the sense 'carry [in one's womb]', although generally with the specification VTTO f,wvrjs ('under one's belt') vel sim. (H.77. 6. 58-9; A. Ch. 992; E.Hec. 762; Supp. 919). By simply saying Mika claims nothing more than that she carried the child/wineskin about for an extended period of time, i.e. so as to be able to have a drink whenever she wanted. The enjambement focuses attention on the word (and thus the ambiguity). au adds emphasis to '^foucarried [it]?' vr) rr|v 'Aprejiiv: 517*—ign. 743 TpiKoruXov t] mtis;: 'It being [sold at] three kotylai [per obol]? or for how much?' (thus Immerwahr, TAP A 79 (1948) 184-90, discussing the cup described below and citing Hsch. T 1388 = adesp. com. fr. 431; cf. CTTfmjpiaiby in the sense 'costing a stater' at Theopomp. Com. fr. 22. rpiKOTvXos is in the late 5th and the 4th c. exclusively comic vocabulary (Dionys. Com. fr. 5. 2; Alex. fr. 65; Men. fr. 235; adesp. com. fr. 431) and, except here and in the adesp. fr. seemingly referred to by Hesychius, is used exclusively of capacity, like SiKorvXos (Sotad. Com. fr. i. 33), (Theophil. fr. 2.1), and so on; cf. K-A on fr. 487. 2. But the word also appears half a century earlier as a 'spoken' inscription on a stemless cup by Douris (ARV* 445 no. 252; illustrated at Buitron-Oliver pi. 83) that depicts a young man in a wineshop apparently telling the proprietor the quality of wine he is interested in; cf. 457—8 n. (on commercial vocabulary), 1193-4. For 77019; = 770)9 coviov;,cf. Olson on Ach. 758. 88-9 n. TI \i ripydatd;: Perhaps paratragic; cf. 945 with n.; Av. 323 with Dunbar ad loc.; S. Ph. 1172; E. Hipp. 683; Miller 179. For the augment (ei'py- R), cf. van Herwerden, Mnemosyne ii. 32 (1904) 275; Threatteii. 472. Mika's shocked reaction to Inlaw's remark (contrast 739-42 with 741-2 n.) suggests that the old man abruptly holds the wineskin up in such a way that she—and the audience in the Theatre—can get a good look at it. 744-5 uvaiaxuvre: Cf. 708 with n. jiou TO rraiSiov: Mika never con cedes that her 'child' is, in fact, a wineskin. For the word-order, cf. Eq. 910; Austin on Men. Sam. 709. TUVVOUTOV: 'so small'. Exclusively Aristophanic vocabulary (also Ach. 367; Eq. 1220; Nu. 392, 878; Ra. 139), although TVVVOS ('small') is attested at Theoc. 24. 139; Call. fr. 471. Sarcastic (cf. Lowe, Glotta^i (1973)47); what is 'small' for a child is not so small for a wineskin. 746—7 For the delayed position of 8e, cf. E. Or. 88 TTOOOV xpovov Se; GP 187— 8; Dover, G©"G59-6o. Tp€isXodstiT€TTapas;: A mocking reference to the Choes festival ('the festival of Wine-Pitchers'), which was celebrated in honour of Dionysos on Anthesterion 12 (February—March)
L I N E S 741-50
255
and seems to have involved private feasting and a public drinking contest. Cf.Ach. 1000-2 with Olson ad loc.; E.IT 947-60; DFA 10-12; Deubner 93—122; R. Hamilton, Choes & Anthesteria (Ann Arbor, 1992), esp. 5—62. Using the number of times an annual festival has been celebrated during a child's life to describe its age is natural, homely behaviour (cf. 2R, which calls this an Attic custom, although one would have expected the practice to be widespread) and is particularly appropriate when the festival has some particular significance for children, as Choes may have (although the point is controversial; cf. Hamilton (above) 83-121); cf. 'This is her first Christmas' et sim. rpeis . . . fj rerrapas is * at PL 1058. But there is certainly also a reference to a chous as a unit of liquid measure (347—8 n.); cf. Nu. 1238 e^^ody ^oip-ijaerai ('He'll hold six choes'; of the creditor's belly). ax^Sov TOOOUTOV: 'just about that'; cf. Luc. DMeretr. 11. 'plus however much [time] there is from the Dionysia [to then]', the point being that the child's birthday was actually around Dionysia-time. Aiovvaia is a generic term for festivals of Dionysos (Olson on Pax 5 30), and which one Mika is referring to (the Lenaia, which falls shortly before the Choes?) scarcely matters; the joke is that this is when a wineskin shouldbe born. 748 [no. TOV AmoXXtd TOUTOVI ('No, by Apollo here!'; * at Men. Mis. 715; Sam. 309; cf. Dysk. 659; fr. 884. i) is a reference to the statue of Apoll Aguieus that stood before the average Athenian's door (489 n.). But a statue of Apollo is out of place in the Thesmophorion, and (* at e.g. Ach. 59; Eq. 14; Nu. 732; Pax 16; Av. 263) would do
just as well metrically; all of which suggests that the dyvievs jSaifi,os permanent feature of the Theatre of Dionysos, whatever the background was supposed to represent at any given point. Cf. 38—9, 285, 695, 887—8 n.; Poe, CA 8 (1989) 116—39; Introduction p. Ixxi. Perhaps Ar. was thinking of the action in E. Tel. (cf. Introduction pp. Ivi-lviii), where a statue and altar of Apollo are appropriate in front of Agamemnon's palace (cf. S. El. 634-59). 749 mdvu Y(E) ('By all means!'; cf. Theslefif §79) is attested in comedy (e.g. ngi;Eq. 971; EC. 760; Timocl. Com. fr. 12. 2; Men. Sam. 115) and ve common in prose (e.g. PLAp. 2ob;X.Mem. iii.4. 7; D. 21. 89; 39. 12), but is absent from serious poetry and is most likely an Attic colloquialism. Cf. 233-4 n.; GP 127; Dover, G&G 53. 750 d-n-oa<|>aYr|a€Tai: 'will be executed'; cf. Ach. 327 (also a parody of E. Tel.) with Olson ad loc. Echoed in 75 3. ficiV auriKa: 'immediately' (actually in 756); cf. PI. Com. fr. 136. 2* (also a threat). A metn grat inversion of the far more common colloquial ainiKa p.aXa (e.g. Eq. 284, 475; Pax 237, 367 (all threats); Av. 202; Hdt. vii. 103. i; PI. Cra. 384^ X. HGvii. i. 12; D. 32.7; absent from serious poetry). Inlaw clearly has his butcher's knife back in his hand by 756 at the latest (cf. 730—2 n.),
256
COMMENTARY
and Mika's frightened reaction to this verse (751-2) suggests that he picks it up again now and makes a show of threatening the wineskin with it. 751—2 [ir\ 8fj9', iK€T€uio<j': * atRa. 167; cf. 1002; Eg. noo a'*', Nu. 696; Ra. 11 (the last two also line-initial, but without a'). marks this as a 'passionate negative command' (GP 276). For supplication, 179-80 n., 726-7 n. s[i' o TI Xpfl£ €l S iroei: Cf. 21 i-i2n.; Nu. 359, 891; Miller 179—80. urrep YETOUTOU: 'for this [child's] sake', i.e. 'rather than hurting it', ye adds force to the supplement to the request (GP 138). ((uXoreKvos TIS el <|>ua€i: For the mother's special love for her children (a commonplace, but seemingly neglected by A. and S.) as a Euripidean theme, Mastronarde on E. Ph. 355—6.fiiXoreKvosis attested elsewhere in the 5th c. only in Euripides (HF 636; Ph. 356, 965; fr. 1015. i) and Herodotus (ii. 66. 2). For the use of TIS, 6n-i2n. 753 Cf. 750. ouSev^TTOv: Adverbial;'none the less, all the same'. 754—5 oifioiT€Kvov:Paratragic;cf.8.^42.944*;fr.**2io.76*;E.Hipp. 1446*; Hec. 180; Tr. 345. 86s • • • Mavia: 739 n. TO a^ayeiov is the bowl in which the sacrificial victim's blood was caught in order that it could be poured over the altar; cf. 694-5 n -; H. Od. 3. 444 (called with2; E. El. 800; IT 335; Lye. 196; van Stratenfig. 115. Mania picks up a large basin or mixing-bowl (as on the Wiirzburg 'Telephos' krater), which has been sitting out of the way somewhere on stage, and hands it to Mika. ouv . . . Y(«) = y°w (GP 418, 425). For a similar confusion of blood and wine in a parodic scene of sacrifice, Lys. 195—208, esp. 205. 756 The Wiirzburg 'Telephos' krater captures precisely this moment in the play, as Mikaholds out her <j>ayeiw/mixing-bowl and Inlawprepares to slit the wineskin's throat. Cf. Introduction pp. Ixxv—Ixxvii. auro: 'hold it beneath', i.e. to catch the wine as it spills out of the skin; cf. Ach. 1063; Pax 431, 908. iv Y« TOUTO is an internal ace. with 'I will do you at least this one favour'. 757 Inlaw cuts the wineskin open but gives Mika less of the contents than she had expected, probably by allowing most of the wine to spill over the altar and on to the ground or by avidly drinking some of it himself. KCIKIOS (XTr6\oi(o): 'Damn you!' vel sim. (cf. 887, 1006 Nu. 6, 1236; Pax 1072, 1288; Av. 85; Men. Asp. 238; Dysk. 487*; Sam 367); colloquial. us is exclamatory; 'how . . .!' 218-20 n. 758-9 The character who enters halfway through 758, carrying a torch (91617), and who is ordered in 762—4 to guard Inlaw while Mika goes off to find Kleisthenes and the prytaneis, is an old woman (896) named Kritylla (898). Her mistaken explanation to the disguised Eur. of why Inlaw is under arrest (893-4) makes it clear that she was not on stage when he was exposed as a man, and she is presumably to be identified with the woman
L I N E S 750-64
257 257
(also played by the tritagonist) who spoke after Mika in the assembly and then left, and who now returns from Wing A, having finished weaving her garlands (cf. 457—8). She is not a real priestess, although Inlaw momentarily pretends that she is when he throws her the wineskin at the end of 759. The priest or priestess supervising a sacrifice generally received specific portions of the animal (lepwavva/lepewavva), often including the skin (e.g. Amips. fr. 7 ('a leg, thelung(s), the left half of the head'); IG IP 1356. 5-6; SEGxxi 527. 30-2; LSCG 164. 4; cf. Pax 1122-3 with Olson ad loc.; IG P 136. 32-4; 255. B. 15-18); cf. D. Gill, HTR 67 (1974) 117-37, esP- I27~3I> and Greek Cult Tables (New York and London, 1991) 15—19). But here TOUT! TO Sep^ia is a reference to the empty wineskin (733—4 n.). We print icpeas (the original 5th-c. form of the word) for the transmitted lepelas; cf. S. fr.45&; E./T34, 1399; Or. 261; Ba. 1114; Erecth. fr. 65. 97 Austin; Threatte i. 315 (with add. ii. 731); Handley and Sandbach on Men. Dysk. 496. The 'priestess of the two Thesmophoroi' is not attested elsewhere before the 2nd c.; cf. Introduction p. xlvii with n. 29. \a(3€: 'Take [it]!'; Inlaw throws the empty wineskin (doubtless still equipped with bootees (734 with n.)) to Kritylla, who takes one look at it and realizes what has happened (760—1). 760—1 Use of the superlative TaXavrdrr] (like raXav, cf. 644 n.) is restricted to women in Ar. (elsewhere at PL 684, 1046, 1060); Menander has TaXavraros (fr. 343). MIKCI is a relatively common woman's name in Athens (at least a dozen additional 5th- and4th-c. examples inLGPNii s.v., not all necessarily citizens; add/G I 3 1037. 38 (a slave) = FRA 7859; cf. Bechtel, AF 42; Threatte i. 509). The poet's decision to name thi character (anonymous since her entrance at 294) only now, just befor she exits for the final time at 764, is difficult to explain. But something similar occurs with Kritylla, who likewise enters at 294; is named only in 898; and exits, never to return, at 944. ris l^eKoprjae as;: 'Who swept you clean?', i.e. 'Who stripped you of everything you valued?'; but also (via a pun on Koprf) 'Who deprived you of your daughter?' Cf. Pa 59 with Olson ad loc.; fr. 277; Zeitlin 409 (suggesting an allusion to the kidnapping of Persephone/Kore). a^airr]Tr]v: Used routinely of only children (e.g. H. 77. 6. 401; Od. 2. 365; Hes. fr. 326; X. Cyr. iv. 6. 5; Theoc. 17. 64; cf. 697—8 with n.; Poll. iii. 19), doubtless primarily to add emotional colour (usually pathos), as here. R has '^pTjaaro, as if < e|aipe'o) ('take away'). But the aor. mid. of that vb. is e^eiXop.^, and Fritzsche changed a single letter to produce '^Tjpdaaro, < e|epda) ('empty out'; cf. adesp. com. fr. 1073. 12 eXaiov efripaaap.^ ('I emptied out the olive oil'); Taillardat §291 (comparing Ach. 341; V. 993)), perhaps with a pun on epapa,i, 'lust after, love'. Cf. Rutherford 216; Lautensach 128; Gregoire and Goossens, Byzantion 13 (1938) 399-400. 762—4 eueiSrimep: A colloquial Attic conjunction, attested in Ar. also atAch.
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437, 495; Nu. 1412; V. 1129; Av. 1360, and widely distributed in prose (e.g. Th. vi. 18. 3; PI. Ap. 2jd; [X.] Ath. 3. i; Lys. 14. 8), but absent from serious poetry. 763—4 echo 652—4 (where see n.) and prepare for the entrance of the Prytanis at 923; cf. 726—7 n., 853—4 (which remind the audience yet again of what is coming, further increasing their expectation that the entrance of the Prytanis will mark a decisive turn in the action), 932—4 n., 1084 with n. Mika and Mania exit into Wing B. After 760—2, a TTemorfx' OUTOS is most naturally taken to mean that Mika will inform the authorities not only that Inlaw infiltrated the Thesmophoria but also—and perhaps more important—that he murdered her 'daughter'. But nothing is ever made of the killing, and when the Prytanis at last appears, the only charge he makes against the old man is that he is a imvovpyos ('reprobate, crook, scumbag') because he has dressed in women's clothes (i.e. and infiltrated a women's festival), and he refers only to the information laid by Kleisthenes (929, 943—4). Cf. 726—7 n.; 862—3, where Kritylla ignores the murder of Mika's 'daughter' (which she witnessed) and refers instead to the crime the old man committed by disguising himself as a woman, and 893-4, where she unexpectedly accuses him of being a thief, i'va KT\. is thus best understood as merely a convenient device to get Mika off stage, freeing the deuteragonist to return at 869 as Eur. 765-7 aY€8r|:Cf. 213-14 n., 652* with n.; Cephisod.fr. 13. Cf. 87 n., 946 (Inlaw momentarily abandons hope) OVK ear' . . . A. Th. 209* (p.rixavriv)', E. Hel. 1034* (p.rixavriv)', Ph. 890*; Hid. ix. 6. 4. TIS meipa, ris en-ivoi(a);: Lit. 'What attempt [is there]? What device?', i.e. 'What can I try? What can I think up?' For the 'literary' anaphora, which adds little or no new information to the question in 765, Slings, in Willi 100. For emvoia (late 5th-c. vocabulary; relatively common in comedy and prose, but rare in elevated poetry), 335-9 n.; Mastronarde onE. Ph. 408. 6 ... ai-rios/ KT\.: Cf. 651 with n. 768 ou <|>aiv€T(ai): 'is not in evidence, is nowhere to be seen'; cf. EC. 312; Bond on E. HF 705. ou-uu: 'not yet'. Eur. has promised to rescue Inlaw if necessary (269-76), and most of the rest of the play consists of his attempts to do so. The problem is that—at least from the old man's point of view—Eur. is taking far too long to act, hence the need to try to communicate with him somehow (768-71). Cf. 846-50. (|>€p€: ' Come now!' velsim.;cf. 788,915, 1116. Colloquial (Lopez Eire 98). (added to the text by Person, Notae in Ar. (Cambridge, 1820) 218) was omitted via haplography (OYNANAF written OYNAF). 769 The addition of IY&) with ot8(a) is probably colloquial; cf. 850 withn.; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1668. Kai 8r| marks a vivid perception or (here) realization; 'hah!' vel sim. (GP 250—1); cf. 1092/3 with n.
L I N E S 762-72
259 259
For the particles falling after the vb., e.g. Ra. 604; S. OC 173; Hdt. vii. 196. -uopov: 'a device, means [of accomplishing what I want]'. Ar. uses the word in parodic contexts also at V. 308 (~ Pi. fr. 189); Pax 124 (paratragic); cf. Eg. 759 with Arnott on Alex. fr. 236. 5—6; Ra. 1465 (Aeschylus is speaking). 770-1 IK TOU ria\afir|8ous: 134-5 n- Palamedes son of Nauplios was one of the original Greek commanders at Troy and was known for his cleverness (cf. Ra. 1451) and his inventions, in particular of writing (E. fr. 578; Stesich. PMGFziy; Gorg. 82 B na. 30; cf. Eup. fr. 385. 6; Anaxandr. fr. 10; A. fr. **i8ia. 3-4; S. fr. 479. 2-4; Roscher, Lexikon iii. 1268-71; A. Kleingunther, I1PQTOZ EYPETHZ (Philologus Suppl. 26. i: Leipzig, 1933) 78—84; LIMC vii. i. 145). His brilliance earned him the enmity of Odysseus, who contrived to have him killed; the story had already been told in the Cypria (arg. 66; fr. 30) and by Pindar (fr. 260), and seemscc to have been alluded to by Stesichorus (cf. PMGF 213). For Euripides' Palamedes andthe parody of it in Th., Introduction pp. Iviii—Ix; Rau5i—3; cf. 168-70 n. According to 2R, in Eur.'s play it was not Palamedes but his brother Oiax (also mentioned at E. Or. 432) who inscribed the story of the hero's fate on oar-blades, which he threw (or planned to throw) into the sea, hoping that one of them would make its way to their father; cf. E. Hel. 767, 1126-31 (allusions to Nauplios' plot against the Greek fleet on its return from Troy); Scodel 58-60. Plays entitled Palamedes were also composed by Aeschylus (frr. 181—2a), Sophocles (frr. 478—81), and Astydamas II (TrGF 60 F 5a). IKCIVOS: 'the man I'm thinking of, i.e. Oiax; cf. Ach. 428. rds -uXdras: Here simply 'oarblades', although the noun is often used in an extended sense in poetry to mean 'oar', 'oarage', or even 'ship' (e.g. Anaxil. fr. 22. 17 (parody of E.?); A. Supp. 134 with Johansen-Whittle ad loc.; S. OC 717; E. Andr. 865; HF 432; Or. 54). For oars and how they were produced, Olson on Ach. 552. piv|/u YP"(dv: 'I wiU inscribe and [once that is done] throw'; cf. 774, 930; Moorhouse 210—11. Holford-Strevens suggests that the pres. part, might indicate instead that these are concurrent processes: like the Euripidean Oiax, Inlaw 'will write and throw, write and throw, write and throw', not write a stack of oar-blades and then post them all together. That in the event he inscribes only one tablet is merely a matter of staging. d\\' ou mdpeiaiv ai uXdrai: The parodies of Helen (850-919) and Andromeda (1010-1126) put on by Inlaw and Eur. in the scenes that follow are brought repeatedly to earth via hostile (if largely ineffective) interjections by Krityllaandthe Skythian, respectively. Here the parody is developed at much less length and reality intrudes in a more straightforward way: the original stage-props (note the def. art.) are missing. 772 iioGev ouv Y^VOIVT' dv;: * at fr. 68. 2. R's ye'voir' might be explained as
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an example of the 'schema Pindaricon' (pi. subj. with sing, vb.; cf. Gildersleeve §118). But Grynaeus' yeVcwr' is a trivial change and ought probably to be adopted. The text in R is unmetrical, and Sandbach's accounts neatly for the loss of the word (via haplography); cf. Austin (1987) 82. For the repetition of the interrogative at the end of the sentence, e.g. Nu. 79; Ra. 120,460, 1399. 773—4 TI 8' civ;: Sc. e'lr/, 'What would [happen]?' (esp. fr. 592. 30; Eup. fr 53; cf. V. 524; Lys. 399; Men. Dysk. 897Handley). Colloquial; cf. Stevens 30-1; Dover onNu. 1444. Ta8iT(d) dYa\nar(a): 'these offerings' (accompanied by a gesture), i.e. wooden (775) tablets of a sort routinel hung up in sanctuaries to record vows, offerings, great deeds of the god, and the like (cf. A. Supp. 463; W. H. D. Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings (Cambridge, 1902; repr. New York, 1975) 80-3; Headlam on Herod. 4. 19), a pair of which Inlaw discovers hanging conveniently on one side of the altar. YP<*4"°V Siappiirroini: Cf. 771 with n. (JeXriov Sc. av e'li), '[that would be] much better!' (cf. Handley on Men Dysk. 148-9), i.e. than having no 'oar-blades' at all (cf. 771). 775 £<J^ov . . . £u\ov: For the repetition, cf. Eq. 207 'Giving a reason, valid so far as it goes, for accepting a proposition; a colloquial idiom, common in Aristophanes and Plato' (GP 550— i). (|)K€IV( c f- 966—7 Austin (1987) 82. Other examples of voc. followed by hiatus include 1065-6 = E. Andromeda fr. 114 lepd / 019; E. Hec. 444; Or. 1537; Ba. 152; cf. Lourenco, Euphrosyne 28 (2000) 323 n. 13. Addressing one's own hand or hands is a tragic mannerism; cf. S. Tr. 1089; Ph. ioo4;E.Alc.&37;Med. 1244; ffF 268; W. Schadewaldt, Monolog und Selbstgesprach (Neue philologische Untersuchungen 2: Berlin, 1926) 219-20. €YX €l P € ' v: An echo of xeipes in 776; cf. 781-2 n. eyxfipfto (also 807) is late 5th-c. vocabulary; attested in serious poetry only at S. El. 1026; E. Med. 377. iropi^u: Lit. 'that offers a way [out]'. Relatively rare late 5th-c. vocabulary (elsewhere in comedy at Pax 1030 (lyric); Ra. 1429 ('Euripides'; see below); attested in tragedy only at E. fr. 886. 3 (=Ra. 1429; a dubious fragment); [A.] PVgo$ (cf. Griffith on 59)). 778—80 Inlaw removes the votive tablets from the side of the altar and begins to scratch at them with his butcher's knife. 'writing tablets made of smoothed boards'; for the gen., Ach. 992; Av. 672, 686; KG i. 376; Poultney 82—3. Proper writing tablets consisted of a
L I N E S 772-82
2&I
pair of boards fitted on one side with raised edges (to prevent the message from being rubbed out after sealing) and covered with wax (in which one inscribed one's message); after inscription, the boards could be folded together and tied closed (e.g. H. //. 6. 169; Hdt. vii. 239. 3; E. IT 727; Mel. AP iv. i. 10= HE 3935; GMAW* no. 4; cf. J. L. Sharpe III, in K. A. Worp and A. Rijksbaron (eds.), The Kellis Isocrates Codex (Oxbow Monographs 88: Oxford, 1997) 9—21 with figs, i—18). (euros (attested elsewhere in comedy only at adesp. fr. 1005. 8) is common in Homer (e.g. //. 20. n; Od. i. 138; cf. [Hes.] Sc. 133; Tyrt. fr. n. 37), Pindar (P. 2. 10; 4. 94; N. 10. 67), Bacchylides (18. 49), and Euripides (e.g. HF 782; Hel. 986; Phae'th. 222), but is otherwise rare (in prose at Hdt. ii. 124. 4; X. An. iii. 4. 10) and is probably intended as elevated style. A afj,i\rj is a cutting-tool most often associated with leatherworkers (PI. Ale. i I29c; Herod. 7. 119 with Headlam ad loc.; Luc. Cat. 15, 20); distinguished from a ^d^aipa ('butcher's knife') at PI. R. 353a, and from a ('awl') at Luc. Cat. 20. According to 2 P1._R. 353a, what made a afj,i\rj different from a rofievs (lit. 'cutter') was that it had a straight edge rather than a rounded one, and it must have resembled a chisel more than a knife. Cf. Ra. 819; Alex. fr. 223. 8; Phan. AP vi. 295. i = HE 2978 (a penknife vel sim.); Bliimner i. 278; ii. 212—13. O\KOUS ('tracks, traces') is not a normal metaphor for writing; cf. 782 with n.; Taillardat §524. KT|puKas: For the image (poetic), Taillardat p. 301 n. i. (attested elsewhere in comedy only at adesp. fr. 1048. 5) is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. Thgn. 1338; Pi. O. 8. 7; adesp. PMGgz6c) and is particularly common in tragedy (e.g. A. Ch. 1069; S. Ai. 1188; E. Ale. 93%; Andr. 705; adesp. tr. fr. 655. A. 42); in5th-c. prose at Hdt. i. 206. 2 (sing.). ol|_ioi: 625 n. 781—2 TOUT! TO p&j fioxSilpov might mean 'This R [I have produced] is rotten!' (in which case 782 refers to the speaker's struggles with the letter that follows), but is more likely 'This R [I am working on] is troublesome' (with the effort to produce it continuing down to 782). In either case, the rounded part of the letter may well be the source of the problem. Cf. Green and Handley, Hesperia 70 (2001) 368 n. 5. 2R suggests that the p in question is the third letter in the name EvpnrlS-rjs. One might just as well assume that Inlaw is writing xaipeiv(' Greetings!' vel sim.; cf. LSJ s.v. III. i. c). But this is all idle speculation, for nothing in the text suggests that the audience is supposed to reconstruct any specific message the old man is producing; what matters is that he is begging to be rescued—and, not surprisingly, making a mess of things, po-^drfpov (sth-c. vocabulary, first attested at A. Th. 257) echoes po-^diuv in 780; cf. 776—7 with n. The presence of the def. art. (absent elsewhere in 776-84 as part of the parody of elevated style) marks a momentary drop in tone. 'Go on! Go on!'; addressed to the knife, which is momentarily stuck in
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COMMENTARY
the wood but then slips free, producing a long gash and sparking the aggravated comment -uoiav auXaita; ('What sort of a furrow [have you made]?'; for the image, 779 withn.). The repetition of the imper. reflects the speaker's agitation; cf. Fehling 169—70. 783-4 Addressed to the votive tablets (all supposedly inscribed now with pleas for help), which Inlaw flings in various directions as he speaks these verses. The multiple pleonasms ('Go! Hasten!' and 'by all roads, in this way [and] that') are part of the parody of high-style poetry; cf. 579-81 n. PCUJK€T(€): Rare, exclusively poetic vocabulary, generally in the imper. (e.g. H.77. 8. 399; Ale. SLG262(0). ii. 10; A. Pers. 663, 671 (both lyric)); attested nowhere else in comedy, 'hasten!', an intrans. use of the act. typical of elevated poetry (especially tragedy); cf. Pax 943/4 (lyric) with Olson ad loc., and add Eub. fr. 14. 11 (paratragic?); Pi. O. 8. 47; E. Or. 799; fr. 495. 11. Keivaraura: Cf. E. Tr. 333 eWaeraS' eKeiae. The short formKeiV- is paratragic (cf. 473 n.), as is the use of 'Doric' -a (typical of tragic lyric) for Attic -TJ (although, if R is to be trusted, Inlaw did not use Doric alphas at 779-80). Sc. Uvai vel sim. A colloquial ellipse, which brings Inlaw's song to an appropriately pedestrian close. The old man sits down on the altar (cf. 886—8) to await Eur.'s arrival. Kritylla remains on guard (cf. 762-3) watching him. 785-845 The parabasis, consisting of: (i) 29 anapaestic tetrameters catalectic (785—813), in which the coryphaeus defends her sex from traditional slanders by pointing out how inconsistently women's actions are judged, and then 'proves' that Athens' men are worse than its women via a series of puns on personal names; (2) an anapaestic pnigos (814-29) which again stresses the fundamental inferiority of the city's men; and (3) 16 trochaic tetrameters catalectic (830—45) which attack the city's men for failing to honour its women appropriately, albeit via reference to arrangements at exclusively female festivals. For the theme generally, E. Med. 410-30; Mel. Desm. fr. 494 Kannicht; cf. Bierl 214—51. This is the only Aristophanic parabasis that lacks lyric sections (cf. 804 n.; Hubbard 195 n. 109). Nor is the stage emptied during it, as in all the earlier comedies. Despite 785 (cf. 799-800), the parabasis has very little good to say of women, who are consistently presented as the objects of an alternately hostile and lustful male gaze (see W. Suss, Aristophanes und die Nachwelt (Das Erbe der Alten ii/iii: Leipzig, 1911) 138-9). Spinning and weaving are referred to obliquely in 821-2. But that women's domestic work was necessary to set men free to participate in civic affairs, that they played a significant role in cult (cf. E. Mel. Desm. fr. 494. 9—21 Kannicht; Dillon 37-106), or even that most women habitually spent a great deal of time at home doing necessary menial labour (cf. Lewis 59-90), is nowhere hinted at except in their husbands' anxiety when they go miss-
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ing—and even then the fears have to do with potential sexual misbehaviour (792-9 with nn.). Instead, women as depicted here spend their time having parties in one another's houses (esp. 795—6, cf. 792) or attending festivals (834—5), richly dressed, if possible (840—1, cf. 823); and when they are at home, they peep out into the street (790, 797) and pilfer food from their husbands (812-13). Alternatively, they are prostitutes (805 with n.). The values the parabasis invokes and supports, meanwhile, are almost exclusively masculine and public, even when the women claim them for themselves. What matters is to serve bravely in battle (804-7, 824-9) and do one's official duties honestly and completely (808-9, 81112), and the only positive thing a woman can do is to produce a good son—which is to say, one who becomes a brave general, taxiarch, or the like (832-9). The women's single most substantial complaint, finally, has very little to do with themselves or their realm except as a mirror of events in the Assembly (830-45). 785 r|fi€is roivuv: 'Well, now let us . . .'; cf. Xefiu TOLVVV at the opening of set speeches at Nu. 961 and Telecl. fr. i. i; GP 571-2. 'praise'; cf. 85 n. irapa|3aoai: For TrapajSalvw and the cognate noun -jrapdpaais, Sifakis 62—6. 786—7 The charge originally laid by the women against Eur. alone (e.g. 85, 182, 386-9, 394) is now extended to men generally. Cf. Introduction pp. liii-lv. KCUTOI marks what follows as an objection of the speaker's own to what she has just said in 785; 'andyet' (GP 556—7; Slings, inNAGP T 122—5). ° Y uvaiK€ ' ov 't'uXov: Similar expressions (but all with a dependent gen. yvvaiKiav rather than the cognate adj.) in poetry at e.g. H. //. 9. 130, 272; Hes. Th. 591 (at the climax of the Pandora story, but a dubious line; cf. West ad loc.); fr. i. i (the introduction to the Catalogue of Women); [Hes.] Sc. 4; cf. Semon. fr. 7. 94 (an openly misogynistic text); subsequently at Arat. 103. Cf. Hutchinson on A. Th. 187-95; Loraux, Arethusa n (1978) 52-3. KO.KO. TTO\\' (ryopeuei: Cf. 85 n., 306-9 n.; H. Od. 18. 15 ovre rt G€ pe^w KO.KOV ovr' dyopevw. 'That we are utter evil'; cf. Garden on S. fr. 2&9a. 24 (p. 61). For the neut. adj. used as a substantive predicate of a masc. or fern, subj., KG i. 58-9; Gildersleeve §126; cf. 775; Sus. fr. 1.3 Kaxov ywawej; E. El. 1035. Ka£ r|fiiiv lariv amavra: Sc. Kara. For this poetic use of ('sent by'), Starkie on V. 9. For the idea, Hes. Op. 90—104 (Pandora, the Ur-woman, opens apithos and introduces troubles of every sort into the human world). 788 ipiSes V€IKT] KT\.: An eclectic mix of personal and public troubles; cf. Silk 148—9. For 'quarrels and strife' caused by a dispute over a woman, cf. H. //. 2. 376 (perhaps alluded to here), where Agamemnon complains of Zeus oy fj.6 per' oVpTjKTOuy epiSas Kal veiKea jSdXXei ('who involves me in impossible quarrels and strife') with Achilles over Briseis. That women
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were the cause or wars was most famously asserted or Helen and the Trojan War, but cf. Ach. 524-9 with Olson on 526-7 (the Peloponnesian War); Hdt. i. 1—5. 2 (hostility that culminated in the Persian Wars). Any reference to stasis must have struck a painful chord in Athens in 411; cf. Introduction pp. xxxvii-xl. For the asyndeton, e.g. Ach. 546-54; Av. 716; S. OC 1234; Austin on Men. Asp. 56. ardais: R's unmetrical araaeis reflects the influence of the pis. that precede it. Attested in early poetry (e.g. H. //. 4. 471; Hes. Th. 369; Tyrt. fr. n. 8; Anacr. PMG 395. 10; Thgn. 625; cf. Egoscozabal, QUCC 75 (2003) 37-48), comedy (e.g. Nu. 450; V. 1279; Lys. 324; PI. i), and Attic prose (X..Hier. 6. 4; Aeschin. i. 61), but absent from tragedy. Cf. Dover, G&G 226—7: 'It would not be hard to find analogies in modern languages; vulgar words can have a flavour of archaism out of tune with the literary tradition.' (|>€p€: 768 n. Used colloquially (like aye in 652, 947) without regard to the number of persons actually addressed; cf. KG i. 84— 5. 8r| vuv 'expresses an increased urgency in command or appeal' (GP2i8; cf. Nu. 500, 748), here introducing the objection in 789-91. 789—90 €i KCIKOV lafiev echoes 787 ws TTO.V lapev KO.KOV and is then repeated, in the even more emphatic form eiirep d\r]0&)s KCIKOV lajiev, at the end of the line. ri y
L I N E S 788-96
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the house, (B) you react with anger, (B') whereas you ought really to react with joy, (A) if you discover that your wife has left the house'. Picking up on 790, the wife having done what she was ordered not to (although what matters is that her absence is detected). Cf. EC. 311-53 (two baffled husbands awake to find their wives absent from the house—and their clothes gone as well). Abrupt shifts from pi. to sing, when a particular example of a recurrent phenomenon is described are typical of Aristophanic style; cf. Olson on Pax 639—40. Here the sing, adds momentary emotional intimacy, as again in 798. 'the little woman'; cf. V. 610; Petersen 118. Replaced by an ironic (cf. 791 n.) TO KCIKOV in 794 (in keeping with the call for joy rather than anger in 793). Tfoi is, strictly speaking, unnecessary; cf. Holzinger on PI. 447. €upT)T(e) auTO Gupaaiv: 'you discover that she is somewhere else', i.e. 'missing from your house'; not 'you find her elsewhere', as 794 makes clear. For Ovpaai(v), 69 n. ^iavias fiaiveaG': 'you are beside yourself [with anger], you have fits'. For pi. paviai, 680—3 n - The use of that noun as a cognate internal ace. (cf. 800; Eq. 487) is not attested elsewhere in the classical period. arrevSeiv: i.e. as a thank-ofifering to the gods; cf. Eq. 221; Nu. 623; Pax 1321; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1395—6 (p. 659) 'Joy and libation often go together'. c|>pouSov: 690—1 n. (sc. avro) merely restates in negative terms the situation described in the first half of the line. Cf. 792, although in that case there is a logical temporal progression from the first point (the wife's absence) to the second (the husband's discovery of it). 795-6 A reference to women's festivals like the Adonia (Olson on Pax 420; Dillon 162-9), which went on well into the night, stranding celebrants in other people's houses until morning, when it was safe to go out into the city's streets again (cf. 816—18 n.). For the form, Lautensach 62-3. Iv dXXoTpiuv: Sc. OIKMIS, 'in other people's [houses]'. rrai^ouaai: 'dancing'; cf. 947, 975 with n., 983, 1227; Ra. 452 with Dover, Frogs, pp. 57—9; Autocr. fr. i. i; H. Od. 23. 147; Headlam on Herod. 3. 55; Ion fr. 27. 7—8; Gerber on Pi. O. i. 16. KOTruoacu: 'growing weary', i.e. as a result of the dancing (above) and the increasingly late hour. The vb. is attested in comedy (e.g. frr. 333.8 ywait^l KOTridooaioiv €7T€KovprjGar€ ('you lent aid to wearied women'; from Th. II, above p. Ixxix); 618 ('whenever you grow tired while dancing'); Alex. fr. 151. 3; Men. Ph. n), in 4th-c. Attic prose (e.g. Arist. HA 6o5a3o; Thphr. fr. 7 passim), and in Hippocrates (e.g. Epid. vii. 39 (v. 406. 9); Morb. 3. 16 (vii. 144. 9)), but is absent from serious poetry. rrdsris: i.e. every male who happens to be in the house. TO KCIKOV TOUTO £T]T€I: With a eye to sexual opportunity. Trepi TCIS K\ivas TrepivoaTUv: 'making his way around the couches'; cf. Pax 762 -jraXaloTpas ir€pivocniav ('makin
2 66
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the rounds of the wrestling schools', in this case looking for boys rather than women to seduce). For couches (on which the women reclined to drink, before eventually falling asleep), 261—2 n. 797—9 K&V IK GupiSos TrapaKuTrridfiev: Cf. Pax 979—85, where women who peer out of their courtyard doors attract similar attention frommen and are assumed to be advertising their sexual availability (hence the husband's warning in 790 that his wife must not be caught doing this), with Olson on 981—5; EC. 924 (an old woman 'peeps sideways' from her door, looking for men); Lycurg. 40; Graham, JHS 118 (1998) 22-40. Exterior windows (closed by shutters) drew the eyes not just of inquisitive passers-by but of burglars, and if a house had them at all, they were set high in the wall (as V. 379—80 makes clear). For the vb. (5th-c. vocabulary; absent from serious poetry), Olson on Ach. 16. R's fij-rci TO Kaxov Te8eaa8ai might be defended by arguing that the pf. is intended to signal that the woman appears only for a moment and is gone again, so that all one can hope for is 'to have caught a glimpse' of her (cf. Goodwin §i 10; Austin (1987) 83; but note aor. ISeiv in 799). But the absence of a nom. (contrast 798) makes aiaxuvGeia' dvax
L I N E S 795-805
267 267
set one against another'; cf. Eub. fr. 115. 11 (549-50 n.) avredrjica), which is then expanded in -uapapdXXouaai KT\. in 803. For 8r| with a jussive subjunc., S. Ph. 1469. 804, 806—8 NauaifidxilS, Apia-rojidxiiv, 5TpaTOViKT]v, Eu(3ou\T]s: No real Athenian woman is known to have been called Nausimache, although the existence of masc. Navalp,axos (seven 5th- and 4th-c. examples in LGPN cii s.v.) makes it likely that this is merely an accident of preservation. Aristomache, at any rate, is common (at least 36 other 5th- and 4th-c. examples in LGPN ii s.v.), and Euboule is also attested (four other 5thand 4th-c. examples in LGPN ii s.v.; masc. EvjSovXos is widespread), as is Stratonike (two other 5th- and 4th-c. examples in LGPN ii s.v.). But nothing suggests an allusion to real individuals; these are generic names that suit the argument. Contrast 805 with n. 804 [iev Y' : As at Av. 612 (•/ added by Bentley); cf. GP 159-60; Neil, Knights, p. 192. Xapjuvos (PA 15517) was an Athenian general (Th. viii. 30. i) who some time earlier in the year had been defeated by a Spartan fleet off Syme, an island north of Rhodes, losing six ships (Th. viii.41. 3-43. i). Hecanthusbesaidtobeindisputablyinferiortoawoman whose name means 'Naval Battle'. Later in 411, Charminos participated in the assassination on Samos of Hyperboles (Th. viii. 73. 3; cf. 840—1 n.) and was deprived of his office after the democrats got control of the fleet (Th. viii. 76. 2). Cf. Introduction p. xxxiv. Abuse of individual citizens in Aristophanic parabases is normally confined to the epirrhematic syzygy, which is reduced to one epirrheme in Th.; cf. Sifakis 41, 43; M. Treu, Undid cori comici (Genoa, 1999) 191-2. 8f)\a 8e rdpYa: 'but his deeds are clear', i.e. 'the facts speak for themselves, there's no disputing this'; cf. Men. Sam. 444 avra rapya S^Aot; E. Or. 1129 avro 8t]Xot rovpyov. 805 Kdi fiev 8r|: 'and moreover', introducing a fresh item in the series; a prosaic equivalent of the much more common KOL ^-qv (200-1 n.). Cf. 819; GP 396-7. K\€o<|)tiv is Kleophon son of Kle'ippides of the deme Acharnai (PA 8638; PAA 578250), a radical democratic politician. Kle'ippides was general in 428 (Th. iii. 3. 2) and a candidate for ostracism in 443 (Brueckner, MDAI(A) 40(1915) i2-i6(nos. 18-41); cf. Vanderpool, Hesperia 21 (1952) 114-15), and the references to Kleophon as a 'lyre-maker' (And. i. 146; Aeschin. 2. 76) suggest that the family's holdings included a factory that produced musical instruments. Like, therefore, almost all prominent late 5th-c. Athenian political figures, Kleophon must have been well-to-do, a conclusion also supported by his ability to obtain (presumably at public auction) the house of Leogoras, the father of the orator Andocides (who was at that point in exile), after Leogoras' death (And. i. 146). That the comic poets attacked him and his mother as Thracians (Ra. 678-82; PI. Com. fr. 61) may suggest that he had family connections or property in the north; that he did not leave large amounts
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of money behind when he died (Lys. 19. 48-9) shows only that he failed systematically to enrich himself while involved in state affairs. Kleophon was sufficiently prominent in Athenian politics in the early 4105 to have been (along with his brother Philinos (PA 14300) a candidate for ostracism around 417 (Agora ostraka nos. 600-7 Lang; for Philinos, Agora ostrakon no. 659 Lang; Raubitschek, Hesperia 23 (1954) 68-71). But his period of greatest prominence came after the death of Hyperboles (840—1 n.), when he convinced the Assembly to institute a daily two-obol payment of some sort to large numbers of average citizens ([Arist.] Ath. 28. 3 with Rhodes ad loc.; cf. Aeschin. 2. 76) and was a violent and consistent opponent of peace with Sparta (Lys. 13. 8; Aeschin. 2. 76; 3. 150; Philoch. FGrHist 328 F 139; [Arist.] Ath. 34. i with Rhodes ad loc.; cf. Ra. 1532-3); only after he had been tried for desertion in a kangaroo court and executed in 404 could the war finally be brought to an end. Ar. mentions Kleophon repeatedly inFrogs (678—85, 1504, 1532—3), and Plato Comicus devoted an entire play (frr. 57—64; performed at the same festival as Ra.) to mocking him. 8r|iiou: 'I imagine' (although no doubt is intended); cf. 819; GPz6-j. In 804, 806-8, the woman's name comes near the beginning of the line and is played upon in what follows to demonstrate her natural superiority to the man with whom she is compared. Here 2a\a|3aKxous is reserved for final position and the joke is of a different sort: Kleophon is worse than . . . a well-known prostitute (cf. 2R; 2VE™M Eq. 765; Salabakcho is otherwise unknown)! Eq. 764-5 is similar: ('if I have been the best man in regard to the Athenian people after Lysikles (a prominent demagogue) and Kynna (another prostitute) and Salabakcho'). 806—7 Fortheidea, cf. 819—29. Lit. 'Best-in-Battle and Victorious-with-an-Army'. 'it's been a long time since'; to be taken with ovS' ey^eipei. For the gen., PL 98; KG i. 387; Poultney 109-10. Contrast 385 615 -jroXvv ye XP°VOV€K€ivr]v rr|v MapaOtovi: 'she who is at Marathon', as if this were Aristomache's place of residence. But the point is to recall the Battle of Marathon (fought against the Persians in 490; cf. Hdt. vi. 109—17), which is regularly evoked in 5th- and 4th-c. authors as a symbol of Athens' glorious (if fading) military past (N. Loraux, The Invention of Athens (Cambridge, Mass., 1986) 155-71 (originally published in French in 1981); Olson on Ach. 180-1). For the locative dat., cf. 872; Ach. 697-8; Eq. 781, 1334; V. 711; fr. 429; KG i. 441-2; Threatte ii. 379—83. u|-uov ouSeis ou8' €YX €1 P € ' : 'not one of you even tries'. For eyxeipe'o), 776-7 n. iio\€fii^€iv: 'to contend with'; but the word-play depends on the root sense 'wage war against'. Poetic (esp. epic) vocabulary (e.g. H. //. i. 168; 2. 121; Od. 3. 86; subsequently at Tyrt. fr.
L I N E S 805-13
269
l
i i . 27; Anacr.PMG35 ; Pi- O. 9. 32(MSS);/. i. 50); elsewhere in Ar. at Nu. 419; Pa.x 759 (both TtoXepi^wv*). 808—9 A reference to events in late 413, when in the aftermath of the disaster in Sicily Athens' Council handed over some of its powers to ten elderly probouloi (Th. viii. i. 3; [Arist.] Ath. 29. 2 with Rhodes ad loc.), one of whom is mocked on stage at Lys. 387-613. Cf. Introduction p. xxxiv. A new Council seems to have taken office in 412 (cf. 79 with n., 654 with n., 943), but the probouloi of 413 continued to serve, and how responsibilities were divided up is unclear (but cf. Lys. 421-3). -uepuaiv: 627 n. 'his position and power as a member of the Council' (Harp. B 19); a rare technical term, first attested here. i.e. not even the Councillor himself would deny that he had been Here avros picks up TIS POU\€UTT|S. Cf. H. Od. 21. 317 (where avros refers back to o |eiVoy in c314). ForR's^njaeiy, cf. 45, where the scribe originally wrote Xe-yeis before correcting himself. P. Maas's 'Avvros (Kleine Schriften (Munich, 1973) 58) is clever but a shot in the dark. 810 An echo of 799-800, marking the successful completion of the proof proposed in 801—3. F°r the Homeric flourish, cf. H. //. 4. 405 811-29 Some additional ways in which men as a group are inferior to women, seemingly tacked on simply for good measure: their numbers include more outright villains of every sort (811—18) and they are less devoted to preserving their traditional ways, which is to say that they shirk military service and are cowards in battle (819-29). 811-13 For the elaborate word-order (in a more straightforward style cf. PL 205. K\ev|maa: KrAeVra) appears to be the proper Athenian term for the misappropriation of public funds (Cohen, Theft 30-3). £euY€i • • . / eis TioXiv i\6oi: 'proceed to the Acropolis with a team [of horses]', i.e. 'with horse and chariot' as part of the Panathenaic procession; cf. Nu. 69 (Strepsiades' wife's wish for their son) ('when you're big and drive a chariot to the Acropolis!') with Dover ad loc. To own even one good horse was well beyond the means of the average citizen (cf. Wyse on Is. 5. 43; Pomeroy on X. Oec. i. 8; I. G. Spence, The Cavalry of Classical Greece (Oxford, 1993) 272-86, esp. 274-7), and to maintain a pair plus a chariot was possible only for the very rich (e.g. D. 21. 158). For £rfyos used in the extended sense 'cart, chariot' (primarily prosaic), e.g. Arar. fr. 17. 2; Hdt. i. 59. 4; iv. 46. 3; PI. Grg. 5i6e; Hyp. i. 5. 'fifty talents at a time'; cf. LSJ s. Kara, B. II. 3. 'A ridiculously large round number'(MacDowell on V. 669*; cf. Pherecr. fr. i 6 i ) , b u t i n keeping with the exaggeratedly bad picture of male behaviour drawn in
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811—29 as a whole. For office-holders and politicians as thieves (an Aristophanic trope), e.g. Eg. 1127—8; Nu. 351; V. 554, 759, noi; Lys. 490; PI. 665-6; cf. Olson onAch. 6-8. d\V T]VKT\.: What is described here is not simple theft (contrast 418-20, 424-5, 556-7) but a complicated illicit transaction, in which the woman niches the wheat, lends or sells it to someone else (either to make a small profit or to help another woman engaged in some chicanery in her own house), and gets it back by the end of the day. No details are supplied, and what matters is that the existence of a complex, shadowy world of female thievery and intrigue is taken for granted. t]v TCI fieyKjO' 6<|>€\r]Tai: 'if she commits the greatest theft [she can]'; cf. below.
L I N E S 8l 1-23
271
ian law (below; cf. Olson on Ach. 257-8) and from a AJJCTTIJS ('highwayman, raider') at Arist. EN 1122*7-10; Lycurg. fr. *u (p. in Conomis). thieves, and kidnappers, referred to collectively as ('malefactors'), were mentioned together in an Athenian law that allowed for them to be put to death immediately by the Eleven if caught redhanded (X. Mem. i. 2. 62; [Arist.] Ath. 52. i with Rhodes ad loc.; D. 4. 47); cf. 929-46 n.; Antipho 5. 9; Men. Sic. 272 with Arnott ad loc.; J. H. Lipsius, Das attische Recht undRechtsverfahren(repr. Hildesheim, 1966) 74-81; Apagoge 36-53, esp. 46-8. «:A«mu «ai XanroSvrai are mentioned together as aSixoi (lit. 'unjust individuals') at fr. *322. 5-6. XanroSvrai are also included routinely in catalogues of common street-criminals and the like (e.g. Ra. 772; PL 165; Diph. fr. 31. 14; PI. Lg. 874b-c; Isoc. 15. 90; Aeschin. i. 91; Theopomp. Hist.FGrHist 115 F28i). Cf. Ussher onEc. 544-6; Cohen, Theft 79-83. Attic vocabulary, first attested at IG I3 45. 5—6. pu|_ioA6xous: 'buffoons'; cf. Dover on Ra. 358. Colloquial Attic vocabulary; first attested in Ar. avSpcuroSiaTcis: 'kidnappers, slavedealers' (since the point of kidnapping a person in one place was to sell him in another); included in catalogues of villains at e.g. PI. Grg. 5o8e; R. 344b, 575b; Isoc. 15. 90; Lycurg. fr. i (p. 109 Conomis); Timae. FGrHist 566 F 156; and cf. above. 819-23 For the idea (that women's fundamental domestic conservatism makes them superior to their husbands), cf. EC. 214-28. 819—20 Kdi fiev 8r|iiou: Cf. 805 with n. initially seems odd, since women did not legally control property even when it would otherwise appear to belong to them (Harrison i. 108-15, esp. 112-14), and the untangling of this paradox is part of what makes 821—9 funny. For squandering one's inheritance as a disgrace, Archil, fr. 302; Alex. fr. no; Anaxandr. fr.4&. 2-3; Aeschin. i. 30-1, 42; D. 9. 30-1; 38. 27; cf. Av. 284-6; Men. fr. 247. 3-6. 821-3 ativ echoes aa>£,eiv in 820. ITI Kai vuv: 'evennow'; common in Homeric poetry (e.g. 77. 9. 105; Od. 24. 186; h.Merc. 508), but confined i the classical period to comedy (also V. 1037; Av. 488; Ra. 1235; Eup. fr. 260. 22; Athenio fr. 1.17) and prose (e.g. Hdt. vii. 178. 2; Th. i. 5. 2; And. i. 122; PI. Ap. 23b; D. 13. 26). A KO.VKIV is a 'rod' or 'bar' of any sort (cf. 825 with n.). But what the dv-riov and Kaviiv referred to here were and how they differed was obscure already in antiquity. 2R suggests that an was a 'covering placed on the head'—which would fit with in 823 but is probably just a guess—'or part of a loom'; and Pollux mentions 'aloom-Kavoii', the so-called dvriov' (vii. 35; probably in origin a note on this passage) and 'a loom-dim'oj/ (x. 125). Most likely the reference is to the rod-heddle and the shed-rod, i.e. the horizontal bars that served to move alternate rows of warp-strings forward and back to prepare for the passage of the shuttle. Cf. 738 n.; H. II. 23. 759—64 with Richardson
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ad loc.; Hsch. p, 896; Bliimner i. 148-9; Crowfoot, ABSA 37 (1936-37) 36-47; Forbes iv. 198; M. Hoffmann, The Warp-Weighted Loom (Studia Norvegica 14: Oslo, 1964) 297—321. For <-~ <-~ (generally avoided by Ar. in anapaests outside lyric), cf. 1068 (paratragic lyric); MacDowell on V. 397; Olson on Pax 169; fr. 706. 3; West, GM 95. Baskets used at Lys. 535-6, 579; Eup. fr. 436, to collect wool after carding; cf. Lewis 137. For wool-working and weaving as archetypical female activities, e.g. Av. 829—31; Lys. 519—20, 565—86; H. //. 6. 490— ~ Od. i. 356-8 ~ 21. 350-2; Hdt. ii. 35. 2; X. Mem. ii. 7. 5-12; Lewis 62-5; G. Ferrari, Figures of Speech: Men and Maidens in Ancient Greece (Chicago and London, 2002) 11—60. TO aiudSeiov: Parasols (also referred to atEq. 1347—8 (collapsible); Av. 1508 (where see Dunbar'sn.) were probably borrowed from the East and are identified as typically feminine by Pollux (x. 127, citing Stratt. fr. 59; cf. IG I 3 422. 159 with Pritchett 209-10; Pherecr. fr. 70. 2; Anacr. PMG 388. 11-12). Cf. 31 n. (pale skin as a mark of a woman); Miller, JHS 112 (1992) 91—105, and Athens and Persia 193-8. 824-9 After the use of Kavwv in 822 (where see n.) to mean 'a [woman's] rod-heddle' vel sim., the mention in 825 of a specifically masculine creates the initial impression that what many Athenian husbands had lost was their ability to achieve an erection. But the end of 826 reveals that the object is a spear. 827-9 work in a different way: ij dam's ('his shield') is expected at the end, but instead we getparaprosdokian TO amdSeiov (echoing 823; for the image, Taillardat §643). A spear and shield were the basic equipment of a Greek hoplite (cf. Anderson and Hanson, in Hanson (1991) 15-37 and 67-74, respectively, with further references; Olson on Pax 356), and if a contrast is intended between the individuals referred to in 824—6 and in 827—9, it must be that the first group avoids military service altogether, whereas the second goes out on campaign but runs away from battle. The more important point is that the contrast between (a true pi.; contrast 871) and Iv TCUS aTpcmais ('in campaigns', and so by extension 'in battles'; cf. 1168—9 n -) suits thehomology, for the loom was used at home, the parasol when going out. Military equipment may occasionally have been passed on from one generation to the next (Hanson (1989) 70). But shields and spears were often destroyed in combat (Hanson (1989) 70—1, 85, 87—8, 164), and the real reason for referring to such equipment as 'paternal' (819-20) is that fighting bravely with it is a traditional practice which has now allegedly been abandoned; cf. 806-7 'spearpoint and all' (colloquial; cf. Stevens 52—3). For (more often 'spear'), 317—19 n. The hoplite shield was heavy (perhaps 7 kg or so), and slaves carried them until just before battle began (Hanson (1989) 61-3; cf. War i. 49—51). From then until a man was fighting in the front line, he
L I N E S 821-33
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supported much of the weight on his left shoulder (Hanson, in Hanson (1991) 67-70). If the line broke, however, the hoplite was on his own, and shields were routinely 'thrown away' by defeated troops trying to escape their enemies—as well as by cowards (called pufjaamSes, literally 'shieldthrowers' (e.g. Pax 1186)), who ran even before they had to fight. Cf. Hanson (1989) 63-5. For the word-division cf. 669 with metrical n. 830—1 TioXX' . . . / . . . iv 8': For this type of opening formula, cf. 477—8; S. Tr. 153-4; Fraenkel, KIB i. 505-10; W. H. Race, The Classical Priamel from Homer to Boethius (Mnemosyne Suppl. 74: Leiden, 1982) H 2 n . 194. 'justly and rightly'. For the variation, Nu. 1379— The women are concerned to stress the justice of their complaint, hence the redundant phrase. Cf. 552 avBis a;? with n., 718-19 rax' . . . / . . . 'laws; and the entry 'pleonasm' in A. C. Pearson, The Fragments of Sophocles iii (Cambridge, 1917) 332. For similar language in parabases or second parabases, always accompanied by an insistence that the speaker has been treated unjustly, Ach. 676; Nu. 525, 576; V. 1016. u-uep^ueaTarov: 'the most monstrous, scandalous'; for the adj. in this sense, e.g. Ra. 6n; Lys. 27. 12; PI. Grg. 4&7b, 477d; D. 19. 71. First attested at A. fr. 227 (satyr play) and absent from serious poetry. 832-3 For the idea that a woman's fundamental civic obligation is to produce sons to serve as soldiers, cf. Lys. 589—90; E. fr. 360. 14—15, 22—7; Bobrick 186—7. XP^ V Y"P: A common formula in recommending a new political programme; cf. E. Fraenkel, De media et nova comoedia quaestiones selectae (Diss. Gottingen, 1912) 96; K-A on Eup. fr. 316. 3. The vb. is used again in 836, 839, setting up the pun in 842—5. For XP^IOTOV ('good'; a very general term of commendation; cf. Eup. fr. 129. 3, where it follows dyaftk . . . «ai xpTjai^oy woAtrrjs) and its antonym iTovripov (836-7; cf. Ra. 1455-6; EC. 178), Dover, GPM 296-9, and on Ra. 178—9; Whitehead, C&M 44 (1993) 63—4. Here the word is intended in the sense 'brave', as 839 (cf. 836) makes clear. At the beginning of every year, the Athenian Assembly elected tenCTTpcmjyoi('general military commanders') on some sort of modified tribal basis ([Arist.] Ath. 22. 2 with Rhodes ad loc.; 44. 4; 61. i); ten Tafmpxoi ('tribal hoplite commanders', whom one would expect to be elected by individual tribes rather than the Assembly as a whole, although there is no specific evidence of this; cf. [Arist.] Ath. 61. 3); and (mostlikely) apairof "mrapxoiCcavalry commanders'; cf. [Arist.] Ath. 61. 4 with Rhodes ad loc.). Generals and taxiarchs are mentioned together elsewhere at e.g. Ach. 569 with Olson ad loc.; Lys. 13. 7; D. 4. 26; IG IP 21. 12-13; 554. 17-18. Xafipdveiv rifir|v riva: 'that she be treated with some respect'.
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834~5 TTpoeSpiav T' aurfj SiSoaGai: An allusion to the occasional practice of the Athenian state of extending to its greatest benefactors the right to perpetual maintenance in the Prytaneion and a front-row seat at the city's dramatic and athletic contests (Eg. 573—6, 702—4 (Kleon after his victory at Pylos); Is. 5. 47 (the descendants of Harmodios); cf. Xenoph. fr. B 2. 7-9; DFA 268-9; M. Maass, Die Prohedrie des Dionysostheaters in Athen (Vestigia 15: Munich, 1972), esp. 77—95; A. S. Henry, Honours and Privileges in A thenian Decrees (Subsidia Epigraphica X: Hildesheim, Zurich, and New York, 1983) 275-8 (on the 4th-c. inscriptional evidence)). S-rrjvioiai Kai iKipois: For the absence of def. arts., EC. 18; KGi. 600. Contrast 182. The Stenia was celebrated just before the Thesmophoria, on 9 Pyanepsion (S.R). Little is known about the festival except that it involved a sacrifice to Demeter and Kore (IG IP 674. 6-8) and the women in their portion of it at night engaged in ritual abuse of one another (Hsch. a 1825; Phot. p. 538. 9, citing Eub. fr. 146). Cf. Introduction p. 1; Deubner 52—3; Brumfield 79—82; Dillon 109. The Skira (celebrated on 12 Skirophorion, in late June/early July) featured a procession which included the priestess of Athena and the priest of Poseidon and went from the Acropolis to a place called Skiron, and probably had some connection with Demeter and fertility. EC. 17—18 implies that at least part of the ceremonies were closed to men. Cf. Harp. Z 29; Deubner 40-50; Simon22-4; Parke 156-62; Brumfield 156-75; Dillon 124-5. svrs e.g. the Adonia (795—6 n.), the Haloa (Deubner 60—7; Parke 98—100; Simon 35—7; Brumfield 104—31; Dillon 120—4), and of course the Thesmophoria. cuaiv = as via attraction of the rel. pron. (cf. Men. Asp. 65, 134; KG ii. 407-8). tJY0^^1 Forthe vb. in the sense 'celebrate', e.g. Ach. 202, 250; Pherecr. fr. 181; Hdt. vi. 138. i; Is. 8. 16. For the impf. (after xfrfv in 832) where we would expect the pres., see Starkie on V. 732. 836-7 Cf. 832-3 with n.; once again, the focus is not on average citizens (who could also be very 'good' or very 'bad' in their service to the city) but on the social and political elite. rpir|papxov movrfpov: At the beginning of every year, 400 trierarchs were appointed from Athens' wealthiest ('liturgical') class ([X.] Ath. 3. 4), and about 100 of these obtained exemptions from service, e.g. because they had discharged a liturgy during the previous year. The remaining 300 trierarchs were each assigned a trireme by lot and made responsible for manning, fitting out, and maintaining it, as well as for serving as on-board commander if their ship was called into service. Cf. Eq. 912—18; Morrison and Williams 260— 3; V. Gabrielsen, Financing the Athenian Fleet (Baltimore and London, 1994) 43-169. The women are speaking from the perspective of the state as a whole rather than individual sailors, and 836 (cf. 839) leaves little doubt that what makes a trierarch 'bad' is not his refusal to offer his men
L I N E S 834-41
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extra money for their service or the like but his failure to fight as bravely as he should. Ku(3€pvr|TT]v KCIKOV: The petty officers on a trireme were (from prow to stern) the TrpwpdT-rjs/Trpaipevs ('bow officer'; an oarsmanv who had been promoted to a position of greater responsibility), ('shipwright'), avXr/Tr/s ('pipe-player'), •nwnjKtWapxoy (a subcommander of some sort), KeXevarr/s ('boatswain'), and KUjSepyTj-njj ('helmsman'; a promoted bow officer); cf. Eq. 541-4; [X.] Ath. i. 2; IG IP 1951. 94-105. The helmsman (under the trierarch's direction) was responsible for the navigation of the ship (cf. PI. _R. 488d—e): the tiller and sails moved at his direction, and the boatswain passed his orders on to the crew. For trierarchs and helmsmen conspiring together to keep their ships out of danger at a crucial moment in a battle, Th. iv. 11. 4. Cf. Morrison and Williams 266—8; B. Jordan, The Athenian Navy in the Classical Period (University of California Publications in Classical Studies 13: Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1975) 138-52, esp. 138-43. 838—9 uarepav . . . / rfjs TOV dv8p€iov T€Kouar]s: i.e. somewhere other than in the front row; cf. 832—4. For the adj. in the sense 'courageous' (contrast 154), Dover, GPM 165—6. OKCUJHOV diioK€Kapfi€VT]v: 'with her hair sheared close in a bowl-cut' (i.e. a style not befitting a free woman; cf. 2R 'a type of haircut appropriate for a slave'; 841 with n.; Men. Pk.). Cf. Ach. 849; Av. 806 av Se KOIJJC^W ye GKO,<])IOV dTroreriX^evw ('and you [resemble] a blackbird plucked in a bowl-cut'; not a flattering description); Eup. fr. 313. 2 with K-Aadloc.; Hermipp. fr. 13; Poll. ii. 29; Pearson on S. fr. 473; Taillardat §69; Oakley, in JVC/232-41. For the aKa^iov ('bowl' vel sim.), cf. 633; Amyx 231—2; Sparkes 133. TU yap €IKOS;: Sc. and earl, 'by what [token]', i.e. 'how [is it] reasonable?', as at Ach. 703; Av. 704 with Dunbar ad loc.; PI. 48. For the voc. Ach. 27; Neil on .Eg. 273. 840—1 rr|v 'Ym€pp6\ou . . . fiT]T€p(a): Hyperbolas son of Antiphanes of the deme Perithoidai (PA 13910) was active in the lawcourts and in Athenian politics generally as a relatively young man in the mid-42os (Ach. 846-7 with Olson ad loc.) and became the city's leading demagogue after the death of Kleon in 422 (Pax 679-92). Eupolis' Marthas (frr. 192-217), Hermippos' Breadsellers (frr. 7—12), and Plato Comicus' Hyperbolos (frr. 182-7), in that order, were devoted to making fun of him and his mother; for attacks on the mothers of prominent individuals as typical of Athenian social and political invective, Olson on Ach. 478. Whether Hyperboles' mother was represented by the drunken old woman in Marikas referred to at Nu. 555-6 or by the 'ancient, randy slut' addressed at Hermipp. fr. 9 is impossible to say, although the former identification in particular seems likely. Sometime around 416, Hyperbolos was ostracized through the combined efforts of Nikias and Alkibiades(Th. viii. 73. 3; Plu. Nic. 11; Ale. 13. 3-5; cf. Agora ostrakanos. 307-9 Lang). I n 4 i i , shortly after Th.
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was staged, he was murdered by oligarchic conspirators (including Charminos (804 n.)) on Samos, and his body was sewn up in a sack and thrown into the sea (Th. viii. 73. 3; Theopomp. Hist. FGrHist 115 F 96); cf. Ra. 570 (Hyperboles as a resident of Hades). Cf. Olson on Pax 681 (with further primary and secondary references); Casanova, Prometheus 21 (1995) 102-10. Ka6fjo6ai echoes 838*. 'dressed in white', i.e. as befits a solemn, joyous occasion; cf. Ach. 1024 (the wrong colour for mourning); Av. 1116; fr. 505. i; Antiph. fr. 35. 3; Corinna PMG 655 fr. i. 3. Kopas KaGeiaav: Free Athenian women grew their hair long (contrast 838 with n.) but generally kept it tied up (cf. 137—8 n., 161—3 n -> Stone 67). This must, however, have been mostly for convenience sake, and Hyperboles' mother is elaborately dressed for the festival (cf. above) and accordingly wears hers down (perhaps in elaborate braids or the like, as befits someone rich enough to afford a number of slave-girls as personal attendants). Cf. Crates fr. 34 ('lovely dancing-girls, with their hair let down to their arseholes'). -n-Xrjaiov rfjs Aajidxou: 'near Lamachos' [mother]', i.e. 'in the same row of seats', as if they were equally deserving. Lamachos son of Xenophanes (PA 8981; PAA 601230), probably of the deme Oe (cf. Olson on Ach. 568), served as a commander during an ill-attested expedition into the Black Sea region led by Perikles sometime probably in the mid-43os (Plu. Per. 20. i with Stadter ad loc.) and as general in 425/4 (Th. iv. 75) and perhaps 426/5 (Olson on Ach. 569—71); the implication of Ach. 597, 613—14 is that he held numerous other official appointments during the early Peloponnesian War years as well. He swore to the peace-accords with Sparta and her allies in 421 (Th. v. 19. 2, 24. i) and was one of the original commanders of the expedition to Sicily (Th. vi. 8. 2; And. i. n; IG I 3 370. 52, 54, 56), where he died in the fighting around Syracuse in 414 (Th. vi. 101. 6). Lamachos is the war-mongering villain of Ach. and is mentioned unfavourably at Pax 304, 473-4, 1290-3; but here, after his death (and in a play which nowhere endorses immediate peace with Sparta), he is presented as a positive symbol of martial valour, as again at Ra. 1039. 842-5 842-4 serve (somewhat ploddingly) to set up the pun in 845, and the crucial word TOKOS is therefore used repeatedly in the sense 'interest' (843 bis, 845) and then at the end with a different meaning ('child' (in reference to Hyperboles himself)), with the shift marked via the presence of the cognate vb. reKouaa. For the pun, cf. PI. _R. 5O7a, 5556; Taillardat 542. Kdi Savei^eiv xp^f-iaOra): The economic rights of Athenian women were very limited (cf. 811—13 n -> 819—20 n.), and it is difficult to believe that Hyperboles' mother herself routinely made interest-bearing loans of substantial sums of money, as this verse implies. (The unsecured loans of money between women referred to at EC. 446—9 are presumably
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of very small sums, and the actual legal arrangements for the loan of i ,800 drachmas allegedly made by a woman to her son-in-law at D. 41. 9 are impossible to recover.) Cf. D. M. Schaps, Economic Rights of Women in Ancient Greece (Edinburgh, 1979) 63—7 (with particular attention to the non-Athenian evidence); Harris, Phoenix 46 (1992) 309-21, esp. 318-21; Johnstone, CA 22 (2003) 247-74, esP- 267-71. But the attack must have some basis in reality, and it may be that the exiled Hyperboles (cf. 840—1 n.) asked his mother to watch over his assets, some of which she arranged to have lent out at interest (thus Sommerstein) through a male agent—a crucial qualification the comic poet, like the hostile gossip his attacks draw on and reinforce, felt no need to emphasize A common formula in imprecations; cf. K—A on Eup. fr. 132. i. For Trpa,TTOfi,ai in the sense 'assess [a charge]', e.g. Ach. 1211 with Olson ad loc.; Ra. 561; Hdt. iii. 117. 6; PI. Ap. igd. For interest and interest rates (normally probably i % per month for impersonal, nonmaritime loans), P. Millett, Lending and Borrowing in Ancient Athens (Cambridge, 1991) 91-108, esp. 103-6. For the term TOKOS, cf. Millett (above) 45-6; E. E. Cohen, Athenian Economy and Society (Princeton, 1992) 44—60. The abrupt switch to the pi. eirrovTcis (contrast 842—3) and the specification (3ia ('violently') combine to configure 844—5 as an ugly scene of public shaming: Hyperboles' mother is not just to be refused the interest she is owed by individual debtors (842-3) but assaulted by a mob and robbed of the principal she was attempting to lend out (TCI xpi1Hvav('more than crows'); adesp. com. fr. 757 with K-A ad loc. For the sedes of 246* n. Perhaps alluded to at Luc. Lex. 3 (although the MSS 81 n. there have aiXXos, for which cf. Archipp. fr. 59). Sc. mipeariv, cf. 867; Men. Dysk. 867 o Kvi]\L
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403-4n. Elmsley's ria\afir|8r] (Quart.Rev. 7(1812) 454) rather than R's UaXap.riS'rjv is the proper form for this period; cf. 235 n. 168—70 n. The set of plays that included Palamedes had in fact failed to take the prize, although whether this reflected a judgement that it was 'frigid' is impossible to say. 849 TU 8f)T(a) = TLVL SfJT(a), with the particle both emphatic and connective; cf. 847; GP 270. Spd^icm: Perhaps reserved for the end of the line as a surprise, although the hyperbaton is not particularly unusual (Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1232). 850-1 €Y<j>8a (* at Ach. 904; V. 1181, 1205; Ra. 836; EC. 797; Cratin. fr. 199. 3) is colloquial; cf. 769 n.; Stevens 59. i.e. the extant Helen, staged in 412 as part of the set of plays that also included Andromeda (1059-61 with 2R and 2R 1012; cf. Introduction pp. xxxiii-xxxiv). The idea that Helen did not go to Troy but stayed in Egypt all through the Trojan War was not original with Euripides (cf. Stesich. PMGF 192-3; Hdt. ii. 112-20), and Inlaw may call the Helen of 412 Bc 'new' simply because it had been performed so recently. But there is probably also an allusion to the allegedly novel type of female heroine featured in the play; cf. Introduction p. Ix. |_u|_ir)ao|_icu: 'I will imitate', as regularly in Ar. (e.g. Nu. 559; V. 1019; EC. 545; cf. 154—6 n.; Muecke, Antichthon 11 (1977) 65-6). Scarcely 'I will perform', which would imply an elaborate project of dramatic re-presentation, whereas Inlaw wants only to use the limited resources at his disposal (851; cf. 768—75) to patch together something that will lure Eur. to his rescue (849). For the Helen parody, 855-919 n. For 851, cf. 1012-13 (introducing Inlaw's next Euripidean parody): 'I need to become Andromeda; (confirming Bentley's addition of the connective here); Pherecr. fr. 123 e'^oi Se TTIIVTIUS Ipariov. Cf. 92 with n. 852 Kritylla's verbal fireworks echo her earlier TLS effKopriae ae; / TLS . . .' £r)pdaa.To; when she came back on stage at 760—1 (note the alliteration in both outbursts). As befits a marketwoman, her vocabulary is extraordinarily colourful and provides an amusing contrast to Inlaw's 'tragic' posturing. KupKavas: 429 n. The meaning of KoiKvXXiu (a hapax legomenon and certainly colloquial; cf. Peppier 152; Tichy 298—9) is obscure, (i) Hsch. K 3232 (cf. Phot. K 860; 2R; S K 2534) derives the word from KV\O. ('the part of the face just below the eye') and suggests that it means ('look about'); cf. p.oLp.vXXiu ('purse the lips together'), probably from ('lip'; cf. adesp. com. fr. 759 with MacDowell on V. 1315). But Hsch. notes that others glossed the word (2) ('to twist around and waste time looking about') or (3) <j>OoveLv ('to show ill-will' vel sim.); and2 R suggests as a 'better' alterna-
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tive (4) KaKOTf-^vfiv ('to devise evil'). (5) Taillardat §471 instead draws a connection with KOIKV\'UI>V, a man referred to in comedy who was so foolish or crazy that he tried to count the waves (Ael. VH 13.15= adesp. com. fr. 72), in which case the vb. must mean 'act' or 'talk like a fool' and the question introduces the threat in 85 3-4. InSophr. fr. 16 KoiKvX\eiv is connected with the slave-girl KOIKOO, (Hordern, ZPE 141 (2002) 78-9). For + vb. meaning 'keep on -ing' (probably colloquial), 473 n.; cf. Nu. 509; Av. 341; Lys. 945; Ra. 202; Dodds on PI. Grg. 49064. 853-4 miKpav 'E\€VT)v 6v|/€i rax': For the idiom, in which the predicative TTIKPOS indicates that contact with the object in question will bring unfortunate consequences, e.g. Av. 1045, 1468 Eub. fr. 118. 6; H. Od. 17. 448; A. Th. 882-3; S. Ai. 1239-40; E. Ba. 357; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 606 (p. 301 n. i). For fut. cf. 66 n. Koa|_uios / i£eis: 571-3 n.; naturally Inlaw does not do what he is told. itos ov T&JV iipuTdvetiv TIS <|>avfj: Cf. 762—4 n., 923 (the Prytanis at last appears). 855-919 The parody of E. Hel. (cf. 850-1 n.) draws on and combines three scenes from the original: (i) the prologue (855-7 ~ Hel. 1-3; 859-60 ~ Hel. 16-17; 862 = Hel. 22; 864-5 = Hel. 52-3; 866 = Hel. 49; 868 = Hel. 56; 871 =Hel. 68; cf. 901 -Hel. 54-5?; 905 -Hel. 72-3), breaking off with the entrance of Teukros (here assimilated to Menelaos); (2) Menelaos' confrontation with the old woman who serves as King Theoklymenos' doorkeeper (apart taken over by Inlaw/'Helen'), a scene which is broadly comic in conception already in Eur. (874 ~ Hel. 460; 878 ~ Hel. 461; 881 ~ Hel. 467; 886 ~ Hel. 466); and (3) the abortive initial recognition of husband and wife (904 ~ Hel. 549; 905 -Hel. 557; 906 = Hel. 558; 907-12 ~ Hel. 561—6). Much of the language used by Inlaw and Eur. in the nonEuripidean verses is also paratragic. But the rescue with which Eur.'s play concludes (and for which Inlaw is desperately hoping) never comes off, due to the obstinacy of Kritylla (who in 897-8 declines to take the part of Helen's and Menelaos' ally Theonoe) and the untimely arrival of the Prytanis (~ Theoklymenos). By eliminating the Teukros-scene and the bulk of Menelaos' exchange with the doorkeeper, and by breaking off the recognition-scene where he does, Ar. also does away with Eur.'s attempt to problematize Helen's identity (e.g. Hel. 72—82, 160—3, 483— 99, 567—96), and thus converts the story into a simple tale of recognition and reunion. See Introduction pp. Ix-lxi. For the handling of individual scenes and verses, see nn. ad locc. Kritylla remains completely outside the parody, abusing Inlaw and protesting against his fantasies (858, 860— i, 862-3, 865, 868, 874-5, 887-8, 892, 897-8, 916-17) and trying to convince her visitor (the disguised Eur.) that the old man is talking nonsense (875-6, 879-80, 893-4; cf- 882-4); only at the very end does she realize that the two other characters have been working together to try to fool
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her (920-2, 934-5). Cf. the Skythian at 1102-27 with n. Inlaw and Eur. initially ignore Kritylla, but as the scene progresses, she becomes more and more involved in the action (882—5, 892—901, 916—22). Cf. Kloss 193-8. 855-71 What Ar. retains from the prologue of Helen is the first three verses (855-7), which give the dramatic setting (cf. Ra. 1119-1247, where other Aeschylean and Euripidean opening lines are similarly treated as memorable), and the heroine's pathetic self-identification and description of her situation (859-60, 862, 864-5, 866-8). The lengthy genealogies (Hel. 4-15, 18-21) and the description of the background action (Hel. 22-48, 50—1), on the other hand, are stripped out; all that matters for the comic poet are the bare, visible facts of the matter, out of which the recognition that follows will spring. 855-7 Inlaw covers his head with his robe (890 with n.), as Helen doubtless did in the Euripidean original. 855—6 are identical with E. Hel. i—2. But 857 retains only the first word of Hel. 3 and the rewriting makes XeuKrjs dependent on (fern.), which is normally described as black (cf. below; Hdt. ii. 12. 2 with Lloyd ad loc.; Kamerbeek, in Kiup.iuSoTpa-yrnj.aTa 78—9), and this garbling must be part of the humour. meSov and \etiv represent the whole and the part (KG i. 289), as in the Euripidean original (but with a different second noun); and the fact that the Aristophanic parody contains two aces, confirms the Euripidean paradosis (doubted by e.g. Dale ad loc.; cf. Kannicht ad loc.; Renehan 60—i). vori^ei: A rare vb., otherwise absent from comedy but attested in tragedy at A. fr. 44. 6; E. IT 832—3 Kara. . ./. .. voTitfi (lyric). fi€\avoaupfiaiov\€tiv: 'apeople who are black and fond of purges'; for compound adjs. equivalent to two separate epithets for the noun, Jebb on S. OT 846. For the Egyptians as 'black' (via assimilation to their neighbours, the Ethiopians, although the populations of the two areas may well have become increasingly mixed during the archaic and classical periods), e.g. A. Supp. 154 wit Johansen—Whittle ad loc.; Hdt. ii. 57. 2, 104. 2; adesp. tr. fr. 161; Vienn 3576 (£.520; illustrated at e.g. K. Schefold, Gods and Heroes (Cambridge, 1992) plate 171). For the Egyptian fondness for purges, Pax 1253-4; &• 276; Hdt. ii. 77. 2 ('the Egyptians purge themselves for three days in a row every month, pursuing good health by means of emetics and enemas, since they reckon that all diseases come to men from the foodstuffs that nourish them') with Lloyd ad loc.; cf. Hdt. ii. 125. 6. 858 TTavoupyos €i: Cf. 524—6b n., 762 (the description of Inlaw given to Kritylla when she is put in charge of him) o -jravovp-yos OVTOS, 893, 899 920 (the charge extended to Eur.), 929, 944 (the Prytanis' description of Inlaw), 1112 (the Skythian describing Inlaw to Eur ./'Perseus'). Ar. could just as easily have used the metrically equivalent technical legal term
L I N E S 855-63
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(816-18 n.) in all these passages, and his avoidance of it and general obscuring of legal detail (cf. 929-46 n.) is striking. 'E.Karr\v rr|v <|«iKj<|>6pov: Oaths by Hekate (sometimes referred to simply as r] (j>iua(j>opos; cf. fr. 608. 2; h.Cer. 52 with Richardson ad loc.; Call. fr. 466) are generally pronounced by women (Lys. 443, 738; EC. 70, 1097; PI. 764; E. Tr. 323; the speaker at Antiph. fr. 59. 6 vrj rrp> 0a>a>6pov is probably a woman, but Eriph. fr. 2. i suggests that the reference is to Artemis); exceptions at PL 1070 (apotropaic and so to be distinguished from seemingly more casual uses by women?); E. Hel. 569 (from the recognition scene, although a specific allusion seems unlikely). Hekate was occasionally associated with Demeter and Pherrephatta/Kore (cf. h.Cer. 438—40 with Richardson on 440; E. fr. 955; Diggle on E. Phaeth. 268), and reference to her at the Thesmophoria is thus appropriate, particularly by a woman who herself bears a torch (cf. Bacch. fr. iB. i ('Hekate torch-bearer') with Maehler ad loc.; Call. fr. 466). For the goddess and her cult, Sophr. fr. 4; T. Kraus, Hekate (Heidelberger kunstgeschichtliche Abhandlungen NF 5: Heidelberg, 1960), esp. 84-94; S. I. Johnston, Hekate Soteira (American Classical Studies 21: Atlanta, 1990) 21-8; LIMC vi. i. 984-8, esp. 986. For the def. art. with both the name of the god and the epithet, Nu. 817 ^d TOV Ala TOV 'OXvp-iriov, Men. Dysk. 407-8 TOV Udva TOV I Uamvioi; Gildersleeve §544. 859-61 859-60 = E. Hel. 16-17 TvvSdpews (although with Ifioi for Eur.'s Kritylla's aoL KT\. replaces the Euripidean eariv oe Siy (which introduces the story of Leda and the swan). to (6)\e6pe: 'pest' vel sim. A colloquial form of abuse, also attested at e.g. Lys. 325 with Henderson ad loc.; .Ec. 934*; Eup. fr. 406; Men. Dysk. 366; Sam. 348; D. 21. 209 with MacDowell ad loc. Cf. 535 TTJV <j>0opov with n. OpuvtivSas: Like Eurybatos (fr. 198), a proverbial villain, referred to also at frr. 26 with K— A's apparatus; 484; Eup. frr. 45; 139; PI. Prt. 327d; Isoc. 18. 57; Aeschin. 3. 137; Luc. Alex. 4. On 0pvvovS[ on Agora ostrakon no. 660 Lang, see Schroder, ZPEg6 (1993) 37-45. fievouv: 206-7 n. 862—3 862 = E. Hel. 22 up to the penthemimeral caesura. au: 551-3 n. -irpiv KT\.: Kritylla was on stage when Inlaw murdered Mika's 'daughter' (760-2) but not when he spoke in the assembly or (more important) was shown to be a man. Strictly speaking, therefore, she ought not to know that the principal charge against him is infiltrating the festival disguised as a woman. But Aristophanic comedy does not aspire to this level of realism (see Suss, RhMNFg-j (1954) 115-59, 229~54> 289316). What matters is that the audience in the Theatre understands precisely what sort of trouble Inlaw is in; and if a naturalistic explanation of Kritylla's remark must be sought, one need only note that the conclusion that a man who has been caught at a woman's festival in women's clothes is in trouble on that account is not particularly difficult.
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'female impersonation'. Attested only here before the late Roman period; cf. 266-8 n.; Handley, 'Nouns' 138. Sommerstein suggests that the word may be an Aristophanic coinage modelled on names of crimes and punishments like KO.KWGIS and eratpfjois. 864-5 = E. Hel. 52-3 up to the penthemimeral caesura. Euripides frequently uses the form in -os of adjs. derived from a proper name (cf. 919 TT\V Tvv&apeiov muS(a) with n.; J. Diggle, Euripidea (Oxford, 1994) 167, 186), and his ^Ka^iavSpiois ought to be restored for R's regularizing Cf.Ra. 116*; S. OT 93i;GPis8. 866—7 866 is identical with E. Hel. 49, which is followed in the original by two verses describing the expedition against Troy and shortly thereafter by the entrance of Teukros (E. Hel. 68). In 867, Ar. offers instead an explicit mention of the absent husband's name combined with a revised version of the complaint in 846, all of which serves to prepare the audience in the Theatre for the appearance at 869 of Eur. disguised as Menelaos. 6 ... moms / oujibs MeveXeus: Cf. 901 (setting up the crecognition of husband and wife). R's MeveXaos is the form used by the Spartan Lampito at Lys. 15 5, but elsewhere in drama it occurs only when metrically unavoidable (at the beginning of an iambic trimeter (E. Hel. 116, etc.; about 50 instances), twice in the voc. at the start of the second metron (E. Or. 459; S. Ph. 794), and once at the end of an anapaestic tetrameter (Av. 509)). Here and at 910 (~ E. Hel. 564; see Kannicht ad loc.), either form is metrically admissible; but given that -Xeiuv must be restored at 901, it is likely that Ar. (like Euripides) would have been consistent throughout. R's MeveXaos probably reflects the copyists' habit of interpolating the Homeric form with which they were more familiar. For the variation Aaoj/Aeoij, 39—40 n. Trpoaepxerai: Used almost exclusively in Ar. to refer to the arrival of characters on stage (e.g. 923; Eq. 146*; V. 1324*; Pax 1044; Lys. 77*). 868 TI ouv in £&j; = the beginning of E. Hel. 56. A tragic formula; cf. Bond on E. HF 1301. L (the sole witness to the text of Hel.) has TI STJT', but R's (which implies that the question is not just rhetorical) ought probably to be printed; cf. Kannicht ad loc.; Johansen-Whittle on A. Supp. 306; Mastronarde on E. Ph. 878. ™v KopaKiov irovrfpia: 'Because the ravens are no damned good at their job!' (for the 'highly subjective expression of feeling', Dover, GPM 53), since they ought already to hav made a meal of someone as villainous (and defenceless) as Inlaw. For the raven (Corvus corax), 942 with n., 1027/8/9 with n.; Thompson 159—64; Arnott, LCM 15 (1990) 80. 869-70 Eur., dressed in rags (cf. 93 5 n.) and perhaps draped in seaweed (910 with n.), enters from Wing A (cf. 279 n.); these verses help cover his passage across the stage, uamep KT\.: '[it's almost] as if. . ., [it almost
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seems] that. . .'; cf. V. 395; Pax 234. aiKa\\€i: 'fawns on' (properly of a dog), and thus in context 'encourages, stirs up hope in' vel sim.; cf. Taillardatp. 404 n. 3. Rare, late 5th-c. vocabulary, attested in tragedy at E.Andr. 630 but otherwise confined to comedy (Eg. 48, 211*; PI. Com. fr. 248). For the idea, cf. A. Ch. 194 with Garvie ad loc. The absence of the def. art. (as frequently elsewhere in Inlaw's and Eur.'s lines in this scene) is paratragic. [ir\ v|/euaov to Zeu is identified by 2R as a parody of S. fr. 493 ^rjijievoov wZev' ^LTJ ^ e'A^? avev Sopos (from Peleus, a play to which Ar. alludes repeatedly (Eq. 1098-9 ~ S . f r . 487; Nu. 1154-5 ~ S . f r . 491; Av. 851-2 = S. fr. 489, 857 = S. fr. 490, with Dunbar on 851— 8)). This Sophoclean 'interpolation' in the Helen parody is a subtle touch; as Handley notes (in Handley and Rea 23), 'The comic poet won either way: ordinary men in the audience would be amused by the affectation of tragic style; literary experts would get a rarified pleasure from detecting the bogus.' The effect is enhanced by a markedly tragic hemistich being followed by a markedly comic one (with double short in the yth position and a breach of Person's Law). For the 2nd pers. sing, caor. imper. rather than subjunc. used in a prohibition (very rare and exclusively poetic), Thugen. fr. 4; A. fr. **78c. 54 (satyr play); Goodwin §260; PfeifTer on Call. fr. 233; Posidipp. 19. i (conjectural). rfjs 'of this hope that approaches' (cf. 869); but Inlaw is really referring to Eur., upon whose arrival (and subsequent success) his own escape depends. Cf. 1009 (as Inlaw spies Eur., who is now disguised as Perseus) elalv eAm'Sej. 871-3 871 is identical with E. Hel. 68 (Teukros'first words on stage). 872-3 (paratragic but not based on any known exemplar, although cf. E. Hel. 449 (Menelaos to the doorkeeper) vava-yos -IJKIU fevos) serve to assimilate the situation of Euripides' Teukros (who is hoping—mistakenly—for a friendly reception at the palace, but has not been shipwrecked (Hel. 14450), and who encounters Helen the moment he enters) to that of Menelaos (whose boat has been destroyed and who is merely looking for a handout (Hel. 408—10, 428—34), and whose first human contact in Egypt is not with his wife but with Theoklymenos' abusive doorkeeper). For the occasional omission of av in clauses of this sort (primarily tragic), cf. 1^.472; KG ii. 428—9; Goodwin§24i; Barrett on E.Hipp. 1186; Bersi38—42. BothircWioy (322—3 n.) and aaXos (e.g. S. Ant. 163; E. IT 262; adesp. tr. fr. 379. 2) are poetic vocabulary, and the combination -uov-ruo ad\u (a locative dat.; cf. 806-7 n.) is distinctly Euripidean (IT 1443 TTOVTLIU . . . oaXiu', Or. 994 TTOVTLIUV oaXiuv (lyric); cf. Hec. 28 El. 1241 TTOVTOV aaXov). To be taken with Kajiovras; cf. 882 with n. 'in storm(s) and shipwrecks [that result from them]'. 874—86 Throughout this portion of the scene, Inlaw/'Helen' speaks lines
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COMMENTARY
(or fragments of lines) pronounced in the Euripidean original by Theoklymenos' old female doorkeeper. 874—85 Eur.'s question in 881 about whether Proteus is at home ignores Kritylla's protest in 874—6 that Proteas (sic) is dead, and instead follows up on Inlaw's identification of the setting in the first part of 874. 877-80 are thus a digression; but when Kritylla asserts for a second time (and even more emphatically) that Proteas is dead (882—4), Eur. at last pays attention to her (885), allowing the distinction between Proteus and Proteas to collapse, and the plot lurches forward again. 874-6 874 up to the hepthemimeral caesura is an adaptation of E. Hel. 460 (the doorkeeper addresses Menelaos) A'l-yv-jTTos Se yrj, with the announcement that this is Egypt, with which the original concludes, reserved for 878. npureus: Forthesynizesis (paratragic; also at 891, but not 897), J. Diggle, Studies on the Text of Euripides (Oxford, 1981) 93. Kritylla, who is not participating in the parody and speaks throughout the scene in a more colloquial style, naturally pronounces the word— " — . |_ilAa6pa: 41 n. '"Proteus" indeed!' Colloquial; cf. Stevens 38-9; Bond on E. HF 518; Lopez Eire 114. to rpiaKaicoSai^iov: 209—10 n., 228—9 n. Addressed to Eur., whom Kritylla still regards as an innocent stranger. Kritylla is utterly oblivious to the parody of Helen going on around her (cf. Zeitlin 393-4), and the npureas to whom she refers is presumably Proteas son of Epikles of the deme Aixone (PA 12298; PAA 791155), who served as general repeatedly in the late 4305 (Th. i. 45. 2; ii. 23. 2; IG I 3 364. 9; 365. 31; 464. IO7(?)), but of whom nothing else is known. For the joke in 876 (taken up again in 882-4), cf1101—4. Proteus is also dead in Euripides' play (Hel. 466), making the doorkeeper's claim that he lives in the palace (Hel. 460 (above)) difficult to explain, and Kritylla's remark may contain a subtle dig at the illogic of the tragic exemplar; cf. 881-4; Kannicht on E. Hel. 460. 877—8 Theuseofaterminalacc.iToiav.. .x<>>p€i: Tragic vocabulary (e.g. A. Supp. 440; S. Ai. 1278; E. Med. 477; Hel. 233), used by Ar. in paratragedy also at Ach. 541*; Ra. 1382 -os* = E. Med. i). 878 is adapted from E. Hel. 461 AtyinTTos; a> ovGTtjvos oi rn£'n\£vt< apa (here cleverly divided between two speakers); cf. 874—6 n. In Euripides' play, the doorkeeper takes Menelaos' remark as an insult to her land, and he quickly claims that that is not what he meant (Hel. 462-3). In the Aristophanic version there is neither protest nor apology, and the sentiment may well be just as negative as it
L I N E S 874-86
28S
seems; cf. 920-211.; fr. 581. 14-15 (ironic). oT: Fortherel. after a exclamation, cf. V. 188. TrerrXuKafiev: Ar.'s use of Ionic for Eur.'s Attic -jre-n-XevK- (cf. Ra. 535) and the use of the pi. for sing. (cf. 155 withn., 877, 886; KGi. 83—4) both raise the stylistic level and increase the pathos of 'Menelaos" complaint; cf. Kannicht on E. Hd. 461-3. 879-80 Addressed to Eur. Something has dropped out of the text, and we print Grynaeus' rreiGei TI (round); cf. 592 with n. Scaliger's before KaKtas would also do (cf. PL 65, 418, 879; Men. Dysk. 442; Sik. fr. i. 5 Arnott). Variants of KCIKIOS drroXoufievu appear routinely * in comedy (e.g. Ach. 778 with Olson ad loc., 865; Pax 2; EC. 1052; Pherecr. fr. 22. i; Antiph. fr. 159. 5). Literally 'doomed to perish badly', butreally a colloquial equivalent of 'son-of-a-bitch' vel sim.; cf. 887; Stevens 15. For the cognate internal ace., cf. 792-4 n.; PL 517 277-8 n., 930-1 n. 881 Cf. E. Hel. 467 (Men. is speaking, in reference to Theoklymenos) Cf. 884*. ('out of sight [of home]') is Euripidean vocabulary, always in linefinal position (Ale. 546; Med. 624; Supp. 1038). 882—4
OUK
^CT^ onus ou: 403—4* n.
vaurias
sick'; perhaps to be taken as a malicious interpretation of Eur.'s in 872-3. vavTidw (absent from serious poetry) is first attested here; for the formation, 615-16 n. to pve: A respectful, neutral form of address (used by the doorkeeper speaking to Menelaos at E. Hel. 443, 476), which leaves no doubt that Kritylla accepts Eur.'s implicit claim in 872-3 to have come to Athens by ship. Cf. 890 with n., 893*, 1107. Sans
ivSov ear' f| '^tirrios;: Cf.
88i 885 aim is common in tragic lamentation (e.g. A. Ch. 1007, 1009; S. Tr. 1081; E. Andr. 1175; Hec. 702) and is here paratragic, as at 1042 with n., 1128 with n.; Ach. io83a; Lys. 961. Cf. Labiano Ilundain 71—6. Attested elsewhere before the Roman period only in Sophocles (e.g. Ai. 1063; Ant. 888), Euripides (Hel. 1245; cf. Ion 933), and Lycophron (154, 413). TCI<|XJ> is both 'with a burial' (instrumental) and 'in a tomb' (locative); cf. Bers 87 (but note that the paratragic inflation of the language makes it impossible to argue that the presence of precludes the second sense being heard). 886 To8' early aurou af)n(a) is an adaptation of the first half of E. Hel. 466 roS' €orlv avrov ^vfj^a, wats 8' ap%€i ^Qovo's. Euripides regularly uses (lit. 'memorial') to refer to a grave or grave-monument (e.g. El. 328; Hel. 315, 1165; Or. 798; Ba. 6) and avoids afjfi,a (lit. 'sign'; used only atHec. 1273, for the sake of wordplay), and Kannicht on E. Hel. 466 suggests that Ar. has preferred <j7jlu,(a) (also at EC. 1108) as the less grandiose and
286
COMMENTARY
thus more obviously offensive term (cf. 888, where the word again fall immediately after the penthemimeral caesura). Ka6r|^ie6a: For the pi. (tragic style), 877-8 n. 887-8 Addressed to Inlaw (but ignored by him and Eur.; contrast 885 with 874—85 n., 892—901). KCIKI<JT' dp' !£6\oio: 562—3 n., 757 n. R has KO.KCOS T' ap', but no connective is needed and we print the text as emended by van Leeuwen (cf. Lys. 946). apa is not normally found wit the opt., but the curse is equivalent to a lively statement of a recently discovered fact ('Why!—you deserve to die!', i.e. 'Well—fuck you, then!'; vvcf. GP 35-6). Y€ g°es witn Ka(0 (cf- Ra- 562; GP 157-8), and TOI stands apart; 'and moreover you can be sure you will perish!' (GP 551). oaris Y€' 882—4 n. afjfia TOV Ptdfibv KaXeiv: Cf. 886 with n. The tragedians often found it convenient to make use of the stagealtar (cf. 748 n.) to represent a tomb. Aeschylus used this device in Pers. and Ch. (cf. Taplin, in P. E. Easterling, The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne, 1997) 70 n. 2, on what he suggests may be a scene from Aeschylus' Psychopompoi), as did Euripides in Hel., and Ar. deliberately makes fun of the convention here. Cf. P. Arnott, Greek Scenic Conventions in the Fifth Century B.C. (Oxford, 1962)62. 889-91 riSaiau: Cf.Ach. 803*; Av. 136*, 1615, andsee 140n. is tragic and especially Euripidean vocabulary (e.g. S. OT 161; E. Andr. 44; IT 1254; Or. 85; attested elsewhere in comedy only at V. 1482 (paratragic); in Homer in the form Badaaw (e.g. //. 9. 194; Od. 3. 336); for $oa£oi, which may or may not be cognate, A. Supp. 595 with Johansen—Whittle ad loc.; S. OT 2 with Kamerbeek and Dawe ad loc.), while Tv^^r/py; (recalling ervfipevBi] in 885, where see n.) is attested elsewhere only at S.Ant. 255, 947. For the use of the ace. (also parody of tragic style), KG i. 313—14; Bers 69. For the gesture as a mark of grief, Collard on E. Supp. 286—8b. is poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 2. 43; Alcm. PMGF i. 61; Bacch. 17. 5; A. Ch. ion; S. Ai. 916; E. Hipp. 126); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Philetaer. fr. 18. i (corrupt). KO.XVTTTOS is very rare and is certainly attested before this only at S. Ant. 1011 (also in tragedy at S. fr. 534. 4 (undated)). Individuals visiting a country do not normally greet those they meet there as 'Stranger' (Dickey 146; contrast 882 with n.), and 'Menelaos' really ought to be unaware that 'Helen' is not Egyptian until 907—8. But the paratragic plot that Eur. and Inlaw are construct ing requires them both to be from somewhere else; although Eur.'s (also 896) gets a bit ahead in the story, it serves to remind the audience—and Kritylla—again of the (allegedly) exotic setting of the action. Lit. 'I am being forced to mingle abed with Proteus' son in sex.' For j3id£,ofi,ai used of specifically sexual violence, Lys. 225-6; PL 1092;
L I N E S 886-98
287
Ale. Com. fr. 31. For pi. ydf-ioiai meaning 'sexual relations', Lys. 943; Ra. 850; Bers 28-34, esp. 29-32 (arguing that this is tragic usage); cf. 900—1 n. nptdraos iiaiSi: Paratragic; cf. 1113—I4n. For scanned (alsoparatragic), 874—6n. \exos is poetic vocabulary (e.g. 1122; H. II. 3. 411; Sapph. fr. 121. i; Pi. P. 4. 51; A. Ag. 1224; S. Tr. 360) and is particularly common in Euripides (e.g. Ale. 1089; Med. 5gi;Andr. 38; Hel. 30). 892—4 892 is addressed to Inlaw, 893—4 to Eur. l^curciTas: 'lie to' + ace., as at e.g. Eq. 809; Pax 1070. au: In reference to the 'lies' already identified and denounced in 874-6, 879-80. 882*—4 n. eni K\OTTTJ TOU xpuoiou: 'for the sake of stealing the jewellery'; the omission of the def. art. marks the first noun as generic (cf. Nu. 16415770 jSmsTOV TTvevfiriTOs; Men.Dysk. 353 [ KG i. 607; contrast Ach. 581 mo rov Seovs yap TWV oirXiav ('I'm dazed by my fear of the gear'), where the presence of the art. stresses that the fear is actually upon him, caused by present circumstances, as always with this phrase (see Starkie on Ach. 350)). For jewellery worn at festivals, Stone 244-5; Dillon 260-4. At 862-3 (where seen.), Krityllaexpresses an awareness that the principal charge against Inlaw is that he has dressed up in women's clothing (i.e. in order to infiltrate a women's festival). Her claim that he is a thief (echoed by the Skythian in 1112), on the other hand, comes out of thin air and is perhaps introduced by the playwright to lay the groundwork for the death-sentence imposed in 929—46 (where seen.). 895 pdu^e: 173-4 n - The imper. is defiant, like KexpaxBi in 692 and Xeye in 899; for other examples, Headlam on Herod, i. 19. a typically tragic periphrasis (LSJ s. acopa II). Cf. 146-7 n.; Taillardat §569. 896 PVT): 889-91 n. TIS r) ypaus KT\.: The Euripidean Theonoe is not an abusive 'hag' (345 n.), but the doorkeeper, to whom Inlaw's Helen is assimilated in the preceding portion of this scene, is (E. Hel. 441). The identification in 897 is thus more logical than it might at first appear to be, and by dumping the parts of Theonoe and the doorkeeper simultaneously on Kritylla, Inlaw manages to keep that of Helen for himself. A tragic word (E. Ale. 707; Hipp. 340; Sthen. 29 Page), also used at Ach. 577. 897-8 auTT) GeovoT) npuretds: 896 n. For Upwrews scanned —^ —, cf. Kritylla in 874 with n. ei [ir] KpiruXXd Y' : Lit. 'unless [I'm] Kritylla', i.e. 'I'm Krityllal' For the ellipse (of TL Se vel sim.; exclusively Aristophanic), cf. Eq. 186 (preceded by ^d TOVS Oeovs) with Neil ad loc.; Av. 1681; Lys. 943; Werres 17-18; GP 121; perhaps also frr. 226; 654 (if Cobet's(y'}isright).ThenameisattestedonlyhereandatZ/ys.323andmay be the poet's invention; cf. 63 3 n. For the announcement of the character's
288
COMMENTARY
name delayed until just before her final exit from the stage, 760—1 n. Husband's name (where a man would give his father's name) and demotic are solemnly appended; cf. Nu. 134; Dodds on PI. Grg. 495d3. Kritylla's husband is dead (446) and, in the spirit of the women's assembly, she appropriates the male form of etat civil. On the naming of women in comedy, see in general Sommerstein, 'Naming'. Antitheos is a very rare name (three other examples in LGPN ii s.v., only one from this period). It is therefore tempting to follow Dow, AJA 73 (1969)234—5, in positing a connection to the man (PAA 132995) listed as a member of a Kydathenian cult of Herakles in an inscription that includes a number of other names associated with Aristophanic comedy (IG IP 2343). Cf. H. Lind, Der Gerber Kleon in den 'Rittern' des Aristophanes (Studien zur klassischen Philologie 51: Frankfurt am Main, 1990) 132—41, esp. 138; Olson, Acharnians, pp. xxvii f., and on Ach. 46. Gargettos was part of the inland trittys of the tribe of Aigeis and was located north-east of the city near modern leraka; its bouleutic quota was four. Cf. Traill 41, 68. Whether the historical Antitheos was from Gargettos is unknown; but if he was not, the claim that he is may be a joke we are no longer able to appreciate. For the suffix -dcv, cf. 620 n. 899-916 Throughout 846-99, Inlaw and Eur., on the one hand, and Kritylla, on the other, speak at roughly equal length, and the longest the old woman goes without challenging or abusing the other characters is six lines at 846-51 (as Inlaw mulls over his options immediately after the parabasis) and five-and-a-half at 869-74 (when Eur. enters). But now she remains silent for 17 verses, allowing the recognition scene to reach its climax unimpeded before she abruptly punctures the fantasy at 916—17, 920-3. 899 au 8' €i -uavoupYOs: A witty follow-up to the protest in 897-8: 'I'm Krityllal And you're a conniving bastardl' Cf. 858 with n. Cf. 895 n.; PI. Lg. &42d. For TOI used to strengthen a command, GP 545. 900-1 Inlaw's Helen has no doubt that Menelaos is alive, even if somewhat ctardy (866—7, 9OI)> and Yahlo'-'hiai nere is perhaps simply 'have sex with', as at e.g. E. Cyc. 181. Cf. 890—1 withn. Kaaiyvr\r<j>: Poeticvocabulary (e.g. Hes. Th. 756; Thgn. 99; Pi. P. 4. 124; A. Th. 632; S. Ant. 49; in Hdt. (Ionic) ati. 171. 6; iv. 104; cf. Rutherford 15); extremely common in Euripides (e.g. El. 518; Hel. 898; PA. 1267; Ba. 1289), but attested in comedy only here, and absent from Attic prose (which uses dSeA^oj) except in the quotations from early epic at PI. Cra. 4O2c; Prt. 34oa. 901 is probably modelled on E. Hel. 54-5 SOKW TrpoSova' f^ov / iroaiv, 927-8 R's MeveXaov rov €^LOV is unmetrical, and the alternatives are (i) to print Scaliger's (with -fiav in synizesis), or to expel either (2) rov (Daubuz) or (3)
L I N E S 897-905
289
(Hermann). Daubuz's version is supported by the Euripidean parallels but produces an unlikely division of the tribrach (cf. J. W. White, The Verse of Greek Comedy (London, 1912) §§103, 105); Hermann's suggestion not only ignores the Euripidean exemplar but results in medial caesura; and (with all recent editors) we print the text as emended by Scaliger. Parallel errors at 867 (where see n.), in the Suda at 910, and in L atE.Hel. 131 (where see Kannicht'sn.). IvTpoia: 'at Troy', not 'in Troy'; cf. V. 236 €v Bv£,avTiiu', Pi. O. 6. 16 ev 0riJ:Saiai. In the Euripidean original, Helen and Menelaos recognize one another on the basis of physical resemblance alone (Hel. 557-65; cf. the preparation at Hel. 71—5, 160— i), and the revelation of the woman's identity via a chance remark here is more reminiscent of E. IT 769—87. 902 Y"vai (also 905, 909) is a relatively colourless term (Dickey 86-8,c 243-5), but is none the less more intimate than gevrj (890, 896). Cf. S. Tr. 1203; Ph. 917*; Lloyd, CQ NS 49 (1999) 44. Tragedy more often has 77019 em-ay;, avoiding hiatus (e.g. A. Pers. 798; S. OT 943, 1017; E. Ion 1472; Ph. 1273; paratragic at Eq. 1237). (= adesp. tr. fr. 67): 'Turn your eyes so that they shine back [to wards me]!', i.e. 'Look me straight in the eye!' avTavyr/s is attested elsewhere only at Sannyr. fr. 10, but is clearly elevated style; cf. avravyeiu at Eub. fr. 56. 5; Chaerem. TrGF 71 F 14. 6; xpvaavTavyris at E. Ion 890 cc(lyric). That Kopi) (generally 'unmarried girl' or 'daughter') can also me 'pupil (of the eye), eye' is taken for granted at PI. Ale. i 1326—3a and is the basis of the pun at Alex. fr. 117 (cf. Timocl. fr. 29. 6). But almost all the 5th-c. examples come from Euripides (e.g.Andr. ^T,i\Hec. iO45;/ow876; also in tragedy at Ion TrGF 19 F 53. i), and Ar. uses the word in this sense elsewhere only at V. 7 (elevated style); PL 635* (= S. fr. 710. i). 903 is pronounced as Inlaw/'Helen' turns 'her' head to look—apparently for the first time—directly at Eur./'Menelaos'. A tragic heroine might easily feel shame at the miserable situation to which she had been creduced (e.g. E. Hec. 968—9; IA 1340—2). But what troubles Inlaw i fact that his cheeks have been shaved, and this is thus a brief irruption of the 'real world' of the story into the parody of Hel., the effect of which is to stress, at the high point of the action, precisely how ludicrous everything going on on stage really is. 904—5 904 is addressed to the world at large, as is the first half of 905 (nominally a question directed to the gods); only the final portion of 905 is intended for Inlaw/'Helen'. TOUT! ri IOTIV;: 733*-4 n. Cf. E. Hel. 548—9 Se^as Set^aoa oov / tKirX^iv r^ilv d^aotav is attested else where before the 4th c. only at E. HF 515 subsequently at PI. Plb. 2id;Lg. 6366; Duris, POxy.xxiv. 2399. 67; and in Modern Greek 'I'm reduced to silence'. For the use of e^oi (typically tragic), cf.
2QO
COMMENTARY
also A.Ag. 1243 andE.Med. 356^0,809^,' e^ei/; A. Supp. 736 S. Ph. 686 8avfi,d fi,' e^ei/; E.Hec. 970 alSws p,' e^ei/. For TOI used in asides (colloquial), GP 538; Stevens 48. 905 is a combination of E. Hel. 72—3 (Teukros' first words upon espying Helen) and 557 (Menelaos' response after he convinces Helen not to run away) TIS f t ; TIT' oifiiv arjv yvvai TrpoaSepKOfMi;. For the beginning of the line, cf. also E.Hel. 560 (Menelaos) / a> OeoL For 6v|/iv, cf. 1153/4 (lyric); Men. Mis. 611—12 a> Zev, TLV' oijjivov&e-jTpoa&[oK(U[j.evriv] / opa>;; Handley, 'Nouns' 133. Y"vai: Cf. 902 n., 909*. 906-9 =E.Hel. 558, 561-3. The omitted verses 5 5 9-60 (Me.) expressions of wonder addressed to the world at large, which serve to retard the action and add poignancy to the recognition scene. But Ar. has no need for tragic nonsense of this sort and omits the verses from his parody. E.Hel. 561 was lost from L (the only MS that preserves the play) or its exemplar as a result of the homoioarchon with 562, and Markland restored the verse to the text from the parody here, precedes the emphatic fid\i<jT(a), as at S. Ai. 994-5; Tr. 464; cf. GP 228. 910 is adapted from E. Hel. 564 For the form of the name, 866—7 n -> 900—1 n. Sc. €{i,e elSevai, 'so far [as I can tell] from . . .'; cf. Pax 857; Goodwin §778. R's d>va>v ('small-fry'; cf. Olson-Sens on Archestr. fr. 11. i) is unmetrical as well as nonsensical. 2R and the Suda read itfiuiov, which in Theophrastos appears to be a flowering plant (HP vi. 6. n, 8. 3; cf. vii. 13. 7), but which 2R and Phot, i 278 (cf. fr. 572. 2; Hsch. i 1132), supported by Epich. fr. 158. 7, describe as a wild pot-herb. If that is right, Eur. must be draped in seaweed, as befits the victim of a shipwreck (873), and there is an allusion to the alleged service of the tragic poet's mother as a vegetable-vendor (386-8 n.; thus Dindorf, TLGvi. ~J2gd). Gregoire, The Link i (1938) 16-20, notes that in 935 Kritylla calls Eur. a 'mender of sails' and that in E. Hel. Menelaos repeatedly complains of having lost his fine clothes and being reduced to rags (e.g. 416, 422, 1079—80; cf. 554). He therefore suggests that Ar. wrote dp^iwv ('garments'; cf. S. fr. 420 with Pearson ad loc.; Call. fr. 177. 31 = SH 259. 31) and that the joke has to do with the tragic playwright's alleged addiction to dressing his leading characters in tatters (Ach. 412—13; Ra. 842, 1063—4). But the emendation is flat (and thus unlikely); the reading in R (upon which it depends) most cclikely represents scribal 'correction' of the lectio difficilior preserved in2R and the Suda; and if one is going to emend, one might do better to print (cf. Alex. fr. 115. 2). 911-12 = E. Hel. 565-6, except that (i) the alteration of the end of E. Hel. 564 in 910 has forced Ar. to write dp' for Eur.'s yap in 911 (cf. Kannicht on E. Hel. 565—7); and (2) at the end of 912 ~ Hel. 566, Ar. has replaced
291
L I N E S 904-17 as
the Euripidean ey x^P with the obscene double-entendre laxdpas (lit. 'hearths', but also 'cunt'; cf. Eq. 1286 with ccHsch. € 6447 €G%dpai' . . . Kal at TWV yvvaiKwv (frvo 2044); MM§164; Perpillou, RPh iii. 58(1984) 55-6; Chadwick 114-15). For the terminal ace. (elevated style), 877-8 n. On Sdfiapros, see Stevens on E. Andr. 4. 913—16 Inlaw rushes from the altar to Eur. and embraces him. The old man thus abandons his suppliant status, which solves a problem for Ar. at 929-46 (cf. 726-7 n.) by allowing the Prytanis to make his arrest with no complications. Dochmiacs (almost entirely resolved), marking cthe emotional climax of the scene; cf. 700—1 n.; E. Hel. 625—97 (a reco tion duet, Helen's part of which contains numerous dochmiacs); Parker 426-9. (0913/14 (2)914/15 (3)916
----- ^^^^— ----- n~^^~ - — — --A
2do 2do
do.
(2) For the bold epic correption Kvaw. cm-aye, cf. 1149, 1157; Nu. 1170 (also dochmiac); Parker 92. (3) What seems at first to be Inlaw's fifth dochmiac (- — — --A; for the full form, e.g. S. Ph. 1117) is abruptly truncated, as Kritylla cuts him short and neatly restores a normal iambic trimeter. 913-15 \a(3€ [is \a(3€ |j€ . . . / . . . a-uaY€ [i' d-iraY* KT\.: The repetition reflects Inlaw's desperate eagerness to be rescued (cf. 241-2 n.) but is also part of the parody of Euripidean style; cf.Ra. I33&b, I352a—5 with Dover, Frogs, p. 358; E. Hel. 640, 648, 650-1, 661-2, 670, 684 (all from Helen's part of the recognition duet). -uoai: Poetic vocabulary (in tragic quotation or paratragedy also at 866, 901, but otherwise absent from comedy and 5th-c. prose). mepipaXe . . . x^PaS and similar expressions are cccommon in Euripides (e.g. IT 796; Hel. 634; Ph. 165—6, 14 1044; cf. Bond on E. Hyps. fr. 756 (p. 138)); the vb. is attested elsewhere in Old Comedy only at V. 1154 (of putting on a garment); Ra. 1322 ~ E. fr. 756 -jrepipaXX' . . . iliXevas. <|>€p€: 768 n. KUOIO: Poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 6. 474; E. Med. 1207; carm. pop. PMG 909. 9), attested elsewhere in Ar. ate.g.Ach. 1209; Lys. 797. 916-17 \ap&)v echoes AajSe. . ., Aa l 8e'in9i3/i4. raxuirdvu: Cf. 233-4 n.;Paxz6i (conjectural);Z/ys.864;P/.57;Eup.fr.334. i. dpa • • • / Saris: 'Anyone who . . . will be sorry he did!'; cf. 248 n., 1087—8, ii25-7withn.,n87;A r M.933;Pa^532;Eup.fr.222. i-2;FraenkelonA.^4g-. 1148; Stevens 15-16; Johansen-Whittle on A. Supp. 925. echoes cm-aye in 914/15. Turrrofievos TTJ Xa|4iraSi: For burning torches (cf. 65 5 n.) used in comedy to assault other characters, V. 13 30— i,
2Q2
COMMENTARY
139°; Lys. 376, 1217-18; cf. PI. 1052. Kritylla brandishes her torch at Eur. 918—19 920—2 n. For au introducing a question, cf. Ale. fr. 72. 11 (thusLobel-Page);A.^4g-. i6i-j;Eu.8g6. Cf. 860, 864-5 n -; E. Hel. 472/17 TvvSapls irais', Or. 1512 (both of Helen). The adj. is otherwise confined to Euripides. 920—2 In 871—99, Eur. asks a long series of questions (871—3, 877, 881, 885, 889—90, 896), to which Inlaw offers wildly improbable answers (874, 878, 886, 890-1, 897), and Kritylla treats her visitor as a bit confused (882-4) but primarily a victim of her treacherous prisoner's fast talk (875—6, 879—80, 892—4, 897—9). But after Eur. actively supports Inlaw's request to be removed from her custody (918—19, cf. 914—16), she finally puts two and two together. Cf. 590-1 n. oifi' us: Cf. 625 n.; Nu. 1238; Av. 1501; Stevens 17. Cf. 858 with n., 893, 899; Ra. 80, 1520 (both Euripides as -jravovp-yos). p.oi et sim. is a common Aristophanic line-end formula (e.g. 622; Nu. 1271, 1276; Av. 1225; Ra. 645; PI. 1060, 1150). For the word order, e.g. Nu. 37 with Dover ad loc.; Av. 255; PI. 861. A first attested at Anacr. PMG 357. 10) is an 'adviser, counsellor' (e.g. Ach. 651; Nu. 1481), but the meaning of the word occasionally shades over into 'fellow conspirator' (as if < jSov\ofi,ai), as at E. Hel. 1019. OUK ITOS: 'It's no wonder that'; attested elsewhere only in comedy (e.g. Ach. 4.11; EC. 245; fr. 9. i; Anaxil. fr. 29. i) and Plato (_R. 4146, 5&8a), and presumably colloquial. fiYim-rid^ei^e): 'you were playing Egyptians'; a reference not just to the setting of the (parody of) Hel. but also to the Egyptians' reputation for cleverness and deceit (Cratin. fr. 406; A. fr. 373; Hyp. 3. 3 with Whitehead ad loc.; Theoc. 15. 48 with Gow ad loc.; cf. Taillardat §409; E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy (Oxford Classical Monographs: Oxford, 1989) 123). For the formation, cf. No doubt such words were made up as needed first attested in Cratinus (above)). o8e fiev draws an implicit contrast with Eur., who has also been behaving badly but will not necessarily be punished for it (GP 381-2). 923 TTpoaepxerai Y"P: Cf. 866-7 n -; V. 1508*; Av. 1709*; PL 861*. Athens had nothing we should recognize as a police force. Instead, the prytaneis controlled meetings of the Assembly and the Council and enforced their will (and that of various public decision-making bodies) elsewhere in the city by means of 300 Skythian archers (cf. Ach. 54-7; Eq. 665; Lys. 184, 433-62; EC. 143, 258-9; Eup. fr. 273; PI. Prt. 3i9c; IG I 3 45. 14-16), whom the Athenian state had purchased for this purpose some time around450 (And. 3. 5; Aeschin. 2. 173). Cf. Hall 44-5; Policing 145—7; Ar. and Athens 270—3. Forms of TO^OTTJS are generally * in
L I N E S 916-28
293
Ar. (e.g. 940, 1177, 1193; Ach. 54; Eq. 665; Lys. 433; EC. 143); contrast 931. A Prytanis and a Skythian archer (played for the moment by a mute; cf. 930—i n., 1001 n.) enter from Wing B. Nothing specific can be said about the Prytanis' costume, which probably resembles that of any other adult male character. The Skythian wears the wildly patterned jacket and trousers typical of his people and a soft cap with dangling sideflaps; the hair on his wig is perhaps red; a large knife and a combination quiver/bowcase hang from his belt (cf. 1126—7 withn., 1197 with n.); and he carries a whip in his hand (933 withn.). Cf. Hdt. vii. 64. 2; ¥0540-51; Stone 288-9 and fig. 36; Tsiafakis, in NCI 367-72. 924-8 cover the passage of the two characters across the stage. 'this'—i.e. the arrival of aprytanis not alone but accom924 panied by an archer—'is bad!'; cf. 930-1 with n. For irovripov as a comment on what has just been said, cf. Men. Dysk. 2,2,0; Her. 17; Pk. 390. 457—8 n. uTTCuroKivrfTeov: Sc. earlp.oi, 'I have to sneak away'; the compound is attested elsewhere only at Av. 1011. For verbal adjs. in -re'oy, 603-4 nEur. sets off toward Wing A, avoiding an encounter with the Prytanis and the Skythian (923 with n.). 925-7 cover his exit. 70 n.; Fowler, HSCP 91 (1987) 5-38 (on 'the adds a plaintive note to rhetoric of desperation'). the question. 'Take it easy!, Stay calm!'; a metri gratia variant of the colloquial e^' ffav-^os (e.g. PI. 127*; E. Med. 550*; cf. Stevens 34—5; ARV2 444 no. 241 = Buitron-Oliver no. 233 (inscribed on a red-figure cup by Douris dating probably to the first quarter of the A reaffirmation of the promise Sthc.)). made in 269-74, with the resonant term firjxavai (87 n.) thrown in, and thus for the audience in the Theatre an indication that at least one more parody of a Euripidean rescue-plot is to come. Cf. 1010 (Inlaw realizes that another attempt to rescue him is going to be made) avr/p e'oiKev ov 1131-2. ouSeuoT^) is the regular Aristophanic word for 'not ever, never'; oiVor(e) is metrically possible here but is attested nowhere in iambic trimeter in the surviving plays and fragments (but note three new examples in Menander, Epitr. 800 Martina (ed. Rome, 1997); Mis. 24 (v-iroTf Pap., corr. Austin); fab. incert. vi. 8 Arnott). Ar. has ovSe-jTore five times in other metres (Eq. 1289; Pax 1083—4; Av. 1106; i.e. 'so long as I am alive' (2R); cf. PI. Lys. 541). Ap. 29d; R. 3&8c; Herod, i. 90 with Headlam ad loc. The vb. is particularly common in this sense in Euripides (e.g. Ale. 205; Hipp. 1246; Ph. Not a very 1419 with Mastronarde ad loc.; Or. 155. reassuring note on which to exit; cf. Inlaw's despair at 930 with n., 946. 'failme'. Forthevb., 323-4^ 474-5 n. Eur. exits into Wing A. 928 'This string'—i.e. 'this fishing line' (Gow on Theoc. 21. 12), and
294
COMMENTARY
thus 'this attempt at trickery'—'drew [up] nothing!'; said by 2R to be 'a proverbial expression for those who try to do something and do not succeed'. Cf. V. i75—6ovKea-jraaev/TavT'[)-y' ('he pulled nothing [up] with this [string]!'); Taillardat §395. 929-46 The legal procedure in question in this scene would appear to be an ephegesis, in which a magistrate makes an arrest at the instigation of a private citizen (i.e. Kleisthenes); cf. Apagoge 24—6. Inlaw is treated like a KaKovp-yos ('malefactor'; cf. 816—18 n., 858 n., 892—4 n.) and prepared for execution via airoTvpiraviaiias (930-1 n.). This would normally be done by the Eleven (cf. Cohen, Theft 38-44, 52-62 (forthe application of thisprocedure to thieves in particular)), and whether the Council actually had the power of ephegesis and execution in 411 or all of this is merely a wild, halflegal procedural hodge-podge, and, if the Council did have such powers, whether this was only an emergency measure connected with the political instability of the period, is impossible to say; cf. Boule 185—6; Apagoge 30—1. In any case, Ar. was less concerned with legal niceties than with producing a smoothly-working plot. 929 Addressed to Kritylla, who mustnodher head'Yes'(cf. soyn., 1020-1 n.) in response to the question. Cf. 858 n., 944. Cf. 654 with n. Mika's announcement of her intention to add herself to the mission to the Council (763-4 with n.) is ignored, ijfuv is the prytaneis, who must be assumed to have called an emergency meeting of the entire Council after they were informed of what had happened (943 with 652—4 n.). Addressed to Inlaw, who is still standing where 930-1 Eur. left him (cf. 913-15 n.) and whose behaviour amounts to an acknowledgement that his situation has suddenly become far more dire than it was (cf. 924 with n., 945—6). Cf. Eq. 1354* (hanging one's head as a sign of shame; cf. 939-44 with 941-2 n.); fr. 410 (either shame or dejection) with K-Aadloc.; Eup. fr. 192. I2O/ovTOs,TiKeKv>as; Cf. 940 -n-pos rij aavi&i. Although the Prytanis does not say so explicitly, Inlaw has been sentenced to death (cf. 938, 1109) via a form of public execution most often referred to as in which the victim was pinned (Se'oi is used again of the procedure at 940, 943, 1022) tightly to a wooden plank (the by means of five two-pronged iron 'pins' or 'nails' (cf. 1003), which held fast but did not pierce his neck, wrists, and ankles, and suspended (cf. 1027/8/9, 1053, mo) thus until he died (perhaps often only after a number of days of torture). Cf. PL 476 (rvpiTava referred to as instruments of torture); Cratin. fr. 366; [A.] PV 52-81 with Men. fr. 508. 1-2 and Griffith on 26; Hdt. vii. 33 (also the penalty for defiling a sanctuary); ix. 120. 4; Lys. 13. 56;D.8.6i;9.6i; 10.63; J9- I37;21- IO5', DunsFGrHist-j6 F&7ap. Plu. Per. 28. 2 with Stadter ad loc.; A. D. Keramopoullos,
L I N E S 928-35
295
(Athens, 1923), esp. 11-35 (a report on the excavation of the skeletons of seventeen individuals apparently executed in this manner in Phaleron in the yth c.); Gernet,REG 37 (1924) 261—95 (English version in L. Gernet, The Anthropology of Ancient Greece (Baltimore and London, 1981) 252— 76, esp. 252-4); Bonner and Smith ii. 279-87; Latte 400-2 (critical of earlier accounts); Allen 200-1, 232-3. For 'chains' at the Thesmophoria, Introduction p. li. For the construction with the pres. part., 770—1 n. Inlaw could easily be tied up on stage (cf. the treatment of Nikarchos at Ach. 926-52), but his exit with the Skythian (currently represented by a mute) allows the tritagonist to assume the latter part in 1001-1225. Cf. Dover, G&G 252. 1177. ZKV&O. (1112, in6, i i 2 i ) i s used as a metrigratia alternative form of address for the character (although cf. n 11-12 n.). In the context of a dramatic performance in the Theatre of Dionysos, Iv0a8i is 'here on stage'. But although Kritylla has just observed in 880 that this is the Thesmophorion (cf. 947 with n., 1227—31 with n.), the presence of the Prytanis and the Skythian; the Prytanis' expectation that there will be male passers-by to see what is done to Inlaw; and the fact that the Skythian blithely exits twice through the central stage-door (which at 726—39 seemed to function as a building within the sanctuary) suggests that the setting has implicitly shifted to an area just outside the Eleusinion. Cf. 962-5 n. 932—4 The Prytanis has no way of knowing that another rescue of Inlaw is going to be attempted (although in 934—5 Kritylla does justify his order by reference to her own recent experience), and these verses serve primarily to alert the audience in the Theatre to some of what will come next. In the event, the Skythian allows Eur. to get much closer to Inlaw than he should (1115 with n.; cf. 1007 n.) and the threat of the whip alone proves sufficient to make the intruder retreat (i 125-9). gives what amounts to the same order three times, each time in more pointed terms: 'Stand him here and keep guard; let no one approach; and drive away anyone who tries to approach with your whip!' For whips (which, like modern police officers' truncheons, are painful but not normally deadly weapons) used to maintain public order in Athens, EC. 863; cf. Poll. x. 177 (citing Cratin. fr. 123); 2RVENeapM Av. 1463. Cf. App. Anth. iii. 171. 3-4
GP247-
'nearly'; cf. Ach. 348*, 381; Nu. 722; KG i. 204; Poultney 123. 'a sail-stitcher'; an ill-attested word (cf. ID 1416. B. i. 92; Poll. vii. 160), but one whose meaning is sufficiently pedestrian that there is no need to identify it as an Aristophanic coinage. 2R explains Kritylla's characterization of Eur. as a reference to the Egyptians' (cf.
935
296
COMMENTARY
855-7, 877-8) reputation for producing linen, from which sails were manufactured (Hermipp. fr. 63. 12-13; Plin. Nat. 19. 2-7; Morrison and Williams 298—9; for linen production generally, Bliimner i. 191—9; Forbes iv. 27—43, esp. 27—31, 39—43 (on Egyptian linen)). That the word is in final position, however, suggests that it appears para prosdokian for a synonym of imvovpyos (cf. 920) such as ^wj^avoppd^oy (E. Andr. 447), and a more obvious explanation is that Kritylla's choice of vocabulary combines a hostile characterization of the sort 2R identifies with an allusion to 'Menelaos" rags, which he (like his namesake in the Euripidean original) has assembled from tattered bits of sail-cloth. Cf. 869-70 n., 91 o n.; Miller 182; Kamerbeek, in Kiup.iuSoTpa-yrnj.aTa 79—80; Kannicht on E. Hel. 421-2. 'by your right [hand]', which Inlaw now 936-7 seizes as a persuasive gesture of supposedly mutual affection (cf. Nu. 81; V. 1237; Ra. 754, 789; Diph. fr. 42. 24; X. HG iv. i. 31; D. 18. 323; associated with supplication at e.g. E. Med. 496; Hipp. 333; Hec. 752—3). A man might routinely 'stretch out his right hand' in friendship (e.g. D. 18. 323 rrjv Se^mv irporeivuiv), but KoiXrjv (lit. 'hollow', i.e. 'empty') is odd if that is the point, and ctpyupiov KT\. (* at Nu. 98) at the end of the line unexpectedly converts this into a reference to habitual corruption. Cf.Ec. 782-3 (of the gods; cf. Dunbaron^4«. 518('[their statues] 19) stand stretching out their hand in order to get something'); D. 19.255 Strat.^4Pxii. 212.3 (of a boy seeking money in return for sexual favours) ('you have put out your hand to me hollow'). In real life, a gratuitous insult of this sort would ensure that the favour being requested was denied. But different standards apply on the comic stage, and the Prytanis reacts (939) as if nothing untoward had been said. Cf. 45 n.; Dover, AC 60; Bain, Victors 88-9. The Old Oligarch claims that bribery was an effective (and to some extent necessary) tool for getting business done in the Council and the Assembly ([X.] Ath. 3. 3), and although he takes a generally jaundiced view of the democracy, there is no reason to think that Athens was, in this regard at least, much different from any other society. Cf. Pax 907-8 (a very similar charge); Lys. 6. 29; Boule 112; Olson on Ach. 6—8 (on political corruption 'offers'. generally). 938 For the popular motif of the 'last wish', e.g. Hdt. i. 24. 2-5; E. Ale. 299-310; HF 327-31; IT 597-615. Cf. 1195; Eg. 1255 a' (LITCO j3pax>->', Men. Dysk. 299—300 930—1 n.; Schwyzer ii. 389. The point of the concessive clause is that one would normally do a favour only if one expected a favour in return—something a dead man is unlikely to be able to accomplish.
L I N E S 935-46
297
Cf. 936-7n.'Nu. 87 Cf. drjrd aot;; D. 3- 22 ri vp,cv ^apiaa>|CAat; Lys. 1173 yvp.vos O.TTO&VS (although there the part, and the adj. refer to the same person). Cf. 930—1 withn. 941-2 Inlaw is going to die (938) and deservedly so. What he wants to avoid is mockery, which will inevitably be increased by the ludicrous contrast between his old and unattractive male self and his beautiful female clothing (a contrast central to the visual humour of much of the play; cf. Introduction p. Ixx), hence his specification yepuv dvr|p ('[as] an old man'). Cf. 226 n., 638 n. But the Council has other concerns (943-4 withn.). For the role of shame in Athenian society, Dover, GPM 236—42; D. L. Cairns, Aidos (Oxford, 1993) 178—431, esp. 351—4 (on Ar.). The krokotos and mitra represent all the female clothing Inlaw is wearing; cf. 945, where the krokotos alone (as the most obviously offensive item) is mentioned, as again in the old man's complaint in 1044. For the pis. (indicating visceral horror and contempt), 546—8 n. For the idiom, Eq. 319-20; EC. 379; H. Od. 20. 8; cf. Epich. fr. 32. 3-4; E. Med. 383; HF 285-6; PI. Chrm. issb (with diffThe audience in the Theatre can erent vbs.). reasonably expect Inlaw to express concern about derision from human passers-by (cf. 944), but he offers a far more pungent image, referring to the ravens he will nourish with his corpse—or perhaps with his living body, if he is not rapidly put out of his misery. Cf. 868, 1027/8/9 with n. 943-4 ixovra: 733-4 n. i8o^€ rfj Pou\fj: An echo of official language; cf. 372*-4 n., 929 n. i'va TOIS -uapiouai KT\.: i.e. not just to make clear his status as a malefactor, so as to bring shame upon him (cf. 941—2 with n., iO48b—9), but also—and more important, from a public policy point of view—to give anyone who witnesses his torture a sense of what he has done wrong and thus of the likely consequences of such deeds. Brunck's impiovai (for R's impovai) is certainly correct; 'passersby' rather than 'bystanders' are in question (cf. V'. 622). For the corruption, cf. E. Cyc. 546 Trapiwv Reiske: impiiiv L. Cf. 929. For SfjXos elfu + part., e.g. V. 734; Av. 125; cf. LSJ s. 11. 2. The Prytanis and Kritylla exit, most likely both into Wing B. 945—6 iairirairaid£: An expanded form of (cf. V. 235 like (Eq. i) and larrarai from arrarai (223 with n.; Ra. 649), here expressing inarticulate grief and horror. Cf. 1191 with n.; Labiano Ilundain 276—8. For the suffix -d£, e.g. Ach. with Olson ad loc.; Eq. i with Neil ad loc.; Nu. 390 64 941-2 n. For direct address of an object some45 n. how implicated in the situation for which lamentation is being made (a tragic mannerism), e.g. S. OT 380—1; E. Ale. 177; Hipp. 1355—6; Hel.
939-40
298
COMMENTARY
Paratragic, like 386-7; cf. Miller 182. atAv. 323. Cf. 743 withn.; S.Ant. 1228; Tr. 1203; Ph. 786, 928; E. Hipp. 683; Miller 182. IX-uis . . . awrrjpias: Cf. E. Heracl. 452*; HF&o 7Ti4i3*;Th. i. 65. i Miller 182. For the sentiment, conLys. 21. 15 trast 765 (where rescue still seems possible), 1009. The Skythian takes hold of Inlaw and drags him roughly off through the central stagedoor. 947-1000 For a wide-ranging discussion of these verses, Bierl 107-50. 947-52 Two anapaestic tetrameters catalectic, followed by four anapaestic dimeters, the last catalectic; recitative. Verbal preparation for the dance that follows (947—8; cf. 655—8 (also anapaestic)), combined with a brief fragment of abuse-poetry (949-52). 947 Cf. 983 213-14 n., 652—4 n. maiatdfiev: 'let us dance'; cf. 795—6 n. Cf. 983 (above), 1136—7 e^oi / . . . vop.os; Ostwald 40—3. For the emphasis on ritually correct behaviour (a theme in the song), also Clearly to be taken as a reference to the 974 Thesmophorion (cf. 880), given the mentions of the 'two goddesses' in 948 and of fasting in 949 (cf. 984), although the setting of the larger action of the play has grown a bit vague (930-1 n.) and the absence of any mention of Demeter and Kore in the song that follows is striking. Call. fr. 63. 10 Cf. 1152/3 ('rites'; cognate with ep-yov, epSiu), Richardson on h.Cer. 273 (the earliest attestation of the word). Geaiv: 285 n. For the omission of &> with Upais upais, Dover on Nu. 310; an exception at Philod. Scarph. Paean in Dionysum 4, p. 166 Powell 'we uphold, maintain, preserve', as at (4th c.). H. Od. 19. in; Pi. P. 2. 89; JV. 7. 89; S. Ai. 212; E. Hec. 121. For the implicit theme of the importance of continuity in a time of political and social turmoil, cf. 819—29, esp. 819—20. (PAA 770370) was an Athenian painter whose work relied on 949 baffling visual effects and a strong sense of humour (Henioch. fr. 4. 2-9; Arist. Metaph. io5oai9-2i; Po. i448a5-6; Plu. Mor. 3966 ~ Luc. Dem. Enc. 24 ~ Ael. VH 14. 15; A.-J. Reinach, Recueil Milliet: textes grecs et latins relatifs al'histoiredelapeinture antique (Paris, 1921) 174—6; cf. Ach. 854; test. 57, on which see Hammerstaedt, Cron.Erc. 27 (1997) 105-20). As a man, Pauson did not celebrate women's festivals; but the point of the remark is that (according to the comic poets) he none the less routinely ate very poorly (cf. PL 602; Eup. fr. 99. 5—8; Henioch. fr. 4. 9—10; Apostol. xiv. 2), like the city's women on the middle day of the Thesmophoria (80 n.; cf. the very similar comparison atAv. 1519-20), i.e. as a result of his alleged incompetence at making a living (but cf. Halliwell, LCM"j (1982)
L I N E S 945—58
299
153). The attack on Pauson is of apiece with the criticism of the city's men generally in the parabasis, but serves primarily to set up expectations that are reversed in 962—5 (where see n.). Prosaic vocabulary (elsewhere in Ar. at 983/4; Av. 1519), attested in Herodotus (ii. 40. 4, in the compound Trpovrjarevai) and common in Hippocrates (e.g. Epid. ii. 5. 6(v. 130. 4); Nat. Mid. i8(vii. 338. 21)), but found in serious poetry of the classical period only at Emped. 31 F 144. 'joining [us] in praying to the two of 950-1 them (i.e. to Demeter and Pherrephatta/Kore)'. For the compound, Th. vi. 32. 2;X.^4w. iii. 2. 9 (the only other attestations in the classical period); A. Corlu, Recherches sur les mots relatifs a I'idee de priere, d'Homere aux tragiques (Etudes et Commentaires 64: Paris, 1966) 242. 'in one season after another', i.e. 'for all time, forever'; cf. 286-8 n.; Nu. 562 with Dover ad loc.; Ra. 381; A.R. 4. 1774; Gow on Theoc. 15. 74; Headlam on Herod. 5. 85 (with an extensive collection of parallels); Gygli-Wyss 69—70. To be taken with Toiavra KrX. in 952. (a) is elevated poetic vocabulary; rare in 5th- and 4th-c. prose (e.g. 952 PI. Phd. 896; Prm. I3oa; X. Cyr. viii. 8. 12; Isoc. 12. 102) and attested elsewhere in comedy only at Eq. 990 (lyric; cf. Neil ad loc., although his catalogue of prose examples of the word is defective); Av. 234 (lyric); PI. n66;fr. 156. 4 (a poet is speaking). 953-1000 Best analysed (with Enger) as: (i) proode (953-8); (2) strophic pair (959—61 ~ 962—5); (3) mesode (966—8); (4) strophic pair (969—76 ~ 977-84); (5) mesode (985-9); (6) strophic pair (99O-4b ~ 995-1000). Cf. nn. adlocc.; Thomsen, C&MDiss. ix( 1973) 27-46; Austin (1987) 84 (on 966); Parker 428-9; Furley and Bremer i. 357-60; ii. 350-9. The imperatives throughout the song are addressed by the chorus members to each other, as they encourage the group to adopt the coryphaeus' suggestion in 947-8; cf. 372-4 n.; Kaimio 127-9. 953-8 Proode; cf. Parker 428-31. (0953 (2)954 (3)955 (4)955/6 (5)956
(6)957 (7)958
an lek arist 2ia gl 2ia 3ia
(i) For the spondaic opening, cf. 43 3/4 = 520. The chorus' words trace the initial progress of their dance: they set off from where they are (953), form a circle (954), join hands (955), establish a rhythm (955/6), set their feet rapidly in motion (956), and move around
300
COMMENTARY
and around in a circle (957-8). Only after their dance is under way do they begin to describe the proper subject of their song (959-61). 'Set off! Start to move!'; cf. EC. 478 For 659 n. Adverbial Kouc|>a ('lightly') with a vb. of motion is a poeticism; cf. 659 n.; Lys. 1303/4; Autocr. fr. i. 3; H. //. 13. 158 [Hes.] Sc. 323; Anacr. PMG^J. 5; Pi. O. 14. 17; Bacch. 13. 89. eis KUK\OV: Cf. 662, 968; Ra. 441/2 dvd KVK\OV; DFA 239. Cf. A. Eu. 307 xopov atfjia^fv with Sommerstein 955-5/6 ad loc.; Men. Dysk. 953 Gildersleeve §182 (on repetition of cognates); Gygli-Wyss 90. ('rhythm') used of dance rather than song, e.g. V. 1504; EC. 1167; fr. 147; PI. Lg. 6646 ('[We agreed that] the name for the organization of movement'—as opposed to that of verbal expression—'was pvOp.os'); cf. 121 withn., 985. (first attested at Pratin. TrGF 4F 3. i-j = PMG-jo8. i6)is common in Plato (e.g. Lg. &54b) but is treated elsewhere in the 5th and early 4th c. as elevated poetic vocabulary (968, gSob, 982 (all lyric); Ra. 247, 336, 388 (all lyric); E.Ph. 1265; Timoth. PMG-jgi. 201; Chaerem. TrGFji F 14.3). Fomda(a) + imper., 372-4n. u-uaYe: 'gradually begin'(LSJs.v.A. III). (attested only here in comedy; absent 956 from tragedy and classical prose) is epic vocabulary (mostly adverbial, but with dat. forms of TTOVS at H. //. 16. 342, 809; 22. 166; h.Merc. 225; Nost. fr. n. i; subsequently at 'Stesich.' SLG 150. ii. 6; Emped. 31651 (adv.); Pi. P. 12. 20; Theoc. 25. 156). 957—8 The obj. of euiaKomeiv is x°P°u Kardaraaiv (cf. A. Ag. 23 'we must keep an eye on the chorus' formation', ('everywhere', i.e. 'both left and right'; cf. 660 n., 665-6 n.) goes with (cf. E. Ph. 364 KVK\COV -jrpomuTTov with Mastronarde ad loc.). 959-61 ~ 962-5 The first strophic pair; cf. Parker 430-3. 953-4
(1)959-60 p lek crlek ~962-3 3trtr A (2)961 ~964-5 A discussion of the song that will accompany the dance, presented in both a positive (959-61) and a negative (962-5) form. 959-61 cifia is adverbial, 'at the same time [that you dance]'. Cf. 312 with n. (echoed in 970, 974, 989; attested elsewhere in comedy only at Anaxandr. fr. 42. 19 (anapaests)) is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H.//. i. 474; Corinn. PMG 654 i. 18; Pi.
L I N E S 953-68
301
P. 3. 78 (mid.); Bacch. 13. 94; A.Ag. 1445; E.Ba. 155 (lyric)). Y£p ai P £ <|x">vfj: yepaipai ('offer a portion of honour' (cf. 111—13 n.); attested nowhere else in comedy) is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. Od. 14. 441; h.Merc. 60; Simon. PMG 519 fr. 124. 4; Pi. O. 3. 2; E. El. 712 x°P°' S' "f-MTpeiSdv lyepaipov OIKOVS; epigr. ap. Aeschin. 3. 190); in 5th- and 4th-c. prose only at Hdt. v. 67. 5 PI. _R. 4&8d (a paraphrase of H. //. 7. 321); Lg. 799a (of sacred celebrations involving dance); and repeatedly in Xenophon of major royal or civic honours (e.g. HG i. 7. 33; Oec. 4. 8; Cyr. viii. i. 39). xppopavel jponqf. i.e. 'with maddened dancing'. For the expression, cf. E. HF 282 TO) . . . avayKaicp rpo-jriu with Bond ad loc. ('sententious jargon'), xopop.avris (a hapax legomenon, although the metri gratia variant xopoipavris is attested in the Orphic hymns) parodies highstyle coinages such as dfo^av-fis (A. Th. 653), 8vpaop.avris (E. Ph. 792), (S. fr. 245. i), and o!aTpop.avris (Timoth. PMG 791. 79); cf. Av. 1096 r]Xioij.avris (lyric). For wild dancing as a form of madness, V. 1486, 1496; A. fr. 57. 4-5. 962-5 The unexpected renunciation of any further abuse of men (cf. 949—52) prefigures the reconciliation between Eur. and the women—and thus, to some extent, between the sexes generally—at the end of the play (i 160-3 n -)- F°r a similar (nominally) conciliatory gesture on the part of a chorus, cf. Lys. 1043-9. All-male choruses, by contrast, freely lampoon their betes noires; cf. Olson on Ach. 836—59. echoes (and reverses) the women's original charge against Eur. (85 withn., 182; cf. 1166-7 with n.). eviepcp('inaholy [place]') is easily taken as a reference not to the Thesmophorion (880 with 930-1 n.) but to the Theatre of Dionysos, in which the comic chorus as comic chorus is performing; cf. 972b withn., 1060—i n., 1227—31 withn. 533n. 966-8 The first mesode; cf. Parker 430-3. (1)966 (2)967 (3)968
cr 2tr 3tr tr.
(1-2) For the hiatus, 776-7 n. 'But [we] must first, with a view now to a new task'—i.e. in preparation for the celebration of the gods proposed in 959—61—'stop the graceful step of the beautifully circling dance'. For cf. 586; Pax 555; Av. 1450; Ra. 884. R's meaningless (Lamp is the result of a misread ligature (irp expanded to wep). For a similar error, see K-A on adesp. com. fr. *"J2"J. au: 700—1 n. Elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 5. 453; Od. 6. 58; Tyrt. fr. 19. 15; Pi. N.
302
COMMENTARY
4. 66; E. Ion 1391; Timoth. PMG 791 col. i fr. 4. 4); attested nowhere 955-5/6 n. else in comedy. has but 'The ship Ev<j>vris has the accusative Ev<j>vd in the inv(entory), IG IP 1612. 315 (356/5)' (Threatte ii. 174), and Ar. himself uses the Attic form atEq. i4i;Nu.-j6;Pax22g;Ra.6n. The chorus come to a halt and then, at the beginning of 969, resume their dance in a new direction or style. Forarfjaai (Jdaiv meaning 'stop the dance', E. Ba. 647; cf. S. Tr. 339 with Jebb ad loc.; Austin (1987) 84. jSdais is tragic vocabulary (e.g. A. Ch. 452 (lyric); S. Ai. 8; Tr. 339; E. Hec. 837; Tr. 334 (lyric); in lyric at Pi. P. 1.2; elsewhere in comedy only at Alex. fr. 124. 4—in a different sense, but still a poeticism); first in prose in Plato. 969—1000 In 959—61, the chorus claim that their intent is to sing of and honour 'the race of Olympian gods', and the lack of any reference to Zeus or Athena (the latter invoked at length, however, in 1136-47) is striking. Demeter and Pherrephatta/Kore are similarly overlooked (but cf. 1148-59). 969-76 ~ 977-84 The second strophic pair; cf. Parker 432-3. (1)969 -978 (2) 970 -978 (3)97i ~979
(4) 972a = gSoa (5) 972b = 98ob (6) 973 = 981 (7) 974 -982 (8) 975-6 ~983-4
2ia 2ia
iaba reiz reiz iaba iaba 4iaba
The programme sketched out in the opening sections of the song at last gets under way, as the chorus begin to dance (cf. 953-8, 966-8 n. ad fin.) and sing (cf. 959-61) in honour of individual Olympian gods. 969-77 To avoid offering a mere catalogue, Ar. introduces elegant variatio in the mention of deities: epithets are used instead of (969) and both before (970) and after (973, 977) the name. Cf. Nu. 563-74 ~ 595-606. 969-71 TOV EuXupav: i.e. Apollo, conceived as leading the dance with his instrument; cf. 315, 327-8; Av. 216-19. The adj. (poetic) is always used in the classical period of this god (Sapph. fr. 44. 33; Bacch. fr. 2oB. 50; E.
L I N E S 966-76
303
Ale. 570 (lyric); fr. 477 (lyric); subsequently at Limen. 4, p. 149 Powell), 959-61 n. except at Ra. 2,2,9 (°f the Muses; lyric). 114—16 n. Tofo(j>opos (attested nowhere else in comedy) is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. 77. 21. 483 (of Artemis); h.Ap. 13; 'Simon.' FGE 743 dyvas Apre{i,iSos rot;o>6pov; Pi. O. 6. 59; P. 5. 41; E. Tr. 804 (lyric); oracle ap. Hdt. ix. 43. 2; in classical prose only at Hdt. i. 103. i). One might expect the goddess to be invoked as a dancer (cf. 975—6 with n.) rather than a huntress; but perhaps (with Artemis, at least) the former idea was implicit in the latter (e.g. H. Od. 6. 101-9). dvaaaav: 123 n. Also used of Artemis at E. IT 1230; IA 434, 1482, 1523. dyvr|v: Poetic vocabulary; also of Artemis at e.g. Lys. 1315 (lyric); H. Od. 5. 123; 'Simon.'FGE743 (above); A. Supp. 144-5 with Johansen-Whittle adloc., 1030; Ag. 135. Q72a-b xaip(e): 129 n. 'EitdepYe and its cognates are used routinely in epic and non-dramatic poetry as epithets of Apollo (e.g. H. II. i. 147; 9. 564; h.Ap. 257; h.Merc. 307; Sol. fr. 13. 53; Simon. PMG 573; adesp. PMG 934. 2; Pi. P. 9. 28; Posidipp. 118. 10), and the chorus' request is most naturally taken as directed to him, as leader of the dance (969 with An n.), although it might be to Artemis instead, odd remark for a group of women taking part in a religious festival, but appropriate for a comic chorus competing to win the prize in the Theatre of Dionysos; cf. 964 with n., 1060-1 n., 1227-31 n. omx£o) is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. II. 7. 205; h.Hom. 30. 18; Thgn. 151; Pi. P. 4. 107; A. Th. 256; E. Hipp. 45; attested elsewhere in comedy only at Eq. 200, a mock-oracle) and is frequently found in petitions to deities et sim. For Hera Teleia ('who brings [marriages] to 973-6 accomplishment'; cf. 976), e.g. Pi. TV. 10. 18; A. Eu. 214; fr. 383; D.S. v. 73. 2; Paus. viii. 22. 2, 31. 9; Aristocl. Hist. FGrHist 33 F 3; Poll, iii. 38; Waanders §201; Salviat, BCH 88 (1964) 650-1; cf. Williams on Call. Ap. 14. More often an epithet of Zeus (Fraenkel on A. Ag. 973), of whom the chorus make no mention in their prayer (969—1000 n.). 721—2 n., 947 n. 3i6n. 'dances in'; cf. 795-6 n.; E. Ba. 866-7 ('like a fawn dancing in the green pleasures of the meadow', i.e. 'in the pleasant green meadows' (lyric; of a bacchant)); Jebb on S. Ant. 800 (lyric, and the earliest attestation of the compound); Dover, in Entretiens Hardt 38 (Vandoeuvres-Geneva, 1993) 176-8; also at fr. 463 (cf. Phot, e 731, referring to Hdt. iv. 134. 2) in the sense 'mock at' + dat. Cf. gSoa—b, 992, 994b, where other gods invoked by the chorus are similarly described as devoted to dancing. 'is guardian of wedlock'. Cf. above; 421-3 n. (on locks and keys), 1142 (of Athena) with n.; Bers 29 (on the use of
304
COMMENTARY
For Hermes as a rural or pastoral deity, e.g. Hes. 977-80 Th. 444; h.Merc. 2, 571; h.Ven. 262-3; Semon. fr. 20; S. OT 1104; E. EL 463; cf. LIMCv. i. 287—8. vop.ios is used of Hermes only here; more often of Apollo (Williams on Call. Ap. 47; of Pan (978) ath.Hom. 19. 5). For the def. art. omitted with both the name of the god and the epithet, Pax 42; Gildersleeve§545; contrastSsS. avrofiai: Poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 15. 698; Pi. P. 2. 71), also in the sense 'entreat, implore' at e.g. 1155 (lyric, in a very similar context; the only other attestation in comedy); S. OC 243 (lyric); E. Med. 709; Andr. 921; Supp. 278 (lyric); adesp. SH 1018. Kdi fldva Kai Nufi(|>as <|>iXas: The worship of Pan (mentioned elsewhere in Ar. only in the Frogs' song at Ra. 230) was introduced into Attica in 490 after the Battle of Marathon (Hdt. vi. 105), and he and the Nymphs (cf. 325-6 n.) were routinely associated in cult; cf.h.Hom. 19. 3~5;E.Hel. 186-90; Men. Dysk. 1-2; adesp. PMG 936. 1-2; P. Borgeaud, The Cult of Pan in Ancient Greece (Chicago and London, 1988; originally published in French in 1979) 133—72, esp. 139—42, 158—9; Athenian Religion 163-8; Larson 96-8, 130-1, 242-50. For Pan as a dancer, A. Pers. 448-9 with Broadhead ad loc.; carm. conv. PMG 887 (together with the Nymphs, and with the request ('might you be pleased and laugh at my fsongsf')). 'to smile/laugh [appreciatively, favourably] in response', as at e.g. PI. Phd. 77e; R. 398c; X. Cyr. i. 6. 27; iii. i. 43. A rare compound, otherwise attested in the classical period only in prose. Echoed in 981 (also line-final). is to be taken with both X 973~6n.; echoed in x
5-
(1)985 (2) 986 (3) 987/8
3ia iaba iamol
L I N E S 977-89
(4) 988a ( 5 ) 9 88b (6)989
305
pmol arist iaba
'leap!' E.El. 435, 477 (all 985 lyric); cf. S. OT 153 withKamerbeekadloc.; E. Tr. 325 (choral self-encouragement); PI. Cra. 4o6e-7a. Act. mxAAo) (usually trans, in the sense 'shake, brandish') is poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 3. 19; Alcm. PMGF6s; Pi. N. 3. 45; E. Andr. 697; carm. pop. PMG 856. 4); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Lys. 1303/4 (above), 'turn back!, go back [the way you came]!' withn., 955/6, 969 TrpojSaive iroai. Probably 'make elaborate' (in reference to the dance that accom986 panies the song rather than the song itself), with the image borrowed from metal-working (cf. LSJ s.v.; Bliimner iv. 231-2; Miiller 163-4); cfWycherley, CRyisg(igsg)2OS-6;E.Eenveniste,Hittiteetindo-europeen: Etudes comparatives (Paris, 1962) 119—22, esp. 121—2. 2R explains ropaiy Kal rpavtijs Xe-ye T"f]v taSr/v, as though the vb. might instead be derived from ropoy, 'piercing' (see Olson on Pax 380-1), with -udaav used proleptically of 'sing a piercing strain at the top of your voice'. But there is no reason to equate ropeviu and ropeo). 987—9 For 8e y(^) as a weak adversative in continuous speech, GP 155—6; cf. Av. 640, where Dobree's Se ye (Se re MSS) is preferable to Reisig's (printed by Dunbar). u)8(e) = Sevpo, as at Ach. 745, 1063; Av. 229; fr. 362. 2, and frequently in Sophocles (e.g. OC 182). Cf. 319 with n. auros au is balanced by lyi 8e. For the deity addressed in the 2ndpers., Norden 143-63, esp. 158. Elevated poetic vocabulary (Antigenes FGE 34 (early 5th c.); Pi. O. 2. 27 (of Dionysos); E. Tr. 1066 (lyric); Ba. 383-4 (lyric)); cf. Willi 124 n. 20. For the association of Dionysos with ivy, cf. 999—1000; Ecphantid. h.Hom. 26. I KiaaoKop.'rjs; Pratin. PMG 708. 15 fr.4 Kiaaoxair' ava|; Dodds on E. Ba. 81. For BaKxeie ('Bacchic one') as an epithet or cult-title of Dionysos, h.Hom. 19. 46; S. OT 1105; E. Cyc. 73; Hdt. iv. 79. i. Sea-uor': Cf. 286-8 n.; Ach. 247 E. Ba. 582; fr. 477 SeWora . . . BaK^e- Used of other divinities at e.g. Nu. 264 (Ajip); Lys. 940 (Zeus); Telecl. fr. 35 (Hermes); adesp. PMG 963 (Plouton). KiopoLs: Cf. 104 n.; but in context a reference to Dionysiac 'revels' (e.g. Nu. 606; Eub. fr. 93. 8; E. Cyc. 492; Ale. 343; cf. 1176) is heard as well. Poetic vocabulary (also 1136 (lyric); A. Pers. 448; E.I A 103 7 (lyric); cf. _Ra.4O3 =408 =413
(lyric))
306
COMMENTARY
99O-4b ~ 995-1000 The third strophic pair; cf. Parker 434-7. (1)990 ~995 (2)991 -996 (3)992 = 997 (4) 992/3 ~ 997/8 (5) 994a -999 (6) 994b = 1000
arist ph
aeol hexasyllable ia arist iaba iaba
(3) Cf. Parker 75. The invocation of Dionysos in the second mesode (987—8b) continues. For the style of address (typical of prayers and poetic apostrophes generally; cf. Norden 168-9), in which the voc. and the attributes attached to it are left hanging and no specific action is described or request made (although cf. 992—3 n.), Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1470—1 (p. 698); Barrett on E. Hipp. 752-7. 990—1 For Eiiie (derived from the cry evoi (cf. 994a with n.)) as a name for Dionysos, e.g. 994a; Ecphantid. fr. 4 (987-9 n.); E. Ba. 566, 579 (both lyric). R's eviov is a deliberate correction by someone concerned to eliminate hiatus before to, as again in 994a. Since R's is superfluous before Bpop.ie, and KOI SejieXas mai shows that the name of the god's father was also given, we print Enger's Aios au. For Dionysos described as 'son of Zeus and Semele', h.Hom. 26. 2; E. Ba. 581. For Bp6|_u€ (picked up by j3pep.ovTai in 997/8) as a name for Dionysos, e.g. Pratin. PMG 708. 3; Pi. fr. 75. 10; E. Cyc. i with Seaford ad loc.; Ba. 66 with Dodds ad loc.; Philox. Leuc. PMG 83&(c). 3. 992-3 The description serves as a discreet form of persuasion: just as Dionysos enjoys the hymns of the Nymphs as they dance in the mountains (cf. 325—6 n.), so too he ought to take pleasure in the chorus' dances and songs in honour of the gods and show them his favour (cf. 977-8ob, 1230i with n.). Nu|-i4>civ is to be taken with both xopois and ujivois. For the Nymphs as nurses and companions of Dionysos, e.g. h.Hom. 26. 9-10; Anacr. PMG 357. 1-5; E. Cyc. 4; cf. Larson 93-6. defines the sphere in which the activity in question takes place: Dionysos rejoices at the dances of the Nymphs 'with their lovely hymns'. Cf. Wilamowitz onE. HF 932', Dodds onE. Ba. 157—9. eparoj is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. Alcm. PMGF i. 76; Corinn. PMG &54(a). i. 25; Sol. fr. 4. 20; Pi. O. 10. 99; A. Th. 864 (lyric); E. Heracl. 915 (lyric); EL 718 (lyric)); attested nowhere else in comedy.
L I N E S QQO-IOOO
307
QQ4a-b Eui' Eui': 990-1 n. euoT: An excited interjection also used by Aristophanic choruses at Lys. 1294; EC. 1181 (both lyric; cf. Labiano Ilundain 175—6), and associated with the worship of Dionysos and similar deities at S. Tr. 219; E. Tr. 326; Ba. I4ib; D. 18. 260. Cf. PL 288-9 The supplement is conjectural but could easily have dropped out after Attested elsewhere only in late in 992. Euripides (HF783 (lyric); Ion 1079 (lyric); Ph. 1756 (lyric); Or. 582; Ba. 482, 1153 (lyric)). all aroundyou'(cf. 999 Treplae), but also 'inyourhonour'; 995-6 (of poets singing dithyrambic hymns; cf.Nu. 595); cf. fr. 62 Norden 158 (wrongly discarding aoi). 'the Kithaironian echo is made to resound', i.e. as the god's followers dance and sing (cf. 992-3). KTVTT€W is primarily poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. 77. 8. 75; Bacch. 23. 3 d^oi KTvmi; E. Ph. 1181; Ion TrGF 19 F 42. i; Timoth. PMG 791. 171 with Hordern on 199—200); for the pass., cf. PL For cf. 1059 758-9 with n. The echo is 'Kithaironian' because of the traditional association of Dionysos with Thebes (and thus with Mt. Kithairon). The adj. is first attested here; subsequently at E. Ba. 1045 (in the form 997-8 repeat the image in 995-6, while lending it more detail. Cf. Av. (lyric). 739-40 ('dark with foliage') is elevated poetic vocabulary; elsewhere at Anacr. PMG 443 (corrupt); Simon. PMG 519 fr. 93. 3; Pi. P. i. 27; S. 00482. ScujKia ('thickly shaded'; generally of mountains or woods) is in this period exclusively poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. II. 15. 273; h.Cer. 386; Semon. fr. 14. i; Pi. N. 6.43; E.P>a. 218); attested no where else in comedy. 5th- and 4th-c. vocabulary (e.g. S. Ant. 774, 957—8; Hp. Aer. i (ii. 12. 17); Th. iv. 9. 2; PI. R. 6i2a). vdirai: Cf. Gow-Page on GPh 27. PpejiovTcii: 'resound' vel sim.; an echo of Bpop,i€ in 991 (where see n.). Poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. II. 4. 425; Ale. fr. 130. b. 18; Epich.fr. 18.2; Pi. P. n. 30; S.Ant. 592; E. Tr. 83); for the mid., 7?a. 680 (lyric); H. II. 2. 210; 14. 399; A. Th. 351 (lyric); Pi. TV. 11.7; cf. Bers 112. 999—1000 An elaborate way of saying that Dionysos wears a garland of ivy in his hair (cf. 987—9 n.). But also recalls the behaviour of the god's devotees as they dance around him, and thus by extension that of the comic chorus. For the description, cf. h.Hom. (a Dionysiac miracle); E. Ph. 7. 40-1 651-2 €UTT€Ta\os: Rare poetic vocabulary (also Pi. fr. 94b. 69; Philox. Leuc. PMG 83&(b). 17; PI. API xvi. 210. 4). Attested elsewhere in comedy only at Ra. 1321 (lyric; parody of Euripides). Poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. O<7. 12. 103;
308
COMMENTARY
Alcm. PMGF 20. 4; Semon. fr. 7. 85; Archil, fr. 188. i; E. Ion 1436); attested nowhere else in comedy. 1001—1225 Like other Aristophanic barbarians (cf.Ach. 100, 104; Av. 1615, 1628—9, 1678—9), the Skythian speaks a garbled pidgin-Greek; following a suggestion of Dover's, we print it without accents (which he must consistently have got wrong) except on interrogatives. The chief characteristics of the Skythian's Greek are: (A) Phonology (1) Neglect of inital aspiration (e.g. 1002 iKerevai, 1007 Iva, 1091/2 iy, 1111 un(2) Unaspirated T for 0 (e.g. 1001 aspirated TT for > (e.g. 1007 1103 and unaspirated « for ^ (e.g. 1094 Kaip-rjaeis, 1108 and 1190 1179 1127 1214 (3) Neglect of final -v and -y (an inconsistently represented feature; e.g. IOO5 [AClXXd, IIO3T7], II 12 TTClVOVpyO, 1176 KWfACl).
(B) Morphology (1) Numerous incorrect inflectional endings, with the proper form often replaced by an all-purpose -o (e.g. 1007 ace. sing, -n-op^oy, 1103 and gen. sing. TO ypa^areo, 1112 nom. sing. 1123 ace. sing, yepovro). (2) Grammatical gender routinely ignored (e.g. 1097 1109 1123 and i199 1188 1192 H33 (3) Short -i used as ending for ist-pers. sing. pres. act. indie. (1104 fut. act. indie, (e.g. 1003 and 1216 Spaai, 1118 ^r/XiuoL (with pres. meaning), 1179 KiuXva(i), 1196 Siuai, 1201 pf^vrfai), and aor. act. subJune. (1007 (e)|wiy«i. . . TrvXa^i); 2nd-pers. sing. pres. act. indie, (i 102 pres. act. imper. (1001 ol^ia^i), fut- act- indie. (1088 and 1187 K\ava(i), 1108 XaXr/ai, 1190 771X1)01) and pass, indie. (1125 aor. act. subjunc. (1002 iKereuai); 3rd-pers. sing. pres. act. indie. (1176 dveyeipi), aor. act. imper. (1179 ^.eAerTjai) and pass, imper. (ii79op«7j(ji),pf. pass, indie. (1215 KriTapepivrjai (conjectural)), and fut. pf. pass, indie, (i 127 a-jroKeKoijji). (4) -is (for -6Ls/-6is) as ending for 2nd-pers. sing. act. indie. (1083 and 1087 XaXis, 1089 (e)KKaaKis); an inconsistently represented feature, although van Herwerden remarked (Studia critica in poetas scenicos Graecorum (Amsterdam, 1872) 70) 'ferendum non puto sagittarium modoeipervocalem pronuntiare modo per diphthongum. qui dixit et quidni ei tribuamus (C) Syntax (i) 1109 an awkward paratactic construction (with
L I N E S 999—1001
309
(2) 1120 another awkward paratactic construction. (D) Semantics I I I 4 KVGTO 'cunt') used to mean 'dick'. (E) Solecisms (i) 1007 for (2)1126 for (3)1176 for for (4)n93 (F) Barbarisms (a) verbs (1) 1005 for mid.-pass. (2) 1007 for for (3) n°9 (4)1118 for for (5)n23 for mid. (6) ii95 (7) 1201 for for (8)1212 (b) nouns for 1192 Cf. Friedrich, Philologus 75 (1919) 274-303, esp. 282-96; Brixhe, in R. Lonis (ed.), L'Etranger dans le monde grec (Nancy, 1988) 114-38; Hall 39-40; Halliwell, in 'Owls to Athens' 71-2; Sier, in C. W. Miiller et al. (eds.), Zum Umgang mil fremden Sprachen in der griechisch-romischen Antike (Palingenesia 36: Stuttgart, 1992) 63—84; S. Colvin, Dialect in Aristophanes (Oxford Classical Monographs: Oxford and New York, 1999) 290-1; Willi 143-6, and more fully in ch. 7 ('Foreigner Talk') of The Languages of Aristophanes (see Preface, p. x) 198—225. The Skythian (played 1001 now by the tritagonist; cf. 923 n., 930-1 n.) emerges from the central stage-door. Inlaw is dragged or carried on along with him (perhaps by a mute slave or two rather than by the Skythian himself) shackled to a plank (cf. 930—1 with n.). The 'blocking figure' who prevents the old man from being rescued by Eur. is now no longer a woman or even an Athenian citizen ( i n 1-12 n.), and this is crucial to bringing the action to a close; cf. 1050—1 n., 1098—1100 n., 1128—9 n.; Hall 50—2; Introduction p. Ixvi. :DisCf. PI. 1129 da/Aia£' evravda Trpos rrjv aldptav. missively scornful, as at V. 149*; PL 724*; [A.] PV&i with Griffith ad loc. Lit. 'say (cf. 173-4 n.), but really only a vague general curse, as at 1081/2. irpos TT]V airpiav: 'in the open air'; cf. 69 n.; PL 1129* (above). aWpia is attested in comedy (also Nu. 371; Cratin. fr. 58. 2; in both places with long i), elegy (Sol. fr. 13. 22; adesp. SH 958. 17), and
310
COMMENTARY
iambs (adesp. ia. fr. n. 2), and in 5th- and4th-c. prose (e.g. Hdt. i. 87. 2; X.HGi. i. 16), but is absent from tragedy and lyric. Cf. 931*. iK€T€uu ae: 751—2 n. Throughout this scene, the Skythian treats Inlaw in a cold and sometimes actively hostile manner (1003-6, 1083-9 withnn., 1108-9, 1118-20, 1123-4, 1135). With the disguised Eur. he is initially somewhat more polite (i 102—24), although he shows no interest in letting his prisoner go (1121—4) and quickly turns nasty again when his visitor attempts to insist on freeing him (i 125-7). The 'nail' in question must be the pin around Inlaw's neck (cf. 930-1 n., 1054 XaLp.oTp.riT'), which the Skythian in the second half of this verse pushes further into the wood. For d\\a + fut. indie, expressing consent (here feigned) to a request or command, cf. Lys. 1030; GP 17. 1004—5CT|J Y€ adds emphasis to euiKpoueis; 'you're driving it in further!' Cf. A deliberate 35 n., 1224. misrepresentation of Inlaw's protest in 1004. Cf. 223* with n. 1006 KaKtis omoXoio: Cf. 757 with n. aiy
(on 6K(j>epeLv). A mopnos (i.e. <j>opp.os) is here a rough woven mat (cf. 811—13 n.) of a sort used (at least by the poor) to sleep on (PL 542; adesp. com. fr. 685 ^op^oKonelv ('to make one's bed on a mat'); Gow on Theoc. 21. 13). At 931-2 the Prytanis orders the Skythian to 'stand here and guard' Inlaw. The Skythian's decision instead to take a nap next to his prisoner both marks him as a typically unreliable comic slave (e.g. V. 1-7; Lys. 184 with Henderson ad loc.; Olson on Pax 255-6; cf. 1115-24 with 1115 n., 1123-4 n., 1198-9 with n.) and is a useful dramatic device, in that it allows action of all sorts to go on without his noticing (1009—79, 1160—75). The Skythian exits through the central stage-door and returns a moment later carrying a rush- or reed-mat, on which he lies down and immediately goes to sleep; 1182—3 are most easily staged if he does this at the very edge of the stage (cf. n76n.). (a) (prosaic) is sarcastic, asatAv. 177, 1358; fr. 581. 14; PI. Com. fr. 184. 2; E. Andr. 543; Ph. 1205; PI. Cri. 54a; Euthd. zgga. The gen. defines the source of the alleged advantage (Poultney 88).
LINESIOOI-I2
311
IOOQ Eur. could remain off stage and Inlaw could simply be describing for the audience in the Theatre something he (supposedly) can see in the distance but they cannot. But there is no advantage to staging the lines in so minimalist a fashion, and more likely Eur. emerges abruptly from Wing A; gestures frantically to Inlaw (1010—12 withn.), thus avoiding awakening the Skythian; and dashes off through the central stage-door, i o 11 does not imply that Eur. is dressed like Perseus (cf. n. ad loc.), which would considerably diminish the effect of his entrance at 1098. ia: 6ggn. ('Zeus the Saviour'; cf. Men. Epitr. 907) is appropriately invoked here (as at EC. 1045; PI. 877) at the moment when salvation seemingly appears. For the cult of the god (also named in oaths at Ra. 738, 1433; .Ec. 79, 761, 1103), e.g. PI. 1175; Alex. fr. 234. 2 with Arnott ad loc. (with additional references from comedy); E. HF48; IG IP 333. B. 13; 380. 21, 31; 410. 18; 448. 70; Roscher, Lexikon iv. 1262—71; Fraenkel on A.Ag. 1387; Garland 108; Olson-Sens on Archestr. fr. 59. i. Cf. 870 with n., 945-6 n. loio—12 serve primarily to interpret Eur.'s (perhaps somewhat complicated) mute gestures (1009 n.) for the audience in the Theatre. 'he Cf. 926 withn. gave me a covert signal', requiring the interpretation that follows in 1012. The compound is first attested here; subsequently at Aristox. Harm. i. 4. 10 (p. 8. n Da Rios); cf. PI. Phdr. 2&7a €K8pafi(iv: 'running [out of the wing like] Perseus' (cf. 1009 n.; V. 144; Taillardat §871; Kassel, KS 388-91; Arnott on Alex. fr. 47. 5); presumably a reference to something that went on on stage in E. Andromeda (for which, see below), rather than to Eur.'s costume. Euripides' Andromeda (frr. 114-56; parodied in 1015-1126) was staged along with Helen in 412; cf. 850-1 n.; Introduction pp. IxiiIxiii. Ar. also alludes to Andromeda atRa. 53 and perhaps Lys. 963 (cf. E. fr. 116 ap. 2R); Ra. 105 (~ E. fr. 144). Andromeda and Perseus are mentioned together already at Hes. fr. 135. 5-7 (cf. Hdt. vii. 61. 3), and other tragedies involving them were written by Sophocles (frr. 126-36; cf. Klimek-Winter 23—54), Lycophron (TrGF 100 F ic), and Phrynichos II (TrGF 212 T i). Pratinas also wrote a Per sens (TrGF4. F 2), but whether Andromeda appeared in it is unclear; cf. Klimek-Winter 5-6. The comic potential of the tale was widely recognized in Ar.'s time: Kratinos wrote a Seriphioi some time around 423 (frr. 218—32, with Andromeda referred to as ('female bait', i.e. both for a sea-monster and a careless male hero?) at fr. 231); Eupolis' Marikas (421 Be) seems to have featured a parody of Andromeda's chaining, with a drunken old woman standing in for the heroine (JVM. 553—6); the Sicilian comic poet Phormos wrote a play entitled Kepheus for Kephalia\ or Perseus (test. i. 3—4); and cf. Antiph. fr. 33; adesp. com. fr. 1104.
312
COMMENTARY
Cf. 851 (introducing the Helen parody), 11051012-14 6 with n. TCI 8€<jfi(d): 'the bonds, chains' (pace LSJ s. Sea^ioy 1.2), as again in 1125. 8fj\ov KT\. resumes the crucial point made in 1009—10 after the explanation in 1010—12. For the sequence 1076. Dobree supplemented ovv {TOVT'}. Handley suggests 'a trema over i and/or v having been taken as a sign of deletion (cf. Ach. 490 (fv) 'laOi Meineke)'; but if Inlaw is talking to himself, one would expect ev oZS' STL. ou . . . av Trap€TrraTo: 'he would not have flown to my side'; Brunck's irapeirrero is unnecessary (Beobachtungen 98 n. i). Inlaw's choice of vb. reflects the rapidity of Eur.'s passage across the stage (cf. ion eKSpa^ow with 1009 n.; Taillardat §228)—as well as of his subsequent retreat through the central stage-door—and does not suggest use of themechane. Cf. 1098-1 icon.; Introduction p. Ixxii. 'for [otherwise]' (GP62-3). 1015—55 Mostly iambic, with other metres mixed in. Non-responding. Cf. Mitsdorffer, Philologus 98 (1954) 59—93; Parker 436—45; Lourenco 321—4. The metrical scheme is tied closely to that of the Euripidean original, the preserved portions of which can be analysed as: fr. n y d o b a j f r . n8do ba, tel ith, hyperdo; fr. 119 do ba, tel ith; fr. 120 2ia, lek, 3ia.
(1) 1015 (2) 1016-17 (3)1018-19 (4) IO2O-I (5) 1022-3
(6) 1024 (7) 1025 (8) 1026/7 (9) 1027/8/9 (10) 1029/30 (n) 1031-2 (12) 1033 (13)1034-5 (14) 1036 (15) 1037-8 (16) 1039 (17) 1040-1 (18) 1042 (19) 1043 (20)1044 (21) 1045 (22) 1046
baia
cho cr ith 4ba tel ith 2ia lek 2ia 2ia 2 do 2 do ith ba 3ia 2cr 3ia iaith iaba iaba iaba 4ia 2hypodo 2hypodo ith extrametrical 2tr 2tr 2tr ph
L I N E S 1012-17
313
(23) I047a (24) I047b (25)io48a
do ith D
(26) (27) (28) (29) (30)
lek 3ia alcman.
io48b 1049 1050 1051 1052-3
(31) i°54 (32) 1055
— D— 2alcman. hypodo do ith
(i, io)baia is an unusual combination (cf. 352; Dover on Nu. 953-4) and Ar.'s use of it here, where the original has do ba, may represent a deliberate attempt to call mocking attention to a Euripidean metrical mannerism; cf. T. C. W. Stinton, Collected Papers on Greek Tragedy (Oxford, 1990) 126-7 (first published in 1975); Hose, MCr 21/22 (1986-7) 143-4; Lourenco 321. (3) Forthebacchiacs, cf. 1143—4 with metrical n.; E./ow 1446; Hel. 642—3; Ph. 1536; Or. 1437—40 (all in monody); Lyric Metres2 101. (4, 9, 12, 17, 24, 32) The ithyphallics (cf. 327a, 330) act as a zesty refrain in Inlaw's pot-pourri. For the resolution in (9), cf. (32) and for the form here E. Ph. 1746 aKOTia-yqKaXvifjiu. Mehler (Mnemosyne 2 (1853) 213) was the first to add (p.e) before Kopafi. Alternatively read here (with Austin ap. Lourenco 322) = 2do ia ba (eKpe{i,aaev Bothe); but another ithyphallic is more than welcome. (16, 17) Alternatively 'do hypodo' and 'hypodo do ith'; as West, GM no n. 92, notes, 'if the first position is resolved there is nothing to distinguish "hypodo" from "do".' (27) For the split resolution, see metrical n. on 113. (31) XaLp.oTp.riT' with Attic scansion. 1015—17 2R identifies 1015 as borrowed from E. Andromeda fr. 117 (presumably Andromeda's opening words to the chorus), and adds the corrupt comment ('and what is added (i.e. in 1016-17) [is] 'adapted from, a parody of (LSJ s.v. Ttapa C.I.6) the same useful thing' vel sim.). Wilamowitz emended to mxpd TO aino %opiKov ('parodies the same choral section'), but this is a monody rather than a choral song (cf. Rau 71), and although 1016 is paratragic, the effect of 1017 depends on the jarring discontinuity with what precedes. More likely 1016—17 are Aristophanic pastiche. + opt. expresses a hopeless wish, 'if only I could . . .!' (22—4 n.), as commonly in tragedy (e.g. E. Ale. 864; Med. 97; Hipp. 208-11, 345 (=
314
COMMENTARY
Eq. 16); Supp. 618; HF487-8; fr. 399. 1-2 refers to Inlaw's situation, not Andromeda's, and the remark thus comes as a surprise after 1015—16. Cf. 1021 withn. ioi8-iQ2Rcompares E. Andromeda fr. 118 (the heroine is singing) ('I speak to you who are in the caves: cease, Echo, and allow me to have my fill of lamentation with my friends'). For the attempt to silence Echo (here Eur.), cf. 1073-82 with nn. For the text, Austin (1990) 28; Parker 443. Sommerstein's dvrais ('who sing in response to my cries') would also do but is slightly further from the paradosis. K\ueis: Elevated poetic vocabulary, attested elsewhere in comedy only at Eg. 813 —PI. 601 (= E. fr. 713); Av. 407, 416, 432 (all lyric), 1390 (Kinesias is speaking); Ra. 1173-4 ( = A. Ch. 5); Pherecr. fr. 155. i (the personified Music is speaking; perhaps paratragic). tompoaaSoua': Elmsley's restoration is to be found in Th. Tyrwhitt, Coniecturae in Aesch., Eur. et Ar. (Oxford, 1822) 68 n. a. durds: Like the somewhat more common cognate vb. avrew, elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 2. 153; Ale. fr. 298. 14; CEG 145. 4 (c.6oo?); Pi. N. 9. 35; A. Ch. 564; E. Heracl. 646; Timoth. PMGfgi. 100); attested nowhere else in comedy (dvrfta atLys. 717 (paratragic?)). Iv dVrpois: i.e. from behind the central stagedoor. 1020—I Kardveuaov: 'nod downward!', i.e. 'signal your consent!' (e.g. EC. 72; Men. Sik. 420; H. //. 2. 350; cf. 507 with n., 929 n.). The asyndetic pleonasm adds urgency to the request. us / TT|V YUVCUKCI \i l\0€iv: Like 1017 (where see n.), an unexpected irruption of Inlaw's real situation into his paratragic poetry. That the old man has a wife—to whom he is desperately eager to return!—has perhaps been hinted at in the reference to his children at 289-91 (although there he is disguised as a woman and there is little reason to take anything he says as serious), and even more obliquely in the description of him as Eur.'s 'inlaw' (74 with n.). In any case, explicit reference to this element of his character is an important step in the process of papering over one of the play's central conflicts; cf. 1206 withn.; Introduction p. Ixvi. 1022—3 Adapted from E. Andromeda fr. 120 (the chorus respond to the heroine's lament by condemning her father) ('Pitiless he who begot you, the most wretched of mortals, and handed you over to Hades to die on behalf of your fatherland'; cited by 2R). Inlaw is complaining about the Skythian, but the theme of betrayal by one's kin is taken up again in 1039-46 (of Eur.), 1056-7(05 Kepheus). Inlaw alternates between masc. (also 1024, 1027/8/9, 1038) and fern. (1031—2, 1040—1) adjs. and parts., depending on whether his own situa-
L I N E S IOI5-55
315
tion or Andromeda's is to the fore; cf. ^e'Aeoy (probably to be taken as fern., although the ambiguity may be intentional) in 1037-8. 447-8 n. i.e. Kritylla (whom 1024-5 Inlaw did not really escape, except in the sense that she has now left the stage; but the claim that he did and subsequently fell into even worse danger adds pathos to the complaint), ypam ('grey', and thus by extension 'old [woman]'; first attested at H. Od. i. 438) is in the 5th c. tragic vocabulary (e.g. A. Eu. 69; S. Tr. 870) and is particularly common in Euripides (e.g. Herad. 584; Hel. 441); attested nowhere else in comedy. aairpos (properly 'rotten') is also used of the old (always pejorative) at e.g. Pax6g&;Ec. 884; Hermipp. fr. 9; Eup. fr. 237; PI. Com. fr. 57. i. Cf. Oeri 11—12; Taillardat §56. diitd\6fiT]v: Para prosdokian for (thus 2R with the comment yapiv ye'Aairoy, 'to raise a laugh'). is a considerable exaggeration, given 1026-9 that the Skythian is sprawled out on the ground asleep (1007 with n.). But putting things this way makes Inlaw's situation sound even more desperate than it is; cf. 1024-5 with n. Sr/ (an easy uncial omission after AAI) often emphasizes Trd\ai(e.g.Av. 921; [A.]PVgg8; S. Ph. 806; OCi628;X. Cyr. viii. 7. i; PI. Alc.II I39d). KtoXoov = «(ai) oAow; the copula was omitted by haplography after -«e. For the crasis, cf. 484 «(ai) oSvvi), 747 «(ai) oaov. The adj. (attested nowhere else in comedy) is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g.H.77. 13. 629; Ale. fr. 298. 16; Alcm. PMGF-j. i7;Bacch. 5. 121; E. Andr. 1211 (lyric)); normally act. in sense ('baneful, ruinous'), but pass, ('doomed, ruined') also at A. Pers. 962. d<|>i\ov: Found nowhere else in comedy, but common in tragedy (e.g. A. Th. 522 (lyric; the earliest attestation of the word, in the sense 'hostile'); Ch. 295; S.Ant. 876 (lyric, in lamentation); Ph. 1018 (lamentation); E. IT 220 (lyric, in lamentation); Or. 310 (lamentation)); in classical prose at e.g. Lys. 2. 73; 13. 18; PI. Lg. 73oc; D. 53. i. eKpe^aae: Cf. 1053, mo; Sandbach on Men. Dysk. 249; Plaut.Most. 1167; Peek, GVI1120. 7-8 (Caria, 2nd/ist c.; spoken by a young man killed by a slave) Semvov: 'as a dinner for [the] ravens', which Inlaw imagines feeding on his corpse as it hangs in public view, or perhaps even pecking out his eyes before he is dead (cf. 868 n., 942 withn.; Olson onAch. 92—3 (where Dikaiopolis may be suggesting that Pseudartabas be treated as Inlaw is here)); hence the curse 'To the ravens!' (e.g. 1079, 1226). 1029/30-55 This portion of Inlaw's song is probably borrowed more or less direct from Andromeda (= E. fr. 122; cf. 2R 1030, 1034, 1040), with a few quick jokes (1031, 1033, 1051) and a complaint appropriate to the old man's situation (1043-6; perhaps still adapting the tragic exemplar) thrown in. Much of the humour thus consists simply in the fact that the lament of a beautiful Euripidean maiden has been put in the mouth of
316
COMMENTARY
a ridiculous old man—who (unlike Andromeda) is almost entirely responsible for the terrible situation he is in. Nu. 553-6 suggests that the treatment of the story in Eupolis' Marikas (in which Andromeda was represented by a drunken old woman) was similar (cf. Oeri 13—14). 1029/30-32 For the complaint (in which exclusion frompub lie dances stands via synecdoche for the loss of everything that makes an unmarried girl's life joyful), cf. Elektra at E. El. 178-80 (' I shall not bring about dances and pound my foot [on the ground] with unwed Argive girls in a circle'), and Oedipus' dire prediction for his daughters at S. OT 1489-91. must be addressed to 'Echo'/Eur. (cf. 1018—19); in the original, presumably spoken to the chorus as a whole (despite the sing.; but cf. KlimekWinter 179-80). 1030-1 is a troubled passage, (i) iVointhe sense 'accompanied by' almost always takes an impersonal obj. (cf. LSJ s.v. A. II. 4—5; Poultney 194; Bubel on this passage = hisE.Andromedafr. 9. i), and Mitsdorffer accordingly proposed expelling the prep, from R's (producingcria). ButatHdt. ii.45. i moTTo^mjyrefers to a group of celebrants, and R's text is thus perhaps better taken 'accompanied by girls my own age' (thus Klimek-Winter 175). (2) In 1031, R offers I/ITJ^OV K-q^ov earr/K' f-^ova , which is unmetrical and nonsensical. Hermann expelled i/>rj>ov as an intrusive gloss and took KTJ^W as a reference to the wickerwork funnel through which individual Athenian jurors dropped their voting-pebbles (I/ITJ^IOI) into the urns in which the pebbles were collected for counting (cf. Eg. 1150; V. 99, 755—6 ('and might I stand by the funnels, the last of those voting') with MacDowell on 94). In that case, the joke might be that Inlaw claims to suffer by not being in the . . . lawcourts (thus 2R); and the Euripidean original might have had K(jjp.ov . . . a-yova' (thus van Leeuwen) vel sim. But this fits badly with 1029/30, and the old man ought really to hold a voting-pebble rather than the funnel into which it is to be deposited, (i/irjfiov . . . e^ova' would be easier sense (cf. V. 94 but it is then difficult to see how the lectio difficilior KTHJLOV got into the text.) A KTJ^OS can also be a muzzle for a horse or a basket used to catch eels (cf. LSJ s.v.), and Aeschylus seems to have used the word to mean 'bonds' (fr. 125). But Hsch. « 2514 ~ Phot. « 665 ~ S « 1520 offer the additional gloss yvvaiKfiov irpoKoaprnia ('an ornament worn in front by women'), and we follow P. Pucci, Aristofane edEuripide: ricerche metriche e stilistiche (Mem. Att. Accad. Line. viii. 10. 5: 1961) 372-3, in assuming that this is the sense intended here. In any case, Ar. was clearly concerned to stick as close as possible to his tragic exemplar, and an audience familiar with the Euripidean Andromeda would have had an easier time with the text than we have, Forms of (attested nowhere else in comedy) are very common in serious poetry (e.g.
L I N E S 1029-38
317
H. Od. 7. 20; Alcm. PMGFi. 68; Pi. P. 9. 31; A. Eu. 959) and especially in Euripides (e.g. Med. 1150; Hec. 577; Ph. 423), whereas ijAixos-is almost entirely confined to comedy (e.g. Ach. 703; EC. 465; Philem. fr. 4. 3) and prose (e.g. PI. Chrm. I54b; R. 423)3); so that if one of the words is corrupt (or at least non-Euripidean), it is more likely to be Cf. 1012-13. €fru€TT\€YH€vr]: Primarily poetic vocabulary (e.g. Cratin. fr. 270. 2 (paratragic?); S. OT 1264; [A.] PV6io; Timoth. PMG 791. 146); particularly common in Euripides (e.g. Hipp. 1236; Or. 1422), but attested nowhere else in Ar. Cf. E. Andromeda fr. 121 1033 ('to offer as food to the sea-monster') and what are most likely echoes of Euripides' language at Eratosth. Cat. 15 irapadfivai ru> (ojrei j3opav, Apollod. ii. 4. 3 (both from the story of Andromeda). KTJTOJ is poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. 77. 13. 27; E. fr. 145. 2); elsewhere in comedy only at Nu. 556 (also of the sea-monster to whom Andromeda was offered). j3opa too is primarily poetic vocabulary (e.g. Pi. fr. I24C. 2; A. Pers. 490; S. Ant. 1017; E. Ph. 1603); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Eq. 416; Amips. fr. 8 ~ PI. Com. fr. 57. 2 (another echo of an Andromeda play?; cf. Raines, CP 29 (1934) 340—1). For the use of irpoKfipai, cf. Hdt. i. in. 3; LSJ s.v. I. 2. Glauketes (PA 2944; PAA 274620) is mocked as a glutton at Pax 1008 (cf. Olson ad loc.); PI. Com. fr. 114. 2-3. Here his name appears as a joke, the resemblance to a sea-monster being that he too gulps down anything that gets in his way, especially seafood. 1034-5 The contrast between lost pleasures and possibilities and current troubles echoes that apparently drawn in 1029-3 3 • Forthe specific contrast between the marriage-song and lamentation, E. Ale. 922 ('but now there is a cry of lamentation in place of marriagesongs'); Herad. 579-80 ('and you see me too offering up my time of marriage and likely to die instead'); cf. E. Hec. 416; 1A 1398—9. For the wedding-song (sung by the couple's family and friends as they escorted them from the bride's house to the groom's), e.g. Pax 1334-64 with Olson on 1334-5; Sapph. fr. 44. 24-34; E. Ale. 915-21; cf. Oakley and Sinos 26—8. 'Paian' is used in the general sense 'solemn song' (LSJ s.v. II. 3). ya^TjAioy is elevated tragic vocabulary; elsewhere in Ar. only at 1122 (also paratragic); Av. 1758 (lyric); and perhaps Av. 1693 (where see Dunbar's n.). For the 'illusory effect of balance . . . produced by a jiev in the negative clause', see GP 168. Sc. imiiavL. &eap.ios is common in tragedy (e.g. A. Eu. 306 (the earliest attestation); S. Ai. 299; E. IT 469; Ba. 355), but is attested nowhere else in comedy. 1036—8 y°
318
COMMENTARY
(e.g. A. Pers. 1073 (lyric); S. OT 1249; Tr. 51; E. Tr. 288 TpwdSes {!,€-[ (lyric)), but attested nowhere else in comedy. 574—5 n. i-ilAea . . . jieXeos is a high-style polyptoton. Cf.S.Ant. 977-80 TToSl \ripev
L I N E S 1036-47
319
attested nowhere else in comedy. The Doric gen. Ai8a (in tragic lyric at e.g. A. Th. 869; E. Herad. 912-13; HF 736) is attested elsewhere in comedy only at Ra. 1333 (parody of Euripidean lyric). An objective gen. ('a lament for my death' vel sim.). Elevated poetic vocabulary; extremely common in Euripides but attested nowhere else in comedy. R's >evyovaav is meaningless, and we print Rau's (cf. Austin (1987) 85; 'pouring [out]'), which fits the metaphor; cf. 554 n.; A. Ch. 449 ^eovaa -jroXv&aKpvv yoov (lyric) with Garvie ad loc.; S. OT 1219-20 Burges lav ytwv / e« aToudrwv (lyric); E. Supp. 773 'Ai&ov re uo\Trds eic^'a) Saxpvppoovs; Johansen-Whittle on A. Supp. 632 (lyric). But Enger's <j>Xe-yovaa is also possible (cf. 680—3 n -> Taillardat §736) and is slightly closer to the paradosis. A paratragic expression of grief; cf. 885 n., 1128 with 1042 n.; V. 315; S. EL 826 e e, a tat; E. Hipp. 595 ami e e; Labiano Ilundain 127-30. 1043—4 The first thing Eur. does to Inlaw to make him resemble a woman is in fact to shave his face (215-35, esp. 215 airo^vpfiv raSt), and the old man tacitly conflates that outrage with the closely related process of singeing his arse that follows (236—46), just as he sums up the way he was dressed in female clothing (249—63) by mentioning only the first item he was made to put on, the krokotos (253 rov xpoKwrov Trpwrov evSvov). Cf. 941-2 n. The anaphora of os €fi(e) parodies elevated poetic style (e.g. H. Od. 2.131). KpoKoevr' is aneut. pi., as Hermann saw (Opusc. viii. 306); 'he dressed me in saffron'. For this form of the adj. (implicitly treated here as poetic), Tyrt. fr. 18. 2; Sapph. fr. 92. 7; Pi. P. 4. 232 with Braswell ad loc.; E. Ph. 1491 (lyric). d^eSuoev (2R) is attested elsewhere only at S. Tr. 605 (mid.); R's unmetrical eve&vaev is a prosaic gloss that has driven out the less familiar form. For the double ace., cf. Lys. 1021 IvSvaw ae. 1045-6 eui + dat.: 'in addition to'; cf. Nu. 480; EC. 82; PL 57. r68' The bare ace. of direction is elevated poetic style (877—8 n.), as is the absence of a copula in ivGayuvaiKes ('where the women [are]'; cf. K G i . AT"). Cf. Nu. I259a; V. 750 (both paratragic); E. Ale. iO47a-b Ph. 1290 Id) P.OL -JTOVIUV (both lyric); KG i. 388; Labiano Ilundain 236—40. iriKre: A common idiomatic use of the impf. (e.g. V. 312 = E. fr. 385; Cratin. fr. 360. 3; Men. Sam. 56 with Sandbach ad loc.; H. //. 16. 180; Hes. Th. 45; A. Eu. 321; E. Ale. 638; Andr. 566; Ph. 289 withMastronardeadloc.; PI. Chrm. is8b). 'my evil genius' vel sim.; cf. 1054 a-^i] 8aLuovi(a)', Wilamowitz 485 n. i ('Dass sein boser Damon das Geschick, seine uoipa, erzeugt hat, ist ein so lustig verstiegener Ausdruck wie die Verbindung von Dochmius und Ithyphallikus'; cf. 1029, 1041); Olson on Pax 39—40.
320
10483
COMMENTARY
Cf. E. Andr. 838-9
Hel. 53-4. The adj. (first attested at Bacch. fr. 2oA. 10) often functions simply as a form of abuse (e.g. 1097, 1109; Pax 33, 1272; Lys. 530; Pherecr. fr. 76. 3; E.Hec. 716; D. 18. 209 with Wankelad loc.; 19. 70 with MacDowell ad loc.). But iO47a-b leave no doubt that Inlaw is actually presenting himself as 'subject to a curse' (cf. E. Hipp. 1362); perhaps he belatedly recognizes this as an inevitable consequence of the sacrilege he has committed by invading the Thesmophorion. Cf. 941-4 with nn. In the Euio48b-io4Q ripidean original, Andromeda must have presented her undeserved suffering as likely to evoke widespread pity rather than contempt (as here). -jraOos is common 5th-c. vocabulary (first attested in Aeschylus), but is found elsewhere in Ar. only at 1058 (paratragic); V. 328 (paratragic anapaests); Lys. 479 (lyric), and was seemingly regarded by him as a marker of elevated style. dfieyipTOv: 'unenviable, melancholy'; predicative of -n-ddos. Rare epic (e.g. H. //. 2. 420; Od. 21. 362; Hes. Th. 660; h.Merc. 542) and tragic (A. Supp. 642 (lyric); fr. **273a. n (anapaests); E. Hec. 192 (lyric); [A.] PV 402 (lyric)) vocabulary; attested nowhere else in comedy. eui KaKtov mapouaia: 'on account of the presence of troubles'; modifying dp.e-ya.pTov. For this use of em, cf. Eg. 406 For cf. E. Hec. 227 1050-1 For the wish for death in 1050 (diverted, upon second thought, in 1051 onto the Skythian; cf. Austin (1990) 28—9), cf. V. 328—9 (paratragic) with Kleinknecht 64-6; S. Tr. 1085-8; E. Med. 144-5; Andr. 847-50, esp. 847; Supp. 829-31, esp. 831; [A.] PV 582-3. (lit. 'a fire-bearing star of the upper air') must refer to a lightning bolt; cf. 14—15 n., and the passages cited above, and note the use of (primarily poetic vocabulary) in similar contexts at Av. 1248 with Dunbar ad loc., 1750; A. Th. 444; Pi. N. 10. 71; S. OT 200; Ph. 1198; OC 1658. For darr/p similarly used in lyric to mean 'fire' (rather than 'star'), E. Hel. 1131. Inlaw's reference to the Skythian as ('the barbarian'; contrast 1017 is the first step in an elaborate literary and social manoeuvre that eventually brings the conflicts with which the play began to a close. Cf. 1001 n., Cf. 1098—1100 n., 1129 with n.; Introduction p. Ixvi. 562-3 n.;Ach. 1152-3; PL 592. 1052-3 Cf. E. Ale. 868 (after an expression of a wish for death) ('for neither do I rejoice in seeing the rays [of the sun]'). For 'see the light' etsim. in the sense 'be alive', e.g. H.//. 5. 120; Od. 4. 540; Pi. P. 4. 144—5 d^i^i€? • • • oQevo's deXiov . . . I X€VGGO^€V', A. Pels. 710 Ag. 1646; E. Ale. 18; El. 349 Xevaaei >dos; i.e. the sun. dBdvaros is generally a two-termination adj., but a separate fern, form appears occasionally in poetry (e.g. Nu. 289 (lyric);
L I N E S 1048-57
321
H. II. 7. 32; Od. 5. 213; Simon. PMG 519 fr. 32. 5; A. Ch. 619 (lyric); E. Ph. 235 (MSS; lyric)). \euaaeiv: Elevated poetic vocabulary (primarily epic (e.g. H. II. 5. 771; Od. 10. 30); for examples from lyric and tragedy, see above); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Ra. 992 = A. fr. 131-1 (lyric). stands in loose apposition to the clause that surrounds it. Aai^or^^a) ('throat-severed') is a reference to the pin about Inlaw's neck (cf. 930—1 n., 1002—4 with 1002—3 n -)- The adj. (attested elsewhere only at E. Ph. 455) and its cognates Aai^oro^os- (pass.) and ACU^OTO^OS- (act.) are distinctly Euripidean vocabulary (Hec. 208; EL 459; /T444; Ion 1055; IA 776 (all lyric); subsequently at Timoth. PMG 791. 130; cf. Mnesim. fr. 4. 16 SiaAai^oTo^en^ai)). For a^Tj 8aifn6vi(a), cf. iO47a-b n.; A. Pers. 581 Saip,ovi' axy (lyric), a^oy is primarily poetic vocabulary and is very common in Euripides (e.g. Med. 358 (anapaests); Andr. 274 (lyric); Ph. 354, 1046 (both lyric)); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Ra. 1353 (parody of Euripidean lyric), 1531 (dactylic hexameter in a song with numerous Aeschylean reminiscences). R's unmetrical Saip.6vwv reflects the influence of 2R is used at S. Tr. 94, 131 (both lyric), to describe night, and since Inlawis leaving the light (1052—3) and going to the (conventionally gloomy) world of the dead, aioXav might be a transferred epithet to be understood 'dark' vel sim. But when applied to night, the adj. probably means 'dappled [with stars]' (cf. E. fr. 593. 4 and here the sense is more likely 'swift, rapid', as at H. 77. 19. 404 ('a swift-footed horse'; cf. Ra. 248 (lyric); h.Ven. 137 ; A. Th. 494; Achae. TrGF 20 F 48 ap. Phot, a 611; Telest. PMG 8o5(c). 2): Inlaw is heading quickly to death. (poetic); cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 126 facilis descensus Averno ('id est "ad Avernum'" Servius; see R. G. Austin ad loc.); Coulon, RhM NF 100 (1957) 194; Bers 98. -uopeiav: Common in prose, but attested elsewhere in comedy and tragedy only at [A.] P 1^73 3, 823; Men. Sik. 412. For the 'journey to death' (a banal image), Taillardat §58. 1056-97 In the Euripidean original, the song parodied in 1015-55 was followed by the entrance of Perseus (cf. 1010-12 n., 1098-1102 with nn.), and Eur.'s brief appearance 'in the manner of Perseus' and Inlaw's interpretation of it at 1009—14 have made it clear to the audience in the Theatre that something of that sort is coming. The appearance of Echo—who belongs at the very beginning of the play—is thus a surprise and serves briefly to arrest the forward movement of the plot. 1056—7 1022—3 n Eur. enters through the central stage-door (temporarily identified with Echo's cave), dressed as an old woman (cf. 1073; probably a mocking distortion of the tragic exemplar, in which Echo, like Andromeda, was at least imagined to be young and beautiful).
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Cf. generally Rau 79-80; Ar. and Athens 269 n. 44. For Eur.'s exit and subsequent return as Perseus, 1064 n., 1098-1100 n. at E. Hipp. 288, 473; Tr. 697, but attested nowhere else in tragedy or comedy. TOV 8e marepa Kr](|>€a sets Inlaw firmly in the role of Andromeda for the scene that follows; cf. the even more explicit identification of'Echo' in 1059-61. d-uoXamav 01 0eoi: * atEq. 3. 1058 was identified by J. Barnes as E. Andromeda fr. 127. 2 (with Ar.'s replaced by Saris and v. i supplied by 1110) but is in fact probably The only Aristophanic paratragedy. Cf. Rau 80-1. vb. (echoed in 1107 KaroiKTipov with n., mo)—like the emotion it describes—is very rare in comedy (outside this scene only at V. 328 (a paratragic prayer in anapaests), 556, 975 (both parodies of speeches in the lawcourts); Lys. 961 (paratragic)) but common in tragedy (e.g. A. Ag. 1330; S. Ai. 510; E. HF 1236; Ph. 1444). For the spelling in -ip- rather than -fip-, cf. 1107, mo; V. 328, 556, 975; Lys. 961; van Herwerden, Mnemosyneii. 10(1882)86; Threatteii.648. -udGosiCf. iO48b-9n. was identified by Hartung (not necessarily cor1059 rectly) as a fragment of Euripides (= Andromeda fr. **ii4a Snell; not included in Kannicht). Echo is first personified in surviving sources at Pi. O. 14. 21; subsequently at E. Hec. mo-n; S. Ph. 188-90; Eub. Ptol. Philopator Adonis. For her story, Mosch. 6; Orph. h. 11.9; Ov. Met. 3. 356-401; Waser, RE 5 (1905) 1926-30; LIMC iii. i. 680. ('singing in response') is first attested here; subsequently at Mel. APvii. 196. 6 = HE 4071; Arch. ^4Pvii. 191. 4 = GPh 3713 (of an echo). emKOKKaaTpia ('a woman who «™co«:«:d£ei'; for the ending, 386-8 n.) is obscure but is almost certainly Ar.'s own addition to the line and thus unflattering. Glossed eliuOvia yeXdv ('accustomed to laugh') by 2R (cf. Tichy 258); but in that case the idea is left largely undeveloped in 1064-96 (although cf. 1089), where 'Echo's' main characteristic is her relentless, annoying loquacity. 1060—i In contrast to 1059, the tone here is entirely colloquial and prosaic, as befits the movement from paratragedy to metatheatre. i.e. the Theatre of Dionysos (not the Thesmophorion; cf. 962-5 n.). -^lapiov is common in prose (e.g. Hdt. i. 98. 4; PI. Phdr. 23od) and comedy (e.g. Ach. 998; Eq. 750*; Anaxil. fr. 16. 2 -^lapiov*), but is attested in the tragic poets only at Critias TrGF 43 F 19. 39* (perhaps from a satyr play). Kaurr): i.e. in addition to 'Andromeda', to whom 'Echo' is speaking and who also participated in the previous year's 'helped in the [dramatic] contest'. The vb. play. is first attested here; subsequently prosaic (esp. Arist. Po. 14.56*26—7 (of a chorus' relationship to the other participants in a tragic drama)). functions not as a kinship term but simply as a nominally 1062-3 affectionate form of address, in comedy most often directed to someone
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younger, female, or both (e.g. 1181, 1198; Lys. 7; fr. 129; Anaxandr. fr. 57. i). 'you must do your part'; explained in what follows. KAcueiv: For the spelling, 211—12 n. Ar. elsewhere uses forms of eXeivos only of Euripidean costume (Ach. 413) and the effect it produces (Ra. 1063). In 1064, Eur. treats Inlaw's as 8' euiKXaieiv uarepov ('But [it's necessary that] you wail in reply later on!') as an unnecessary reminder that he is to echo the old man's lamentations, as he does beginning in io69b. But Inlaw is really referring—behind a seemingly cooperative front—to the result of the beating he intends to give the man who has got him in this trouble, if he ever gets the chance. Cf.24on., 1062-3 n., 1207*. Cf. Av. 684 ('begin the anapaests!'). The deuteragonist speaks his final words as Echo at 1096 but none the less returns as early as 1098, dressed as Eur. playing Perseus (cf. n. ad loc.). At 1085—6 the Skythian cannot tell where Echo's voice is coming from (cf. 1091-3), although in 1096 Inlaw claims that she is 'here nearby'; and the simplest solution to all these interconnected problems of staging is that Eur./'Echo' returns at this point to 'her' cave (i.e. the central stagedoor; cf. 1018—19 n -) and changes costume behind the oKr/vy, while still participating in the dialogue with the Skythian from there. That Echo's voice would be obscured as a result (cf. Gilula, QS 22 (1996) 162-3, with bibliography) is not really to the point, for these are supposed to be only echoes; and cf. Medea's extensive laments from within her house at E. Med. 96-167. Verse 1090 perhaps suggests that Inlaw (whose back is to the stage-door) does not realize that his visitor has vanished from sight. 1065—98 Anapaests, like the opening of ^.Andromeda (1065—9a = E. fr. 114; 1070-2 ~ E . f r . 115; cf. Lys. 963 ~ E. fr. 116). 1065-93 = E. Andromeda fr. 114 (the opening words of the play; Andromeda is alone on stage in chains and the night is coming to an end (cf. Sandbach on Men. Mis. Ai—16 and Diggle on E. Phaeth. 63 for parallels, and add the opening scene of this play)) 'O holy Night, how long a course you pursue as you drive your chariot over the starry back of the holy Aither through most solemn Olympos.' For Night and her chariot, cf. A. Ch. 660; E. Ion 1150—1; Williams on Verg. Aen. 5. 721. For vtora used of the For the hiatus after sky, E. El. 731; PI. Phdr. 247^ 1065, cf. 776-7 n. For ^ ^ w in 1068, cf. 821-3 n. See also Lourenco 324. lodgb Eur. 'echoes' Inlaw's final words, as must have happened also in the tragic exemplar (cf. 1018—19 with n.), although perhaps with less frequency. (on 1070-2 ~ E. Andromeda fr. 115 (which includes the words which Gavdrou in 1072 is then dependent, unlike here, where it hangs in
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mid-air) at the end, but lacks the—already grating—interjections by Eur./ 'Echo') 'Why o why have I, Andromeda, obtained a share of ills beyond all others, as, hapless one, I am about to meet my death?' A poetic adv. (first attested at h.Hom. 19. 46 and Pi. P. 11.5; Pae. 9. 48), also used in the context of exceeding grief at S. OT 1218-19 1073—82 Inlaw temporarily abandons his tragic model but continues to speak (and be echoed) in anapaests; the parody of Andromeda resumes at 1098. A colloquial expression of exasperation with the behav1073-4 iour of another individual (cf. 2 n.; sometimes without ^e); 'You'll be the death of me!', i.e. 'Damn you!' (e.g. Ach. 470 with Olson ad loc.; V. 1202; Theognet. fr. i. i; Men. Dysk. 412, cf. Sik. 158; cf. Plaut. Men. 922 occidis fabulans). Cf. Ach. 460 (also paratragic) with Olson ad loc. (and add 1075-6 a reference to this passage). eiar|ppr]Kas: 'you've intruded', sc. 'into my lament'. The hostile tone ('—damn you!—') is common for the vb. andits compounds in comedy (e.g._Bg. 4withNeiladloc., 533; V. 147, 1329; Pax 500; Lys. 336 with Wilamowitz ad loc.); cf. 1079—82 n.; Dover, in Willi86. Xiav: Cf. Thesleff§i97 ('commonly used with words of bad sense, to which it adds a shade of subjective disapproval'). is nominally polite ('my good man') but not much more 1077-8 than that, as frequently in Ar. (e.g. Eg. Ill; Nu. 675; V. 1145; Av. 1577). Cf. Dover, in Willi 90. The lapse into the masc. (contrast 1073, 1075), along with the metatheatrical request that follows, marks a further stage in Inlaw's disgusted abandonment of his tragic model (cf. 1073 with 1073—82 n.). |_iovu)8r]acu: Cf. Pax 1012; Ra. 849, 944, with Dover on 1329—63; fr. 162 with K—A ad loc.; Cratin. fr. 270 (bis; tragic parody?). Kai x a P l€ ' t-1011 'and you'll be doing me a favour', i.e. 'and I'll be grateful'. -uauaai: 'Stop [interrupting]!' (cf. 1075-6). 1079—82 Inlaw gives up trying to reason with Eur. (1077—8) and begins to insult him—only to hear the same nasty remarks back. 'Throw [yourself] to the ravens', i.e. 'Die andgounburied!' (cf. 941-2 n., 1027/8/9 with n.) and thus 'Go to hell!' vel sim.; cf. 1226; Nu. Z 3 3 > V. 835; PI. 782; fr. 477. 2. ej KopaKas is a colloquial curse; the vb. used with it varies (e.g. Eg. 892; Nu. 123; Pherecr. fr. 76. 5; Amips. fr. 23; Alex. fr. 99. 5 with Arnott adloc. (the last three all with eppoi, forwhichcf. 1075-6 n.)) or can simply be omitted (e.g. Nu. 646; V. 458; Euphanes fr. 2; Men. Dysk. 112). ri KCIKOV; —ri KCIKOV;: Cf. 610 n., 1085—6*. R's (bis) reflects the influence of the normal (but unmetrical) expression. Xrjpeis: 595-6 n. oi|Ui>£': Cf. 173-4 n., 1001 n.; Men. Sam. 294 = Sik. 167 otfuo£e. —KOL av. OTOTU£': Lit. 'Cry Lys. OTOTOI!' (cf. 173—4 n -> Pax ion; Av. 1042
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520), a tragic lament (e.g. A. Ch. 869; E. Andr. 1197; Tr. 1287), but like (above) here merely a nasty imprecation ('Piss off!' vel sim.). 1083—6 The Skythian wakes up (cf. 1007 with n.) and realizes that Inlaw is not keeping quiet, as he was ordered in 1006. Only at 1085—6 (addressed to the world at large) does the Skythian realize that it is not his prisoner who is repeating his words back to him. An unrealized but believable threat, which inter alia serves to mislead the audience in the Theatre about what is to come. ri KCIKOV; —ri KCIKOV;: * at 1080/1. Nowhere else does the Skythian use 01 for o, and Wilamowitz (MS ap. Maas) opted for Blaydes' -jrore -ny -jriuvri; (-jrore iam Grynaeus), although -ny for iy is equally unparalleled. TO -muvi] is good 'barbarian' Greek (cf. 1126 TO KemxAiy, 1187 TO mryiy, 1192 TO yAoxja'), hence perhaps the bold ad hoc mure to keep the metreflowing. The Skythian is aware at this point that the mysterious voice is not coming from Inlaw, but at 1087—9 ne returns to the possibility that the old man may be mocking him. Perhaps he turns his back on his prisoner for a moment and looks or wanders about the stage as he asks the questions in 1085—6, allowing his attention to return to Inlaw after he discovers no more likely suspect. Or perhaps he is simply being characterized as none too bright, setting up the trick in 1176-1225. 1087-9 The Skythian focuses again on Inlaw (cf. 1083-6 n.). au R's KXavaaip.i (bis) is unmetrical and most editors adopt Brunck's K\avafi, which is good Greek—and thus unlikely to be what the Skythian said. We assume that the paradosis at is an error for e and print K\aua'€Ti('you're going to wail!', i.e. 'You're going to be sorry!' (e.g. 916 with n., 1187; Nu. 933; Pax 1277; Lys. 505)). For en in a threat, e.g.Ach. 1156 with Olson ad loc.; Ra. 707 with Dover ad loc.; PI. 64.011... ^aipr/aeis eri. Ka(i €)KK
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run confusedly about the stage for the next few lines for the audience's amusement, as again (to even greater comic effect) at the very end /I10 /I10 of the play (1223—5). ' ' ireuyeis; / KT\.: Cf. 689!} with n. Addressed to the invisible (and now allegedly fleeing) 'woman'. ou K
noi—2 After identifying 1098—1100 as borrowed from E. Andromeda, 2R 1098 notes ('and in addition [the poet] tacked on what follows'). Fritzsche took this to mean that Eur.'s words in 1101-2 Ko^it,Kiv came from somewhere else in the tragic exemplar (= E. fr. 123), presumably directly after E. fr. 127. 2 (= Th. 1058). But 2R's comment
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is more naturally taken to mean that Ar. added this information-packed verse-and-a-half to make the parody that follows more immediately comprehensible. s elevated 5th-c. poetic vocabulary (e.g. Pi. N. 6. 32; S. Ph. 245; fr. 127) and is particularly common in Euripides (e.g.Med. 682; Hipp. T,d;Hel. 802; Or. 741); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Av. 1229 (also paratragic). Kapa: Elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H.//. i. 530; Stesich.PMGF2i9. i;A.Pers.2o8;E.Andr. 588), attested elsewhere in Ar. only at Ach. 1218 (paratragic). Cf. 1102—4 n Always*inE.(.HY^>. io6g;Andr. 1259,1264;Supp.^g^;HF619). 1102-27 Like Kritylla in 855-919 (where see n.), the Skythian repeatedly declines to become involved in the paratragic plot being acted out in front of him (1102—4, mi—12, 1114, 1118—20, 1123—4), and his objections (1125-7) eventually bring it to a close. Cf. Hall 49-50. 1102-4 Forthejoke,cf. 874—6,882—4. Fopyos. • • /Toypaf-if-iaTeo: Gorges the secretary (of the Council?) is otherwise unknown. But the name is rare (ten examples in LGPNii s.v., only one (below) from the late 5th c.), and he is perhaps to be identified with the man (PA 3085; PAA 281100) whose death in battle probably some time in this period is recorded at IG I 3 1190. 54. The Skythian (standing in for the playwright?), at any rate, clearly feels no affection for Gorges; or perhaps he simply takes a professional interest in decapitation (cf. 1126-7). (here KemaXr]; very rare in tragedy but common in comedy and prose) is the colloquial alternative to «dpa (1101—2 n.) and is accordingly used by the Skythian in his summary of what Eur. has (he thinks) just said; cf. 1126. rr|v Fopyovos (sc. fiepeiv) / iytOY^ "fr1!^1' Although appears after the pron. (metri gratia), it lends emphasis to Fop-yoyos; 'I [am carrying] the Gorgon's [head], I say'. 1105-6 ~ E. Andromeda fr. 125 (Perseus spies Andromeda chained to her rock)
('Ah! What crag is this I see surrounded by sea's foam? And some likeness of a maiden, a statue wrought from the living rock by a skilled hand'). Cf. Bain, Victors 61—6. The extended description of the rock in vv. 1—2 of the original is of no use to Ar. and has accordingly been stripped out, while the comparison of Andromeda to a statue in vv. 2-4 has been replaced by language that both characterizes her more straightforwardly as beautiful and makes explicit mention of her bonds (already presented as the central iconographic element in her story at 1012—13). Cf. E. HF 1094 vats oVau d>pfi,ia{i,evos*. But the phrase may also have occurred somewhere in Andromeda; cf. A. fr. *I93. 2-4; Rau86; Bond on E. HF 1094-7.
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1107—8 Inlaw's plea was identified by Matthiae as E.Andromeda fr. 128. But this is more likely Aristophanic paratragedy. to ^eve: Used by the Euripidean Andromeda (in the form w lew') in an address to Perseus at E. fr. 132. i. KdToiimpov: The compound is attested elsewhere in the 5th c. only in Herodotus (e.g. i. 45. 2; vii. 46. 2) and tragedy (S. OT 13; E. Heracl. 445; IA 469, 1246); cf. Rutherford 4—6. For the simplex, 1058 n. -uavaGXiav: Tragic vocabulary (A. Th. 970 (lyric); Ch. 428 (lyric), 695; S. Ph. 1026; OC mo; E. Andr. 67; Hec. 658); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Timocl. fr. 27. i (paratragic). 1108-9 °"Kl The Skythian's Greek is very bad, making it impossible to be sure; but after ou^i juiy, XaXrjai must stand in for fut. act. indie. (Goodwin §297). In any case, this is a strong prohibition; 'Shut up, you!' 'do you dare, when you're going to die, [that] you chatter?', i.e. 'do you dare to open your mouth when you're about to die?' (Friedrich, Philologus 75 (1919) 295). Cf. 1006, 1083-4, 1120 (a similarly awkward parataxis). The Skythian has already shown himself ready to maltreat Inlaw if crossed (1002—6; cf. 1125—7), and the old man responds to this order by staying silent until the very end of the scene(ii34, earning another nasty threat in 1135). The Euripidean Andromeda perhaps behaved in a similar way when Perseus first arrived on stage (E. fr. 126 with Klimek-Winter 204—5 (who notes that the verse may belong elsewhere in the play)). Alternatively, one might print AaA-ijj (i.e. \a\fjaai; cf. 2R) with Kaibel MS or simply AaAew (cf. Aa/Jew at 1135), and trace the error to the influence of roA^aj. The Skythian's observation in 1135 that Inlaw is still eager to get the whip suggests that he brandishes it at his prisoner here, reducing the old man to terrified silence. i no (a response to the plea in 1107) was identified by Matthiae (almost certainly in error) as E. fr. 127. i. t5iiap0€v'appears*atE.y4w(fromeda fr. 129 (Perseus addresses the heroine in the opening scene, having apparently already been struck with love for her) w irapdev', e'la-r] P.OL -jfapiv; ('Young woman, if I were to save you, will you show me 1058 n. favour?'). IIII-I2
' is a hostile echo of mo ('doing wrong' velsim.) and its cognates are attested mainly in poetry (Pax 415; Epich. fr. 113. 13; Eup. frr. 213; 422; Thgn. 325, 327, 1248, 1281; Phryn. Trag. TrGF 3 F i6c?; S. fr. 999); in classical prose only at Hp. Epid. ii. i. 8 (v. 80. 4); Arist. EN 1109a3 3. The Skythian speaks in a consistently crude manner, making it unlikely that this is a poeticism; but the absence of the word from Attic prose before the end of the 4th c. is striking. Cf. 762-4 n.,
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858 n., 893-4 with 892-4 n., 929, 944. to 5Ku0a: Cf. 279 n. and 1116, 1121* with 930-1 n. The Skythian's identity as a barbarian is important (cf. 1001 n., 1129—32), and the choice of form of address may not be driven solely by metrical considerations. 1113-14 Cf. 896-7 (a similarly unsuccessful attempt to coax the character guarding Inlaw into acceding to the paratragic fantasy). Ar. appears to treat the use of rrais (in the sense 'child') + gen. of the father's name (less often the mother's name) as an elevated poetic mannerism (e.g. 129 (lyric), 891 (paratragic), 991 (lyric); V. 1466 (lyric); Ra. 1226 (= E. fr. 819. 2), I335a (parody of Euripidean lyric)); contrast vios + gen. at e.g. Nu. 134; Pax 1290. KUOTO is Scaliger's correction of R's unmetrical OKVTO, which may reflect either the influence of 27«t>#a in 1112 or a scribe's lingering awareness that the theatrical phallus was made of leather (JVM. 538). For the error, cf. Eup. fr. 247. 4 KvaOov Hermann: aKv&ovMS. KvaOos is 'cunt' (MM §107), hence Sommerstein's OVKO (i.e. OVKOV), 'fig' and allegedly by extension 'penis' (although cf. Olson on Pax 1359-60). But what the Skythian is referring to is obvious and the solecism is simply another symptom of his limited command of Greek. [ir\ + indie, indicates 'cautious assertion or suspicion' (Goodwin §269); cf. Eup. fr. 6; [A.] PV 247, 959 (all with TI, although Inlaw's phallus is in fact quite large and prominent and the Skythian's caution is ironic). 'It doesn't . . ., does it?' 1115 Addressed to Inlaw. For (|>epe ... Tr)vx£ip(i) ('Give me your hand!'), cf. Headlam on Herod. 7. 113. Inlaw is in no position to respond to this request (cf. 930-1 n.), but Eur. steps up next to him and takes hold of his hand. Eur. ought not to be able to get this close to the prisoner (cf. 932—4 with n.). But the Skythian generally shows very little concern for the details of his orders (cf. 1007 with n.), even if he has no intention of letting Inlaw escape (1125-7), and his negligence is ultimately his undoing (i 193—1225 withnn.). For the idea ('I'm only human'), Dover, GPM 1116-18 269-71. Violent passions of all sorts can be referred to as 'sicknesses' (esp. V. 71-88); for ipus in particular described thus, Eub. fr. 67. 8-9; 'E.Hipp. 764—6; Ion 1524; fr. 400. 2. For epius and its power as a theme in Andromeda, E. frr. 136; 138. yap is anticipatory (GP 68—9). Late 5th-c. vocabulary, widely distributed in both poetry (e.g. Lys. 1085; S. Ai. 338; E. El. 656; [A.] PV 225) and prose (e.g. Hp. Epid. ii. 5. i (v. 128. 6); Th. ii. 49. 6; PI. Tht. 142!)). €i\r](|>€v: For the image, cf. EC. 958 = 967; E. Hipp. 27-8. (a fut. form with pres. meaning). Cf. 175 n. 1119-20 = €1 TO TfptdKTO SeupO Tf€pl€<JTpaflfl€VOV: 'if
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his arsehole [were] turned around this way', i.e. 'if he were pinned with his front rather than his back toward the board'. The Skythian—whose own sexual appetites are considerable, if more conventional than those he attributes to his visitor; cf. 1185—98—is less interested in gratifying Eur. (whom he turns on abruptly at 1125-7, when displeased) than in the idea of tormenting his prisoner; cf. 1001-6, 1123-4. irepiarpef/ia) (attested only here in comedy) is found in Homer (//. 19. 131; Od. 8. 189) but is absent from serious poetry in the classical period. must be awkwardly paratactic with OVK eTrrovrjaa a(e), '[that] you take him and bugger him!'; cf. 1109 with n. The Skythian recognizes that sexual acts are normally performed in private (cf. 1198—1201). But the crucial point is that, even if the old man were pinned face-down to the board and Eur. were allowed to take him off elsewhere, he would still not be allowed to release the prisoner before having intercourse with him. TTv-yi^iu (frormrvyri, 'rump'; cf. 1187 withn.; Peppier 156) is attested also at 1123; Theoc. 5. 41; in an early 5th-c. inscription inside an Attic kylix from Herbessos in Sicily (Dubois 191 no. 167. 3) Ho cf. Epich. fr. 232) mryi|«('The man who wrote this message will bugger the man who reads it'); and in a number of graffiti, and despite its rarity is doubtless colloquial; cf. 1124 withn.; MM§450; Bain, 'Verbs' 67-71. amounts to a polite request ('Please let me . . .'; II2I-2 cf. Eg. 160—i), which emphasizes the speaker's physical desire for his 'beloved' and therefore meets with a mild response that accommodates the desire (1123-4). Only after Eur. insists on setting Inlaw free does the Skythian turn nasty (1125-7). 1122 (= E. fr. 889) is probably Aristophanic paratragedy rather than a line borrowed direct from Euripides. meaeiv Is euvr|v: For TTLTTTIU used in this sense, cf. S. OT 1210; E. Hec. 926 d>s Treaoifi,' es evvdv (not sexual); Hd. 1093; Stheneboia fr. 661. 9 (p. 128 Page); Archelaus fr. 2. 15-16 Austin ey For the tragic form Is (cf. 657 n.), Willi 116. For €vvi] in the sense 'marriage-bed' vel sim. (poetic), cf. EC. 959a; LSJ s.v. I. 4. Cf. 891 with n., 1034 with n.; E. Or. 1050 1123-4 = . Not a serious suggestion, but none the less further evidence of the Skythian's lackadaisical attitude toward the specifics of his orders; cf. 1007 n., 1121-2 n. The contrast between his brutally direct language and Eur.'s elevated periphrases in 1122 renders the latter all the more ridiculous. Truyiao: 1119—20 n. an Attic form of epic e|om#e; cf. 158 withn.; Olson on Ach. 260. Attested only here, but beyond any doubt a common crude colloquialism, like
L I N E S I I 19—29
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1125-7 Cf. 916-17 (Kritylla puts an end to the Helen parody with the Cf. threat of a blow from her torch), 1121-2 n. [ia Pax 989; Lys. 74; Ra. 174 (all / ^d A" dAA' ); PL 101*; GP 22-3; Werres 28—9. Sea^id: 1012—14 n. 'You'll get whipped then!, vapulabis ergo! (Blaydes)' (cf. 933-4; KB ii. 111-12 (on the use in Attic of fut. mid. with pass, sense)); but the threat proves insufficient to discourage Eur. (1126). p.aaTi-yoiu is attested in comedy (e.g. Eq. 67; Ra. 619; adesp. com. fr. 712. 2) and prose (e.g. Hdt. iii. 16. i; Lys. i. 18; PI. _R. 6136), but is absent from serious poetry. Epic has ^aa-ri^ia (e.g. H. //. 5. 768); cf. Arnott on Alex. fr. 138. 4-5. Kdi firjv: 'and yet' (35 n.). . For Kf(j>aXri, 1102—4 n 'this big knife here'; accompanied by a gesture threatening enough to put an abrupt and immediate end to Eur.'s latest set of machinations (1128—9)—and probably to cause him to retreat from Inlaw's side. For the li^o^d^aipa (described by Hsch. £ 80 as 'a large knife' and presumably to be identified with the 'short swords' mentioned in Herodotus' description of Skythian costume at vii. 64. 2), cf. Theopomp. Com. frr. 8. 2; 26; IG I 3 346. 63; (etc.) (the Parthenon accounts). For the form, cf. Nu. 1125; Ra. 1223. 1128-32 Addressed to the world at large. 1128-9 (= E. fr. 139) are most likely Aristophanic paratragedy rather than a fragment of Andromeda (as Matthiae believed). * at E. Med. 1042; Kresph. fr. 66. 52 Austin, -n opaaiu; is also * at e.g. S. Ai. 809; Ph. 969; E. Hec. 419; Ph. 1310 (all of^oi, riSpdaw;; in comedy at i2i5a-i6oi l iioi./TiSpaCT^withn.;A r M.844of l u,orTiSpd<JO)*; Hermipp.fr. 13). is an odd expression (Rau 88, compares Nu. where there is, however, also 1455 seems to be word-play on the name 'Strepsiades'), and aor. attested in Attic only in Plato (cf. Lautensach 252-3). Perhaps the words can pass for paratragic simply because they are so far from normal diction. Xo-yovs are 'arguments', as commonly with evSe'^o^ai (below); contrast 546 with n. d\\' OUK av KT\.: Eur. was no more successful with Kritylla in 871-924 than he has been with the Skythian here, and the obvious conclusion is that the problem is not the latter's ('barbarian nature'; cf. 11 n.) but the immense gap between tragic fiction and what passes within the play for real life. But having his character frame the matter thus allows Ar. to bring his plot to a quick and satisfying end; cf. 1001 n., 1050—1 n., 1098—1100 n.; Introduction p. Ixvi. 'be receptive' (e.g. Eq. 632 evSe^Ojiievrjv TOVS Xo-yovs; E. Ion 1607 Ph. 459 fvof^fi Xoyovs with Mastronarde ad loc.; Moschion TrGF 97 F 5. I evSegai Xoyovs; Hdt. v. 92. I, 106. 4; PI. Cra. 428a—b). ev was omitted after av; a very simple error.
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1130-2 The implicit basis of the argument is that barbarians are 'naturally' stupid (cf. 1129 jSdpjSapos >vais), a point 1176-1225 would seem to prove. 1130 ~ E. Med. 298 (said by a barbarian woman in characterizing her own relationship with Greeks!). The verse that follows in the tragic original ('you will seem to be hapless rather than wise')) emphasizes the folly of the person who devises useless subtleties rather than the obtuseness of his audience, and has accordingly been replaced by Ar. (or Eur.) with something that better suits his purposes. Ar. refers elsewhere to Medea at Ra. 1382 (= Med. i) and perhaps Ach. 450 (cf. Olson ad loc.). TOI (not in the Euripidean original) is gnomic ('[I say] to you') and perhaps makes the self-citation explicit ('as anyone listening knows I wrote in Medea); cf. GP 542-3; Bond on E. HF 678. cf. also S. fr. 763. i* = adesp. com. fr. 120. i* (an For independent echo of E. Med. 298?). 'you would waste [your words]'. Cf. Lys. 467 (paratragic?); S. Ai. 1049 E. Med. 325 Xoyovs dvaXois. The vb. is first attested at A. Th. 813; Pi. P. 9. 25, although the cognate noun dvdXwais appears already at Thgn. 903. fir]xavr|v TTpoaoiareov: For the image, cf. Nu. 479—80 with Dover on 481, to whose references add Hdt. vi. 125. 3. Eur. exits into Wing A; 1134 is addressed to his retreating back (and accordingly gets no response). 1133 A clumsy mix of images appropriate for the (now allegedly doltish; cf. 1129—31 with nn.) Skythian. Like 1128—32, addressed to the world at 'Goddamnfox!'; cf. 512-13 n. Forthe fox large. as a symbol of treachery and cunning, e.g. V. 1241-2; Pax 1067-8 with Olson ad loc., 1190; Av. 430; Lys. 1268/9-70; Ale. fr. 69. 6-7; Sol. fr. n. 5 (whence perhaps Cratin. fr. 135); Semon. fr. 7. 7—9; Taillardat §405. The noun is elsewhere always grammatically fern. 'What a monkey-shine he tried on me!' For monkeys (mdr)Koi) as masters of dirty tricks, e.g. Ach. 907 with Olson ad loc.; Eg. 887; Pax 1065 with Olson ad loc.; Ra. 1085—6; adesp. com. fr. 589; Semon. fr. 7. 78-82; Taillardat §406. m#r;ia£a> is attested elsewhere only at V. 1290 (cf. Eq. 887 TTidrjKiafjLOis) and is doubtless colloquial. 1134—5 F°r ! ! 34> cf- ! ! 3°~2 n.; Klimek-Winter 313 (arguing against identifying this as a fragment of E. Andromeda; note the violation of Person's Law and the fact that the Euripidean Perseus seems never to have abandoned Andromeda). This is Inlaw's first line since the Skythian ordered him to shut up in 1108—9 (where see n.), and the threat of a whipping in 1135 reduces him to silence again until 1207 (by which point the Skythian is safely off stage). fiefivrjao: 275*-6 n. For the hyperbaton \i us for 019 p.', cf. 405-6 n.; Pax 77; Av. 95, 310; Lys. 753, 905, 1027; Ra. 504 with Dover ad loc.; Fraenkel, KIB i. 435; Barrett on E.
L I N E S 1130-39
333
d6\iav is to be taken in apposition to ^,(e) (obj. i108-9 n For equivalent to p.aaTi-yovaOai, cf. V. i^2^',Ra. 6"j^;Ec. 324(all LSJs. AafijSdvcoA. II. 3. 1136-59 Aeolic (primarily ibyceans); cf. Lyric Metres2 166-7; Parker 44653. Two invocations, the first (and more overtly political) of Athena (1136—47), the second of Demeter and Pherrephatta/Kore(i 148— 59). Cf. in general Introduction p. xliii; Furley and Bremer i. 360-1; ii. 359-63; Bierl 154-7. Hipp. 503-4. of
(1)1136 (2) 1137 (3)1138-9 (4) 114° (5) 1141
(6) 1142 (7)1143-4 (8)1145-6 (9) H47 (10) 1148 (n) 1149 (12) 1150-1 (13) H52/3 (14) H53/4 (15) H55-6 (16) 1157 (17) 1158-9
ibyc ibyc ibyc. ibyc gl ph 4ba 2gl ph
ibyc ibyc ibyc ibyc ibyc. aeol da ibyc 4da archeb
(7) For the 'cry to Athena' in the bacchiac sequence (elsewhere in Ar. only at 1018-19 (where see metrical n.) and V. 3i7a(bothparatragic)), cf. Lyric Metres2 167; Parker 449-50; Introduction p. xliii. (i i, 16) For the epic correptions in TTOTVLUL and emjKoai, see metrical n. on 9I4-I5(16, 17) R's duals f/XBerov . .. a^iKfaOov arose under the influence of in 1155-6. For the variation, cf. 1148 i^ere, 1153/4 ^aiverov. For the 'archeboulean' in 1158—9, cf. Ibyc. PMGF 298. 3 (with initial ^^ for 1136—9 Ar. elsewhere uses the divine name FlaXXdSa only at Eg. 581 (lyric), 1172 (an allusion to an actual cult-title); Nu. 299/300 (lyric), 967 (~ Lamprocles PMG 735(b)), 1265 (= Xenocl. TrGF 33 F 3. 3); EC. 476 (a prayer); PI. 772 (paratragic); cf. Anderson n. Elsewhere in comedy at Hermipp. fr. 2; Eub. fr. 5 (of Athenian coins stamped with an image
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of the goddess's face). t|n\6xopov (cf. 987-9 n.) is a persuasive epithet: the goddess is invoked thus in the hope that she will in fact take pleasure in the dance to which she is summoned (i 137) and thus be more inclined to lend her customary favour and protection to Athens (1140—7). Cf. 1140-2 n. Ifioi / . . . vojios: Sc. earl. Cf. 947 with n.; Davies, C_RNS 23 (1973) 226. Seupo . . . €isx°P° v: Cf. 317-19 n.; Eg. 559 (also a cletic hymn) Sevp' eX&' els x°P°v, fr. 348. 2 (from Th. II); Beobachtungen 199—201. mapGevov (of Athena at e.g. E. Tr. 971 -jrap&evov re UaXXdSa; Hel. 25 SioyevTjy re TrapBevos; IG I 3 728. i; 745. 2) is perhaps to be taken as a specific allusion to the goddess' major cult-title on the Acropolis and thus as a proleptic reference to her deep concern for the city's welfare (1140—2). Cf. Anderson 64—5. a£uya ('unyoked', and thus by extension 'unmarried') is poetic and especially Euripidean vocabulary (Eup. fr. 474; Archil, fr. 262, cf. fr. 54. 5; Bacch. 11. 105; 16. 20 (both offerings to Athena); E. Med. 673; Hipp. 546 (lyric), 1425; Tr. 536 (lyric; of Athena); Ba. (tg^-irapdfvon' eV a£uyej; IA 805; Theoc. 27. 7). For Kouprjv (Bathe's correction of R'sunmetrical Kopyv), 101-3 n 1140-2 Cf. 1138-9 impOfvov with n. Fortherel. clause as typical of hymnic style, 316 n. The description says the same thing in three slightly different ways: the goddess has Athens under her authority and protection (i 140); she alone exercises 'open power' over it (i 141); and she is acknowledged to control its keys (1142). This too (cf. 1136 with n.) is a persuasive description: reminding Athena of her traditional affection for and authority over the city makes it more likely that she will answer the summons issued in 1143-7 and assist Athens in its hour of need. At the same time, the emphasis on her absolute (and fundamentally political) authority sets up the much more partisan request that follows (i 143—4 with n.). Cf. 316 n. and the epithet TroAiou^oy (of Athena at Eq. 581 (lyric), cf. 582-5; Nu. 602 (lyric); Av. 826-8; Lys. 344/5 (lyric); IG P 683. 2; 718. i; 775. 2 (all dedications from the Acropolis)). Ar. uses Kpdros elsewhere only at 871 (= E. Hel. 68); V. 1232/3 (~ Ale. fr. 141. z);Ra. 1126= 1138 (= A. Ch. i), 1276 (= A. Ag. 104), 1284/5 (= A. Ag. 108-9), and clearly treats the word as elevated poetic vocabulary. Cf. 317-19 n. Forms of JIOVT) and similar adjs. are frequently employed in prayers, hymns, and the like to enhance the deity's honour; cf. V. 392; Pax 589—90; Av. 1546 with Dunbar ad loc.; Norden 245 n. i; Barrett on E. Hipp. 1280-2. K\T)8ouxos . . . KaXeirai: The adj. is normally used of the priest or priestess who controls access to a temple vel sim. (Phoronis fr. 4. i; A. Supp. 291—2; E. IT 130—1; Hyps. fr. I. iv. 28; cf. H. //. 6. 297-300; E. Hipp. 540; Dover, Frogs, pp. 52-3; Dillon 80-3). Here the image is metaphorical, as at 976 (of Hera) K\fjSas -ya^ov >v\a,TTei; adesp. com. fr. 1147. 27 (of Artemis) KXrjSovx' 'E>eala; Pi. P. 8. 4: Athena has supreme authority over the city. Cf. 421—2 with n. But if
L I N E S 1136-49
335
any particular keys are in question, they are more likely those of the city's temple storerooms than of its gates, which must have been barred rather than locked (cf. Whitehead on Aen. Tact. 18. i). 312—14 n. to rupdvvous aruyoua': Athena's alleged "43-4 attitude reflects that of the democracy that controls—if precariously—the city she is being called to visit and assist (cf. 338-9 with n., 1145-6 with n.), which is to say that these words amount to an aggressive gloss on 1140—2 (where the goddess is presented as committed to the city but not to any particular political system). For the contemporary implications of the characterization, Introduction p. xliii. arvyew is elevated poetic vocabulary, attested elsewhere in Ar. only at Ach. 33 (= adesp. tr. fr. 41; cf. Olson ad loc.), 472 (~ E. fr. 568 (but see Olson ad loc.)). Cf. 721-2 n., 947. The phrase qualifies arvyova'; cf. S. Ai. 824 av (since Zeus was Aias' great-grandfather). 1145—7 8fjfios momentarily creates (or reinforces) the impression that the chorus are speaking for the Athenian people as a whole (cf. 1140-4 with nn.). But the effect is undercut by yuvaiKuv (cf. 336, 338), as again by the adj. at the end of 1147 (cf. below), and 1148—59 are as blandly apolitical as 1136—9. Cf. Dover, AC 171—2. TOI with <j€ 'conveyfs] a summons to attention' (GP 542). ixouaa . . . / Eipr|VT)v makes good sense as part of a wish for the well-being of the Athenian state as a whole in 411 BC; cf. Introduction p. xliii. But ((nXeoprov (a hapax legomenon) immediately diminishes the effect of the words by returning to the apolitical festival theme of 1136-7. For Peace (referred to as a goddess already at Hes. Th. 902), Olson on Pax 221; Stafford 173-97. F°r the prayer to come bringing a companion, cf. Eg. 586—90; Fraenkel, Horace 198 n. 2. fioXois: Cf. 317—19 n., 1155 p.oXeTov. ep.oXov is a primarily poetic form, used elsewhere by Ar. only atEq. 21-6, 73 (for the sake of a pun); Av. 405 (anapaests; corrupt); Lys. 743 (a prayer, and therefore elevated style?), 984, 1263, 1297 (all three Lakonian, the second and third lyric in a cletic hymn); Ra. 1232 (= E. IT i); fr. 717. i (lyric). Cf. Rutherford 41-2; Ausfeld 516; Lautensach 84-5. yields a glyconic. But a connective is wanted with the 1148-9 'wellshift of addressee, hence Hermann's disposed' (Fraenkel on A. Ag. 806). Elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 15. 99; Alcm. PMGF i. 37; Pi. P. 9. 73; A. Supp. 19), also in cletic hymns and the like at Lys. 1282 (lyric; the only other attestation in comedy); Pi. O. 2. 14; S. Ai. 705 (lyric); cf. Ausfeld 537-8. i'Xaoi: Elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. //. 9. 639; Pi. O. 3. 34; Bacch. 11. 15; attested nowhere else in comedy); in cletic hymns, prayers, et sim. at e.g. Pi. P. 12.4; A. Eu. 1040; adesp. PMG934. 19; Herod. 4. n; cf. E./T27i; Hel. 1007; S. OC 1480; Ausfeld 537-8. Cf. 130 n., 1156
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S. OC 1050; Usener225; Richardsononh.Cer. 39. AndXaos is simply a 'sacred precinct' (cf. Str. 9.412 'the poets embellish matters, calling all sacred areas aXor/, even if they have no trees at all'); here the reference is to the Thesmophorion. The word is attested elsewhere in comedy only at Ra. 441/2 (lyric); adesp. fr. 155. 4. Cf. p. xlixn. 37. 1150-4 R's ov must have been added deliberately at the beginning of 1150 after dvSpas IV was misread av&paaiv, and the Sr/ that follows it may well be a corrupted majuscule dittography of av (ANAN read AHAN; cf. 400-2 n.). For the repetition of a word meaning 'where', cf. Nu. 302-3 (hymnic) ov aejSas appr/Taiv lepwv, "va / f^varoSoKos So^oy. Cf. Dover on Nu. 140; Bulloch on Call. Lav.Pal. 78; Olson on Pax 101718. Cf. 948 op-yia aep.va Oeaiv (whence, most likely, the intrusive 8eaiv in R here) with n. The d^Pporov 6v|nv which the goddesses reveal 'with torches' (i.e. by torchlight) might be their face(s) (cf. LSJ s. oijjis I. i. b) when they appear in their precinct. But the second "ra-clause is best understood as the inverse of the first, and the 'divine sight' (cf. LSJ s. Si/iis I. 2) in question is probably the sacred ceremonies from which men are banned and to which the city's women alone have access. ap.j3poTos is elevated poetic vocabulary (e.g. H. Od. 18. 191; Simon. PMG 519 fr. 84. 2; Pi. JV. 10. 7; A. Eu. 259 (lyric); Timoth. PMG 780. 2); attested elsewhere in comedy only at Av. 1749 (lyric). For 904-5 n. Cf. 1146 with n., 1227—31 n. II55-6 Cf. 977 with n. Geapotfiopio moXuiiOTvia: Cf. Pi. fr. 37 (from a Hymn to Persephone) Uorvia 0eafi,o>6pe. -nohmmvia. (a strengthened form of cf. 1149 with n.) is attested elsewhere before the Hellenistic period only ath.Cer. 211 -jroXv-jroTvia A-qia, hence Richardson's suggestion that the form of the invocation here 'probably belongs to the [Eleusinian] cult' (p. 69). Cf. Orph. h. 40. 16 (of Eleusinian Demeter); used as an epic rarity of various goddesses and queens at A.R. i. 1125, 115154. 1069. 1157—9 For the prayer-type (da quiadedisti, and thus here venite quia venistis), e.g. Eq. 591-4; Nu. 356-7; Sapph. fr. i. 5-7; Pi. /. 6. 42-6; S. OT 165-7; cf. 1202 with n.; Ach. 405 with Olson ad loc.; Ausfeld 531-2; NisbetHubbardonHor. c. i. 32. i; Furley and Bremer i. 57-8. en-rjKou: The adj. and its cognates appear in similar contexts at e.g. Phryn. Com. fr. 72; Thgn. 1321; Anacr. PMG 357. 8; Pi. O. 14. 15; A. Ch. 725; PI. Plb. 25b; MX. 247d; Lg. 93 ic-d. For (KCU} vuv (with «aiborrowed from 1157, where it is unmetrical), cf. Eq. 594 eiWp wore «ai vvv; Nu. 356 with Dover ad loc.; Sapph. fr. i. 25
S. OT 167 1160-3 Up to now, there has been very little hint that Eur. and the city's women could ever be reconciled (although cf. 962-5 n.), and his offer— to say nothing of their acceptance of it (i 170)—is quite unexpected, as
L I N E S 1148-63
337
their response in 1164 acknowledges. Cf. 90-2 n., 1167-70 with nn.; Silk 330-1. Inlaw's bungling has paradoxically accomplished more than the highly polished performance Eur. presumably expected from Agathon (esp. 187) could have, but the tragedian has also paid a much higher price than he might have liked. 1160-1 Eur. enters from Wing A, carrying several small harp-like instruments (1217 with n.; cf. 1177—8 with n.). The chorus (who in this respect stand in for the audience in the Theatre) recognize him immediately, leaving little doubt that he is dressed as he was at the beginning of the play. At 1176-1201, on the other hand, the Skythian with no prompting takes Eur. for an old woman (cf. 1194 with n.), and the tragedian thus most likely carries a woman's himation and cap, which he puts on at 1172—5, as he gives his assistants their orders. Stehle 396-8, suggests that he may have shaved (i.e. removed his stage-beard; cf. 190, 222-3 n -) as well. But it is far more likely that he has simply put on a suitably adapted Old Woman mask to hide his face. Eur. is accompanied by two mute characters: (i) an attractive young woman, who is called Elaphion in 1172 and turns out to be a dancing-girl/prostitute (1177-8, 1193-6); and (2) a young, male (cf. 1203) pipe-player given the name Teredon in 1175. Elaphion wears a himation and sandals (1181—3), but most likely very little else (cf. 1185, 1187). 1174 suggests that all three characters hesitate part way across the stage and only cross to where Inlaw is suspended and the Skythian is sleeping at 1176. TOV \omov xpovov: 'for the time that remains', i.e. 'for ever'. An occasional metri gratia variant of the far more common TO Aoi77w(539withn., 1163); cf. V. 1006*; Cratin. fr. 26; E. Ale. 295*; S. Ph. 84*; in prose at e.g. Lys. 2. 78; PI. Ap. 4ic. For the idiom, Olson on Ach. 51—2. Followed by mpos + ace. also at Ach. 131; Lys. 1006. irdpa = e^eon, as at V. 316 (paratragic lyric); Ra. 1484 (lyric); cf. Kassel, Gnomon 33 (1961) 136-7. 1162-3 Cf. 1166-7, where the offer is resumed in abbreviated form and with a very significant threat—naturally omitted in the initial tender, which is designed to be as appealing as possible—appended (1167—9). 'on the condition that . . .', although the clause that follows binds the speaker rather than the addressee (as is normal). Eur. is not bargaining from a strong position (but cf. 1168—9), and he reserves a description of what he wants in return for 1166. The expression e<j>' oire is confined to comedy (Ach. 722; PL 1000, 1141; Cratin. fr. 311; Men. fr. 602. 2) and prose (e.g. Hdt. iii. 83. 2; PI. Ap. 29c), and is perhaps originally diplomatic language; cf. GP 528. 'nothing whatsoever'. Adverbial p.riSap.0. (cf. fr. 868 ovSap.a) is otherwise attested in Attic only in tragedy (e.g. A. Pers. 431; S. OT 1348; OC 1104 with Jebb ad loc.; [A.] PF526;not inE.); elsewhere at e.g. Ale. fr. 129. 16; Hippon. fr. dub. 196. 7; and in Ionic prose (e.g. Hdt. i. 68. 3; Hp. Loc. Hum. 28. 15 (vi. 322. 7)).
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'These are the terms I 539 n. offer for peace'. For the vb. (which draws on and strengthens the persistent image of the city's women as something like a separate people; cf. 576 n., 1145-6), 335-9 n. 1164 1160-3 n. Cf. V. 413 (lyric) rovSe Xoyov ela>epei ('he introduces this proposal'; legal language). TwS(e) . . . Xo-yov is routinely * in tragedy (e.g. A. Ch. 510; Eu. 836; S.El. 388;E.Merf. 790; Hec. 271; [A.JPF393). 1165 is not so much an explanation of who Inlaw is (since the chorus already know that; cf. 584-5, 634-5) as a justification for the extraordinary conceswith n. sion Eur. is willing to make to get him free. Cf. 74 a very rare crasis, attested in the 5th c. also at E. Ph. 589; cf. E. HF 1189; Men. Sik. 198 (both conjectural). 1166-7 An abbreviated version of the offer in 1160-3, with the crucial condition added at the beginning (t]v ouv K0|_uaio|_icu TOUTOV) and a threat tacked on at the end (1167—9). ouSev [ir\ + subjunc. has the force of an emphatic denial; 'you will certainly hear no abuse!' (cf. Goodwin §§295-6). aKovaifr' is Elmsley's correction (ad Ach. 295) of R's impossible aKovaan'. Bentley suggested fut. indie. aKovaer' (cf. 1169 with p.ov for the paradosis ^TJ in 1166. But in the classical period the fut. of + gen. rather than a bare gen. (e.g. Lys. 8. 15; Isoc. 6. 59; D. 40. 45). For the idiom, cf. above; 85 n., 386-8 n.; E. Ale. 726; Th. v. 28. 2; Lys. 10. 13; X. Snip. 4. 64. R's -jreiOriaOe ('be persuaded') is metrical, but Hirschig'siii0T)a0€(^4r. Vesp. (Leiden, 1847) 155; 'comply'; cf. aor. K0fi,laa>{i,ai in 1166) makes it clear that a single, decisive action is in question; cf. Jebb on S. El. 1015; Lautensach 67. Parallel errors at e.g. Av. 163 with Dunbar's n., 1086. R 1168-9 uTTOiKoupeire: 'the deceptions you practise at home' (cf. 2 , in reference to the sort of stealthy behaviour Inlaw described at 476—516, 556—9, and to which the chorus, by accepting Eur.'s offer (1170), implicitly confess. Cf. 339—48 n. imoiKovpeiu is first attested here and appears nowhere else in the classical period; for the simplex (in Ar. at Ach. 1060; cf. oiKovpos at V. 970; Lys. 759), Fraenkel on A. is here 'military Ag. 809. service', as at e.g. Ach. 251; Lys. 100 em arpaTidj a-jrovras. Cf. 824—9 n For the implication that a substantial portion of the city's men were on active duty abroad in early 411, Lys. 99-104; cf. Introduction pp. xlixlii. ufi&JvistobetakenwithTo«j«'dw>pd<7u'; for the postponement of thepron., i EC. 44-5 maintains its normal, aggressively hostile sense; 'I will denounce, verbally attack [you] for' (390 n.).
L I N E S 1162-75
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1170 'Know that we have been persuaded!' For the implication of the remark, 1168-9 n F°r TCI ... Trap' r|fiuv (lit. 'the things from us', i.e. 'that which has to do with us'), cf. Lys. 243 (not to be emended); A. Ag. 1046 with Fraenkel on 1045—6 (arguing that the words are borrowed from a concluding formula common in public speech); E. Ph. 953; Hyps. fr. 64. 63 T-IJV fiev Trap' fj^tav*. 1171 TOV pdppapov: 1098—noon., 1128—9n., 1130—2n rr€i0€ au: 'you persuade him yourself!', i.e. 'because we're certainly not going to do it!' ireide echoes -n^-n^ia^va. in 1170; but in the scene that follows, very little persuasion is required. 1172—1226 As Gelzer, in Entretiens Hardt 38 (Vandoeuvres-Geneva, 1993) 84, notes, now that Eur. has the chorus on his side, he could simply release Inlaw while the Skythian is sleeping and get away. But that would be a flat and disappointing end to an otherwise lively and clever drama, and this scene is best understood as a sort of satyr play which rounds out the Euripidean tetralogy that makes up most of the second half of the play. Cf. Introduction pp. Ixiii-lxiv. 1172-3 Ifibv ipYOV OJTIV: '[That] is my task', i.e. 'That is why I am here'. Variants of the phrase are common in comedy (e.g. 1208 (also spoken by Eur.); Nu. 1345; Lys. 315; EC. 514; Cratin. fr. 115. i; Men.Dysk. 630) and Euripides (e.g. Hel. 830; Ph. 444; Ba. 849), and it is unclear whether it is intended as paratragic or (more likely) is simply colloquial; cf. Stevens 39—40; Dunbar on Av. 862. Kai abv: Sc. ep-yov earl. The name ('E)\d<|>iov ('Little Deer') has been chosen to reflect the lightness with which the girl will dance; cf. ii8o;Z/ys. 1318/19; Bacch. 13.87-90; E. El. 860-1; Ba. 866-7 (973~6 n.); Taillardat §791. Animal names are common for prostitutes (Bechtel, AF 87—8, 93; L. K. McClure, Courtesans at Table (New York and London, 2003), 21—3). a aoi / KT\. serves (perhaps unnecessarily) to alert the audience to the fact that everything that follows is part of a carefully conceived plan, into which the Skythian will of course blunder blindly. Ka9' 686v: 'alongthe way [here]'. 1174 TTp&JTOV fiev ouv: 'first of all now'; cf. 424 -rrpo TOV fj.ev ovv with n. SieXGe: 'go through!', i.e. 'cross to centre stage!'; cf. 1160-1 n. dvaKd\Traaov is obscure poetic vocabulary (also attested at S. fr. 1007; PI. Com. fr. 257; cf. A. Mysians fr. I44a ei&ov KaX-jTa^ovras ev aijfluais ('I saw them KaAW£ojTas among the spears') (all preserved ap. Phot, a 1514; cf. Tichy 159)). 2R offers the gloss ajSpws j3aSl£,eiv ('to proceed luxuriously', i.e. 'wantonly'), and Eur. is presumably referring to some sort of (very sexy) loosening-up that Elaphion engages in before she begins to dance at 1179-80. Elaphion saunters over to where the Skythian is sleeping. 1175 TepT]86v: The name ('Ship-worm'; cf. Eq. 1308; Thphr. HP v. 4.
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4-5; cognate with rerpalvw, but not attested elsewhere) alludes to the elaborate character of the boy's music, which resembles the intricate patterns left in wood by boring insects and small mollusks; cf. 100 n., 427—8 n. For the voc. ending in -oov, see West on Anacreont. 10. 2^eAiSw. euavcu|>uaa: 'strike up in accompaniment' (cf. LSJ s. em G. I. 5) vd sim. FlepaiKov: Sc. vo^ov, 'aPersian [melody]' (cf. West, AGM215-17), about which we can say little more than that it must have fit the description implicit in the name Teredon (cf. above); was perhaps wantonly sensual in tone (like Agathon's Trojan hymn at 101-29 (cf- I3°~3))> so as to match Elaphion's dance; and as an exotic, 'barbarian' piece is appropriate to beguile a Skythian. There may well be some connection to the exotic Eastern music described at e.g. E. Ba. 120—34; Diog. Ath. TrGF 45 F i; and cf. 1200 with n., 1217 with n.; and the derisory reference to Euripides' 'Karian pipe-songs' at Ra. 1302. The theatrical piper begins to play, and Teredon and Eur. follow Elaphion toward centre stage. 1176 The Skythian wakes up and moves into a sitting position on the steps leading up to the stage (cf. 1007 n., 1182). Teredon probably breaks off his playing in terror in response to the Skythian's—clearly unappreciative—comments; cf. 1186. TI TO PO^PO TOUTO;: For the 'buzzing' or 'droning' of pipes, Ach. 866 j8ofij8ai5Atot (a hostile characterization); Taillardat §789; West, AGM 105. Kio|_io TIS dv€Y€ipi fioi;: Not accenting the question allows it to serve as a tentative (and incorrect) answer to ri TO J3op.j3o TOUTO;, whereas with TIS; the Skythian pointlessly asks the same thing twice. In any case, this is a reasonable guess about the source of the noise, since revelling-bands were sometimes accompanied by pipe-players taken from the party the group had left (e.g. PI. Snip. 2i2d; cf. 987-9 n.; Ach. 551 with Olson ad loc.; V. 1322—1449, where the drunken Philokleon with his torch (1330—1) and the pipegirl he has stolen from the party (esp. 1345-6, 1368-9) make up a wild komastic party of two); Headlam on Herod. 2. 34-7 (on the K(jjp.os generally)). Coulon suggested that 2R took KQMOTIZ as a single word (KOI^OTIJ) and glossed it K(up.oopia ('Koj^oy-girl'; otherwise unattested). 1177-8 That Elaphion (like Teredon) is a slave and her body available for sale, and that the old woman played by Eur. is her owner and procuress, is apparently so obvious that none of the characters on stage needs to comment explicitly on the fact. That Eur. carries several additional instruments (1217 with n.) suggests that 'she' too intends to contribute to the entertainment and is probably to be taken for a retired prostitute who 'was about to start now works as a madam, rehearsing'; for the impf. of ^e'AAoi + an inchoative pres. infin., cf.Eq. 267 with Neil ad loc. ;Ra. 518. For irpo^Xfraia (first attested here), cf. EC. 117 (also a rehearsal-scene). For the idea, cf. Pax 1265—7.
L I N E S 1175-82
341
For dancing-girls, cf.Ach. 1093; Ra. 514-15; Metag. fr. 4. 1-2. Not all dancing-girls and other female symposium-entertainers necessarily worked as prostitutes (cf. 1193—5). But there was probably a considerable degree of overlap between the two categories (cf. V. 1345—6)—as the fact that Elaphion wears little if anything below her himation (cf. 1185, 1187) suggests—although an additional fee may have been demanded for extra services. Cf. Ehrenberg 178—80; Davidson 109—36 (both on prostitution generally); Olson— SensonMatrofr.6.2;Neils,in,ZVC/2O3—26,esp.224—5. i.e. to a symposium (cf. 457-8). 1179-80 = 6pKT]ai and ^leAeTTfai echo Trpo^eXerdv in 1177 and op-^rfaopfvi] in 1178. Teredon (in response to a signal from Eur.?) begins to play again, and Elaphion dances in time to his music. The Skythian is entranced. us IXarrpos: 'How nimble, light on her feet [she is]!'; cf. Anacr. PMG 390 KaAAiVo^oi Kovpai Aios ('fair-tressed daughters of Zeus danced lightly'); Pi. fr. I O7(b). I e\a>pov A'pOTi"*' °5>a TtoSwv fi,eiyvv{i,ev (' I know how to put together a nimble dance'); adesp. PMG 939. 7 e\d>p' dramxAAo^eyoi ('bounding up lightly'; of sea-creatures about Poseidon). KioSio: 'just like a flea on my sheepskin'. Sheepskins were commonly used for sleeping (e.g. Eq. 400; Philem. fr. 26; H. Od. 20. 1-3; PI. Prt. 3isd; Timae. FGrHist 566 F 26a (p. 607. i); cf. Ra. 1478), and the Skythian's choice of imagery suggests the dirty, impoverished (cf. 1195—7) circumstances to which he is accustomed; cf. Nu. 144—7 ( a similarly oblique characterization of life in the house of the preeminently dirty Socrates, with attention once again to the flea's leaping ability); PI. 537-9; Beavis 240 ('The eggs of the human flea are found wherever dirt is allowed to accumulate in buildings'). For fleas (Pulex irritans Linn.), Davies and Kathirithamby 149; Beavis 240-2. The simile is common in later literature: 'I wish all the fleas in my bed were such as she!', says Sancho of the beautiful Dorothea in Cervantes' Don Quixote i. 30 ('jAsi se me vuelvan las pulgas de la cama!'). 'Pass me this himation here from 1181 above!', i.e. 'Take your himation here (with a gesture) by the upper part (cf. the very similar use of aviu&ev at PI. _R. 449b), slip it over your head, and hand it to me!' Cf. Austin (1987) 86. Cf. 1062-3 n., 1198; WilamowitzonZ/ys. 7. But perhaps Eur. is posing as Elaphion's mother (for mother-daughter prostitute teams, cf. Macho's Gnathaina and Gnathainion)—as the Skythian, at least, obviously believes (1210). Elaphion takes off her himation and hands it to Eur., who sets it on the ground (leaving his hands free to remove her shoes/sandals (1182-3)); cf. 1189 with n. A nominally innocent position, appro1182
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priate for a child with a parent or the like (H.//. 9.455; 21. 506; 22. 500-1; Od. 19. 401), but calculated to drive the Skythian wild with desire (1185, 1187-8, 1190). 'I may take off [your shoes/sandals]' (e.g. Nu. 152; V. 1183-4 1157; PL 927; Pherecr. fr. 162. 9; PI. Snip. 2i3b). The repetitions reflect the Skythian's eager excitement. vaiKi (= vai-^i) is an alternative form of vai (also 1194, 1196, 1218; Men. Epitr. 873; Leukad. fr. i.6;Sam. 296; S. OT684; [PL] Hipparch. 232a; SEGxxiv-jj (a terracotta ball from Attica, c.500 BC);ARVZ 1577 no. 13 (Epidromos cup; London £25); 1605 (cup from Vulci); Call. e. 28. 5); cf. ou^t; W. Schulze, Kleine Schriften (Gottingen, 1966)706; Dover, G&Gz^. OntheformKarT]ao(i.e. Olson onAch. 59; cf. EC. 144, 169, 554; PL 724; K
L I N E S 1182-90
343
vii. i. 2, 7, 2. 5, 4. 3, 5. 3. For women's breasts compared to other (always very firm) fruits and vegetables, Olson on Ach. 1199. 1186 Addressed to Teredon. ITI SeSoiKas TOV 5Ku0r]v;: 1176 n. Elaphion gets up off the Skythian's lap and begins to dance again. Now that her himation and sandals have been removed (1181-3), sne moves more rapidly and freely than before (cf. 568 n., 656 n.), and Eur. accordingly orders the pace of the pipe-music to be increased. Perhaps he plays a bit on one ofhispektides (cf. 1177—8 n., 1217 with n.), which will otherwise have been brought on stage to no purpose. 1187—8 = is a relatively inoffensive term for the buttocks ('rear end' velsim.); cf. Pax 868; MM§450. Addressed by the Skythian to his stage-phallus, which is threatening to burst out of his pants and which he manipulates between 1187 and 1188 in such a way as to keep it hidden (but still somehow very obvious to the audience in the Theatre). For K\ava' ITI, 1087—8 with n. 1187 is followed in R by an intrusive set of partially metricized (i.e. Skythicized) stage-directions (cf. 99 n.) ('he peeps up and about with a full erection'), which must describe the Skythian rather than his phallus (cf. Ach. 161; Pax 903; Lys. 1136; PL 295) and were rightly expelled by Ellebodius. Cf. Jackson 104-5; Dover, G&L 208-9. 1188 is addressed to the world at large but is ignored by Eur., whose attention is (supposedly) fixed on Elaphion (cf. 1189—90). €iev: 'All right!'; marking the speaker's readiness for what will come next, now that this sudden emergency has been taken care of. Cf. 407—9n. Ka\r]ToaKr]fia / u€piTO / nxxjTiov: 'everything's well arranged as regards my little dick!' (cf. 254 n.). An affectionate diminutive, although part of the joke is undoubtedly that the Skythian's phallus is now prominently visible within his clothes, like the massive erections of the Spartan and Athenian ambassadors at Lys. 1076-99. 1189—90 Eur. addresses Elaphion, whose 'practice session' (cf. 1177) is complete and who must now keep her appointment with 'some gentlemen' (cf. 1178). \a(3€ Goificmov: 1181 n. The theatrical piper quits playing, and Elaphion stops dancing. Cf. 1228-9; Ach. 393 with Olson ad loc.; fr. 480; Headlam on Herod. 6. 97. R has TL OVK emA»]<7ei, which Wilamowitz 486, retains, changing -ei to -e and making TL OVK one syllable via synizesis. But this would mean that the Skythian is resigned to not receiving a kiss ('Why did she not kiss me first?') and -mivv ye would not follow naturally in 1191. We therefore follow Person and most modern editors in deleting (a misread indication of speaker To?; or a product of the influence of 1193?) and print OUKI inXrfai npuna fie; (= ov^l^iXriaenTpwTdfj.e;, 'Will she not kiss me first?'; cf.
344
COMMENTARY e:
n
1191-2 -udvu Y 749 <|)i\T)aov aurov: Addressed to Elaphion, who responds by giving the Skythian a long, hard kiss. The interjection o o o is attested elsewhere only at A. Supp. 825 ooo add (corrupt and obscure), but must here be intended to express an emotion (pained excitement or the like) compatible with what follows. Cf. 1185 n. •ucum-ucurai (an expanded form of mxmu; cf. 945-6 n.) expresses the grief that results from baffled longing, much like o!p.oi in 1185; cf. Lys. 924; Ra. 57 with Dover ad loc.; E. Cyc. 153 with Seafordon 503; Labiano Ilundain 281—4. Attic honey was widely regarded as the finest in the world (e.g. Antiph. fr. 177. 1—3; Phoenicid. fr. 2. i; Archestr. fr. 60. 17—18 with OlsonSens ad loc.; Macho 428). Cf. 506 n. For honey as a symbol of sweetness, e.g. fr. 633; Alex. fr. 150. 6; E. Phaeth. 78; adesp. PMG 979; Plaut. True. 370-1 complectere. /—lubens. heia! hoc estmelle dulcidulcius. 1193—4 T ^ °u K fA. = ri ov KadevSei Trap' e^oi;', cf. II77~8 n. For the solecism map' Ifie (properly imp e^oi (cf. 479 imp ep.ol KaOr/vSev), although the ace. comes to be used in 4th-c. prose), Wyse on Is. 8. 16. For in the sense 'farewell!', Olson on Ach. 199-200,832-3. ('that could never be' (cf. Men. Sik. 162), i.e. 'what you're suggesting is simply impossible') reflects a standard bargaining technique which none the less works to reduce the Skythian to reckless, pleading desperation; cf. 1195-7 with n. For other echoes of the language of marketplace haggling, e.g. Ach. 909; Pax 1215—20; cf. 743 n. A syllable has dropped out of the text and Brunck's vai (VO.L) (a simple haplography) might be right. But the Skythian uses Bentley's vaiKi (= at every opportunity (1183, 1184, 1196, 1218)—probably in large part because Ar. thought that his inability to pronounce the word correctly made him look ridiculous—and we adopt it here, with the error to be diagnosed as an instance of the more familiar form of a word driving out the less familiar. The use of a form of vai imploring another person to relent from a refusal is perhaps colloquial Attic; cf. Barrett on E. Hipp. 605. YP<j8 l ° (f°r ypdSiov) is the Skythian's favourite term for the disguised Eur. (also 1199*, 1210, 1211*, I2i3a*, 1216; ypavs at I2i3a, 1214, I222a) and is elsewhere in Ar. always deprecatory (.Ec. 949*, 1000*, 1003 ;Pl. 674*, 688, 1095*); cf. Dickey 82-3. But the Skythian is trying to be as winning as he can and his choice of vocabulary most likely reflects only his shaky command of colloquial Greek. 1195-7 F°r the characterization of the Skythian as a common fool, cf. the English nursery rhyme: 'Simple Simon met a pieman / going to a fair; / Says Simple Simon to the pie-man,/ "Let me taste your ware. "/Says the pie-man to Simple Simon, / "Show me first your penny." / Says Simple Simon to the pieman, / "Indeed I have not any.'" But the Skythian ultimately comes up with something else of value to offer (i 197)—only
L I N E S 1191-1201
345
to be transformed even more effectively into a buffoon as a result (121415). One drachma is perhaps on the high side for the services of a prostitute (the same fee charged by Europa in Antip. Thess. AP v. 109. i = GPh 359); cf. PI. Com. fr. 188. 17 (one drachma for missionary position, 3 obols for doggy-style); Antiph. fr. 293. 3 (three obols); Philem. fr. 3. 13 (one obol); W. T. Loomis, Wages, Welfare Costs and Inflation in Classical Athens (Ann Arbor, 1998) 166—85 (a catalogue of the—largely dubious—evidence). But Elaphion is very attractive (i 185, 1187) and the Skythian is eager to have her, and he shows no interest in haggling. is glossed by 2R and the lexicographers as 'bowcase', 'quiver', and 'aulos-case' (Poll, vii. 153; x. 153; Hsch. a 2136; S a 1273), and must be a generic term for tube-shaped storage pouches; exactly what the 'gilded ivory mentioned in the Parthenon accounts (IG I 3 3 5 i . 18—19 ~ 353. 65—6, etc.; cf. Threatte i. 167) was is unclear. Here the object in question must be the combined quiver/bowcase (yiapv-ros) commonly worn by Skythians in vase-paintings (Vos 49—50 and plates IX, XV). The Skythian takes off his quiver/bowcase and hands it to Eur. as a pledge. 1198-9 R's €TT€ira K0fi,l£,eis avrois is unmetrical and the simplest solution is to read —e-ueira Kojueis au0is ('Later'—i.e. 'when you give me the money'—'you'll get [it] back again') with Biset and Faber. But one might instead assign the words to the Skythian and print (' I'll bring you the money later myself; thus Enger) or ('Later you give it back?'; thus Dobree). In any case, the point is that the Skythian is anxious to get his equipment returned—as in the end it will not be.. Apparently an afterthought (cf. 1200 with n.) and in any case a gross—if typical—dereliction of duty (cf. 931—4 with 1007 n.). YP<j8lo: I I 93~4 n I2OO—I ovojia 8e aoi ri lariv;: Cf. Av. 1203*; fr. 305. 4 X. Mem. ii. 1.26 ovop,a Se aoi TL la-riv; Like 1199, an afterthought; and the Skythian immediately garbles what he has been told in any case (1201). The name Aprefuaia was probably borne by some historical residents of Athens in the late 5th c. (cf. PAA 206255—206455 (very few certainly Athenian and all known from evidence dating to the 4th c. or later, although some of these individuals may have been alive in 411)). Given Lys. 674—5 ('and they will moreover undertake to wage naval warfare and sail against us, like Artemisia'), however, this must be an allusion to the Halikarnassian queen who accompanied Xerxes on his invasion of Greece in 480 and was said to have fought more bravely than most of his
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COMMENTARY
men at Salamis (Hdt. vii. 99; viii. 68-9, 87-8, 101-3; cf- l 7 55((Teredon is told to play a Persian tune); Angus, PCPS 71 (1905) 20-1; Taillardat §317). But the two possibilities are not exclusive and there is no reason why an exotic mid-century prostitute (cf. 1177—8 n.) should not have adopted the name of a famous Eastern queen. Bobrick, Arethusa 24 (1991) 67-76, esp. 71-2, suggests an allusion to Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris: 'Artemisia' gets Inlaw free by offering the Skythian a 'Little Deer' (i 172 with n.), just as Artemis gets Iphigenia free by offering the Achaeans a deer (e'Aa>oy) (esp. E. IT 28-9). Aprajiou^ia: The Skythian's inability to get the name right has no implications for the plot but does serve to brand him as a dolt (particularly after he has pointedly said 'I will remembering the name!')), hence the poet's decision to have him repeat it stupidly again and again (i2i3a, 1216*, I222b, 1225*). The initial element Apra- and the -|- are probably intended to sound 'Persian' (i.e. 'exotically Eastern'); cf. Ach. 100 with Olson on 91—2. The Skythian and Elaphion (carrying her himation and perhaps her shoes) exit together through the central stage-door. 1202 'Epfifj SoAie: For Hermes as 'god of deceit' (appropriately thanked here as Eur.'s schemes seem finally to be on the verge of success), PI. 1157; S. Ph. 133; Aen. Tact. 24. 15; Hippias Erythr. FGrHist 421 F i (P- 3 J 7- 7); N. O. Brown, Hermes the Thief (Madison, 1947); Olson on Pax 402. The adj. is otherwise in the classical period almost exclusively poetic. rauri fiev KT\. amounts to an assertion that a prayer resembling that in 1157—9 (where see n.) has been answered. 1203 au [iev KT\.: Addressed to Teredon. TOUTI: 380 n. Not the Skythian's quiver/bowcase (which is fern.; cf. 1197), but, as Wilamowitz saw (ap. Lange 53 n. i), the old woman's himation (1160—i n.), which Eur. hands over to Teredon, who exits on the run with it into Wing A. Masculine, agreeing in sense, but not in grammar, with cf. Ach. 872 KoXXiKofidye Bouurioiov, KG i. 53—4. 1204—6 rovSe: i.e. Inlaw (addressed in au 8' KT\.). Eur. sets to work releasing Inlaw from the plank; 1204—7 cover the time it takes to accomplish this. For onus + fut. indie, as the colloquial equivalent of an imper., 266-8 n. dvSpiKus ('like a man') must be used with some irony, given that what Inlaw is being told to do is run away (1205)—and in women's clothing at that! avopiKos (used here metrigratia) is a colloquial equivalent of the more elevated dvSpeios (e.g. 656, 839); cf. Neil on Eq. 80-1. t|)€u^€i: Thus R (< >evt;o{i,ai), but the Aristophanic Eur. could equally well have used the more Euripidean see Olson on Ach. 203). revels: Intransitive; 'exert yourself (cf. Ra. noi), and thus by extension 'hasten' (as at E. Supp. 720; Or. 1129). us TT|v Yuvaixa KT\.: Cf. 282-3 n., 1020-1 (where Inlaw is said to have a wife, although no children are mentioned) with n., 1229
LINES 1200-12
347
with n. The truce concluded between Eur. and the women in 1160-70 finds a final reflex in the presentation of Inlaw's escape as a means of restoring domestic order in the city; cf. Introduction p. Ixvi. For the theme of safe return to 'wife and children' (PL 11047-1)1' ywaiKaKaiTd-n-aiSia), cf. Stesich. PMGFSij. 6-7; E. Tr. 2i;Phaeth. 85. 1207 Ifioi fi€\r|a€i raurd Y': Cf. 1064* with 240 n. f\v a-ua£ et sim. is common in comedy (e.g. Av. 342; Ra. 206; Alex. fr. 160. 4; Men. fr. 816. i), Plato (e.g. Cra. 403)3; _R. 4.24.3), andXenophon(e.g.^4w. iii. 2. 25; iv. 6. 17), and is probably colloquial. 1208-9 XeXuao is a pf. pass, imper., 'Be freed!' For similar forms, 275 and 1134 p.6p.vriao; Men. Georg. 84 eppiuao; Epitr. 1112 d<j>eiao with Gomme— Sandbach ad loc.; Sam. 350, 612 -jre-jravao; cf. Lautensach, Glotta 9(1918) 85. Eur. pulls out the last pin holding Inlaw to the plank. aov Cf. 1172 with n. Once Inlaw is free, Eur. picks up his instruments (1217 with n.) and the Skythian's quiver/bowcase (1197 with n.), and exits rapidly into Wing A. Inlaw follows him off (cf. 1219). Cf. 1221. 8r| indicates assent to the order
(GP227). I2IO—16
I2IO—II The Skythian and Elaphion emerge from the central stage-door. The Skythian's stage-phallus is no longer erect. X"-PIS and its cognates sometimes have sexual overtones (Eq. 517; EC. 629, 1048; Alex. fr. 170). But KapievTO here is merely a vaguely commendatory adj. ('pleasant' vel sim.; of persons also at Lys. 1226; Demetr. Com. Vet. fr. i. 4), which is given more specific content in 1211. TO TiryaTpio: 1181 n. The point of KOU SuaKoV d\\a rrpao is that Elaphion did everything the Skythian wanted with no protest, negotiation, or the like (something apparently not to be taken for granted). Cf.thepraiseatPhilem.fr. 3. 13— 16 of the glories of organized prostitution: 'One obol; race on in. There's no prudery, no chatter, she doesn't try to avoid your advances; you get the girl you want in the way you want. You're out the door; to hell with her, she's someone else's problem!' KOV ovaKoX' is equivalent to 'relaxed, easy-going' (e.g. Ra. 82, 359). Cf. PI. Hp.Mi. 3&4d rrpaias T€ «ai The Skythian belatedly realizes that 'Artemisia' is no longer onstage. 1212 marks his recognition that Inlaw is missing as well and that he has botched his job (931—4). 1212 1210—n n. us (XTroXtdXo: 209—10 n. Lit. 'Where [is] the old man from here?', i.e. 'Where has the old man got to?'
348
COMMENTARY
I2i3a-b The Skythian ought really to feel more concern about his prisoner than about the old woman who failed to do the task he assigned her (1199) and who has now disappeared with his quiver/bowcase to boot (1214—15). But throughout the rest of the scene he pays only very secondary attention to Inlaw(i2i9-2i with 1217-19 n.) and the focus is squarely on Eur. OUK eucuvu: Sc. ae. 'I don't praise [you]', i.e. 'I'm unhappy with your behaviour, I offer you no thanks for your behaviour'; cf. Lys. 70; E. Ph. 764; Quincey, jfHS 86 (1966) 154-6. That 'Artemisia' deliberately set Inlaw free has seemingly not yet occurred to the Skythian (cf. 1219 with n.); what upsets him is that she failed to watch his prisoner and has run off with his property (1214). Aprafiou^ia: 1200—i n. 1214 8i€pa\(e): 'misled' (thus 2R), as at e.g. Av. 1648 (mid.); Crates Com. fr. 54; Hdt. v. 107; Is. 11.36. Cf. Sandbach on Men. Dysk. 462; Chadwick 92. Contrast 390 n. d-uoTpeK' us raKiara au: 264-5 n. Addressed to Elaphion. The Skythian ought really to keep control of the girl, since she is his last substantial link to 'Artemisia'. But he is not a clever character and his order is best understood as a desperate, clumsy attempt to get rid of the evidence of how he lost his equipment (1215)—as well as a way for the playwright to get an unwanted character off stage with a minimum of bother. Gannon's em'rpeK' (Notes on Selected Passages of Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae (Bedford Hills, NY, 1988) 31; 'run after [her]!, run and fetch [her]!') not only fails to make better sense of the Skythian's decision to let Elaphion go, but spoils 1217—25 (which require that he have no idea in what direction the 'old woman' may havefled). Elaphion runs off into Wing A. 1215 If the emendations are correct (see below), the sense is clearly 'It was rightly called a "quiver/bowcase", for it has gone for good as a result of my fucking', with a pun on au(3T]VT] (i 195—7 n.) and piveiu (35 n.). Etymologies of this sort are common in tragedy (cf. Quincey, RhM NF 106 (1963) 142-8; Griffith, HSCP 82 (1978) 84 n. 5; Collard on E. Supp. 496—7a; Bond on E. HF 56), and the effect here is bathetic. For similar comic derivations, cf. Eq. 1257—8 ('Tell me your name!' 'Agorakritos; for I grew up on quarrels in the Agora'); fr. 342 (from Th. II). For postponed 8(e), 746—7 n. R's 'an was probably added after r|v was lost by haplography after avfirivri, and for the reduplicated form, cf. 1127 aVoKe«oi/ii) was corrupted into what looked like a pres. act. Bergler took R's text to mean Ktnffiivi} aa (' I fucked it away'), but the Skythian should then have used an augment (as in 1120, 1133, and actually restored by Sommerstein), and the i st pers. is less likely, since the inner link between the quiver/bowcase and its name requires that it be the subj. rather than the obj. ofthe vb. For the pass., cf. 50; Eup. fr. 385. 2 pepivljaOai', Bain, 'Verbs' 60—i. For the
L I N E S 1213-24
349
force of «ara-('away, unto destruction'), cf. 243, 560; Nu. 857; Starkieon V.gn; Olson on Pax 246-7. 12153—16 OL|_IOL. / TI Spaai;: Perhaps paratragic (cf. 1128—9 n.), like 1215 (where see n.). TTOI TO YP8i';: 'Whither the old woman?', i.e. 'Where has the old woman gone?' 1216-26 is strikingly reminiscent of E. Cyc. 675-89. Cf. Introduction pp. Ixiii—Ixiv. 1217—19 rr|v Ypiuv Ipidras;: 619 n. ras TrrfK-riSas: A TTTJKTIJ (cognate with mjyvtyii; mentioned already at Sapph. frr. 22. n; 156. i; Ale. fr. 36. 5; Anacr. PMG 373. 3; 386; in a catalogue of musical instruments at Anaxil. fr. 15. i) is a type of harp (PI. _R. 399C—d; distinguished from a lyre by having strings of varying length (West, AGM 49)) which is routinely referred to as 'Eastern', 'barbarian', 'foreign', or the like (Pi. fr. 125; Hdt. i. 17. i; S. fr. 412; Telest. PMG 810. 4-5; Diog. Ath. TrGF 45 F i. 6—n; Sopat. fr. 12. i; Aristox. fr. 97; cf. S. fr. 241); cf. Paquette 189-92; Maas and Snyder 147-9; West, AGM 70-5, esp. 71-2. It is thus a good match for the sort of character Eur. is playing; cf. 1200-1 n. For prostitutes playing stringed instruments at symposia, 1177-8 n.; Matro fr. 6 with Olson—Sens on v. 2; cf. 97—8 n. As if the Skythian had asked (GP 133). Whatever direction is indicated, the advice is of no help to the Skythian; cf. 1221, 1223-4. F°r the sedes of oixerai, cf. 645* with n. For aurr) . . . IKCIVT], see Janko, CQ NS 35 (1985) 20—30, esp 24—5. Kdi Y£p<>>v TIS €iTT€To: This detail (developed in 1220) is not needed to identify 'Artemisia' (cf. 1217-18) and serves instead mockingly to alert the Skythian to the likelihood that 'she' was an ally of Inlaw all along (cf. 1212—15 withnn.). But the Skythian continues to show more interest in the old woman who has made off with his quiver/bowcase (i222a-b, 1225)—and thus with the symbol of his identity as a Skythian archer—than in his escaped prisoner. I22O—I KpoKtor' IKOVTO TT] Y € P OVTO J + KpoKwrov e^ovra rov yepovra; (carrying on the construction after eiSes in 1218). •Mf-1 eyw! 'Yes indeed!'; a regular line-ending formula in the late plays (Av. 1446, 1542; Ra. 632; EC. 457, 717; PL 96, 143, 214). Cf. Lowe, Glotta 51 (1973) 49. For the vb., Page, S&A 14—15. TauTT]'i': Accompanied by a gesture, presumably in a direction different from that indicated in 1218 (hence the Skythian's confusion in I222a). I222a to |_uapo Ypao = to fuapdypav, 'Oh, the old bitch!'; cf. 512-13 n. The Skythian at last realizes what has been done to him (cf. 1217—19 n.). cf. 1225 with 657 n.) -rrp oSov; Cf. 1220-1 n. Addressed to the world at large (although the coryphaeus offers an answer in 1223). 1223—4 6p6r|v: Sc. oSov, as at Av. i; an internal ace.
350
COMMENTARY
'Chase [them] straight up!', which may mean 'up [the slope of the Acropolis]' or perhaps 'away from the audience in the Theatre and us, and towards the oKr/vy', but must in any case be once again the wrong direction. rr]8i: i.e. in a direction radically different from that indicated in 1223. Accompanied by a gesture. Siu^ei: For mid. as the fut. of SIWKW, Rutherford 377-8 (although the paradosis &' wfeis more likely represents a trivial scribal error in the vicinity of Dels and rpe'^eu than a misdivision of Cobet's Sioi^ei. 's (Mnemosyne 2 I ( 853) 213; for which, cf. S. fr. 314. 118-19 ™ jSij^ara / els rovpiraXiv ofoopKfv ('the hoofmarks look backwards'); Sandbach on Men. Dysk. 949)). TOUfnraXiv rpex^is ou ye: 'You're running the opposite way\' (cf. 1004—5 n -> X. HG iv. 4. 13 Tovp.-jra.Xiv e-jropeveTo), i.e. 'the wrong way\' Adverbial rovpiraXiv is attested at e.g. Lys. 1046/7; A. Ag. 1424; E. Hipp. 390; Th. iii. 22. 5, and is confined in the classical period to Attic (but absent from Plato and the orators). 1225 KdKoSaifiov must be the Skythian's (typically garbled) way of saying KaKoSaifjuav [eyw], 'Poor [me]!' (228-9 n.). dpe^w (i222a n.). The Skythian reverses course (cf. 1223-4) and rushes off into Wing B. 1226 For the text, Jackson 82—3; Austin (1990) 29. 1079-82 n. The prep, was inserted here by O. Bachmann, Lexici Aristophanei specimen (Frankfurt a. O., 1884) 18. eiroupiaas: 'with a good wind at your back' (as if this were part of a blessing rather than a curse), i.e. 'as rapidly as possible'; for the image, cf. 723—5 n.; Lys. 550; S. Tr. 815-16; Taillardat §215. eTrovpl^w is found elsewhere in the classical period only in drama (Epicr. fr. 9. 3*; A. Eu. 137 (the earliest attestation of the compound); S. fr. **442. 7 with Barrett, in Garden 206; E. Andr. 610* (all trans, except perhaps the first)) and at [PI.] Ale. 2 I47a. 1227-31 Anapaests (all dimeters except 1229 (monometer); 1228 and 1231 are catalectic), pronounced as the chorus exit into the eisodos through which they entered at 295. Nu. (below) andP/. also end in anapaests, as do most of Euripides' tragedies (although see Barrett on E. Hipp. 1462—6). Cf. JVM. 1510/11 PI. Phdr. 278b is 'in appropriate measure', i.e. 'long enough'. Cf. 1189—90 with n. For the use of GP 213—14; cf. EC. 1163—5 brings the play to an emphatically domestic end; cf. 1206 with n.; Introductionp. Ixviii. Tto0€<jfio<|>6ptdKT\.: Forprayersofthetype daquiadedi, cf. 286—91 with 286—8 n.; Ausfeld526—8. Whether the chorus are speaking in character as Athenian women leaving the Thesmophorion (and hoping for fertility, a happy domestic life, good marriages for their children (cf. 289—91), and the like) or as a comic chorus leaving the Theatre
L I N E S 1223-31
351
(and hoping to win the prize at the festival) is unclear—which is to say that they speak as both. Cf. 930-1 n., 962-5 n., 972)3 with n., 1060-1 n.; Dikaiopolis (speaking also for the poet) at Ach. 1224—5; Handley on Men. Dysk. 965—9; Dover, Frogs, pp. 58—9; Bierl 160—i. i.e. 'just as we have given them joy by honouring them in this festival/play (cf. above; 111-13 n., 992~3 n.), so may they give us joy in return'; cf. 982 with n. For the expression, cf. Pax 761 Historically the dual endings in the active are -TOV (Sanskrit -tarn) for both 2nd and 3rd person in primary tenses (including imperatives, e.g. 1155-6 p,o\€Tov e'XBerov, and subjunctives), but 2nd pers. -TOV, 3rd -TI)V (Sanskrit -tarn) in secondary tenses (including optatives). In practice, however, these latter may exhibit either ending in either person (KB ii. 69-70; Page on E. Med. 1073; Fraenkel on A. Ag. 1207). For the absence of metron-diaeresis, Parker, CQ NS 8 (1958) 82-6, esp. 84.
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GREEK INDEX References are to lines as indicated in the commentary. 282—3 107 306—9, 378—9 160 5^ 920—2 14-15,43 246 372—4 132
733-4 421—3, 222—3 7°4 514 1018-19 15 1—2 2O2 579—81 904—5 216—17 53
S 239 146—7 322—3
159
289—90 2
587-8
1079—82 13 7~^ 3^5 626 437/8 173-4
419—21
1133 + dat. 148—50 1111—12
633
O 35
/3od of the sound of musical instruments 125 6-8, /3 45 1176 78-9
159
$ 4^9 1174 128
449—5 I 123
280—1
133 218—2O 45
486 442
36l—2
317—19
16—17 821—3 55 192
221
a) 55
171 117~19 IO73~4 209—10 363—4
s 930—1 7^^
274 161—3 244—5
1185 5 6—7 4.2,1—3 feminine 431-2 3 72—4 1095-7 109—10 15 l~2 266—8 862—3 57^ s 192
354
GREEK INDEX 414 136 33 160 236—7 9—10 Joo—i 286—8 42 25 390,1214 161—3 479—80
1172—3 238 83 292—4 339—41 760—1
i 36-7
436/7
2 562-3 parenthetic 38 32
415 335~9 82
13 347~^
100 18
574—5 39—40 213 — 14
14—15 125 52 114—16 5^ 72—3
239
335~9> Il62~' IO59
372—4
556—7 84
479—80 699
488
64~5 184~6 261—2 23 6—7 372—4 78—9, 133 663—4
76—7 31 91I—12
?23~5 12
2OO—I 39-40 230 + aor. part. 236—7
659
407—9 469"?° 325—6 L 88—9 457~^ 65 I 216—17 3—4 o 84 V 375~6
760—1 96
144-5 289—90
498 63 508—9
277—8 131
93 $ 47^
1172-3 in cletic appeals 317-19 5 98—600 390 240
94
227
320—1 41 279 58 4^7~8
729
GREEK INDEX 69 26
355
261—2 852 54
945—6 327b-30 206—7 310—11
93 4^5
3 oo—i 730—2
738
I79—8O
3 7~^
395-7
846 13 — 14
I2O—2 489
83 6—7
244—5
44
93 5
4^9 68—70
910
I 61—3
1113-14
228—9
421—3 349~51 85 49 302—3
O) 53 821—3 S 347—8 615—16 3I 1215 226 131 134—5 67—8 5 66 2OO—I
243 461—4
I^O
IO4, 1176 quasi-pleonastic 211-12 56—7 I4I~3 421—3 137-8 392-4
OI —3
39—40 386—8 191 5^4 493~4 139 459-60 280—1 3 12—14 238 816—18
21 I~12
486
137—8 728
44 153 360
239
74
257~^
1029/30-32 5 6—7 124 987—9 284 29—30
ss1140—2 728
132
55^ 663—4 a 225 269—71 74^ 383^4 694—5 315 410—12 41
855—7 3I 4^
35^
GREEK INDEX
21 8—2O
99 So 702 15 1—2 646 1162—3
2l8—2O 620 of knowing persons 3 5 195—7 349—51
228—9
424—6
124 233—4
8
7
27 222—3
2^2
869—70
] 430
241—2
39^~4
512—13 850—1 154-6
3—4 323—4
l6l—3
107
129
700—1
228—9
343-4
in a stage-direction 129, 275-6 Ll 466—8
4*6—17
4l6—l7 'song' 107 41 231 231
15 7—^ picking up TTOU 26 491—2 325—6 picking up rtij 85 625 244—5 392—4 6l I—12 34
l IOO 36—7, 447—8 1183—4 134—5 700—1 12O—2
U 224
469—70
43
517—19
)v 254 2O
26 86 72—3 306—9
a 347—8 36l—2
29 I
204—5 325-6, 977-80 633
1125—7 140 418 . 21 14—15
O igi
126/7/8
ov 858
317—19 198—9 175 + gen. 1113—14 985 977-80 3 5 7~9
I2O—2 99
a 528—30 54°— I 269—71 64—5 136 222—3 58 59-62
504 282—3
GREEK INDEX 317-19
) 7O O 269—7 * l 733~4 s)1175 1217—19 266-8
1133
240
299
208
3§
189—90 286—8
453~4 F 385 433~5
286—8 320—1 $ 304—5 322—3
157—8 104-6 224 117—19
) 109—1C 556—7 &33> 838—9 821—3 834-5 493—4 778~8o iyi' 491—2
641 447~^ 834~5 63 9—40 556-7
iy 9^ 39~4( 615—16
487
285 291
392—4 38 323—4 5° 576 386—8 25,381—2
2O 69 172 206—7
I I I — I3 o 75 65 2—4
241 —2 46—8 36—7 III Q—2O 562—3 437/8 18g~9O + opt. 22—4
292—4 IO8
67—8
139
254 130 voc. 146—7 3 3 9—41
930—1
357
83—444 157—8 1195~7
I 5 7~8 154—6 273 623~4 754~5
$ 486 ) 247 415
310-11 216—17 644
14—15 137—8 168—70 + fut. 66 3 27t>—3 O 1175 94 198—9 76—7
173—4 71
95 84
70
35^
GREEK INDEX 608-9 141-3 "J2,—3 I44~5
IO4—6 986
54 85
88—( 29—30
391 246 836-7 743
v 209—10 8c 424—6 696—8 16—17 335~9 304-5
S 63 2,4.1—2, 46—8 499—501
ai 184—6 133 3 3 9—41 3 95—7 261—2 2O4~5 126
v 43° i$ 5°4 286-8 383—4 811—13
690—1 859—61 11 51 263 I2O—2, 300—1 I 101-3 141—3 5 6—7 18
289—90 466-8 IOI—3 347-8
CLl 381—2 377
74
3I7~I9
315 20—1 ) l6l—3
403-4, 505 22—4
11 61—2 232 146—7 168—70 64—5 504 638 U) 594 721—2 398 183
GENERAL INDEX References in Roman numerals are to page numbers in the Introduction; others are to lines as indicated in the commentary. Achaios (tragic poet) 161—3 Acharnai 562-3 adesp. tr. fr. 67 902 adultery and adulterers 343—4, 395—7, 414, 483-6, 487, 488, 491-2, 499-501,537-8 Aeschylus Danaid trilogy xlv Lykourgeian tetralogy 134—5,136, 137-8, 140, 141-3, 144-5 Agathonxxxv n. 17, 29-30, 31,49, 97—8, 101—3, 101—29, 120— 2, 146—7, 187, 191, 198-9, 204-5 Aglauros 533 Agora, as spot for gossiping 577-8 Agra 114—16 Alcibiades xxxvn—xxxix, xln Alkaios of Lesbos 161-3 Anakreon of Teos 161-3 Anaxagoras 14—18 Andromeda and Perseus Ixn—Ixm anger 'boiling' 466-8 Antitheos 897-8 ants and anthills 100 Apatouna 558 Apollo 101-29, I0 4> I08, 109-10, 315, 316,969-71, 972a-b Aguieus 489, 748 laurel sacred to 489 Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae II Ixxvii-lxxxix, 299 Artemis 114—16, 117—19, 320—1, 969—71 Artemisia of Hahkarnassos 1200—1 Assembly and Assembly procedures 277-8,292-4,295-382, 295-311, 352-4,368-70, 372-9, 372-4, 375-6, 378-9, 380, 381-2, 383-4, 431-2,444-5,652-4, 832-3, 923, 936-7 Assembly curse xlni, xhv, 295—382, 33I-5I, 335-9, 339-41, 342, 343-4, 346, 347-8, 349-51, 357-9, 363-4, 365-6
Assembly herald 277-8,295-382, 295-311,378-9, 381-2 Athenalxiii, 317-19,1136-9 barbitos 137-8 barley 419-21 barley-cake 75 bars and barmaids 347—8 bathos 22—4, 699—725, 1215 bathtub 562-6 battlefield monuments 696-8 beard 33 bed, shared by married couple 479—80 bees and beekeeping 506 'bomolochic' interjection 45, 86, 153, 175, 200—i, 206—7, 263 bribery 936—7 bronze-casting 56-7 butcher 222-3 cakes 285 Charminos xxxiv, 804 children, unwanted 505 Choes festival 746—7 'cletic hymn' 312—20, 312—14, 317—19 climactic obscenity 35, 59-62, 570 colloquialism 2, 12, 25, 26, 27, 39-40, 64-5, 72-3, 78-9, 81, 87, 93, 132, 134-5, 14°,I4I-3,157-8, 164-7, 184-6, 191, 195-7, 202, 204-5, 209-10, 2l8-20, 224, 228-9, 232, 233-4, 239,241-2,244-5, 248, 259-60, 266-8, 269-71, 280-1, 286-8, 289-90, 292-4, 390,392-4, 405-6, 407-9, 410-12, 421-3,
442a-b, 447-8, 449-51, 455-6, 461—4, 466—8, 489, 490, 493—4, 498, 508-9,512-13, 515-16, 542-3, 556-7, 562-3, 564-5, 566, 570, 587-8, 594, 595-6,603-4, 608-9, 610, 615-16, 620, 625, 637, 652-4, 659, 690-1, 699, 726-7, 733-4, 749, 75°, 757, 762-4, 768, 769, 773-4,
GENERAL INDEX golden implements of gods 108,315, 317-19 Gorges 1102-4 Graces 120-2,299,300-1 haggling 1193—4 headband 137-8 Hekate 858 Hera Teleia 973—6 Herakles, invocation of 26 Hermes 299, 300-1, 977-80, 1202
himation 213-14
361
light-armed troops 232 linen 935 lion, prophecies of birth of 514 litotes 461-4 loom and weaving 738, 821—3 Lykourgos 134—5 madness as result of drugs 534,561 Marathon 806—7
mechane Ixxii Melanippe Ivi, 546-8 mirror 140, 233-4
Hippias son of Peisistratos 335—9 Hlppokrates son of Ariphron 273 homosexuality 29-30,35,59-62, 157-8, 200-1 honey 506, 1191—2 hoplite equipment 824—9 horse and chariot 811-13 horsefly 323-4 hybris 63 hymmc style 104,111—13,129 Hyperboles son of Antiphanes 804, 840-1, 842-5
mitra 161-3
Ibykos of Rhegion 161—3 inlaws 74 interest on loans 842-5 Ionian'softness' 161—3
oak 114—16 oaths by Aphrodite 245 by Demeter 225 ofoffice 357—9 women's 225,254,383-4,517-19, 533,858 official language 302—3, 306—9, 943—4 olive oil 419—21
Kalligeneia 299 kenning 124 key 421—3,1140—2
kithara 120-2, 124, 137-8 Kleisthenes 235,574-5 Kleonymos 605 Kleophon son of Kle'ippides 805 kneading dough 75 Kothokidai 620 Kourotrophos 300-1
krokotos 137-8 Kybele 120—2 Kyrene 97-8 Lamachos son of Xenophanes xxxv, 840-1 lathe 54 latrine 485 laurel 489 legal language 372-4,375-6,377, 378-9,811-13 lekythos 139 Leto 120—2
Mnesilochos 74 Molossian dogs 416-17 monkey 1133 mountains 114—16 muleteers 491—2 Muses 41 myrtle 36-7,447-8 Nereus and Nereids 325—6 'new music' 100,101-29 Nymphs 325-6,977-80,992-3
Palamedes Iviii-lx, 770-1 Pan 977-80 pandering 339—41,558
paraprosdokian jokes 53, 241-2, 254, 286-8, 335-9 twice, 346, 508-9, 515-16, 528-30, 531-2, 824-9, 935, 1024-5 parasol 821-3 parodos, absence of 295-382 Pausamas of Kerameis 29—30 Pauson 949 pederasty 161-3, Z 92 Peisandros xxxviii-xl, xli-xliv Persephone, names of 286—8 Persia and Persians xxxvi—Ix, xln, xlni, Ixvi, 335-9, 365-6,446, 1175, I200-I
Phaidra 153, 392-4
362
GENERAL INDEX
Philokles (tragic poet) 168—70 Phrygia and Phrygians 120—2 Phrygian mode 120-2 Phrynichos son of Polyphradmon 164-7 Phrynondas 859—61 pig 222-3, 236-7, 295-382 pipe-music 1176 pisspot 633 Ploutos and Plouton 299 poetry, contemporary theories of Iv-lvi, 148-72, 164-7 Poseidon 109—10,317—19,322—3 prayer, language and ideology of 282— 3, 286-8, 289-90, 304-5, 310-11, 316, 327b-3o, 331-4, 987-9, 990-4 ~ 995~ IOOO > ! I4°~2, 1157—9, 1227-31 probouleuma 372-9 probouloi xxxiv, xxxvi proedria 834-5 prop-men Ixix, 655 prose, in comedy 295-311 prostitution and prostitutes 97-8, 1172—3, 1177—8, 1181, 1195—7, 1200—i, 1210—11, 1217—19 male 35 Proteas son of Epikles 874-6 proverbs and sayings, allusions to 528-30 prytaneis 652-4, 932 quail 339-41 razor and shaving 191, 216-17, 218-20, 226 repeated words 146—7, 209—10, 241—2, 292—4, 781—2, 1183—4 sacrifice firewood for 726—7, 728 ideology of 286—8 treatment of blood in 694-5 treatmentof skin in 758-9 treatment of thigh-bones in 692—3 saffron-dyed clothing 137—8 Salabakcho 805 satyrs and satyr play 157-8 schema anantapodoton 535-6 seals and seal-rings 415, 424—6, 427—8 Semnai Theai ('August Goddesses') 224 sesame and sesame-cake 570 shipbuilding 52
Simoeis 109—10 siphon 556—7 Skira festival 834-5 Skythian, characteristics of his Greek 1001—1225 Skythian archers, as Athens' police force 923 slaves 339-41, 342, 424-6, 491-2, 537-8, 728, 1007 names of 279 Sophocles Peleus fr. 493 869-70 'Spartan' shoes 141-3 spleen 3—4 sponge 247 stage-altar Ixxi, 748, 887-8 stage-beard 222-3 stage-directions, intrusive 99, 129, 275-6, 1187-8 Stenia festival 834-5 Stheneboia 392-4, 403-4 street-criminals 816—18 strigil 556—7 strophion 139 sun 16-17 suppliants and supplication 179—80, 224, 726—7 supposititious children 339-41, 407-9, 502-3, 564-5 swallow i—2, i sword 140 taxiarchs 832-3 Telephos Ivi—Ivni tents, used at festivals xlvi, 623—4 Theognis (tragic poet) 168-70 Thesmophoria festival xlv-li, 80, 280-1, 292-4, 299, 363-4, 380, 628,717 Thesmophorion sanctuary xlvi, 83 threshing grain 2 toasting 631 torch 101-3, 238, 280-1 trierarchs 836-7 trireme, officers in 836-7 Trojan War 101—29 turnip 1185 tyrants and tyranny 335-9 votive tablets 773—4 weasel 559 wet-nurse 608-9 wheels and wheel-making 53
GENERAL INDEX whip 932-4 widows 446, 447-8 wineskin 733-4 women chattering of 392—4 clothing 137—8,161—3,255,256, 261-2 drunkenness of 392-4,630,738 economic rights 811—13,842—5 festivals celebrated by 834—5 freedom of movement about city 414, 505, 789-90 hair 840—1 legal status 819—20 names 372-4
363
oaths 225,254,383-4,517-19,533, 858 old 505 'pee ring out' of houses 797-9 pilfering household supplies 418—28 as poisoners 430 quarters in house 414,479-80 in Theatre audience 395-7 vocabulary of 644 wool-working 821—3 writing tablets 778-80 Xenokles (tragic poet) 168—70 Zeus the Saviour 1009