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ΘhaγπaiΣ in Lycophron 850–1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Leofranc Holford-Strevens
Affiliation:
67 St Bernard's Road, Oxford, [email protected]; [email protected].

Extract

Besides the direct tradition, these verses are cited by Stephanus of Byzantium, s.n. Aῖγυς, who explains: λγος π∊ρ ‘Eλυης Λακωυικς οὒσης καῷ ἂρρ∊υ μτ∊κοσης κα τ ’Aλ∊ζυδρω κα Δηϊøβω γαμηθ∊σης Commentators have followed him both as to the identity of the three husbands and the sense of θηλπαις: ‘female-childed’.

Type
Shorter Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2000

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References

1 SeeRoscher, 1.1932–5; Jacoby on FGrH 382 F 12(cf. 76 F 88, 91,316 F 6); and see Σ II. 3.175 (1.147–8 Dindorf), Σ Od 4.11, Σ Eur. And. 898, Tzetzes on Lye. 513. ‘A iuuene et cupido credatur reddita uirgo?’, asks Oenone scornfully (Ov. Her. 5.129).

2 δυοῖυ π∊λ∊ιαῖυ ὠρøαυισμυηυ γους, the two doves being Iphigenia and Hermione.

3 The scholia at Scheer 2.263, objecting that Helen had departed not ∊ἰς αἴθραυ but to Egypt, invoke instead Eur. Or. 1636 υ αἰθρως πτυξαῖς, and comment: κα υ τοτω δ αυκ øρωυ σø∊ιαυ ργζ∊ται τᾰ ὓστ∊ρα τοῖς πρώτοις κα τᾰ πρτα τοῖς ὑσρροις. Modem commentators prefer to recall Eur. Hel. 44 υ πτυξαῖσιυ αἰθρος, cf. 605, 617.

4 αζισς ’Aλ∊ζυδρας αυκøρουος (1.73 Scheer): γ γᾰρ Θησ∊ς οὐκ ἓγυω αὐτυ παῖδα οσαυ, which in context cannot mean ‘did not know that she was a child’.

5 Even Vergil is allowed by modern critics to do so despite the objections of Hyginus fr. 8 Funaioli = Gellius, NA 10.16.11; see Norden on Aen. 6.273 ff. (pp. 213–14); Nicholas Horsfall, Virgilio: I'epopea in alambicco (Naples, 1991), 49, 91–102.

6 Likewise, if (as some have maintained) Melite/Malta is conflated with Melite/Mljet at 1027, this would have as much right to be called fusion, rather than confusion, as Vergil's blending of the two Scyllas (Buc 6.74) or Horace's of the two Catos (Od 3. 21. 11–12), neither of which can be put down to ignorance.

7 See Arist. G.A. 4.1, 766a17–b17, and for other theories Ann Leslie Dean-Jones, Women's Bodies in Classical Greek Medicine (Oxford, 1994), 166–70.

8 M∊τøρασις το αυκøρουος (1.73 Scheer). Contrast σ Od. 4.11: repeated childbirth spoils a woman's looks, but having no children is a misfortune; therefore, ιυα μακαρα υομζηται κα ιυα ρ κλλος ξη (in particular, to attract Paris), the gods let her bear one child and one child only.

9 As suggested by the anonymous referee.

10 As also suggested by the anonymous referee.

11 From the last sentence of Geffcken, J., ‘Zur Kenntniss Lykophrons’, Hermes 26 (1891), 567–79Google Scholar: ‘… glaubt man… das schadenfrohe Lachen eines neckischen Koboldes zu horen’.

12 This is the convention by which Sanskrit grammarians explain such compounds, known as bahuvrihi, ‘whose rice is much’ (bahur vrihir yasya).

13 If as West, Stephanie, ‘Lycophron italicised’, JHS 114 (1984), 127–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar suggests (140–1), this passage is by an interpolator, he was fully equal to his master's style; contrariwise, ead., ‘Notes on the text of Lycophron’, CQ 33 (1983), 114–35, finds fault on this score with the author of the Roman prophecy at vv. 1226–80 (122, n. 29). Nothing in my argument turns on the question of authorship, whether local or general.

14 But see M. L. West ad loc.

15 The scholia understand πολυυμøου with epitatic alpha; the αξ∊ισ (1.71 Scheer) offer τυ πολνυμøον ἠ κακνυμøον δμαλιν ‘Eλένηα; Holzinger explains ἅνυμøος ist Helena im Verhältnisse zur Paris’.

16 Even the white sow that indicated to Aeneas the site of his city becomes black in the metaphorical sense at 1256; but if any passage is interpolated, it is this (cf. n. 13).

17 That the poem shows no trace of comedy is a commonplace of criticism; since the subject is not comic that would be no surprise, but if I am right it is not true.

18 Vindicated for Eupolis fr. 385 K–A (Ath. Epit. 1.17 D) by Maximilian Goebel, Ethnica: Pars prima, de Graecarum civitatum proprietatibus proverbio notatis (Inaug. diss. Breslau, 1915), 50 (copy of page kindly supplied by Professor Robert A. Kaster).

19 Fragmenta poetarum comoediae antiquae 2/1 (Berlin, 1839), 200; cf. 2/2 (Berlin, 1840), 1086.

20 Dover, K. J., Greek Homosexuality (rev. edn, Cambridge, MA, 1989), 188Google Scholar, n. 6; see pp. 188–9 for other evidence associating Sparta with anal penetration of the female. Cf.Herter, H., RE, Suppl. XIII (1973), 1211, 11. 30–1Google Scholar: ‘Melaina statt Helena ist bei Phot. s. κυσαλκων fälschlich überliefert’.

21 At AP 5.54.5–6 = HE 1501–2 (Dioscorides 7) the same activity, viewed from a different standpoint, is indicated by the phrase ρσ∊νπαιδα κπριν: the husband is to entertain the fiction that his wife is male, Cassandra emphasizes the fact that Helen is female.

22 See Fraenkel on A. Ag 115; ω be sure Sophocles had used it π το δ∊ιλο (fr. 1085 Radt), but who shall say it was not in a satyr-play?

23 Henderson, J., The Maculate Muse (New York, 1991), 121Google Scholar no. 49, 125 no. 74; Dunbar on Ar. Av. 1206, who compares Timaeus of Tauromenium 566 F 124b ap. Polyb. 12.15.2. We may excuse ’ερχης (212) as a cult-title.