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Old Persian Marika-, Eupolis Marikas And Aristophanes Knights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Albio Cesare Cassio
Albio Cesare Cassio
Affiliation:
Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples/Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, D.C.
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Extract

The little we know with certainty about Eupolis' Marikas can be summarised in a few lines. (1) The play was produced at the Lenaea of 421 b.c. (2) The demagogue Hyperbolus was satirised under the name of Marikas, and was represented as a man of little or no culture (Quint. 1.10.18 = Eup. fr. 193 K. Maricas, qui est Hyperbolus, nihil se ex musice scire nisi litteras confitetur). (3) Marikas/Hyperbolus was a slave. This has been denied in the past, but is now made clear by the commentary on the Marikas in P. Oxy. 2741 (no. 95, 145 f. Austin) πρ⋯ς[⋯ν] δεσπότην ⋯ Ὑπέρβολος. (4) Aristophanes complained in the Clouds we possess (i.e. in the revised edition of this play) that Eupolis had availed himself of the Knights for his Marikas (Nub. 553 ff.), and it is in fact possible that the idea of Marikas as a slave was borrowed from the Knights, because some of his traits seem to correspond to those of the Aristophanic Sausage-seller. (5) The play apparently had two semi-choruses, one of rich and one of poor people.

The point of the name Marikas has long been debated. Ancient sources are at least agreed that it is ‘barbarian’. Herodianus 1.50,12 Lentz does not go beyond stating that Marikas is an ⋯νομα βάρβαρον παρ⋯ τῷ κωμικῷ (he refers to Ar. Nub. 553). Hesych. μ 283 Latte has more to offer: Μαρικ⋯ν· κίναιδον. οἱ δ⋯ ὑποκόρισμα παιδίου ἄρρενος βαρβαρικόν (so Meineke for βαρβαρικα⋯, rightly).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , May 1985 , pp. 38 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1985

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References

1 ὕστερον τρίτῳ ἔτει…τ⋯ν Νεɸελ⋯ν (sch. Ar. Nub. 553), i.e. in 421 b.c.; the Dionysia are out of the question because Eupolis produced his Flatterers at that festival (hypoth. 1 Ar. Pac.).

2 Maass, E., Der Marikas des Eupolis, Festgabe f. H. Blümner (Zürich, 1914), 267–71Google Scholar, at 270: ‘der Marikas des Eupolis war nicht Sklave’.

3 Marikas' culture is confined to litterae (Quintil. loc. cit.), exactly like the Sausage-seller's (Ar. Eq. 188 f.). See also fr. 180 K. (but more can be said on that fragment; see below).

4 See no. 95, 99 Austin and his commentary ad loc.

5 We know from Demosthenes himself (18.180) that he was called βάταλος. Aeschin. 1.126 makes him say that this nickname comes ⋯ξ ὑποκορίσματος τίτθης. Even if Demosthenes did not actually say that, the linguistic usage it implies cannot have been invented. Of course Aeschines is suggesting that there are more serious reasons for Demosthenes being called that. See also Frisk, H., Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 1 (Heidelberg, 1960), s.v.Google Scholar

6 See Mencken, H. L., The American Language 4 (New York, 1977), 261Google Scholar on momzer ‘bastard; a general term of opprobrium, and also of affection as when used of a mischievous or clever child’. See also 398 on bugger.

7 See Robinson, D. M. – Fluck, E. J., A Study of the Greek Love-Names (Baltimore, 1937), 142 f.Google Scholar, quoted by Schmidt, V., Sprachliche Untersuchungen zu Herondas (Berlin, 1968), 50 n. 11Google Scholar. On Βάταλος as a proper name see Plut. Dem. 4.

8 Dover, K. J., Aristophanes Clouds (Oxford, 1968), 170CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 The Greeks knew well that Crete was inhabited by a mixture of races that spoke many languages (Hom. Od. 19.172 ff.), and Herodotus says (1.173) that the whole island had been in the hands of barbarians τ⋯ παλαιόν; yet I have strong doubts whether a recognisably Cretan word, or a word derived from it, could have been called ‘barbarous’ in Athens (moreover, we have no proof that μαρίς was actually known there at the time).

10 See n. 2.

11 Maass, op. cit. (n. 2), 269.

12 The abbreviations are those of Kent, R. G., Old Persian. Grammar, Texts, Lexicon 2 (New Haven, 1953)Google Scholar; DNb is edited and translated at pp. 138–40. A transliteration and an interpretative transcription of DNb 50–60 can now be found in Sims-Williams, N., ‘The Final Paragraph of the Tomb-Inscription of Darius I (DNb, 50–60): The Old Persian Text in the Light of an Aramaic Version’, Bull. Sch. Or. Aft. St. 44 (1981), 1–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Op. cit. (see preceding note) 140.

14 Brandenstein, W. – Mayrhofer, M., Handbuch des Altpersischen (Wiesbaden, 1964), 132Google Scholar.

15 Weissbach, F. H., Die Keilinschriften der Achämeniden (Leipzig, 1911), 92–5Google Scholar.

16 Herzfeld, E., Altpersische Inschriften (Berlin, 1938)Google Scholar.

17 Chantraine, P., Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque (Paris, 1968), 678Google Scholar, s.v. μεῖραξ.

18 Benveniste, E., Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes (Paris, 1969), 247Google Scholar.

19 Bayley, H. W., ‘A Problem of the Indo-Iranian Vocabulary’, Roczn. Oriental. 21 (1957). 59–69 at 66 n. 42Google Scholar.

20 von Soden, W., Akkadisches Handwörterbuch 2 (Wiesbaden, 1972), 894Google Scholar (s.v. qallu(m) 5 d ‘Sklave’).

21 Bayley loc. cit. (n. 19).

22 Frye, R. N., The Heritage of Persia (Cleveland and New York, 1963), 50Google Scholar.

23 Greek παῖς, Latin puer, Elamite puhu (Hallock, R. T., Persepolis Fortification Texts, Chicago, 1969, 39, 42Google Scholar), Aramaic 'lym (Segert, S., Altaramäische Grammatik, Leipzig, 1975, 546Google Scholar ‘Knabe > (junger) Sklave’), French garçon, Italian garzone (but ‘young man’ only in literary Italian). See also Oettinger, N., ‘Probleme phraseologischer Interferenzen zwischen orientalischen und klassischen Sprachen’ Glotta 59 (1981), 1–12 at 7Google Scholar (a reply to Fehling, D., ‘Lehnübersetzungen aus altorientalischen Sprachen im Griechischen und Lateinischen’, Glotta 58, 1980, 1–24 at 15)Google Scholar.

24 See the Oxford English Dictionary 5 (Oxford, 1933), 725Google Scholar, which gives the following meanings: ‘A male child, a boy’ (late medieval), then ‘a male servant or menial in general’ and ‘a base and crafty rogue’.

25 Art. cit. (n. 2), 268.

26 Brandenstein-Mayrhofer (op. cit. in n. 14), 148.

27 See Tolman, H. C., ‘Persian Words in the Glosses of Hesychius’, Journ. Am. Or. Soc. 41 (1921), 236 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Bréal, M., Essai de sémantique, 42Google Scholar, quoted by Björck, G., Das Alpha impurum und die tragische Kunstsprache (Uppsala, 1950), 78Google Scholar.

29 Björck ibid. (see preceding note).

30 Björck op. cit. (n. 28) 268 ff., 49 ff.

31 See V. Schmidt, op. cit. (n. 7), 47 ff. and 50 n. 11.

32 See Pl. Corn. fr. 170 K., Polyzel, fr. 5 K., Sch. Ar. Pac. 692. Σύρος or Σύριος might also mean ‘Cappadocian’ or ‘Babylonian’: see the basic study of Nöldeke, T., Ἀσσύριος, Σύριος Σύρος Hermes 5 (1871), 443–68Google Scholar: see also Zeitschr. Assyr. 1 (1886), 289Google Scholar.

33 Ar. Nub. 553, Eup. frr. 190 and 192 K.

34 See e.g. Meillet, A. — Benveniste, E., Grammaire du vieux-perse (Paris, 1931), 50Google Scholar ‘seule la comparaison permet d'en retrouver la quantité’. Marīka- is usually taken to be the result of the contraction of marya-ka.

35 For the ‘Ausgleichung der Quantitäten’ in the Greek of Asia Minor see Schweizer, E. (= Schwyzer), Grammatik der Pergamenischen Inschriften (Berlin, 1898), 94Google Scholar.

36 See Broadhead, H. D., The Persae of Aeschylus (Cambridge, 1960), 231Google Scholar ‘the quantitative variations…are natural enough in the case of a foreign name’. On the ‘metrische Nötigung’ in the case of the name Ἀρτεμβάρης see Wackernagel, J., Kleine Schriften (Göttingen, 1953), 428Google Scholar. On the problem of the Persian names in Aeschylus see now Schmitt, R., ‘Die Iranier-Namen bei Aischylos’, Sitzsb. Österr. Akad. Wiss., Philos.-hist. Klasse, Bd. 337 (Wien, 1978)Google Scholar.

37 Ἐκβάτᾰνα: see E.g. Ar. Ach. 64, Eq. 1089. Hagmatᾱna-: Brandenstein-Mayrhofer (see n. 14), 122.

38 Bābilu and Bābiru-: see Brandenstein-Mayrhofer (n. 14), 109 (Βᾰβῠλών e.g. Ar. Av. 552).

39 Sparta and Persia (Leiden, 1977), 21Google Scholar.

40 τοὺς Πέρσας[…] παρεδέξαν […] γ⋯ρ αὐτοῖς ⋯πι[…]. Was there question of Persians being admitted to citizenship of some Greek polis (LSJ s.v. παραδέχομαι 3)? At 38 Δ]ρεικ[οί (or other cases of the same word) would be possible.

41 αυτημε. (not αυτημ. as Austin prints) is the correct reading; see Lobel, E., The Oxyrhynchus Papyri vol. 35 (London, 1968), 57Google Scholar (col. 2, 41, and the photograph, Pl. VI).

42 Apud Lobel op. cit. (see preceding note), 59.

43 A similar explanation can be read in Conon's Diegeseis (FGrHist 26 F 1, 1). It seemed ‘euhemeristisch’ to Eitrem (RE 15, 1932, 1531Google Scholar), but nothing proves that it is not very old. For the keen hearing of the ass Eitrem ibid. quotes Arist. G.A. 5.2, 781b13. The alternative interpretation offered by the scholion, ὅτι κώμην Φρυγίας κατέσχεν, ἥτις Ὦτα ⋯νου ⋯λέγετο, seems to me nothing but a crudely material interpretation of the sentence Μίδας ὦτα ⋯νου ἕχει: there is nothing proverbial about it (see following note) that could be applied to people different from Midas himself.

44 Suid. μ 1036 Adler (3.393, 19 and 27 f.). Here λανθάνω means ‘not to perceive’, a late usage; see Sophocles, E. A., Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (New York, 1887), 705Google Scholar.

45 Δ (Vat. gr. 1322) has μ⋯δον τ⋯ γένος, surely a mistake by the ‘auctor recensionis quintae’ (see Rabe, H., Scholia in Lucianum, Lipsiae, 1906, VI)Google Scholar. Midas, the mythical king of Phrygia, appears as King of Lydia and lover of Omphale in Clearch. fr. 43 a Wehrli ( = Ath. 12.515e); see Roscher, , Lex. Myth. 3.881 ffGoogle Scholar. Did Clearchus draw on a comic source?

46 On King's Eyes and King's Ears see now Lewis (op. cit. n. 39), 19 f.; the locus classicus is Xen. Cyr. 8.2.10–12. Gaušaka- is not attested in Old Persian, and was conjectured on the basis of gwšky' in an Elephantine papyrus (Cowley, A., Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C., Oxford, 1923, nr. 27, 9)Google Scholar. See Pagliaro, A., ‘Riflessi di etimologie iraniche nella tradizione storiografica greca’, Rendic. Acc. Naz. Lincei 9 (1954), 133–53 at 139Google Scholar and Hinz, W., Neue Wege im Altpersischen (Wiesbaden, 1973), 98 fGoogle Scholar. — This paper owes a good deal to the help and encouragement of Dr D. M. Lewis: μεγάλα χάρις αὐτῷ. I am also indebted to Dr Gianfranco Fiaccadori and Dr Deborah H. Roberts for suggestions and corrections.