Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T22:16:30.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Philoxenos … of Doubtful Gender

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Ian C. Storey
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The date of Phrynichos' Satyroi is not known, but it seems fair to assume that in the late 420s a certain Philoxenos ‘enjoyed’ a vogue in comedy as an alleged effeminate and catamite (note the descriptions of him as θήλεια, καταπύγων, πόρνος, οὐκ ἄρρην. Both Dover and Henderson comment that καταπύγων in can mean just ‘worthless’, but here the more precise and homosexual meaning of the term is meant. Dover is very probably right that in Cl. 686 the poet has selected as male names those of ‘three men whose masculinity could be called in question’.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 115 , November 1995 , pp. 182 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Geissler, P., Chronologie der altattischen Komödie 2 (Munich 1969) 35Google Scholar puts it 425–420; fr. 46 is a parody of Euripides' Peleus (cf. CI. 1154). As Phrynichos' début appears to belong to 429 (Anon. De Comoedia III 9), the date of Satyroi must be later than that year.

2 This dating assumes that CI. 685–7 belong to the original of 423 and not to the subsequent revision (419–7). This seems a reasonable assumption, since Amynias, made fun of in the following lines (691–2) is a komodoumenos of the late 420s (e.g Wasps 74–6, 466, 1264–74; Eupolis' Poleis. fr. 222).

3 Henderson, J., The maculate muse 2 (New Haven 1990) 210Google Scholar; Dover, K.J., Greek homosexuality (London 1978) 143.Google Scholar

4 Dover, K.J., Aristophanes Clouds (Oxford 1968) 185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 This aspect of comic humour is thoroughly discussed by Dover [n. 3] 135–53, and by Henderson [n. 3] 204–22, although not all the pathic komodoumenoi listed by Henderson (213–5) belong there (e.g. Chairephon, Ariphrades, Lykourgos).

6 See Kn. 1015–95, Peace 1063–1126 (which combines oracular with epic parody), Birds 959–91, Lysist. 770–6. The major non-oracular use of hexameters is found at Frogs 1528–33.

7 Raspe, G.C.H., De Eupolidos Δήμοις ac Πόλεσιν (Leipzig 1831) 105.Google Scholar Compare the wording at Kn. 1037 and at Kn. 1059 also that at Hermippos 77 (likewise in dactylic hexameter, spoken by Dionysos)

8 Kirchner in PA 14707; MacDowell, D.M., Aristophanes Wasps (Oxford 1971) 141Google Scholar; Sommerstein, A.H., The comedies of Aristophanes, vol. 4, Wasps (Warminster 1983) 160.Google Scholar

9 See Storey, I.C., ‘Dating and re-dating Eupolis’, Phoenix xliv (1990) 18–20.Google Scholar

10 The author of Ivy Leaves [anonymous and privately printed pamphlet] 30–40. It will be seen that I share the author's conclusion about the identification of Eryxis with the prytanis of 408/7 (PA 5191), but not that there is only one Philoxenos. Starkie, W.J.M., The Acharnians of Aristophanes (London 1909) 127Google Scholar knows of this explanation of but does not accept it.

11 One is immediately intrigued by the relationship between this worship of Herakles and the chorus of Aristophanes' first play, Daitales, who were diners at a temple of Herakles (Suid. s.v. Orion 49.10). On the composition of this chorus and for the relationship between Aristophanes and the worship of Herakles, see Cassio, A.C., Aristofane, Banchettanti (Pisa 1977) 21–5Google Scholar; Welsh, D., ‘IG ii2 2343, Philonides and Aristophanes' Banqueters’, CQ xxiii (1983) 51–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Lind, H., Der Gerber Kleon in den Rittern des Aristophanes (Frankfurt 1990) 132 ff.Google Scholar

12 Davies, J.K., Athenian propertied families (Oxford 1971) 181.Google Scholar

13 Bannier, W., ‘Zu griechischen Inschriften’, RhM. lxxvii (1928) 285Google Scholar; Mattingly, H., ‘Athens, Delphi and Eleusis in the late 420s’, PACA ix (1966) 63–5.Google Scholar

14 Aristotle EE 1231a17, Problems 950a3; Plut. Eth. 668c, 1128b; Aelian VH 10.19; Stob, viii 3.34; Athenaios 6b, 220b.

15 The JHS referee notes that Dover, K.J., Aristophanes Frogs (Oxford 1993) 309Google Scholar reverses the name and patronymic of the glutton when citing Arist. EE

16 Dittmar, H., Aischines von Sphettos (Berlin 1912) 191Google Scholar, 284 [= fr. 34 Dittmar].

17 One is strongly reminded of the enumeration of the pupils of Aeschylus and Euripides at Frogs 964–70, even to the word see also Davies [n. 12] 228.

18 Meritt, B.D. & Traili, J.S., The Athenian Agora, vol. XV, Inscriptions: The Athenian councillors (Princeton 1974).Google Scholar

19 Rogers, B.B., The Frogs of Aristophanes (London 1902) 142–3Google Scholar; Schmidt, W., ‘Haplologie im Satzsandhi’, Philologus lxxvi (1920) 222–5Google Scholar; van Leeuwen, J., Aristophanis Ranae (Leiden 1896) 145Google Scholar; Taillardat, J., Les Images d' Aristophane (Paris 1965) 135–7Google Scholar who cites Mason, P., Aristophane. La Paix. Texte grec publié avec une introduction, des notes critiques et explicatives (Paris 1904)Google Scholar on the passage from Peace ‘Le taxiarque fanfaron, dont le manteau se déploie en larges ailes au vent de sa fuite affolée, semble un aux ailes ouvertes”.

20 See Snell, B., Tragicorum Graecorum fragmenta, vol. 1, (Göttingen 1971) no. 257, p. 329Google Scholar; Pickard-Cambridge, A.W., Dithyramb, tragedy, and comedy 2 (Oxford 1968) 45–8.Google Scholar