Άγχίσης (fr·5)

57

are thus and so that the word ‘stater’ used without qualification cannot be
taken always to imply gold. Theopompus fr. 22 follows. Pollux’s other citation
(6.161) is in the midst of a list of compound words that begin ήμι- and offers
little help for the interpretation of the fragment. His examples are drawn
mostly from comedy, but include a number of references to tragedy and one
to oratory (Dinarchus).
ήμιχρύσους The adjective appears nowhere else, but cf. (τό) ήμίχρυσον
at Agora XVI 296.36, 48, 49 in a list of dedications from the Athenian agora
(161/0 BC). Pollux presumably understood the word as referring to electrum
staters, in which case the coins are foreign, since the Athenians neither used
electrum for coins nor minted staters. Electrum staters appeared in Asia Minor
(e. g. Gordium, Ephesus) in the Archaic period and continued to be minted un-
til the fourth century, predominantly in the eastern Aegean but not exclusively
so (e. g. Phocaea, Syracuse). The so-called ‘Athenian Standards Decree’ (IG I3
1453; cf. Stroud 2006.18-26 for discussion and recent bibliography) regulating
the coinage of fifth-century Athen’s subject cities apparently exempted staters
(or at least did not mention them), and Cyzicene staters continued to be com-
mon. In general, see Kraay 1976. 20-30; Figueira 1998. 92-109, 273-79. For gold
staters in comedy, e. g. Eup. fr. 123; Ar. Pl. 816; cf. Dover 1968 on Ar. Nu. 1041.
Since staters were widely used for exchange between Athens and cities of
the Hellespont/Black Sea, they might be appropriate for Anchises, who has
perhaps come to Athens or at least is placed in the ‘real’ contemporary world.
Alternatively, the word possibly refers to the use of alloy, conceivably as a
metaphor (e. g. Aeneas’ mixed human/divine parentage?), or could describe a
debased coinage (perhaps cf. Hsch. φ 1085 ‘Phocaeans: the name of a people.
Also the worst gold’).