90

Ζωγράφοι ή Γεωγράφοι (vel -ος) (fr. 14)

The word (sc. tablet) is also used in the case of a painter in Anaxandrides’ Zographoi e
Gedgraphoi (the play goes by both titles):-
Antiatt. p. 113.1
πυξίον· δπου οί ζωγράφοι γράφουσιν. Άναξανδρίδης Ζωγράφω
Άναξανδρίδης Meineke: Αγίας cod.
Tablet. Where painters draw. Anaxandrides in Zdgraphoi
Metre lambic trimeter.
<X— x>|_w_ __
Discussion Meineke 1839 1.371; 1840 III.167-8; 1847. 577; Bothe 1855. 421;
Meineke 1857 V.clxxvii, 80; Kock 1884 11.140—1; Blaydes 1896. 122; Edmonds
1959 11.50—1; Kassel-Austin 1991 11.245; Sanchis Llopis et al. 2007. 246
Citation Context The designation of the author in the Antiatticist is clear-
ly corrupt. Having previously suggested Augeas (1.370) or Amphis (1.416),
Meineke 1840 III. 168 eventually settled on Anaxandrides, tracing the corrup-
tion to ΑΓΙΑΣ from the abbreviation [?] ΑΝΑΞ. Augeas is inherently implau-
sible; cf. above on fr. 12a. Amphis is possible, but is not known to have written
a Ζωγράφος, nor is the corruption as easy to trace. In addition, πυξίον is itself
a rare word, occurring elsewhere in comedy only at Ar. fr. 879. (The citation of
Amphis in LSJ is a reference to the Antiatticist entry under discussion here.)
Since the word does occur in Anaxandrides and he did write a Ζωγράφος (vel
sim.\ Meineke’s Άναξανδρίδης ought probably to be accepted and the citation
referred to this fragment.
πυξίον A tablet made of boxwood (πύξος) used for writing or drawing
on, presumably after having been whitened; see Blumner 1875-1887 11.253—4
n. 9 for further examples. Pritchett 1996. 27-30 offers a useful collection and
discussion of the evidence for such boards and their white coating. 1 In Ar. fr.
879, the word or its diminutive is equated with a δελτίον in the case of those
in the office of a γραμματιστής, but the verb πυξογραφέω seems to refer to
the process of painting on a tablet. The famous paintings displayed in the Stoa
Poikile in the agora seem to have been on wood (see Agora III, pp. 42 [89],
43-4 [93-4]; Wycherley 1953. 24-5), although in the testimonia the panels are
referred to as σανίδες or πίνακες. Examples of portraits on wood are extant,
although from the first and second centuries AD; e. g. Doxiadis 1995; Walker

41 See also Olson 1998 on Ar. Pax 1179-81; cf. Stroud 1998. 99-100 for the similar use
of white plaster to create a suitable writing surface on stone.