124

Κυνηγέται (Kynegetai)
(‘Hunters’)

Discussion Meineke 18391.371; 1840 III.171; 1847. 579; Bothe 1855. 422; Kock
1884 11.144; Capps 1910. 6; Edmonds 1959 11.54-55; Kassel-Austin 1991 11.249;
Sanchis Llopis et al. 2007. 250
Title No other play bears this title; cf. Sophocles Ίχνευταί (‘Trackers’) and
Menander Αλιεϊς (‘Fishermen’; see K-A ad loc. for plural versus singular). The
plural presumably indicates an eponymous chorus of hunters (Capps 1910. 6
suggested a similar chorus for Men. Her.·, for doubts, see Hunter 1979. 24 n.
5); see Introduction and on Αγροίκοι. The word itself appears elsewhere in
comedy only at Pl. Com. fr. 188.16; Men. Dysc. 42; Her. fr. 1.2.
Hunters with dogs (or hunters generally) as a group have no stereotypical
characteristics in Greek literature or mythology, although well-known sto-
ries involving hunting (e. g. the myth of Actaeon; Caledonian boar hunt; etc.)
abound. According to Apollod. FGrHist 244 F 138, Asclepius was found by
hunters while being nursed by a dog. Presumably alluding to this story, hunt-
ers (κυνηγέται) are included in a list of sacrifice recipients at IGII 4962.9-10
(= Syll.3 1040 = LSCG 21 A), an early fourth-century inscription from Piraeus
that sets out the regulations of an apparently newly founded Asclepius cult
there. These are the hunters referred to at Pl. Com. fr. 188.16, whether or not
the sense is obscene (cf. Pirrotta 2009 ad loc.). For the evidence for Asclepius
cult at Piraeus and the association of hunters with it, see Pirrotta (above);
Parker 1996. 181-3.
For hunting with dogs, see Hull 1964 (includes translations of X. Cyn.
and Arr. Cyn.); Sachs 2012. 62-79; for hunting in general, see Anderson 1985.
For explorations of the social context of hunting, including its aristocratic
connotations and use in erotic discourse, see Barringer 2001; Schnapp 1997;
Trinquier and Vendries 2009; Seyer 2007.
Content of the comedy Hunters indicate a setting in the countryside. The
elite connotations of the sport together with the content of the sole fragment
suggest a group (chorus and hero?) of wealthy young men, perhaps from
the city (cf. Men. Dysc. 39-42; Her. fr. 1). The plot may have revolved around
interaction and/or conflict between townsmen and countrymen. Alternatively,
fr. 25 may indicate precisely what the addressee is not, suggesting that the plot
concerns a son living beyond his means, like Pheidippides at the beginning
of Aristophanes’ Clouds.
If the hunters are those associated with Asclepius, the play may have dealt
with the birth of the god and was in essence an Ασκληπιού γοναί (cf. above