Όδυσσεύς (fr. 35)

169

disreputable character-types, as do 10-11, although using examples based on
mythology (cf. ad loc. for the connections between the stories). The first five
examples can also be viewed as commenting on attractiveness or lack thereof,
and the final six as referring to relationships among individuals, primarily in
terms of getting something from someone. In contrast to these divisions, the
passage opens and closes with groups of conditional statements, while the
central part consists of direct statements, although tantamount to implied
conditions. The passage concludes by speeding up, collapsing three examples
into two lines.62
The last three nicknames seem to derive from single incidents and thus are
isolated jests. The rest, however, refer either to physical appearance or to what
seems to be a repeated pattern of behaviour, and are therefore presumably
more or less permanent nicknames; the use of the perfect (see below on 5-7)
supports this notion.
1 Athenaeus’ introductory sentence implies that ύμεΐς refers to the
Athenians; if so, it is plausibly spoken by Odysseus himself. For possible ramifi-
cations of this scenario, see the Introductions to this play and to Anaxandrides.
χλευάζετ(ε) The verb (and related words) does not appear much before
the fourth century (first attested at Ar. Ra. 376), but is common thereafter
(elsewhere in the fourth century at Epicr. fr. 10.30; D. 7.7; 19.23; [D.] 47.34;
[PL] Erx. 397d; Arist. Rh. 1379a29; Men. Epitr. 432; cf. D. 18.85 with Wankel
1976 ad loc.).63 Given its absence from serious poetry, it is probably colloquial.
οίδ’ ακριβώς The phrase or variations of it is not uncommon in comedy
(e. g. Ar. Nu. 100; Av. 156; Men. Epitr. 447; Pk. 495; Philem. fr. 9.1; Nicom. Com.
fr. 1.4), although this is the only extant example between Aristophanes and
the late fourth century.
2 ευπρεπής Often used of physical beauty, normally that of women or
young men (and thus sex-objects); e. g. Ar. Th. 192 (Agathon), 233 (the Relative
disguised as a woman); Ec. 427 (Praxagora disguised as a man), 701 (boys);
Xenarch. fr. 4.3 (boys).

62 This structural technique is analogous to that employed by Aristophanes when
he begins a catalogue with full examples and then proceeds with the rest in an
abbreviated form; cf. Spyropoulos 1974. 126-7.
63 The one exception is χλεύη at h.Cer. 202 (cf. Richardson 1974 ad loc.), where the
word is connected with the actions of lambe; note the similar context of χλευάζω at
Ar. Ra. 376 (cf. Richardson 1974 on h.Cer. 192-211 [esp. pp. 214-15]). This suggests
that the word may have originated in a religious context, χλεύη does not occur
again until Aeschrio AP 7.345.4 (HE 4; early fourth century?) and thereafter only
sporadically (e.g. A.R. 1726). See also Schmidt 1876-1886 III.460—2.