'Οπλομάχος (fr. 36)

179

is embedded in a quotation attributed to the grammarian Trypho (fr. 110), i. e.
Athenaeus is quoting Trypho, who is quoting Anaxandrides. The fragment
thus provides an important and instructive glimpse into Athenaeus’ method-
ology and sources. It seems unlikely that Athenaeus knew any more about the
play or the even the larger context of the fragment than can be gleaned from
the single line quoted by Trypho. In addition, even when taking a quotation
from a secondary source, such as Trypho here, his normal procedure is to
remove all traces of this fact, as at 4.182d, creating the impression that he
knows the material at first hand.
Text The text seems sound but has often been suspected; Meineke 1856 on
Theoc. 20.29 characterizes this fragment as ‘obscuris seu potius corruptis
verbis Anaxandridis.’ Garrod 1922. 68 unconvincingly suggests that the line
could be trochaic tetrameter (with a missing foot at the beginning) if the first
alpha in μάγαδις is long; to support the long alpha, he is compelled to emend
all other occurrences.
Interpretation The line seems to prescribe how a conversation between two
characters will take place, presumably due to some external circumstance. The
context may well be similar to that at Men. Sam. 255-61, where certain parts
of the conversation are meant to be heard and others not (note παρεξήλλαξε
‘with a change of voice’ at 257; cf. Gomme-Sandbach 1973 ad loc.\
μάγαδις λαλήσω A form of brachylogy, i. e. identification instead of
comparison; cf. fr. 38.2 and, for numerous examples and bibliography, see
Headlam-Knox 1922 on Herod. 6.14; Handley 1965 on Men. Dysc. 444f; K.-A.
on Cratin. fr. 56; Diggle 1997. 102-3.
μάγαδις Usually taken to be the name of a harp or similar instrument
on the basis of the corrupt Anacr. PMG 374; cf. Maas and Snyder 1989.149-50.
The other passage in which it seems to be an instrument is S. fr. 238 πηκται
δε λύραι και μαγαδϊδες / τά τ’ έν Έλλησι ξόαν’ ήδυμελή, which is probably
corrupt as well and in which the word has been taken as an intrusive gloss.
West 1992. 72-3 discusses the problems with identifying μάγαδις as the name
of an instrument and suggests that it means instead ‘octave concord’ and
that the verb μαγαδίζω means ‘produce an (octave) concord’; cf. Barker 1988.
Both West and Barker discuss the phenomenon of later grammarians and
lexicographers who had no apparent personal knowledge of what a μάγαδις
was and thus — as Trypho and Athenaeus appear to have done here — came
to erroneous conclusions regarding it.
λαλήσω λαλέω by this time normally means little more than ‘talk’; cf.
Dover 1993. 22. Theoc. 20.29 κήν αύλω λαλέω, κήν δώνακι, κήν πλαγιαύλω
(the variant δονέω is often printed for λαλέω, especially in older editions,
but cf. Gow 1952 ad loc.) suggests that the verb can be used for playing an