192

Πόλεις (fr. 40)

although not invariably referred to as feminine (cf. Williams 1999): e.g. Ar.
Lys. 298; Pherec. fr. 193; Lilja 1976. 50.
10 τούς ιερέας ένθάδε μέν ολοκλήρους Cf. Synagoge Β α 2518 (» Phot,
α 3311) και οί βασιλείς και οί ιερείς έδοκιμάζοντο Αθήνησιν, εί αφελείς και
ολόκληροι; Tsantsanoglou 1984. 37-8.
For ολόκληρος meaning ‘uncastrated’, LSJ cite this fragment; Pl. Com.
fr. 188.9; Men. fr. 174; Luc. Asin. 33. In fact, the word does not mean that at
Pl. Com. fr. 188.9; at Men. fr. 174 it must have the same sense as here (the
fragment, itself too scanty to admit interpretation, is quoted at Phot, o 236, i. e.
in an identical context); and only at Luc. Asin. 33 does it mean ‘uncastrated’,
although even there that sense may be more dependent on context than any
normal meaning of the word. Here, and thus at Men. fr. 174, it has its normal
religious meaning of ‘whole’ or ‘unblemished’; cf. den Boer 1947 and the pas-
sages cited below (on νόμος).76 The contrast with άπηργμένους (11) is thus not
evidence that the word here, or indeed regularly, can mean ‘uncastrated’, but
that Anaxandrides is playing with the root-meaning (the joke being perhaps
re-enforced by the somewhat unexpected appearance of άπηργμένους in the
emphatic final position of 11 [see below]).
νόμος Cf. Tsantsanoglou 1984. 38 ‘the wording in Bek. An. [i. e. Synagoge
B a 2518; quoted in part above] suggests that an official text is being literally
reproduced and interpreted’; Sokolowski 1955 #5.10; 1969 ##162.14 (restored);
166.9.
11 παρ’ ύμΐν δ’, ώς έοικ’, άπηργμένους Eustathius clearly understands
this line as referring to the castration of the priests; Herodotus does not men-
tion the practice among the Egyptians, as one might expect if he was aware of
it, but only their apparently ordinary practice of circumcision (2.36.3 τα αιδοία
ώλλοι μέν έώσι ώς έγένοντο, ... Αιγύπτιοι δέ περιτάμνονται, 37.2, 104.2-4).
The Greeks did mock circumcision, not practicing it themselves (e. g. Ar. Av.
507; Pl. 267; Dover 1968 on Nu. 538-9; 1978. 129; Henderson 1991. Ill n.
17); in all cases, however, the word used for a circumcised man is ψωλός or
άπεψωλημένος. Here what is meant is probably castration, since that would
seem the more outlandish and the point is to emphasize the utter foreignness
of the Egyptians, although distortion through exaggeration presumably plays
a large part in this depiction. Whether or not the Egyptian priests in fact
practiced castration, they are presumably being assimilated to practioners
of known Eastern religions; this is furthered by the use of the verb (‘have

76 Very similar is the use of the word regarding sacrificial victims as at, for example,
SEGXXV 687.1; the use of the word at Pl. Com. fr. 188.9 presumably is drawing on
this usage.