210

Πρωτεσίλαος (fr. 42)

Eub. fr. 63 compares the effect of such passages to the pnigos of Old Comedy.
Interest in overly lavish and extravagant feasts is not confined to comedy, but
also appears e. g. in the gastronomic mock-epics of Archestratus and Matro
and Philoxenus’ Banquet, and is indicative of a wider cultural fascination due
in part to the importation of Sicilian cuisine to the east and the proliferation
of cookbooks; cf. Olson-Sens 1999. 24-33; 2000. xxviii-xliii, xlvi-lv.
The first part of the fragment (3-29), the description of the wedding
feast in Thrace, resembles most closely the symposium that followed a meal
because of the emphasis on drinking and musical entertainment. In contrast,
the second part (37-71) is roughly analogous to the meal itself, although the
intent is clearly to present a vast array of foodstuffs rather than to follow
precisely the normal sequence of dining (see Olson-Sens 1999. 26, with a brief
outline of such feasts). The speaker presents the food in logical groups (breads
and sidedishes [37-45], cooked fish [46-53], a mixture mostly of fruits and
vegetables [53-60], shellfish [60-2], birds [64-6]) in a more or less intelligible
order, but prefers to overwhelm the listener with quantity rather than offering
a clearly defined flow of courses.
1 καν ταύτα ποιης ώσπερ φράζω Cf. Ar. Αν. 977 καν μέν, θέσπιε
κούρε, ποιης ταϋθ’ ώς έπιτέλλω.
2 λαμπροΐς δείπνοις Cf. 33; Antiph. fr. 226.6-7 τοΐς λαμπροϊσι γάρ /
δείπνοις; X. Smp. 1.4. Although often simply an adjective of general commen-
dation, λαμπρός properly refers to a radiant outward appearance, commonly
the result of physical beauty or the bloom of youth (cf. on fr. 9.6), and here
probably indicates the magnificence of the feast (cf. 33); for the connotation
of the word in the context of marriage, cf. Parca 1992. 184-5.
δεζόμεθ’ ύμάς The speaker, apparently a slave (cf. 33-4), amalgamates
himself with his master, the host, δέχομαι with an accusative object and a
dative is not uncommon; e. g. Ar. Av. 1729; S. OC 4, where Jebb 1887 ad loc.
gives further examples; LSJ s. v. II. 1.
3-4 ούδέν όμοίοις τοΐς Ίφικράτους / τοΐς έν Θράκη As becomes clear
at 31 (cf. 12), the feast referred to is that held to celebrate the wedding of
Iphicrates and the daughter of the Thracian king Cotys. Prior to his marriage
into the Thracian royal family, Iphicrates may have had contacts or experience
in the region; cf. Parke 1933. 52.
Ίφικράτης Τιμοθέου 'Ραμνούσιος (PA 7737; PAA 542925; Davies 1971.
248-52; Develin 1989 #1449; LGPNII, s.v. 4), the famous Athenian general,
seems to have been born ca. 413 BC and was strategos seventeen times between
393/2 and 356/5 BC, including a run of seven consecutive years beginning in
393/2 BC, before his death shortly before or in 352 BC. In accord with the
ancient tradition (e. g. Nep. Iph. 3.4; Ath. 4.131a), he is usually held to have