288

Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 59)

Blaydes 1890a. 84; 1896. 126; Herwerden 1903. 100; Edmonds 1959 11.76—7;
Kassel-Austin 1991 11.272; Sanchis Llopis et al. 2007. 271-2
Citation context The fragment is quoted by Athenaeus at the end of Book 1
as part of a brief discussion of cabbage as a cure (or prophylactic) for hang-
overs. Timae. FGrHist 566 F 47; Alex. fr. 287; Eub. fr. 124; Apollod. Car. fr. 32
(discussing the word for cabbage) precede; Nicoch. fr. 18; Amphis fr. 37; Thphr.
HP 4.16.6 follow.
Text The transmitted έντρώγητε in 2 does not scan, and Musurus’ correction
is thus necessary on metrical grounds; in addition, the compound form of the
verb is not attested in the present (cf. Starkie 1897 on Ar. V. 612; Renehan 1976.
80). C and E both read παύσεται; Desrousseaux’s claim that E reads παύσετε
is erroneous.
Bernhardy 1829. 468 proposed emending to διασκεδά τε in 3 in order
to remove the asyndeton; for this use of τε, cf. Denniston 1954. 497-500.
But the asyndeton is unproblematic (see ad loc.\ and the emendation creates
problems, since διασκεδάννυμι cannot be intransitive. Bernhardy supplied ή
ράφανος as the subject, but this is awkward because παύσεται, with τό βάρος
as the subject, intrudes between ράφανον and διασκεδά; slightly better is
Edmonds’ tentative ‘the suggested treatment of which it [i. e. the cabbage] is
a part’,138 while Kock’s suggestion, τό βάρος παυόμενον, is rightly dismissed
by Kassel-Austin. Van Herwerden 1855. 57 retained διασκεδάτε but removed
the asyndeton by reading διασκεδάτε τε τό προσόν νέφος; the change is pa-
leographically easy, but νυν is not, as he describes it, ‘supervacaneum’, and its
removal weakens the clause. The same changes were made by Blaydes 1896.
125, which van Herwerden 1903. 100 cited with approval, apparently having
forgotten that he had previously done the same.
In 4, Meineke 1840 and 1847 (and lacobi’s index in Meineke 1857, but not
Meineke’s edition of Athenaeus), Bothe 1855, Kock 1884, and Edmonds 1959
all print προσώπου, with no critical note, against μετώπου, the reading of C
and E, which is adopted by Kassel-Austin and editions of Athenaeus; presum-
ably, Meineke made an unconscious slip and was followed uncritically by the
others.139 For the distinction between the two words and their confusion, cf.
Seaford 1984 on E. Cyc. 227.

138 Less happy is his alternative, that ‘Zeus [is] understood as in συνεσκότασε and the
like.’
139 The error is easily accounted for by the relative rarity of μέτωπον in comedy (Ar.
Eq. 550,631; V. 655; Pax 774; Pl. 942; Pherecr. fr. 169.2; Anaxandr. fr. 42.69; Amph. fr.
33.3; Alex. fr. 275.4; Diph. fr. 67.8; adesp. com. fr. 1113.13) as opposed to the ubiquity