Αιγύπτιοι (fr. 1)

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θειον άσεβεΐν προηρημένων; “and vote against those who chose to commit impiety
against the divine”.
οΰ διδόασιν εύθέως δίκην This is probably a parody of Egyptian piety; cf.
Isoc. 11.25 (with Livingstone 2001, ad locT) και τών αμαρτημάτων έκαστον οϊεσθαι
παραχρήμα δώσειν δίκην, άλλ’ ού διαλήσειν τον παρόντα χρόνον, “and each thinks
that he will immediately be punished for his wrongdoings, and he will not escape
detection for the present”. Apparently this is not an expected Greek opinion; cf. Sol.
4.16 West (Δίκη) τω δε χρόνω πάντως ήλθ’ άποτεισομένη “and (Justice) inevitably
comes to exact full revenge in time”. For the combination άσεβεΐν εις - δίκην
διδόναι cf. Com. adesp. fr. 707 ού δώσω δε κάν 'Άιδου δίκην / ώς ήσεβηκώς εις
τάλαντον άργύρου; “shouldn’t I be punished even in Hades, as having committed
impiety against a talent of silver?”
4 αίελούρου βωμός αίέλουρος or αίλουρος is the Libyan cat (Felis mani-
culata'), the ancestor of the modern domestic cat; cf. Anderson 1902,171-2; Lloyd
1994, 298. For the Egyptians’ general reverence for cats cf. Anaxandr. fr. 40.12-3
(with Millis 2016 ad loc.) τον αίέλουρον κακόν έχοντ’ έάν ϊδης / κλάεις, έγώ δ’
ήδιστ’ άποκτείνας δέρω “If you see a cat suffering, I you weep, while I kill and
skin it with pleasure”; Hdt. 2.66 (with Lloyd 1994, 299), where cats are treated as
sacred. A great number of cat statuettes, usually bronze or wooden, survives. For
the animal’s deification cf. Langton, N.-Langton, B. 1940. For cats in antiquity cf.
Engels 1999.
αίελούρου βωμός (βωμός being emphatically placed at the center of the line,
between penthemimeral and hephthemimeral caesura) may echo an altar in a
shrine of Bastet, an Egyptian goddess associated with (and always represented as)
a cat after 1000 BC. The main cult center of the goddess was at Bubastis, in the
north-east Delta; cf. Hart 2005, 45-7.
έπιτρίψειεν άν έπιτρίβω lit. “rub on the surface”, is a metaphor meaning
“afflict, destroy”; it is absent from tragedy and lyric poetry, but it appears often
in comedy, denoting “completely destroy”, often in reference to gods who pu-
nish wrongdoers; Ar. Av. 96 Oi δώδεκα θεοί εϊξασιν έπιτρΐψαί σε; “the Twelve
Gods seem to have ground you down”; Pl. 119-20 Ό Ζεύς μεν ούν οΐδ’ ώς, τά
τούτων μώρ’ έμ’ εί / πύθοιτ’, άν έπιτρίψειε “I know that Zeus would utterly des-
troy me if he discovered the foolishness of these people”; Ec. 776 (as a curse) ό
Ζεύς σε γ’ έπιτρίψειεν “oh, Zeus blast you!”; Men. Epitr. 1089-90 καθ’ ένα τούτων
οι θεοί / έκαστον έπιτρίβουσιν ή σώιζουσι; “can the gods destroy or save every
single one of them?”; fr. 878 έπιτρίβουσι δ’ ήμάς οί θεοί μάλιστα τούς γήμαντας;
Alex. fr. 76.6 (on expensive fish ruining the buyers) τεθνεώτες έπιτρίβουσι τούς
ώνουμένους; “even in death they destroy their buyers”; also in comic curses:
έπιτριβείης “damn you!” (Ar. Av. 1530; Eh. 557). It also appears once in fourth-
century oratory (D. 18.104). Cf. the abusive cognate έπίτριπτος (Sannyr. fr. 11;
And. 1.98 and Alex. fr. 110.1 with Arnott 1996, ad locT).