44

Timokles

fish”). Compulsive opsophagia was associated with lack of self-control and was
also viewed by Aristotle as a form of dissoluteness (μόριον ακολασίας), alongside
drunkenness, gluttony and lust {EE 1231a 19-21). Hyperides, indeed, was notori-
ous for his love-affairs with courtesans; cf. [Phi.] Vit. Dec.Or. 849c έγένετο δέ και
προς τά αφροδίσια καταφερής ... έποιεΐτό τε τον περίπατον έν τή ίχθυοπώλιδι
όσημέραι ώς είκός “He was much given to venery... and was rumored to go for a
stroll in the fish-market every day.”57
τούς Χάρους Seagulls (λάρος and λαρίς, larus and gavia) were birds prover-
bial for their voracity (especially for fish) and thievishness; cf. Hom. Od. 5.51-3;
Ar. Eq. 956; Nu. 591 (said of Cleon); in Ar. Av. 567 seagulls are mentioned as a
counterpart of Heracles, the glutton par excellence in Attic Comedy. In Matro
Conv. 10-11 a parasite is compared with a hungry seagull. Cf. Apostol. 10.48 λάρος
κεχηνώς: έπι των άρπακτικών και κλεπτών “seagull opening his mouth; said of
rapacious men and thieves”. See Thompson 1947, 192-3; Arnott 2007, 130-32.
Σύρους Compared to the opsophagos Hyperides, seagulls, normally the
most voracious fish-eating birds (cf. Hom. Od. 5.53 ίχθϋς άγρώσσων) appear to
be Syrians in their abstinence from fish. The Syrian devotees of Atargatis were
not allowed to eat fish; cf. X. An. 1.4.9 οϋς (sc. ίχθϋς) οί Σύροι θεούς ένόμιζον και
άδικεΐν ούκ εϊων “the Syrians believed them (fish) to be gods, and would not allow
anyone to harm them”; Tuc. Syr. D. 14 ίχθύας χρήμα ίρόν νομίζουσιν και οΰκοτε
ιχθύων ψαύουσι “they regard fish as sacred, and never touch fish”; Cic. Nat. dear.
15.39pisce Syri venerantur “the Syrians worship fish”; Tightfoot 2003,65-72; Olson
2007, 224. For other comic references to Syrians’ abstinence from fish cf. Men. fr.
631.1-4 παράδειγμα τούς Σύρους λαβέ· I όταν φάγωσ’ ίχθύν έκεϊνοι, διά τινα/
αύτών άκρασίαν τούς πόδας, την γαστέρα οίδοϋσιν “take the Syrians, for example:
when they lose control and eat fish, their hands and bellies swell up”. Syrians are
also mentioned in a different context in Timocles in fr. 7.1 (from Dionysos); cf. on
the commentary of this play.

57 Cf. Davidson’s (1997) emblematic title “Courtesans and Fishcakes”, for the commonest
consuming passions of classical Athenians (esp. 20-26; for opsophagi cf. also Olson-
Sens, 2000, 1-li; Olson 2007, 223). In Middle Comedy courtesans were often named
after fish (Phryne, in particular, the most famous hetaera, whose name was inextricably
bound up with Hyperides, was often called σαπέρδιον, “perch”); cf. Ath. 591c; McClure
2003, 63-74, 127. For food as a metaphor for sex in Old Comedy cf. Ar. Ach. 764-835,
Pax 15-7,883-5, Ec. 845-7; in Middle Comedy cf. Pl. com. fr. 43; Konstantakos 2000,79.