72

Timokles

4). But the plural άγκάλαις for only one person is difficult. For the absence of a
caesura cf. on. v. 1.
Interpretation This particular scene in Dionysus might be set in either Athens
or the Underworld (Underweltszene'). The first speaker, who obviously lives
outside Athens, does not know whether Telemachus is still an active orator (έτι
δημηγορεί;), while the second one is well informed. One of the interlocutors may
well be Dionysus himself, probably disguised, as usual in drama. A close parallel
is found in Eupolis’ fr. 103 from Demoi, which contains a similar dialogue about
Pericles and current orators: A. ρήτωρ γάρ έστιν νϋν τις; Β. ών γ’ έστιν λέγειν / ό
Βουζύγης άριστος άλιτήριος “(A.) But is there any real orator today? (B.) Of those
one can call orators, the best is the Bouzyges—that god-damned rogue”; for an
interpretation of this fragment cf. Olson 2016, 381-2. Similar questions concer-
ning political leaders occur in Old Comedy, asked either by divinities visiting the
Upper World or by dead persons who ask, either while still in the Underworld or
after their ascent to the Upperworld, about current politics in Athens; the answer
they get is routinely disappointing. In Ar. Pax 680-1, for example, the goddess
Peace asks Hermes who is now in charge of the Pnyx, and Trygaeus answers that
it is Hyperbolus: Έρ.Έτι νυν άκουσον οίον άρτι μ’ ήρετο· δστις κρατεί νϋν τοϋ
λίθου τοϋ ’ν τή Πυκνί. Τρ. Ύπέρβολος νϋν τοΰτ’ έχει τό χωρίον. In Ra. 1454-5
Aeschylus asks Dionysus about Athenian political leadership and the answer is that
the state hates the good citizens and uses the bad ones instead: Αί.Τήν πόλιν νϋν μοι
φράσον / πρώτον τίσι χρήται· πάτερα τοϊς χρηστοΐς; Δι. Πόθεν; / μισεί κάκιστα.
A similar dialogue takes place between Pericles and the comic hero Pyronides,
either in the Underworld or immediately after Pericles’ ascent, in Eupolis Demoi
fr. 110: Πε.Ό νόθος δέ μοι ζή; / Πυ. Και πάλαι γ’ άν ήν άνήρ, / εί μη τό τής πόρνης
ύπορρώδει κακόν “Pe. And does my bastard son still live? Py. Yes, and he would
have become a man long ago, if he weren’t a little afraid about having a whore for
a mother”. The model in that scene is Hom. Od. 11.492-3, where Achilles asks
Odysseus about his son; for this scene cf. Olson 2017, 403-4.
The surviving fragment from Διόνυσος may come from the prologue, since
this kind of information is likely to be provided on stage near the beginning of
the play; cf. Ar. Ra. 73-85, where, before their descent to Hades, Heracles asks
Dionysus about poetry and poets both dead and living. The discussion concerns
Telemachus, a minor Athenian politician. Telemachus is identified both by the
name of his deme (Acharnae) and by his pot, the hallmark of his political activity.
He was an orator specializing in matters pertaining to corn and cereal provisi-
on; in 328/7 BC he proposed a decree in honor of the merchant Heracleides of
Salamis, as an euergetes, because he had donated 3,000 drachmas in total to Athens
to buy corn (SIG3 304, 29.48): Τηλέμαχος Θεαγγέλου Άχαρνεύς εϊπεν · έπειδή
Ήρακλείδης Σαλαμίνιος έπέδωκεν τον σίτον τώ δήμω πεντέδραχμον πρώτος τών
καταπλευσάντων εμπόρων έπ’ Άριστοφώντος άρχοντας, έψηφίσθαι τον δήμον
έπαινέσαιΉρακλείδην Χαρικλείδου Σαλαμίνιον καί στεφανώσαι αυτόν χρυσώ
στεφάνω φιλοτιμίας ένεκα τής εις τον δήμον τών Αθηναίων “Telemachus the son