Ίκάριοι Σάτυροι (Ikartoi Satyroi)
(“Icarian Satyrs”)

135

Discussion Casaubon 1621, 591-5; Meineke III (1840) 600-604; Kock II (1884)
458-60; Wagner 1905, 56-65; Coppola 1927, 453-67; Bevilacqua 1939, 58-62;
Edmonds II (1959) 612-7; Constantinides 1969, 49-61; PCG VII (1989) 766-9;
Sutton 1980, 83-5; Xanthakis-Karamanos 1997, 135-6; Cipolla 2003 316-31;
Storey 2005, 207-8; Orth HGL II (2014) 1043, 1046.
Title The play is mentioned four times in ancient sources asTcdpioi (Ath. 8.339d
and 342a, Did. in Dem. 10.70 col. 10,3; cf. Sud. τ 623, based on Athenaeus) and once
asΊκάριοι Σάτυροι (Ath. 9.407f). Three more ‘Dionysiac’ titles occur in Timocles:
Δημοσάτυροι, Διονυσιάζουσαι and Διόνυσος. When the word Σάτυροι in a title
is preceded by a plural adjective, it usually denotes a satyr play; e. g. Παλαισταί.
Σάτυροι (Pratinas), Αύλωδοι Σάτυροι (ΙορΕοη),Ίσθμιαστα'ι Σάτυροι (Aeschylus),
Ίχνευται Σάτυροι (Sophocles).145 On the other hand, plays entitled Σάτυροι denote
a comedy (Old Comedy: Ecphantides, Cratinus, Callias and Phrynichus; Middle
Comedy: Ophelion).146 The title Σάτυροι also survives in a papyrus containing
comic words (P.Oxy. 1801, s.v. βδύλλειν= CGFPR fr. 343.17).
In the following lines I will attempt to offer a series of alternative explanations
for the title. Ίκάριοι is normally used of the inhabitants of the island of Icaria. The
citizens of the Attic deme Icaria, on the contrary, are always called Ίκαριεΐς; e.g.
IG I3 254B; 270C; 462A; cf. St. Byz. 329.9-12Ικαρία, δήμος τής Αίγηίδος φυλής
... ό δημότηςΊκαριεύς ...’Ίκαρος, νήσος μία των Κυκλάδων ... ό πολίτηςΊκάριος
“Ikaria, a deme of the Aegeis tribe ... the member of the deme is called Ikarieus ...
Ikaros is an island in the Cyclades ... the citizen is called Ikarios”. For islanders in
comedy titles cf. Cratinus’ Σερίφιοι, Philostephanus’ Δήλιος and Timocles’ Δήλος,
with Meineke’s attractive suggestion ‘rectius fortasse Δήλιος’.
Dionysus’ connection with the island of Icaria is attested in [Apollod.] Bibl.
3.37-8, where it is said that, as he was travelling from Icaria to Naxos, he was
captured by Tyrrhenian pirates, who planned to sell him into slavery. But the god
in his anger transformed the mast of the ship into snakes, and filled the ship with
ivy and the sound of flutes. The pirates went mad and dove into the sea, where
they were transformed into dolphins.147 The capture of the god is represented in
the interior of a black-figure kylix by Exekias (540-530 BC, Miinchen, Staatlich

145 Also in inscriptions, e.g. IG II2 23.20.16.
146 But it seems that this title is wrongly ascribed to Ophelion and probably belongs to
Phrynichus Comicus; see PCG VII (1989) 97.
147 However, this is the only source which names the island Icaria; in the other surviving
sources the place where this incident occurred is not named (e. g. in the Homeric Hymn
to Dionysus'), or a different place is mentioned (e.g. Chios in Ovid. Met. 3.597), or
another version is given, such as in Philostr. Jun. Im. 1.19, where the pirates attack the
god’s ship at sea.