86

Eupolis

Citation context A 5th-century CE excerpt from an earlier commentary;
Firmianus goes on to explain that the variety to which he is referring consists
in the use of tetrameters and catalectic tetrameters as well as trimeters.
Interpretation This note goes back to a source with first-hand knowledge
of the metrical diversity of late 5th-century comic texts and thus perhaps to
someone with access to a number of complete plays by the three great “Old
Comic” playwrights. It nonetheless preserves no substantial information about
Eupolis in particular.

test. 45 K.-A. (= test, xxxvii Storey)
Heph. Ench. 16.5 (pp. 57.18-58.4 Consbruch)
καί τό Εύπολίδειον καλούμενον έπιχοριαμβικόν πολυσχημάτιστόν έστιν, έν
ώ τάς τροχαϊκάς παρά τάξιν ποιοϋσι δέχεσθαι τον σπονδείον- ενίοτε δε καί
άντισπαστικόν καθαρόν ποιοϋσιν. οΐον- (adesp. com. fr. 246; Ar. Nu. 529)-
The so-called Eupolidean as well is an epichoriambic polyschematist, in which
they cause the trochaic (syzygies) to accept the spondee where it does not
belong. But sometimes they also produce a pure antispastic, for example:
(adesp. com. fr. 246; Ar. Nu. 529)-

Citation context From the section on polyschematists (i. e. cola that assume
varying forms) in the surviving, abridged version of a metrical handbook
originally composed in the 2nd century CE. The reference to spondees and
antispasts has to do with the beginning of the first foot of the colon (00—x),
which can in practice be both-and
Interpretation A Eupolidean is 00—x—^^— 00—x—and is one example
of a diverse group of 15-syllable Aeolic comic dicola; see Introduction Section
7. Roughly 60% of the preserved examples of the second colon consist of
a lecythion (—^—x—^—), in which form the meter is attested already in
Cratinus in the late 430s BCE (fr. 75, from Thraittai) and perhaps earlier as
well (frr. 105, from Malthakoi; 357, from an unknown play). Parker 1988. 117
suggests that the meter came to be called after Eupolis because he invented
a new variant by converting — into an Aeolic base (i. e. by restricting it to
—, —or <·'—). For Eupolideans, cf. test. 46-7; frr. 89; 132; 396; and see in
general Poultney 1979; Parker 1988. 115-17; Storey 2003. 387-90.