96

Eupolis

Interpretation δεύρ’ είσιών i. e. into the stage-house, with a gesture or
something said onstage previously lending the deictic specific content.65 The
participle merely sets the stage for a main action, which may take place after
the individual in question emerges from the house again, as at Ar. Ach. 202
άξω τά κατ’ αγρούς είσιών Διονύσια (“I’m going to go inside and [then after
I emerge again] I’ll celebrate the Rural Dionysia”).66 But here behavior inside
the inn appears to be in question (cf. POxy. 5160 fr. e Context).

65 For δεύρο/δευρί meaning not “hither” or “here” (as in LSJ s. v.) but “in that di-
rection” or “there”, with the place in question either indicated via a gesture or
apparent from something said or done previously onstage, e.g. Ar. Eq. 162 δευρί
βλέπε (“Look there!”; one of the slaves asks the Sausage-seller to consider the
audience); Nu. 91 δεϋρό νυν απόβλεπε (“Now look over there!”; Strepsiades directs
Pheidippides’ attention to the Phrontisterion, i. e. the stage house in front of which
the two of them are sleeping), 323 βλέπε νυν δευρί προς τήν Πάρνηθ’ (“Now
look there, toward Parnes!”; Socrates assists Strepsiades in catching sight of the
chorus as they enter along the Theater eisodos), 694 κατακλινείς δεύρο (“after you
lie down there”; Socrates in reference to the sleeping pallet Strepsiades has just
hauled onstage); V. 1341 άνάβαινε δεύρο (“Get up there!”; Philocleon orders the
pipe-girl he has stolen from the symposium up onto the raised stage, after which
she in turn is to haul him up by grabbing hold of his phallus); Av. 202 δευρί ...
έμβάς ... εις τήν λόχμην (“after entering the thicket there”; the Hoopoe indicates
his nest, i. e. the stage house), 646 δεύρο ... εϊσιτον (“The two of you go in there!”;
the Hoopoe directs Peisetairos and Euelpides into the thicket/stage house); Lys.
738 χώρει πάλιν δεύρ’ (“Go back there!”; Lysistrata orders one of the women
occupying the Acropolis fortifications, i. e. the stage house, back inside when she
tries to desert the sex-strike); Ra. 652 and 658 δεύρο πάλιν βαδιστέον (“I have to
go back there!”; Aiakos, getting no results from torturing Dionysus and Xanthias,
acknowledges that he must return to the other man he is interrogating); Ec. 124
δεύρ’ ... σκέψαι (“Look there!”; one of the women points to the beards worn by
the other women, as the plurals in 126-7 show), 496-7 δεύρ’ έπί σκιάς / έλθούσα
προς τό τειχίον (“going there toward the shade in the direction of the wall”; the
chorus offer advice for how to avoid being seen as they change costume), 1106
δεύρ’ είσπλέων (“when I sail in there”; the Young Man in reference to the Hags’
house, which he is desperately trying to avoid); and cf. frr. 3 n. on ένθαδί; 38 n. on
ούτοσί; 122 n. on ενταύθα.
66 Note that at Men. Sam. 464 άποτρέχειν αυτή φράσον δεύρ’ είσιών, Νικήρατε, the
adverb is to be taken not with είσιών but with άποτρέχειν.