Αστράτευτοι ή Άνδρόγυνοι (fr. 37)

163

Text Kaibel, doubting that Orus (or his source) was right that the alpha in
Μίνωαν was short, rewrote the verse to allow it to be long. But Ale. Com.
fr. 28 Μίνωαν; άλλ’ οίμωζε σαυτόν περιθέων (also quoted by Orus) is not so
tractable, and the traditional order of the words should be retained.
Interpretation A dependent clause describing someone previously identified
and accordingly referred to via deictic ούτοσί although without necessarily
being visible onstage; cf. *POxy. 5160 fr. c (Azges) n.; Pherecr. fr. 155.20-1
ούτοσί / ό Τιμόθεος (“this Timotheus to whom you are referring”); Ar. Eq.
131 εις ούτοσί πώλης (“this man you just mentioned is one ‘seller’”), 1063-4
ούτοσί ... / ό χρησμός “(“this oracle we’re discussing”); Nu. 1403 ούτοσί ...
αύτός (in reference to Socrates, who is at this point offstage); Pl. Com. 46.9
(“this [contest] you’re describing”); Men. Asp. 139-40 ούτοσί ... / ό πονηρός
(“the bastard I’m discussing”).
Th. 3.51 reports that in summer 427 BCE an Athenian expedition led by
Nicias son of Niceratus (fr. 193 n.) captured the island of Minoia, located
opposite Nisaea, the port of the city of Megara, and converted what had been
a Megarian garrison with a guard-tower there into an Athenian base intended
to close the Megarian harbor. Additional fighting involving Minoia took place
in summer 424 BCE, when the Athenian generals Hippokrates son of Ariphron
(PA 7640; PAA 538615; see fr. 112 n.) and Demosthenes son of Alkisthenes
(PA 3585; PAA 318425) used the place as a springboard to capture Nisaea
(Th. 4.66-9, esp. 67.1).85 Kassel-Austin suggest that this line is more easily
understood as a reference to the latter set of events (“commodius intellegetur
Hippocrates, Thue. IV 66,3 (a. 424)”), but there is in fact no way to decide the
question or to exclude the possibility that a different expedition unnoted by
Thucydides and led by some other commander is in question; cf. fr. 44 for a
reference to the Athenian general Phormio in Astrateutoi.
ήρξε For the verb used absolutely in the specific sense “serve as general”
(not noted in LSJ or Montanari s. v.), e. g. frr. 99.33; *104.2 with n.; Ar. Ra. 1072;
Ec. 304 with Ussher 1973 ad loc.; Th. 6.105.2.
For αυτός ούτοσί, cf. Ar. Nu. 1403 (quoted above); Ec. 951; Men. Dysc.
143-4; Epitr. 302; Euphro fr. 9.15-16; Antipho 6.40; D. 19.73; and όδί... αύτός
at e. g. Ar. Av. 1718; Ec. 934; Ale. Com. fr. 22.1.

85 For the topography—complicated by the fact that no island matching Thucydides’
description of Minoia exists today—see Laird 1934; Beattie 1960; Legon 1981. 27-32.