170

Eupolis

Περσεφονείας, 1022 Φερσεφόνας ... θαλάμους (lyric); Ion 1442 χθονίων μέτα
Περσεφόνας τ’. For the goddess herself, see Gantz 1993. 64-8; Günter, LIMC
VIII. 1 pp. 956-7, 976-8. For her name, see Text.
ταώς is a loan-word from some unidentified Eastern language, hence the
odd interior aspiration, which must reflect an attempt to imitate the original
pronunciation; the bird itself is native to India. Pyrilampes son of Antiphon
(PA 12493; PAA 795965) had a collection of peacocks he apparently acquired
in the 440s BCE (as a gift from the Persian king?) and that were regarded as
sufficiently sensational in Athens that he was able to make money by charging
admission to see them on the first day of every month (Antipho fr. 57; adesp.
com. fr. 702 ap. Plu. Per. 13.15; Davies 1971. 329-30). There were also peacocks
to be seen in Hera’s sanctuary on Samos (Antiph. fr. 173.3-5; Menodot. FGrH
541 F 2), and Pyrilampes may have got them from there instead when the
island was captured by Pericles sometime around 440 BCE. For domesticat-
ed peacocks, see also Stratt. fr. 28 (raised for their feathers, for which see
Sharma 1974); Alex. fr. 128 (prohibitively expensive to eat) with Arnott 1996
on fr. 115.14; Eub. fr. 113 (rare); Anaxandr. fr. 29 (extremely expensive) with
Millis 2015 ad loc.·, Anaxil. fr. 24 (seemingly a reference to their screaming);
Thompson 1936. 277-81; Cartledge 1990. 52-4; Dunbar 1996 on Ar. Av. 102;
Miller 1997. 189-92; Olson 2002 on Ar. Ach. 62-3; Arnott 2007. 235-8 (with
extensive secondary bibliography).
fr. 42 K.-A. (37-8 K.)
άνδρες εταίροι, δεύρο δή την γνώμην προσίσχετε,
εί δυνατόν, καί μη τι μεΐζον πράττουσα τυγχάνει
καί ξυνεγιγνόμην αεί τοΐς άγαθοϊς φάγροισιν
1 δεύρο δή Hermann : δεΰρ’ ήδη Heph. Σ προσίσχετε Hermann : προίσχετε
Heph. Σ 3 ξυνεγιγνόμην Hermann : ξυνεγινόμην Heph.A Σ : ξυνεγενόμην Heph.1
Comrades, pay attention here in fact,
if possible, and if your attention isn’t doing something more impor-
tant89
and I was always together with the good sea-bream
89 Storey 2011. 67 fails to see that γνώμη is to be supplied as the subject of πράττουσα
τυγχάνει and accordingly offers the garbled “and unless < > happens to be doing
something more important”.