174

Eupolis

fr. 43 K.-A. (41 K.)
ΣνΓ Ar. Pax 808
δτι γάρ ό Μελάνθιος όψοφάγος, προείρηται. καί παρ’ Εύπόλιδι έν Αστρατεύτοις
For that Melanthios was a glutton has been said above. Also in Eupolis in Astrateutoi

Discussion Meineke 1939 1.116, 177,11.436; Geissler 1925. 36 n. 2
Citation context A gloss on Ar. Pax 809-10 (referring to Melanthios and
his brother, who may or may not be Aeschylus’ grand-nephew Morsimos)
Γοργόνες όψοφάγοι, βατιδοσκόποι Άρπυιαι (“gluttonous Gorgons, skate-
spying Harpies”). The cross-reference is to ΣκνΓPax 803 ό δέ Μελάνθιος κω-
μωδεΐται εις μαλακίαν καί όψοφαγίαν (“Melanthios is mocked in comedy for
effeminacy and gluttony”), drawing on some Hellenistic or Roman-era list of
kdmdidoumenoi and citing fr. 178 and Ar. Av. 150-1.
It is generally assumed today that a full stop should be placed after
προείρηται. This was still an open question in the time of Meineke, who in his
first volume followed Clinton in taking the scholion to mean that Astrateutoi
antedated Peace (City Dionysia 421 BCE); Meineke explicitly retracts this view
at 11.436. Geissler nonetheless judges the proposed punctuation impossible and
argues for acceptance of Meineke’s (i. e. Clinton’s) original position.
Interpretation Melanthios (PA 9767; PAA 638275; TrGF 23) was a tragic poet
also mocked in fr. 178 (as a sexual pervert and a flatterer; see n.). His alleged
gluttony was notorious enough to have been referred to also at Pherecr. fr. 148;
Leuco fr. 3; and in Archippus’ Ichthyes, where he was bound and delivered to
the Fish to be eaten by them in return (fr. 28). According to Clearchus fr. 55
Wehrli (ap. Ath. 1.6c; cf. Ath. 12.549a), doubtless drawing directly or indirectly
on another comic poet, Melanthios (TrGF 23 T 7a) once prayed to have the
neck of a crane or a similar bird, so that he could get the most pleasure possible
out of the process of swallowing his food. He is also mentioned at Ar. Av.
150-1; Pl. Com. fr. 140 (a chatterer); Call. Com. fr. 14; see Storey 1988. 380-1.
This scholion is his T 3c. On the broad cultural significance of opsophagia, see
Davidson 1995. For comic attacks on theatrical figures of all sort, as prominent
in the public sphere, see Sommerstein 1996b. 329-30, 348-50.
Ar. Pax 1013-14 is supposed to be parody of a passage from Melanthios’
Medea (TrGF 23 T 4), but nothing else from his tragedies survives. Whether
he is to be identified with the Melanthios (PAA 638279) who composed elegiac
lines addressed to Cimon (thus Ath. 8.343c, followed by PA) is unclear; the
name is not rare (almost 20 additional 5th-/4th-century examples in LGPNII),
making this far from a safe assumption. See Dihle 1976. 144-8.