188

Eupolis

Meter lambic trimeter.
—— —1 <- X—>
Discussion Wilamowitz 1870. 50; Wilamowitz 1873. 145; Pickard-Cambridge
1946. 59; Storey 2003. 93-4
Citation context From a discussion of words for bird-houses, pig-pens and
the like, in the course of the long catalogue of σκεύη (“gear, equipment” vel
sim.) of various sorts that makes up Pollux Book 10. Related material, seem-
ingly offering a different interpretation of Cratin. fr. 74, is preserved at Hsch. κ
452 καλιάς- τό δεσμωτήριον. και ξύλον, ώ έδέοντο. καί οί μικροί οίκοι καλιαί
καί καλίδια (“kalios: a prison. And stocks are the means by which they were
restrained. And kaliai and kalidia are small houses”); Phot, κ 117 καλιάς-
ξύλινον δεσμωτήριον (“kalios: a wooden prison”).
Given that καλίδιον is attested nowhere else outside of the lexicographers
(see Interpretation), Phot, κ 116 καλίδιον- μικρόν οίκημα is likely another
reference to this verse.
Text Kassel-Austin place no comma at the end of 1, which makes the shift
from plural (1) to singular (2) unnecessarily difficult.
Interpretation A description of three previously identified individuals, per-
haps from a prologue speech in which the speaker explains the setting (i. e.
the significance of the three doors in the scaenae frons) to the audience in the
Theater. If so, the three individuals in question must have been important
characters in the action. Wilamowitz thought of Lykon, Lykon’s wife (cf. fr. 58)
and their son Autolykos, each of whom, he suggested, was running a personal
brothel (οίκημα; cf. below). It is easier to believe that Lykon’s entire family
lives in a single shanty, although who lives in the other two is unclear; one
obvious candidate is Callias, although the fragments make no obvious mention
of him. The characterization of the residences as καλίδια (“shanties, shacks,
huts” or the like), at any rate, marks these accommodations as extremely
down-market.
2 is essentially a clarification of or gloss on 1 rather than new information:
the individuals in question live in three καλίδια (1)—not altogether, however,

Herodotus) thus gets the the word wrong by mistaking Pollux’ “like a bird-house”
for a definition. At Nie. Al. 625 (miscited at Montanari s. v. κύρτη as “Nie. Al. 546”),
a σχοινίδι κύρτη is a strainer made of reeds ~ a colander. See in general Olson 2017.
For Cratin. fr. 74, see n. 101.