Αύτόλυκος ά β' (fr. 65)

221

φρόνημα, / ούδέ παλαίστρας περικωμάζειν πειρών (“But after he was exalted
to greatness and honored among you as no one ever was before, he denies
that he was lifted off the ground or got big-headed, or that he went around
the wrestling schools making passes”; the chorus in the parabasis, speaking of
their poet). Σλ r Ar. Pax 763 (= test. 17) is similar, and ΣΓ alludes to that passage
in a portion of the scholion omitted above (τοΰτο δε και έν Ειρήνη οϋτως, “this
is also in Peace thus”).
Text Wilamowitz suggested that the Eupolidean original might be restored
τάς <δέ} παλαίστρας σεμνυνόμενος περιήει / και τοΐς παισίν δήλον εαυτόν
τής νίκης οϋνεκ’ έποίει, while Koster proposed e. g. περιήει (γάρ^ / τάς <τε>
παλαίστρας σεμνυνόμενος / καί τοΐς παισίν δήλον εαυτόν / ποιων νίκης
οΰνεκα ήταύτης}. But there is no way of knowing how close the paraphrase
in the scholion is to what Eupolis supposedly wrote and thus little point in
trying to reconstruct the precise language of the latter.
Interpretation If the lines from Wasps (422 BCE) are in fact a response to a
passage from Eupolis, the conventional dating of Autolykos I to 420 BCE is
wrong; see the general introduction to the play, Date. Perhaps the problem
is instead with the scholion (Wilamowitz thought that the reference ought to
have been to Philoi); or Eupolis repeated lines from an earlier comedy in one
of his Autolykos plays, much as this entire section of the Wasps parabasis is
recycled in Peace; or Eupolis was responding to Aristophanes rather than the
other way around (thus Kock).123 But the dating problem means that this must
in any case be treated as only a dubious fragment of Autolykos I or II even if
it belongs to Eupolis.
If the passage in question is from an Autolykos play, and if Autolykos’ rela-
tionship with Kallias was a theme in Eupolis’ comedy (cf. fr. *64 n.), the theme
of pederastic love in an athletic context would be appropriate. For wrestling
schools as an opportunity for designing lovers to watch or come into physical
contact with boys, e. g. Av. 139-42; Pl. Smp. 217c; Euthd. 273a; cf. Dover 1978.
54-5, 138; Hubbard 2003. For general discussion of Athens’ gymnasia in this
period, Travlos 1971. 42-51 (Academy), 340-1 (Cynosarges), 345-7 (Lyceum);
Humphreys 1974. 90-1. For the role of gymnasia in Greek civic life more
broadly defined, Forbes 1945. 32-42; Kah and Scholz 2004 (Hellenistic period),
and see fr. 36 n. (on the Academy). For περίειμι, cf. fr. 327.2 περιήλθον with n.
For σεμνός and cognates, see fr. 99.26 n.

van Leeuwen suggested that after Autolykos I was performed, Aristophanes insert-
ed the lines responding to Eupolis into the text of Wasps, but fails to explain why
he would have chosen to do so.