Βάπται (test, iii)

235

play preserved in test, iii (n.). The remark attributed to Alcibiades by “Probus”
is a paraphrase of the elegiac couplet offered there.
For the goddess Kotyto, see the general introduction to the action of the
play below.
Nothing else is known of the Aristophanic Baptai mentioned by Σφ 2.92
(presumably in error).

test, iii
ZBD Aristid. or. 3.8 (HI.444.22-9 Dindorf)
κατηγορήσαντος δέ τού Κλέωνος Άριστοφάνους (test. 26) ύβρεως, έτέθη
νόμος μηκέτι έξεϊναι κωμωδεϊν όνομαστί. άλλοι δέ λέγουσιν ότι έκωμώδουν
όνομαστί τούς άνδρας μέχρις Εύπόλιδος. περιεϊλε δέ τούτο Αλκιβιάδης ό
στρατηγός και ρήτωρ. κωμωδηθείς γάρ παρά Εύπόλιδος έρριψεν αύτόν έν
τη θαλάττη έν Σικελία συστρατευόμενον είπών·
βάπτε με έν θυμέλησιν· έγώ δέ σε κύμασι πόντου
βαπτίζων όλέσω νάμασι πικροτάτοις
After Cleon brought charges of hybris against Aristophanes (test. 26), a law
was passed making it no longer possible to mock a person in comedy by
name. But other authorities say that they continued to mock men by name
until (the time of) Eupolis. The general and politician Alcibiades put an end to
this; for after he was mocked by Eupolis in a comedy, he threw the man, who
was serving as a soldier along with him in Sicily, into the sea with the words:
Give me a bath on stage! But I’ll be the death of you by dipping you
in the waves of the sea, a very bitter stream
Context A note on a passing comment at Aelius Aristides or. 3.8 (In Defense of
the Four) as to supposed restrictions on the poets’ freedom όνομαστί κωμωδεϊν
(for which, see test. 37 n.). The chronology is confused, the author of the note
seemingly being unaware that Eupolis and Aristophanes were exact contem-
poraries.
Interpretation The story of Alcibiades drowning Eupolis in Sicily is patently
absurd (for the chronology, see the general introduction to the play below),
but it does depend on it being widely known—and thus most likely true-
that Baptai insulted Alcibiades. West 1992b 11.29 suggests that the story may
have been born out of the elegiac couplet, which he treats as genuinely by
Alcibiades, although this merely explains obscurum per obscurius.130

130 As Page 1981. 133 (responding to the same comment in the 1972 original of West
1992) observes, “it is hard to imagine what story but this”—i. e. the story about