Δήμοι (Introduction)

295

Pherecr. fr. 155.14-18).181 This knowledge in turn might have led to a naive
conclusion that “new music” suggests a youthful musician, or the part may
have been miscast simply because nothing in the text specified Phrynis’ age.
The confusion will in any case have been easier if the Phrynis-scene in Demoi
took place in the upper world, since if the musician encountered Pyronides in
the Underworld, the obvious default assumption would be that he was an old
man who had died a natural death. It thus seems more likely—if this pot in
fact recalls a scene from Demoi—that Phrynis is being expelled by Pyronides
in the second half of the play as an unwanted intruder, like e. g. Cinesias and
the unidentified Poet in Aristophanes’ Birds (thus Storey 2003. 170), than that
he was discovered in the Underworld and for some perverse reason resisted
being brought back to life.

Introduction
Discussion Raspe 1832. 7-16; Meineke 1839 II.455-6; Stievenant 1849. 126—
32; Kock 1880. 279; Wilamowitz 1893 1.179 n. 84; Thieme 1908. 47-69; Keil
1912. 247-55; van Leeuwen 1912.129-31; Ugolini 1923; Norwood 1931. 179-88;
Schmid 1938; Page 1941. 203-5; Schmid 1946. 124-32; Ehrenberg 1951. 60-1;
Weinreich 1953 11.421-42; Edmonds 1957 1.978-94; Plepelits 1970; Schwarze
1971. 125-35; Heath 1990. 154-6; Storey 1990. 24-7; Henry 1995. 23-4; Storey
1995-1996. 137-43, 148-50; Furley 1996. 133-6; Rosen 1998. 150-1; Braun
2000; Ruffell 2000. 488-90; Storey 2000; Telo and Porciani 2002; Banfi 2003.
27-30; Storey 2003. 111-74; Telo 2003; Bertelli 2005. 78-83; Revermann 2006.
311-19; Telo 2007; Torello 2008a; Torello 2008b; Storey 2011. 94-9; Napolitano
2012. 47-8
Title “Demes” were formal Athenian political units found in both the city
and the countryside; see in general Traill 1975; Whitehead 1986. But the word
is also used occasionally in 5th- and 4th-century sources in the sense “country
district” (LSJ s.v. IV, and add to the references collected there Hdt. 1.170.3;
9.73.2; Lys. 31.18; [Pl.] Hipparch. 228d),182 and given the emphatically rural
identity the chorus appear to claim for themselves in fr. 99.12-14, this is likely
the sense intended here.

181 For the “New Music” generally, see fr. 366 with n. For Phrynis’ music in particular,
see also Phaenias of Eresos fr. 10 Wehrli ap. Ath. 14.638b-c (associating him with
Terpander).
182 A full collection of passages using the word in Storey 2003. 391-4.