296

Eupolis

We know of no other comedies entitled Demoi. For other plays in which
the chorus represent generic political or geographic units, see the general
introduction to Poleis (Title).
Content Although almost fifty fragments of Demoi (including the long
fr. 99, discussed in detail below) are preserved, the most important gener-
al information about what went on in the play comes from a scholion on
Aelius Aristides (test. *i.b), which reports that four leaders, sc. of the city of
Athens—seemingly Solon, Aristides “the Just”, Miltiades and Pericles—were
brought back from the Dead. Platonius (test, v) adds that the mission of these
individuals was or at least included the establishment and abolishment of
laws. Eupolis’ hero—or one of his heroes—was called Pyronides, which is not
attested as the name of any historical person in Athens or elsewhere and is
instead most likely significant (referring to the character’s “fiery” nature?),
like e. g. those of Aristophanes’ Dikaiopolis (who yearns for a city that does
what is right), Philocleon (who supports Cleon no matter what the demagogue
says or does), Trygaios (an advocate for the countryside and thus the grape
harvest) and Lysistrata (who puts a stop to military operations). Whether
Pyronides had a partner who e. g. accompanied him on the descent to the
Underworld, as Euelpides accompanies Peisetairos on the expedition to find
Tereus in Aristophanes’ Birds, is impossible to say (but cf. fr. *105 n.). Beyond
this, what little can be said of the specific action of the comedy (discussed here
on pp. 8-9) comes mostly from fr. 99.
Chorus and characters in fr. 99.1-77
As is argued in more detail in the Introduction, Section 4, attempts to recon-
struct lost 5th-century comedies are in most respects wasted effort, and the
very different conclusions reached by Storey 2003 and Telo 2007 (both working
with the same set of fragments and secondary bibliography) in regard to
Demoi nicely illustrate the problematic nature of the process.183 Any attempt
to make sense of the fragments of the play must in any case confront two
basic, closely related problems that arise from the first two codex leaves of
fr. 99—the order of which within the play can only be established from the
content of the lines they preserve (see below)—and that have to do with the
relationship between the chorus and the characters at what appears to be the

183 Cf. Wilamowitz’s comment on the play: “Leider weiss ich sehr viel weniger jetzt
von den Demen als ich vor 20 jähren wähnte, und ich kann ihr Verständnis wes-
entlich nur dadurch fördern, dass ich scheinwissen zerstöre und Schwierigkeiten
aufzeige”.