Δήμοι (fr. 137)

463

[Ammon.] Diff. 480, p. 125 Nickau
τύραννον οί αρχαίοι καί επί βασιλέως έτασσον. Ηρόδοτος (1.6.1, 26.1)... καί Αριστο-
φάνης έν Λημνίαις (fr. 373)· -. έσθ’ δτε καί τον τύραννον βασιλέα έλεγον, ώς
Εύπολις έν Δήμοις έπί τού Πεισιστράτου
The ancients also employed tyrannos (“tyrant”) to refer to a basileus (“king”). Herodotus
(1.6.1, 26.1) ... and Aristophanes in Lemniai (fr. 373):-·. And occasionally they also
called a tyrannos a b a s i I e u s, as Eupolis (did) in Demoi in reference to Peisistratus
Discussion Raspe 1832.15; Wilamowitz 1893 1.181; Keil 1912. 242-6; Plepelits
1970. 135-9; McGregor 1974. 20-1; Kaibel ap. K.-A.; Storey 2003. 131-2; Telo
2007. 624-6
Citation context The scholion is a comment on the Herald’s announcement/
order οί πρέσβεις οί παρά βασιλέως (“The ambassadors from the King!”,
referring to Artaxerxes I of Persia) at Ar. Ach. 61; like many Aristophanic
scholia, the note is taken over in a slightly reduced form in the Suda (β 144).
[Ammonius] is apparently drawing on the same source, from which may also
derive Suda τ 1187 τύραννος· οί προ των Τρωικών ποιηταί τούς βασιλείς
τυράννους προσηγόρευον, όψέ ποτέ τούδε τού ονόματος εις τούς "Ελληνας
διαδοθέντος κατά τούς Αρχιλόχου χρόνους,286 καθάπερ Ιππίας ό σοφιστής
φησιν (“tyrannos: The poets before the Trojan War referred to tyrannoi (‘ty-
rants’) as basileis (‘kings’), with the latter word eventually spreading to the
Greeks in the time of Archilochus, as the sophist Hippias says”).
Interpretation As often in scholia, εισάγει means not “brings onstage” but
“refers to” (thus already Raspe, pointing out that the abbreviated version of
the scholion preserved at Suda β 144 replaces the word with καλεΐ); note esp.
TR Ar. Eq. 150 άλλαντοπώλην Άγοράκριτον εισάγει κατά παιδιάν (“he refers
to the Sausage-seller as Agorakritos as a witticism”); cf. fr. 17; Σν: Ar. Pax 812
ώς γραοφίλους αύτούς εισάγει καί περί γραών έρωτας έπτοημένους (“he
refers to them as being fond of old woman and as being aflutter about making
love to them”); yRVMEeBarb Ar. Ra. 551 εισάγει δέ τόν'Ηρακλέα νΰν βεβρωκότα
τι (“[the innkeeper] refers to Heracles now as having eaten something”);
jRVEMatrv Ar. p/ 290 εισάγει τον Κύκλωπα κιθαρίζοντα καί έρεθίζοντα τήν
Γαλάτειαν (“[Philoxenus] refers to the Cyclops as playing the kithara and
stirring up Galateia”); ΣνΜ Ar. Pl. 298 τοιούτον γάρ τον Κύκλωπα εισάγει,
πήραν έχοντα καί έπί ταύτη λάχανα άγρια (“for [Philoxenus] refers to the
Cyclops as someone like this, ‘having a beggar’s-bag’ and ‘wild greens’ inside

286

τύραννος is not preserved in what we have of Archilochus, although the cognates
τυραννίς (fr. 19.3) and τυραννίη (fr. 23.20, largely restored) are.