14

Eupolis

lems and is attested in various Doric dialects at Epich. frr. 32.5; 158.3; Ar. Ach.
732, 835 (a Megarian); Th. 5.77.8 (a Spartan decree); Theoc. 1.4-5 (etc.).
Kassel-Austin tacitly emend the paradosis τοΐσδε to τούδε (apparently
intended as a genitive of place, “in this spot, here”), but the text is insufficiently
problematic to require alteration.
Interpretation Doric dialect and therefore presumably spoken by a Spartan
(or a helot?), like fr. 149 and perhaps fr. 151. “They” (τοΐσδε) might be the
Spartans, although in that case one would expect the speaker to know whether
a kopis is being celebrated at home (see below), and if a particular kopis were
in question, one would expect the definite article. Perhaps someone else—the
Athenians?—is in question, and the speaker is using his own indigenous term
to refer to a great public meal celebrated in a different place.
The festival to which X. Ages. 8.7 refers (see Citation context) is the
Hyacinthia, which was celebrated in Amyclae, a Spartan oba (“village”) 5
km. south of the city of Sparta itself, in the sanctuary of Apollo Amyclaeus;
cf. Epilyc. fr. 4 ποττάν κοπίδ’, οίώ, σώμαι / έν Αμύκλαισιν- πάρ’ Απέλλω /
βάρακες πολλοί κάρτοι / καί δωμός τις μάλα άδύς2 (“I think I’ll go to the
kopis in Amyclae; Apollo has many barley-cakes and loaves of bread and a
very pleasant house”; Spartan dialect); Philyll. fr. 15; Molpis FGrH 590 F 1 (all
preserved at Ath. 4.139f-40b, as part of what is characterized as Didymus’
critical response (Comic Vocabulary fr. 25, p. 44 Schmidt) to Polemon); and
Polemon’s extended description of the event at Ath. 4.138d-9c. For the kopis
(lit. “cleaver”, but in any case cognate with κόπτω), the feast held on the
second day of the festival, cf. Cratin. fr. 175 άρ’ άληθώς τοϊς ξένοισιν έστιν, ώς
λέγουσ’, εκεί / πάσι τοΐς έλθούσιν έν τή κοπίδι θοινάσθαι καλώς; / έν δέ ταΐς
λέσχαισι φύσκαι προσπεπατταλευμέναι / κατακρέμανται, τοΐσι πρεσβύταισιν
άποδάκνειν όδάξ; (“Can all foreigners who come there really, as people say,
eat well at the kopis? And are sausages nailed up and hanging in the public
halls for the old men to gnaw off with their teeth?”); Polycr. FGrH 588 F 1 ap.
Ath. 4.139d-f (also from Didymus), who mentions in addition the elaborately
decorated wicker chariots (κάν(ν)αθρα) in which Spartan girls rode at the
festival;3 and see in general Paus. 3.18.7-19.6; Christesen 2012.

2 The text and punctuation of the fragment are disputed; Kassel-Austin place a
half-stop before έν Αμύκλαισιν rather than after it.
3 Hsch. κ 3558 κοπίς· μερίς, δεϊπνον, μάζα, άρτος, κρέα, λάχανον ώμον, ζωμός, σϋκον,
τράγημα> θερμός and Phot, κ 945 κοπίδα- Σπαρτιάται την θοίνην καί την μερίδα
must ultimately go back either to Athenaeus or to one of the sources he cites.