20

Eupolis

Meineke saw, the title of the play, the Doric dialect and the connection with
Poseidon combine to suggest a reference to the god’s sanctuary at Taenarum
(modern Cape Matapan), located at the extreme southern tip of the Mani
peninsula (Ar. Ach. 510 ό Ποσειδών, ούπ'ι Ταινάρω θεός, “Poseidon, the god
at Taenarum”; Pi. P. 4.44-5; Th. 1.128.1, 133; Paus. 3.25.4-8; Str. 8.363; cf. Ar.
Ra. 187 and Men. fr. 669 (an entrance to the Underworld thought to be located
there; see Hecat. FGrH 1 F 27); Hdt. 1.24.6, 8 (the dolphin leaves Arion on dry
land there, and Herodotus himself sees a statue of them); E. Cyc. 292 ίεράς ...
Ταινάρου, “of sacred Taenarum”; Woodward 1906-7. 249-52; Waterhouse and
Hope-Simpson 1961. 123-4). Sometime in the early 460s BCE, the Spartans
removed a number of helot suppliants (presumably survivors of a failed revolt)
from the temple there and executed them, and the massive earthquake that
followed was blamed by them on Poseidon’s wrath for their desecration of
his shrine (esp. Th. 1.128.1; Paus. 4.24.5-6; cf. Ar. Lys. 1141-2 with Henderson
1987a on 1137-42). There appears to be no evidence that the place functioned
routinely as a sanctuary for helots, as opposed to the possibility that—like any
sacred complex—it might do so occasionally.
For Poseidon as πόντιος (high-style vocabulary), e. g. Ar. Ph. 322 with
Austin-Olson 2004 ad loc.; hHom. 22.3; Pi. Pae. 9.47; A. fr. **78a.l8; E. Hel. 1585.

fr. 150 K.-A. (141 K.)
οβολόν τον καλλιχέλωνον
the fair-turtled obol

Poll. 9.74
καί μήν τό Πελοποννησίων νόμισμα χελώνην τινές ήξίουν καλεϊν από τού τυπώματος·
όθεν ή μέν παροιμία
τάν άρετάν καί τάν σοφίαν νικάντι χελώναι (Apostol. 12.31b),
έν δε τοϊς Εύπόλιδος Εϊλωσιν εϊρηται·-
In fact some people thought it right to call Peloponnesian money a cheldne from the
figure stamped into it; whence, on the one hand, the proverb
turtles overcome virtue and wisdom (Apostol. 12.31b)
and, on the other hand, it is said in Eupolis’ Heildtes:-

Meter If all three words printed above are given to Eupolis (see Text), dactylic
hexameter, e. g.