Είλωτες (fr. 150)

21

Discussion Schiassi 1944. 24; Kaibel ap. K.-A.
Citation context From a discussion of words for various types of coins. Hsch.
κ 495 καλλιχέλωνος· ό οβολός, είχε γάρ τό νόμισμα χελώνην έπικεχαραγμέ-
νην (“fair-tortoised: an obol; for the coin had a turtle impressed into it”); χ 343
χελώνη· ... καί {νόμισμα} Πελοποννησιακόν (“turtle: ... also a Peloponnesian
(coin}”) are derived from the same source, most likely a lost Atticist lexicog-
rapher.
Text Kaibel raised the possibility that the words οβολόν τόν might not be
part of the quotation of Eupolis, who will then simply have used the adjective
καλλιχέλωνος. In that case, however, one might have expected καλλιχέλωνον
τόν οβολόν (“Eupolis used ‘fair-turtled’ to refer to an obol”).
Interpretation The references in Pollux and Hesychius to Aeginetan
coins (which bore sea-turtles on their obverse) as “Peloponnesian” money
tout court are generally taken to mean that they were extremely popular in
the Peloponnese, although they seem not to have been struck during the
Peloponnesian War years, the Aeginetans having been expelled in 431 BCE
and replaced by Athenian kleruchs. The tone of the adjective is thus perhaps
nostalgic, or (given the meter) this may be part of a mock oracle. For Aeginetan
coins, cf. Diph. fr. 67.11-13; and see in general Head 1911. 394-8; Holloway
1971; Kroll and Waggoner 1984. 335-9.
Kaibel suggested that καλλιχέλωνος (a nonce-word attested nowhere
else; cf. Sarati 1996. 117) is an imitation of Homeric Καλλικολώνης (the name
of a hill outside Troy), forms of which appear at line end at II. 20.53,151. As the
supposed allusion has no obvious point, it is easier to think that this is merely
a mock-epic adjective in καλλι- modeled on e.g. καλλιπάρηος (at line end at
II. 1.143 etc.), καλλιγύναικος (at line end at II. 2.683, etc.) and καλλικόμοιος (at
line end at II. 9.449, etc.). For allusions to or echoes of Homer in comedy, e. g.
fr. 174.3 with n.; Cratin. fr. 352 (~ II. 14.291); Pherecr. fr. 159.1 (~ II. 9.270-1);
Hermipp. fr. 63; and see the list of passages assembled at Olson 2007. 158.
For χελώνη, used of any tortoise or turtle, see fr. 317 n.