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Μαρικάς (Marikas)
Testimonia
test, i
Ar. Nu. 551-9
ούτοι δ’, ώς άπαξ παρέδωκεν λαβήν 'Υπέρβολος,
τούτον δείλαιον κολετρώσ’ άεί καί τήν μητέρα.
Εϋπολις μεν τον Μαρικάν πρώτιστον παρείλκυσεν
έκστρέψας τούς ήμετέρους Ιππέας κακός κακώς,
προσθείς αύτώ γραύν μεθύσην τού κόρδακος οϋνεχ’, ήν 555
Φρύνιχος (cf. fr. 77) πάλαι πεποίηχ’, ήν τό κήτος ήσθιεν.
είθ’ Έρμιππος αύθις έποίησεν εις Ύπέρβολον,
άλλοι τ’ ήδη πάντες έρείδουσιν εις Ύπέρβολον,
τάς είκούς τών έγχέλεων τάς εμάς μιμούμενοι
But ever since Hyperboles gave them something to hold onto, they
constantly trample the sorry creature, along with his mother.
Eupolis dragged his Marikas onstage first
by turning my Knights inside out—a bad job by a bad poet-
adding to it for the sake of the kordax dance a drunk old woman, the one
Phrynichus (cf. fr. 77) has written about long ago, whom the sea-monster
tried to eat.
Then Hermippus also wrote a play against Hyperbolos,
and now all the others are pounding on Hyperbolos,
imitating my comparison with the eels
Discussion Emonds 1941. 285-6, 290
Context From the parabasis of the revised Clouds (early 410s BCE).
Interpretation “The poet” addresses the audience through his chorus, de-
nouncing his rivals for their almost complete lack of originality, anything
interesting they might have to say being stolen either from him or someone
else. Knights, on which Marikas is here said to have been modeled (554; see
on the Content of the play below), was staged at the Lenaea festival in 424
BCE. jRVBarb 88—although not referring to this passage—identifies the image
of “turning inside out” as having properly to do with clothing, the idea being
that one could wear e. g. a tunic one way around and then, when it got dirty,
reverse it. Cf. fr. 172.5-6 n.; Ar. fr. 58 (“and making three small himatia from
my chlamis”; from the parabasis of Anagyros and taken by Fritzsche to be a
renewed reference to the same quarrel), where Kassel-Austin compare Lysipp.
fr. 4; Taillardat 1962 § 773. The claim is thus that Marikas was not really a