214

Eupolis

Phot. p. 657.2-5 = Suda ψ 128
ψώζα· νόσος τις. Εύπολις Μαρικα-. οί δέ φασί καί τό τής νόσου είδος, ότι κνησμός
μετά δυσωδίας
psdza: a disease. Eupolis in Marikas:-. But some authorities also specify the type of
disease, (saying) that it is itching and a foul smell
Meter Anapaestic tetrameter catalectic.
Discussion Toup 1790 II.398-9; Gomme 1956. 166; Storey 2003. 211; Telo
2005. 167
Citation context From the common source of Pho tins and the Suda generally
referred to as Σ". Related material is preserved at
- Hsch. ψ 309 ψώϊζος· άφοδος υγρά, ή δνθος, δυσωδία, καί ήν καλοΰσι
μίνθα<ν>· οί δέ αύχμόν ή μόλυσμα (“psoizos: liquid excrement, or dung, a
foul smell, and what they call mintha; but others (gloss the word) squalor
or pollution”)
- Hsch. ψ 310 ψώια· σαπρά δυσωδία (“psdia: a rotten smell”)
- Theognost. Can. 84.9 Alpers ψώζα· ή δυσωδία (“psoza: a foul smell”)
- EMp. 819.41 ψώα καί ψώζα· άμφότερα την δυσωδίαν σημαίνει (“psda and
psdza: both words mean a foul smell”; followed by A.R. fr. 5.5, p. 5 Powell
όπου Φινήϊα δόρπα / Άρπυιαι άτλητον επί ψώαν πνείεσκον, “where the
Harpies used to breathe an unbearable psda on Phineus’ meals”).
Text That Toup’s λιμόν (“famine”; the iota is long) for the paradosis λοιμόν
might be right is no reason to emend.
Interpretation See fr. 205 n. A relative clause, offering further information
about someone mentioned earlier, presumably a god or a person imagined
as acting like a god. As Kassel-Austin note, this almost automatically recalls
Apollo’s attack on the Achaean army at the beginning of the Iliad (1.43-52, and
note 61 πόλεμός τε δαμα καί λοιμός Αχαιούς, “both war and plague subdue
the Achaeans” (Achilleus’ characterization of the situation), ψώζαν near the
end of the line is in any case bathetic: “plague and a stench”. Gomme suggests
an allusion to the outbreak of the plague among Athenian troops besieging
Potidaea in Summer 430 BCE mentioned at Th. 2.58.2, although this was many
years earlier and comedy otherwise steers clear of any reference to the plague.
Telo claims that the line displays “an antimilitaristic attitude”, which is sheer
invention, as also in regard to fr. 99.30-3 (n.).
θυμήνας The verb is first attested at [Hes.J Sc. 262 and is used of divine
wrath at Ar. Nu. 610 (the Clouds), 1478 (Hermes); cf. Orac. Sib. 14.239 θεού