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Eupolis

text of Pollux, since τά Θάσι’ άμφορείδια from Ar. Ec. 1119 is cited at 10.72 as
drawn from Acharnians. But the discussion has to do in any case with whether
stamnos and stamnion can be used only of vessels containing Chian wine or
are applicable to those that hold Thasian wine as well, and similar material is
preserved at Phot, σ 498 σταμνία- τά Θάσια κεράμια· oi δε καί τά Χία καί τά
Μενδαΐα (“stamnia: Thasian pots; but others [claim the word can be used] also
for Chian and Mendaian [pots]”); ΣΚΓ Ar. Lys. 196 (Θάσιον οίνου σταμνίον, “a
Thasian stamnion of wine”) επιεικώς λέγουσιν οί Αττικοί τά Θάσια κεράμια
σταμνία (“Attic-speakers use stamnia properly for Thasian pots”). Hsch. σ 1634
σταμνίον Θάσιον· κεράμειον άγγεΐον (“a Thasian poet: a terracotta vessel”)
was originally a gloss on the same line.
Interpretation Phryn. Ecl. 378 σταμνία· οί μεν άμαθεΐς επί των άμίδων
τάττουσιν,104 οί δ’ άρχαϊοι επί των οίνηρών άγγείων (“stamnia: uneducated
people apply the word to piss-jars, whereas the ancients applied it to wine
vessels”) implicitly treats diminutive stamnion (also Ar. Lys. 196, 199; Men.
Dysc. 448; cf. Ar. Ra. 22 “Dionysus son of Stamnios”) as Attic vocabulary; cf.
ΣΚΓ Ar. Lys. 196 (quoted in Citation context); Alciphr. 3.2.2. Both σταμνίον
and στάμνος (e.g. [Hes.] fr. 372.12; Hermipp. fr. 77.7; Ar. Pl. 545; Pl. Com. fr.
205.1; Alex. fr. 179.10; [D.] 35.32) are in any case confined to comedy, prose
and inscriptions (e.g. IGI 421.117-24; 422.132-3 (the household goods of the
Hermokopidai)) and absent from elevated poetry. In the inscriptions, stamnoi
are used to store wine, vinegar and olives, but are distinguished from am-
phorae, which also hold vinegar and wine. See in general Amyx 1958. 190-5,
who concludes (195): “ancient nomenclature, with respect to this as to other
vase-shapes, could not have been very exact”.105 The name is cognate with
ϊστημι (“stand”), which suggests that the vessel had a flat base.
Diminutive σταμνάριον is attested only here and at Ephipp. fr. 24.2 σταμνά-
ριά τ’ οίνου μικρά τού φοινικίνου (“and little stamnaria of Phoenician wine”).
For the form (typical of colloquial Attic), cf. e.g. βιβλιδάριον (Ar. fr. 795),
έσχάριον (Ar. fr. 529), κυνάριον (Theopomp. Com. fr. 93), κωδάριον (Cratin.
fr. 48), οίκάριον (Lys. fr. 298), όρνιθάριον (Anaxandr. fr. 42.63), πλοιάριον (Ar.
Ra. 139), σηπιδάριον (Philyll. fr. 12.1), ψυχάριον (Pl. Tht. 195a); Petersen 1910.
268; contrast fr. 470 μισθάριον (probably deteriorative) with n.

104 Cf. Hsch. a 3679 άμίς- σταμνίον (“piss-pot: a stamnion”), apparently a fragment of
a note representing the view against which Phrynichus is reacting.
105 Cf. Moer. a 91 αμφορέα τον δίωτον στάμναν Αττικοί· στάμνον "Ελληνες (“Attic-
speakers (refer to) a two-handled stamnos as an amphoreus; Greeks generally (use)
stamnos”), which at least shows that the words were understood to refer to similar
but distinct vessels.