Πόλεις (fr. 218)

231

In 1, δέκα is Bekker’s emendation of the paradosis τε καί, and depends
on the observation that every other object mentioned in the plural in the
fragment is modified by a numerical adjective. For the error, cf. 3, where Poll,
alone preserves δέκα, the other manuscripts again offering τε καί (which is
there metrically impossible).
In 2, δέχ’ ύδρίας is Kaibel’s rearticulation of the meaningless δέ χυδρίας in
Poll?. The other manuscripts have δέ χύτρας (Poll. ; Poll? omits the particle),
but χύτραν appears at the end of 3, and the word is not wanted here. At the
end of 3, Bentley proposed σκάφην (“a bowl”) or λύραν (“a lyre”) in place of
the paradosis χύτραν, while Kock suggested δίφρον (“a stool”). But the text is
unobjectionable in and of itself, and the suggestions merely represent ways
to resolve the problems the word poses by emending it away.
In 4, either κάννας (Poll.BA) or κλίνας (Poll? )—in origin a majuscule
variant, ΚΑΝΝΑΣ vs. ΚΛΙΝΑΣ—might be correct, although “one hundred
couches” seems out of proportion to the number of pillows (ten) and chairs
(six) specified in 3.
Interpretation An eclectic catalogue most easily understood as a list of
household goods belonging to a wealthy individual reminiscent of the Attic
Stelae (i. e. the sale-lists of the confiscated property of the men caught up in
the religious scandals of 415 BCE), or perhaps a comic version of a temple
inventory, a shipping manifest or the like. Alternatively, this might be part of
a catalogue of objects needed for a drinking party (cf. Eub. fr. 119), although
in that case the food, wine, guests and slaves are all left unmentioned in what
is preserved of the text, along with other standard symposium goods such
as drinking bowls, incense, garlands and a pipe-girl, while the presence of
chairs—not among the standard fixtures for a dinner or drinking party in
archaic or classical Athens, and seemingly absent from the Athenian vision of
the ideal sympotic past as well (Topper 2012. 13-22)—rather than couches is
odd, as is the oscillation between the call for e. g. eight mixing-bowls (enough
for an enormous party) but a single cookpot. If this is in fact a list of household
goods, the owner is implicitly characterized as rich and as enjoying parties,
and an implicit narrative logic having to do with symposium practices might
perhaps be detected in the order of the items: barley cakes are made ahead
of time (1); the wine is mixed with water (2; cf. Ar. Ec. 677-8 τούς κρατήρας
καταθεϊναι / καί τάς ύδρίας, “to set down the mixing bowls and the hydria”;
among the preparations for a great public feast); the guests take their place
on chairs (but why?) and mats (3-4); and afterward the room is swept and
valuable vessels stored away in boxes by lamplight (4). Or perhaps there are
two speakers, each referencing a different event or different aspects of the
same event, as at Ar. Pl. 189-93, e.g.