236

Eupolis

Discussion Raspe 1832. 97-8; Meineke 1839 11.510-11; Schiassi 1944. 75-6;
Storey 2003. 223; Olson 2007. 199-200 (E5)
Citation context Athenaeus cites this passage as part of a discussion of the
alleged luxury of the ancients, which may thus be drawn from the same source
as 1.24b-5f (preserved only in the Epitome). Poll. 6.21-2 καί οίνόπτης ό τον
οίνον έπιβλέπων· οΰτος δε καί λύχνους καί θρυαλλίδας παρείχε, καί τήν έξ
ίσου πόσιν έφεώρα (‘And an oinoptes is the man who keeps an eye on the
wine; this person also supplied lamps and wicks, and supervised the equality
of the drinking”) is another version of the same material, at least some of
which appears to go back to Didymus (cf. Phot, o 127 οίνόπται· έπιμεληταί
τού τούς φράτορας ήδύν οίνον εχειν. Δίδυμος (Comic Vocabulary fr. 14, ρρ.
38-9 Schmidt) ούτως άποδίδωσιν- εύτελής αρχή τις Άθήνησιν, “oinoptai: men
charged with ensuring that the phratry-members have good wine. Didymus
(Comic Vocabulary fr. 14, pp. 38-9 Schmidt) glosses it thus: ‘an undistinguished
office in Athens’”). Cf. fr. 130 n. (on sumptuary legislation connected with
feasting on the deme-level), and note also
- Hsch. o 332 οίνόπται· αρχή εύτελής, καθ’ ήν θρυαλλίδας καί λύχνους καί
τά τοιαΰτα δει τον αίρεθέντα άρχοντα παρέχειν (“oinoptai: an undistin-
guished office, in connection with which the man elected as magistrate
had to supply wicks, lamps and the like”)
- Phot, o 126 οίνόπται· εύτελής αρχή Αθήνησιν παρέχουσα λύχνους καί
θρυαλλίδας έν έορταΐς τισιν (“oinoptai: an undistinguished office in
Athens that supplied lamps and wicks at certain festivals”)
- Σ Ar. Pax 1178 οίνόπτας τούς οίνοφύλακας (“oinoptai are those who
guard the wine”).
The second citation of the passage—although in this case of only part of the
text and in reference to a different issue, so likely from a separate source—is
in a note on the final portion of Ar. Nu. 586-9 ού φανεϊν εφασκεν ύμΐν, εί
στρατηγήσοι Κλεών. / άλλ’ όμως ε'ίλεσθε τούτον· φασί γάρ δυσβουλίαν / τήδε
τή πόλει προσεΐναι· ταύτα μέντοι τούς θεούς, / άττ’ άν ύμεΐς έξαμάρτητ’, επί
τό βέλτιον τρέπειν (“[The Sun] said he would not shine for you, if Cleon were
general. But nonetheless you elected him; for they say that bad decision-mak-
ing is endemic to this city, but that whatever errors you make, the gods cause
them to turn out better”). An abbreviated version of the same material is
preserved at Suda a 732.
Text In 2, the paradosis is metrically deficient; the conjectures recorded in
the apparatus are merely exempli gratia examples of how the line might be
filled out. If the lacuna did not contain a verb, ε'ίλεσθε must be supplied from 1.