Πόλεις (fr. 219)

237

At the end of 2, the second πόλις (preserved in Athenaeus) has been lost
via haplography in ΣΕ. Σ' and the version of the text that lies behind the Suda
simply dropped the entire second half of the verse.
3 caused trouble for the scribes who produced the three surviving versions
of the scholion on Clouds, inter alia because some of them inherited κακώς for
the correct καλώς, and they variously wrote:
— ώς ευτυχήσει μάλλον ή κακώς φρονείς (Σν)
— ώς ευτυχείς μάλλον ή κακώς φρονείς (Σ )
— ώς εύτυχεΐν μάλλον ή καλώς φρονεΐν (Suda).
Interpretation For the complaint in 1-2 and for the elective office of general,
cf. frr. 49; 104; 132 with n.; 133 with n.; 384 (esp. 7-8) with nn.; Ar. Ra. 727-33,
esp. 732-3 οίσιν ή πόλις προ του / ούδέ φαρμακοΐσιν είκή ραδίως έχρήσατ’
αν (“men whom the city previously would not even have lightly used as scape-
goats”); and note Cratin. fr. 17.2-3 (of a poet allegedly not deserving a chorus);
Anaxandr. fr. 66. The overall point is not that Athens is doing badly, but that
the city is doing well despite its terrible choice of leaders. For the popular
tradition behind Ar. Nu. 587-9 and this fragment, cf. Ar. Ec. 473-5 λόγος γέ
τοί τις εστι τών γεραιτέρων, / δσ’ άν άνόητ’ ή μώρα βουλευσώμεθα, / άπαντ’
επί τό βέλτιον ήμΐν ξυμφέρειν (“There is in fact a saying among the elders,
that whatever thoughtless, stupid decisions we make, they all turn out for the
best for us”; Ussher 1973 ad loc. compares Ar. Eq. 1055 Κεκροπίδη κακόβουλε,
“Ill-counseled son of Cecrops”; E. Supp. 321 άβουλος ώς κεκερτομημένη, “re-
proached as lacking in (good) counsel”; of Athens); Wankel 1976. 1111 (on
Athens’ proverbial τύχη).
1 ε'ίλεσθ(ε) For αίρέομαι (lit. “choose for oneself”) in the sense “elect (sc.
to public office)” (LSJ s. v. B.II.3), e. g. fr. 384.8; Ar. Nu. 587 (quoted in Citation
context); V. 668; Ec. 247; fr. 156.3; Archipp. fr. 14.1; Men. fr. 769.1; And. 1.81;
Th. 2.65.4; Lys. 12.54; and cf. fr. 99.33 with n.
οίνόπτας The scholarly traditions regarding this office (see Citation
context) appear to go back to a very limited number of texts that connected
it with ensuring the presence of supplies for a night-time drinking party and
seeing that those supplies were distributed equitably among the guests; see
Lambert 1993. 154-5. Phot, o 127—presumably based at some point on hard
evidence, since there is no obvious motivation to invent the detail—suggests
that these celebrations took place on the level of the phratry rather than of
the city as a whole.
προ τού i. e. προ τούτου τού χρόνου. Used thus also at e.g. [fr. *101.9]; A.
Ag. 1203; E. Andr. 734; Ar. Nu. 5; Hdt. 1.103.1; Th. 1.118.2; Pl. Phd. 96c.
2 For νυνί with deictic iota (colloquial Attic), see fr. 384.7 n.