Πόλεις (fr. 241)

285

Discussion Raspe 1832. 106; Meineke 1839 11.519
Citation context An isolated lexicographic entry.
Interpretation A list of fierce, northern tribal peoples. For the structure of
the line, Raspe compared Ar. Pax 291 ώς ήδομαι καί χαίρομαι κεΰφραίνομαι
(with the same caesura). Kassel-Austin add Ar. Eq. 165 καί τής αγοράς καί
των λιμένων καί τής Πυκνός; Nu. 686 Φιλόξενος, Μελησίας, Αμυνίας; Ra.
608 ό Διτύλας χώ Σκεβλύας χώ Παρδόκας, 1203 καί κωδάριον καί ληκύθιον
καί θυλάκιον. Note also fr. 242 (corrupt); Ar. Ach. 606 (quoted below); Eq. 100
βουλευματίων καί γνωμιδίων καί νοιδίων; fr. 258.2 όσμύλια καί μαινίδια καί
σηπίδια.
Χαόνων The Chaones (also mentioned in comedy at Ar. Ach. 604, 613;
Eq. 78) were a non-Greek (“barbarian”) people who inhabited the Pindus
mountains and were regarded as the fiercest of the Epirote tribes (Th. 2.81.4).
Thucydides tells us that the Athenians, with Phormio as general, and the
Acarnanians were involved in hostilities with the Chaones in 429 BCE (Th.
2.80-2), and the Chaones must have taken part in the fighting that contin-
ued in the area throughout the mid-420s BCE, especially given the repeated
Aristophanic references (above) to Athenian diplomatic contacts with them
in this period. See in general Hammond 1967. 487-508, esp. 503-8; Hammond
2000, esp. 347-8.
Παιάνων The Paiones, mentioned already in Homer (e. g. II. 2.848-9,
where they live along the Axios River, the modern Vardar), were a Thracian
or Thracian-Illyrian people who inhabited the mountains in what is today
Macedonia. Many of them were in this period subjects of Sitalces king of the
Odrysians (Th. 2.96.3), for whom see Olson 2002 on Ar. Ach. 134-5.
Μαρδόνων Nothing else is known of the Mardones, but Stephanus must
have had some ground for thinking that they were from Epirus, perhaps be-
cause they were named in Rhianus’ Thessalika; cf. St.Byz. a 284 Άμυμνοι·
έθνος ’Ηπειρωτικόν, 'Ριανός (fr. 35, ρ. 14 Powell), 433 Αρκτάνες· .... έθνος
Ηπειρωτικόν· 'Ριανός έν δ Θεσσαλικών (fr. 26, ρ. 14 Powell), and see in general
Hammond 1967. 701-4. Alternatively, the third name might be a nonsense cap
to the other two, like έν Καμαρίνη κάν Γέλα κάν Καταγέλα (“in Camarina and
Gela and Katagela”, i. e. “Mockery”) at Ar. Ach. 606.