Πόλεις (fr. 243)

289

fr. *244 K.-A. (230 K.)
πεφυτευμένη δ’ αϋτη ’στίν, ή ψιλή μόνον;
δέ αϋτη έστίν Phot. : corr. Person {φράσον μοι) post μόνον add. Raspe
Has this one (fem.) been planted, or is it/she simply treeless?

Phot. p. 654.21-2
ψιλή γή· ή μή πεφυτευμένη·-Πόλεσιν
bare ground: that which has not been planted:-; in Poleis
Meter lambic trimeter (although see Text and fr. 245 n.).
—- —I- -
Discussion Person 1823. 566, 662; Raspe 1832. 87, 112 n. 5; Meineke 1839
11.509; Meineke 1847. 195; Kock 1880 1.320; Storey 2003. 229
Citation context An isolated lexicographic note; perhaps in origin a gloss on
Pl. Criti. 11 Id από ψιλής τής γής or Lys. 7.7 καί ή γή ψιλή γεγένηται.
Text Photius’ δέ αϋτη έστίν is scriptio plena and was corrected by Porson.
Raspe’s ψρράσον μοι> at the end was intended to convert the line into an
iambic tetrameter, to match frr. 245-7.
Interpretation The fragment is assigned only to Poleis (author unspecified)
and might accordingly belong to Philyllius or Anaxandrides, although the
resemblance to frr. 245-7 (see fr. 245 n.) suggests that it is better assigned to
Eupolis (thus Porson). The subject must in any case be some particular γή,
χώρα or νήσος; Meineke, comparing what is now adesp. tr. fr. 393 (which he
and Kock took to be from comedy) σκληράν άκαρπον καί φυτεύεσθαι κακήν,
suggested Seriphos. Storey claims that “The metre suggests an episode later in
the comedy”; in fact the line could come from anywhere in the play.
The contrast between ψιλή (literally “bare”) land and πεφυτευμένη (“plan-
ted”) land (also at D. 20.115; Arist. Pit. 1258b18) is specifically that between
land that has no trees, even if it is cultivated with other crops (esp. X. HG
3.2.10 πολλήν δέ κάγαθήν σπόριμον, πολλήν δέ πεφυτευμένην, “much good
plowland and much planted land”), and land that has been been planted with
olive trees, fruit trees or nut trees. For ψιλός of land meaning “treeless”, e.g.
II. 9.580; Hdt. 4.19, 21; X. An. 1.5.5; Thphr. CP 3.6.5; LSJ s.v. I (which offers no
support for Storey’s claim that the word can have “a sexual innuendo such
as our ‘virgin territory’” and that it “can also be used of women in the sense