Πόλεις (fr. 247)

299

Phot, κ 891; Phot, κ 906 = Suda κ 1976 = Synag. κ 388). Whether these were
real coins produced informally by money-changers (κολλυβισταί; cf. Lys. fr.
202; Poll. 7.170; Phot, κ 905 = Suda κ 1971 = Synag. κ 387) or similar individuals
rather than by the Athenian state, or a kollybos is merely a tiny nominal
amount (like a “half-cent” in the translation above), is disputed; cf. Svoronos
1912. 123-60; Tod 1945. 108-13; Kroll 1993. 24-5; Grandjean 1996; and more
generally on the vexing problem of small change in societies in which coins
are treated as a commodity, i. e. in which the concept of fiat coinage is either
undeveloped or not yet fully understood, Sargent and Velde 2002.
4 έξεστι (“it is possible”) is first attested at A. Eu. 890, 899, but the imper-
fect form έξην is avoided by the tragic poets (only E. El. 1084).
όλην την ήμέραν implies that the guard-duty (and sex) discussed in 2-3
took place at night, the speaker presumably being left free during the day to
more systematically go about enjoying himself. Although όλην την ήμέραν,
όλην τήν νύκτα and variants thereof fit easily into iambic trimeter and are
used constantly by the comic poets (όλην τήν ήμέραν at Ar. Pl. 1015; Philem.
fr. 71.1; Men. Epitr. 270; cf. fr. 99.10 [τ]ήν νύχθ’ όλην (iambic dimeter); Pherecr.
fr. 253 f όλην τήν νύκτα f; Ar. Nu. 75 όλην τήν νύκτα; Ec. 1099 βινεϊν όλην
τήν νύκτα και τήν ήμέραν, “to fuck all night and day”; Amphis fr. 20.4 όλην
τήν νύκτ; Antiph. fr. 216.9 ήμέραν καί νύχθ’ όλην; Eub. fr. 52.1-2 τήν νύχθ’
όλην / τήν θ’ ήμέραν; Philippid. fr. 20.2 όλην ... τήν ήμέραν; Men. fr. 65.5 τήν
ήμέραν όλην), as well as by prose authors (όλην τήν ήμέραν at e. g. Th. 7.38.3;
X. HG 6.4.36; Aeschin. 1.52; Thphr. Char. 16.10; τήν ήμέραν όλην at e. g. Pl. Ap.
31a; όλην τήν νύκτα at e. g. X. Cyr. 2A.26), they are avoided by the tragedians,
who seem to treat όλος in particular as a suspect vocabulary item.140
τον κύσθον έκκορίζειν is a climatic obscenity, capping 3. κύσθος (also
attested at Ar. Ach. 782, 789; Lys. 1158; Ra. 430; see Henderson 1991 § 107, and
cf. κυσθοκορώνη at adesp. com. fr. 377 and various compounds in κυσο- at
Ar. fr. 358; adesp. com. frr. 186; 378; Hsch. κ 4737, 4739) is a primary obscenity
(“cunt”), έκκοριζω (literally “rid of bedbugs (κόριδες)”) must accordingly have
a colloquial sexual sense as well, perhaps simply via word-play on κόρη (“girl,
maiden”; thus LSJ s. v.); cf. Ar. Pax 59 with Olson 1998 ad loc.; Deubner 1931.

140 The word is absent from Aeschylus and is preserved in Euripides only at Ph. 1131
(see Mastronarde 1994 ad loc.); Cyc. 217 (satyr play); fr. 1041.2 (genre unknown).
Sophocles is the exception, using forms of όλος at OT 1136-7 τρεις όλους / ...
έκμήνους χρόνους; Ph. 480 ήμέρας ... ούχ όλης μιας; OC 479. Note also Sositheus
TrGF 99 F 2.6; adesp. tr. fr. 619.9 (= S. fr. 1026 N2). See also Willi 2003. 192.