Προσπάλτιοι (Introduction)

315

chorus for a comedy by Strattis); traced by Erbse to Paus.Gr. δ 27. Phot, δ
762 also preserves the first part of the note, but omits Θυμοιτάδαι κτλ. As
Prospaltians are nowhere else referred to in what survives of Attic comedy,
this reference has not unreasonably been connected with Eupolis’ comedy,
although there is no positive evidence to that effect.

Introduction
Discussion Bergk 1838. 357; Meineke 1839 1.141-2; Fritzsche ap. Toppel 1846.
62 n.; Meineke 1847 1.200-1; Wilamowitz 1870. 31; Kock 1880 1.323, 325; van
Leeuwen 1888. 412; Kaibel 1907 p. 1235.6-16; Geissler 1925. 45 + 1969. xiv;
Schiassi 1944. 27-9, 36-43; Schiassi 1955; Schwarze 1971. 115-22; Luppe 1975.
201; Bowie 1988. 185; Storey 1990. 14-15; Storey 2003. 230-46; Wright 2007.
428; Storey 2011. 192-5
Title The location of the deme Prospalta (part of the inland trittys of the
tribe Akamantis, with a bouleutic quote of 5) at Enneapyrgi west of Kalyvia
Kouvaras is known from a number of grave-markers (IGIT 7306; 7311; 7315).
Paus. 1.31.1 reports the existence of a sanctuary of Demeter and Kore there.
Enough names of Prospaltians survive in inscriptions to show that it was a
modestly significant place, even if we know nothing more about it.153 See in
general Meyer 1957. For comedies named after the members of individual
demes, cf. Aristophanes’ Acharnians, Strattis’ Potamioi, Antiphanes’ Thorikioi,
Philippides’ Lakaidai and Menander’s Halieis; and see in general Whitehead
1986. 328-38.
Content Despite the survival of two papyri—both assigned to Prospaltioi
only by conjecture—nothing can be said about the plot of the play except that
heroes were somehow made to stand in for Athenian citizens and “Eupolis
himself” apparently explained why this was so (fr. 259a with n.), along with
what little can be extracted from fr. 260 (n.) about the situation in the individ-
ual scene from which that passage comes. What role Prospaltian litigiousness
(test. *ii) played in the action is impossible to say, although the obvious as-
sumption must be that the chorus initially appeared onstage eager to pursue
a legal case against someone (e. g. the hero, in the same way the initial desire

153 Storey 2003. 239 speculates about possible reasons for the choice of Prospalta
in particular—was it e.g. Eupolis’ home-deme? or the site of a notorious recent
incident?—but (unsurprisingly, and wisely) reaches no firm conclusion.