320

Eupolis

below (15, 17), the obvious assumption is that he is the man in question here
as well. Lobel noted that almost the only verb that can be restored for the pa-
pyrus’ ]μηγορη[ “ ]i in 3 is a form of δημηγορέω, and he accordingly proposed
reading in 2-3 δεη[σόμενοι δη]μηγορή[σα]ι προς αύτοϋ, “to ask of him that
he offer a political argument” vel sim. (awkward, but better than assuming
that some fourth party is being asked to do something on Eupolis’ behalf).156
If so, the point is that the ambassadors—better put, the individuals who sent
them—aspired to use Eupolis’ comedy as a forum to express their own point of
view on matters of public concern. βιασάμ(εν)οι in 5 seems to suggest that the
poet/Eupolis tried to resist the demands being made on him, which apparently
had to do with restricting how he portrayed his fellow citizens (6 μ(έν) τούς
πολ{ε}ίτας μή γράφειν), on the one hand, and with heroes (8 τους ήρωας; cf.
Austin’s conjecture in 7), on the other.157 The δέ-clause (?) in 9 may or may not
balance the μέν-clause that begins in 6. If it does, this likely has something to
do with the action Eupolis was being forced into (e. g. finding a hero matching
each citizen and mocking the hero instead of the person?).
In the description of the poet in 3-4, Lobel restored νέ[ον άρ]χ[ο]μ(έν)
ου γράφ[ειν] κωμωδίαν, and his conjecture—accepted by all subsequent edi-
tors—has hardened into a general conviction that that Prospaltioi must have
been Eupolis’ first play, the text being understood in the sense “who was just
beginning to write comedy”.158 Lobel’s conjecture, however, is just as easily
taken to mean “as he was just beginning to write a comedy”,159 the point
being that this was an obvious moment for outside pressure to be applied to
shape its content. Whatever followed 4 κ(αι) ταΰτα (“and ... at that!”) will thus
have made clear why this was precisely the right play—or perhaps precisely
the wrong play—to meet the ambassadors’ request. On this interpretation, fr.
259 offers no evidence for the date of Prospaltioi and might even be taken to
suggest that Eupolis already had a well-established reputation at the time the

156 Thus seemingly Luppe 1973. 327 “um (ihn) zu bitten, ein Rede zu halten fur diesen
(Eupolis)”; Rusten 2011. 260 “in order to ask [someone] to speak on behalf of him”.
Storey 2011. 197 deals with the problem by adding a lacuna in the text where one
is not found in the Greek.
157 For Attic heroes, see in general Kearns 1989 and more generally fr. 259m n. Comedies
entitled Herdes were written by Chionides (supposedly), Crates, Aristophanes,
Timocles and Philemon.
158 Thus Storey 2011. 197 (better than Rusten 2011. 260 “who had just recently begun
to write comedy”, as if this were a perfect participle).
159 Cf. Luppe 1973. 327 “der erst jungst eine Komodie zu schreiben begann”.