350

Eupolis

them, if in fact Sousarion, the first man to stage comedies, was Megarian. They are ac-
cordingly criticized as pedestrian and clumsy, and as using a purple robe in the parodos
Σν Ar. V. 57
Μεγαρόθεν· ή ώς ποιητών δντων τινών άπό Μεγαρίδος άμουσων και αφυώς σκω-
πτόντων ή ώς τών Μεγαρέων γελώντων και άλλως φορτικώς γελοιαζόντων. Εϋπολις
Προσπαλτίοις (ν. 2)· --
from Megara: either meaning that certain poets from Megara were lacking in talent and
made dull jokes, or that the Megarians laugh and joke in a generally tiresome fashion.
Eupolis in Prospaltioi (v. 2):-

Meter lambic trimeter.

—t—- t —
Discussion Fritzsche 1836.131; Bergk 1838. 359-60; Cobet 1858.160; Meineke
1839 II.521-3; Wilamowitz 1875. 328; Kock 1880 1.323-4; Luebke 1883. 47;
Korte 1905. 414-16; Schiassi 1944. 36-41; Schiassi 1955. 299-301; Edmonds
1957. 399 n. a; Ostuni 1980; Storey 2003. 238, 242; Olson 2007. 67-8 (A22);
Storey 2011. 207
Citation context The richly informed anonymous note on Aristotle that cites
these verses (= com. dor. test. 7) assigns them to Myrtilus, and then goes on
to quote Ar. V. 57 μηδ’ αύ γέλωτα Μεγαρόθεν κεκλεμμένον (“nor, moreover,
laughter stolen from Megara”) and Ecphantid. fr. 3 (quoted in Interpretation).
That the much shorter scholion to Ar. V. 57 (= com. dor. test. 8) also cites the
second verse of the fragment leaves little doubt that both notes go back to
the same lost source, while making it clear that the fragment of Myrtilus
and the reference to Eupolis’ Prospaltioi have dropped out of the text of the
commentator on Aristotle, as a result of which these verses are assigned to
the wrong poet there.
Text In 1, the paradosis τό δεινής is patently garbled, and the easiest correc-
tion is Meineke’s τό δεΐν’, which is colloquial (see Interpretation) and must
have confused a copyist, who wrote δεινής so as to make the word dependent
on ακούεις (“Do you hear a terrible (voice)?” vel sim.; thus the text of Heylbut,
the editor of the standard edition of the Aristotle commentary, who took τό to
be the final word before the lacuna rather than the first word after it).
The scholion to Aristophanes, which preserves only 2, has dropped the
second καί so as to take σφόδρα with Μεγαρικόν.