Προσπάλτιοι (fr. 262)

353

Ath. 7.326a
δταν δ’ Εϋπολις έν Προσπαλτίοις λέγη-, έπί των υφασμάτων λέγει καί των ζωνών,
αίς αί γυναίκες περιδέονται
But when Eupolis in Prospaltioi says:-, he is referring to tapestries and belts that
women wrap around themselves
Meter lambic trimeter.
Discussion Bergk 1838. 357-8; Meineke 1839 1.142; Kock 1880 1.323; Schiassi
1944. 41; Storey 2003. 242; Olson 2007. 200 (E6)
Citation context From the end of the discussion of “ribbon-fish” (ταινίαν)
in the long, alphabetically organized catalogue of fish-names that makes up
much of Athenaeus Book 7 and that seems to be drawn mostly from Dorion.
Text ήν (Schweighauser), which fills out the end of the trimeter, was convert-
ed into την (taken to be governing έπί των υφασμάτων ... καί των ζωνών) in
the manuscript tradition of Athenaeus.
Interpretation The man referred to here—presumably a prominent politi-
cian—is mocked via an attack on his mother, who is said to be both a Thracian
(meaning that her son’s claim to Athenian citizenship is illegitimate; cf. frr. 61
n.; 298.3 n.; Ar. Ach. 704-5 (Cephisodemus as a Scythian) with Olson 2002 on
Ach. 273 (on Thracian slaves); Ra. 678-82 (Cleophon as a Thracian)) and as a
street-vendor (suggesting very low social status; cf. in general fr. 384.4-5 n.).
Cf. Ar. Nu. 552, 555 = Marikas test, i (Hyperbolos attacked onstage inter alia
via nasty caricatures of his mother); Ar. Ach. 478 (Euripides’ mother mocked
as a vegetable-vendor); Pl. Com. fr. 61 (Cleophon’s mother was a Thracian); D.
18.129-30 (Aeschines’ mother was a low-class prostitute); Aeschin. 2.78, 180;
3.172 (Demosthenes’ mother was a Scythian); and see in general Henderson
1987b. 112-13; Hunter 1994. 111-16.185
For the shame of being reduced specifically to ribbon-vending—clearly a
marginal occupation—see D. 57.30-1, where the speaker responds to an attack
on his Athenian citizenship that included the observation that his mother sold
ribbons and had worked as a wetnurse (for which occupation, see fr. 455 n.),
and acknowledges that “we do not live in the way we would like”. For the
reality of women’s outside-of-the-house labor in Athens, to the extent that
it can be recovered from literary and archaeological sources, see Brock 1994;

185

Hermipp. frr. 9-10 are often held to similarly refer insultingly to Hyperbolos’
mother.