362

Eupolis

to mix a dry substance with a wet one”), followed by fr. 787 (quoted under
Interpretation) and Ar. Av. 839.
Note also [Hdn.J Philet. 127 όργάσαι και μάξαι διαφέρει· όργάσαι μέν γάρ έπι
πηλού έρεΐς, έπι μάζης δέ τό μάξαι (“orgasai and madzai are different; for you
are to use orgasai in reference to mud, but madzai in reference to barley-cake”).
Text πηλός όργάζειν in ΣΓΓ is nonsense, and πηλός όργάζει in Σν appears to
be an awkward attempt to correct it. πηλόν όργάζειν (assigned to Ruhnken by
Kassel-Austin, but according to Holwerda found already in ELh, and thus to be
attributed to Triclinius or one of his sources) must be right instead.
Interpretation One item in a list of alternative activities. The scholion clearly
understands Eupolis to be using πηλόν όργάζειν in much the same way as
Aristophanes used πηλόν ... όργασον in Birds·, cf. S. frr. *482 καί πρώτον
άρχου πηλόν όργάζειν χεροΐν (“and first of all begin to mix mud with your
hands!”; taken by Hemsterhuis to be Athena’s instructions to Prometheus, sc.
as he sets out to manufacture human beings, but by Pearson 1917 11.136 to
refer to Hephaestus forming Pandora); 787 θέλοιμι πηλόν όργάσαι (“I would
like to mix mud”); Hdt. 2.36.3 φυρώσι τό μέν σταΐς τοΐσι ποσί, τον δέ πηλόν
τησι χερσί (“they knead their dough with their feet, but their mud with their
hands”; among the “upside-down” practices of the Egyptians). But Sophocles
also uses πηλόν όργάσαι to mean “to set wine-lees in motion” (frr. 510 έμισ[γ’]
όσον δή [π]ηλόν όργάσαι, “he/she mixed it enough to set the lees in motion”;
787 θέλοιμι πηλόν όργάσαι, “I’d like to set the lees in motion”; for this sense
of the noun, cf. S. fr. 783; Hsch. π 2191 πηλός· οίνος, “mud: wine”; LSJ s.v.
πηλός II), and Eupolis may have meant this instead.
τινά might either modify πηλόν (as in the translation offered here) or be
the subject of the infinitive όργάζειν (thus “or for someone to knead” in Storey
2011. 209). But the latter is more difficult sense, in that it requires taking the
two accusatives separately when the default assumption must be that they
go together.
Unlike βόρβορος (“slime”), which is disgusting (see Biles-Olson 2015 on
Ar. V. 259), πηλός (no etymology; perhaps substrate vocabulary) has no par-
ticular emotional valence and is often employed as a term for the wet clay used
to produce and mortar together sun-dried brick (also e. g. Ar. Av. 1143; Ec. 310
πηλοφορούντες, “mortar-carriers”, i. e. “hod-carriers”; fr. 63 “chaffless πηλός”,
i. e. unfit for brickmaking), for potter’s mud (e. g. Ar. Av. 686 with Dunbar 1995
ad loc.; A. fr. 369), and the like (note esp. Pl. Iht. 147a πηλός ό των χυτρέων
καί πηλός ό των ίπνοπλαθών καί πηλός ό των πλινθουργών, “potters’ clay
and oven-makers’ clay and brick-makers’ clay”).