370

Eupolis

spoken of as a figure from the past at Ar. Pax 346-7b (quoted at fr. 274 n.) in
420 BCE. See further on Date.
Other 5th-/early 4th-century comedies in which Dionysus seemed to have
played a part include Magnes’ Dionysos I and II, Cratinus’ Dionysalexandros
and Dionysoi, Hermippus’ Phormophoroi, Aristophanes’ Babylonioi, Dionysos
nauagos and Frogs, Aristomenes’ Dionysos asketes, Demetrius Comicus’
Dionysou [gonai], Polyzelus’ Dionysou gonai, and perhaps Cratinus’ Satyroi,
Phrynichus Comicus’ Komastai and Satyroi, Ameipsias’ Komastai (see Orth
2013. 250-1), Diodes’ Bakchai and Lysippus’ Bakchai and Phyrsokomos. But
what little can be known (or hypothesized) about the plot of Eupolis’ play also
recalls what may have been a standard type of satyr play plot, in which the
chorus decide to take up an activity for which they rapidly prove to be utterly
ill-suited, as in Aeschylus’ Theoroi e Isthmiastai (and see in general O’Sullivan
and Collard 2013. 32-3).
The following have also been assigned to Taxiarchoi: frr. 343 (Wilamowitz,
guessing wildly, as with the other fragments); 353 (Luppe); 376 (Kaibel); 481
(Wilamowitz); 486 (Wilamowitz). Kassel 1966. 12 suggested that A. fr. **61a
τί 6’ άσπίδι ξύνθημα και καρχησίω; (“What does a shield have to do with a
drinking-cup?”) might be assigned to Eupolis’ play as well.
Date The only solid evidence for the date of Taxiarchoi is the appearance of
Phormio as a kdmdidoumenos.196 We know of no other deceased contemporary

196 The play’s other kdmdidoumenos, Opountios (fr. 282 with n.), was also mentioned in
Aristophanes’ Birds (414 BCE) and in a play called Atalantai, which Kassel-Austin
take to be a reference to Callias’ comedy by that name (fr. *4) and which must
thus belong to the 430s BCE or earlier. Storey 2003. 247 argues that this Atalantai
might be by Strattis and thus belong several decades later, closer to the time of
Birds, when Storey prefers to date Taxiarchoi as well. But Strattis’ comedy is re-
ferred to as singular Atalantos or Atalante eight of the nine times it is cited, and
Opountios’ nose must have remained hooked—apparently the starting point of all
the comic attacks—throughout his political or social career, which may easily have
spanned several decades. Storey 2003. 247 also attempts to downdate Opountios
by identifying him with the Opountios (PAA 748445) who was a candidate for
ostracism in a year Storey takes to be around 416 BCE (i. e. the year of the ostra-
cism of Hyperbolos), arguing that “As the kdmodoumenos and the candidate for
ostracism are the only Opountioi in LGPNII, they should be the same person’
and concluding that this Opountios accordingly “seems to be a kdmodoumenos of
the 410s and the only secure dates for him are the mid-410s”. The archaeological
context for the ostraka, however, places them unambiguously in the 480s or 470s
BCE (see fr. 282 n.), meaning that (a) these must be two separate individuals and
(b) the only evidence putting the younger man in the 410s is the mention in Birds.