396

Eupolis

Citation context Closely related material is found in the sources that pre-
serve fr. 314, where see n.
Text 1 is an impatient question equivalent to a command, and Cobet’s ούκουν
rather than the paradosis ούκουν is therefore wanted.
Interpretation Pollux reports that the first speaker is Phormio, who seems to
be the straight man. Since the second speaker, by contrast, is playing the fool
(bomolochos), scholars since Meineke have taken him to be Dionysus, which
might or might not be correct.217 Cf. the interactions between Socrates and
the buffoonish Strepsiades at Ar. Nu. 255-7, 497-500.
Phormio’s call for creation of a circle would seem to imply that someone
or something is to be kept or driven into it (as in the game εις ώμιλλαν, ref-
erenced in 2) or out of it (as in the game όρτυγοκοπία, referenced in 3). Hdt.
7.60.2, where a circle is drawn around a group of 10,000 men and used as a
crude means of estimating the size of the Persian invasion force, is a possible
parallel in a military context. But the fact that (B.) returns to the topic of lunch
twice (2 άριστήσομεν, 3 κόψομεν τήν μάζαν) suggests that a meal is actually in
question, i. e. that Phormio has not said “big enough to have lunch in” merely
as a way of indicating the amount of space to be marked out for some other
activity; and (B.)’s use of two opposed models for the use of the circle in 2-3
may mean that he is genuinely confused about the point of what he is being
asked to do. Kaibel suggested that Phormio was ordering Dionysus to arrange
the chorus for a meal,218 but περιγράφω κύκλον ought to mean “draw a circle”
not “place (someone) in a circle”.219
1 ούκουν περιγράφεις; For a form of ού + second-person future as
equivalent to an imperative, see fr. 273.1-2 n.; Barrett 1964 on E. Hipp. 331-2,
and cf. (with ούκουν) e.g. Crates Com. fr. 16.10; Ar. Nu. 1253-4; Pax 261;
Anaxandr. fr. 49. For the lively force of ούκουν, see Denniston 1950. 431-2.
As parallels for the use of όσον + infinitive, Kassel-Austin cite Th. 1.2.2
(drawn from van Leeuwen 1898 on Ar. Nu. 434, who offers further parallels);
cf. also e.g. Th. 3.49.4; Pl. R. 416e δέχεσθαι μισθόν ... τοσούτον όσον μήτε
περιεϊνα.ι αύτοΐς εις τον ενιαυτόν μήτε ένδεΐν (“to receive a large enough wage

217 Pollux’ “(Eupolis) responds” is a careless way of saying “Eupolis (has his character)
respond”. Cf. fr. 113 with n.
218 Hence presumably “mark us off a circle so we can all have breakfast in it” at Rusten
2011. 266, which otherwise bears only a limited resemblance to the Greek.
219 Storey 2003. 253 (cf. Storey 2011. 208-9) identifies this as a “technical command”,
i. e. a technical expression from military life, supposedly meaning to “mark off one’s
position at rest”; but there is no other evidence to support this interpretation of
the words.