406

Eupolis

preparations on the addressee’s part. For the unlikelihood of getting regular
baths in the course of a campaign, cf. [D.] 50.35.
lonians were notoriously dedicated to luxury and sensual pleasure (e. g. fr.
247 with n.; Call. Com. fr. 8 ή τρυφερά και καλλιτράπεζος Ιωνία, “pampered
Ionia with its fine dinner tables”; Cratin. fr. 460; Ar. Pax 932-3 with Olson 1998
ad loc.; Th. 163; fr. 556; Pl. Com. fr. 71.14 with Pirrotta 2009 ad loc.; Men. fr.
351.10; Chrysipp. SVFIII.196, xvii fr. 2; Hsch. i 1200; cf. Goebel 1915. 105-7),
but a new mother—rather than simply a woman—from there is a strikingly
specific object of comparison. Presumably women who had just given birth
were notoriously pampered creatures and were inter alia encouraged to bathe
whenever they wanted, and the point is that the addressee’s taste for an easy
life makes him resemble not just a new mother but one from Ionia to boot, with
έξ ’Ιωνίας accordingly reserved for the end of 2 as a punchline. For “Ionian” as
an insulting form of address, cf. Ar. Ach. 104 with Olson 2002 ad loc.
Meineke took the individual addressed to be Dionysus, who arrived in
Phormio’s camp prepared for a far more luxurious life than the general re-
garded as appropriate (cf. frr. 274 with n.; 275 with n.; 280.1 with n.). Kaibel
thought that Phormio’s servant rather than Phormio himself might be speak-
ing (sc. to a slave belonging to Dionysus, like Xanthias in his role as the god’s
baggage-bearer in Aristophanes’ Frogs?; cf. fr. 285). Doubtless Dionysus’ slave
rather than Dionysus himself would have carried the bathtub and cauldron,
or led the donkey that had the gear tied up on its back. But in the absence of
any evidence, such hypotheses can be multiplied endlessly—perhaps another
common soldier (a gatekeeper?) rather than Phormio is badgering Dionysus,
or perhaps the lines are from a separate scene in which a pair of unknown
characters argued about their expectations for life in camp and about whether
they ought to side with Phormio or Dionysus, etc.—without rendering us any
wiser.
1 πύελον “a tub” (used at Od. 19.553 for feeding grain to geese), in the
5th century specifically “a bathtub” (e.g. Crates Com. fr. 17.5; Ar. Eq. 1060 τάς
πυέλους ... έν βαλανείω (“the tubs in the bathhouse”); Pax 843; Hp. Acut. 18 =
2.366.3 Littre; cf. Hermipp. Hist. fr. 40, FHG iii.45 πύελον χαλκήν κεκραμένην
ϋδατι θερμω (literally “a bronze tub mixed with warm water”, i. e. “with a
mixture of hot and cold water”)). Timaeus FGrH 566 F 50 claims that such tubs
were invented by the Sybarites along with piss-pots (cf. fr. 385.5 n.), which
shows only that they could be treated as a mark of luxury, as this fragment
too attests. See Cook 1959; and on bathing and bathhouses generally, frr. 280
n.; 490 n.
ήκεις έχων i.e. “you are here with”, as at e.g. E. Andr. 1050; Supp. 634;
Ar. Eq. 1320; V. 243; Pax 312; Lys. 985; Pl. 269; Pl. Com. fr. 212; Dionys. Com.