Ταξίαρχοι (fr. 275)

413

Ath. 4.170c-d
έπεσθίειν εϊρηκε Τηλεκλείδης Πρυτάνεσιν (fr. 27.3) οϋτως-. έπιφαγεϊν δ’ Εϋπολις
Ταξιάρχοις-
Telecleides used the term epesthiein in Prytaneis (fr. 27.3) as follows:-. And Eupolis
in Taxiarchoi (used) epiphagein:-
Meter lambic trimeter.
<x->™ _ -U- ——
Meineke in his edition of Athenaeus (followed by Kaibel in his) printed these
verses as trochaic tetrameters (έπιφαγεϊν / μηδέν άλλ’ ή κρόμμυον λέποντα
και τρεις άλμάδας), which is possible but unnecessary, particularly given that
the division into iambic trimeters adopted above (and by all previous editors
of Eupolis, including Meineke 1839) puts the caesurae in standard locations.
Discussion Bergk 1838. 360; Meineke 1839 1.144, 11.526; Kock 1880 1.328;
Schiassi 1944. 48; Wilson 1974. 251; Arnott 1996. 170; Storey 2003. 255; Storey
2011. 208
Citation context Parallel material, perhaps to be traced to the same source,
is preserved at Poll. 6.39 έπιφαγεϊν—οϋτω δ’ έλεγον τό έπϊ τω άρτω όψον
έπεσθίειν (“epiphagein—this is how they referred to eating opson in addition
to the bread”); Phot, ε 1784 έπιφαγεϊν· τό προσόψημά φασιν (“epiphagein: they
say this in regard to supplemental opson”).
Text The paradosis βλέποντα (corrected by Meineke) is an example of a rare
word corrupted into a much more common but inappropriate one.
Interpretation Aorist λέψαντα is metrically no different from present
λέποντα and could have been written in its place, were the point that the
onion was to be first stripped of its husk and then eaten as we would eat
an apple or a pear.236 The present participle, however, makes it clear that
the process of disassembling the onion accompanies the process of eating it,
i. e. that it is to be stripped apart layer by layer and consumed more like an
artichoke or a bag of potato chips.

236 Cf. Rusten 2011. 267 “Eat nothing else on the side but an onion he’s peeled, and
three salted olives”. “A peeled onion” (Storey 2011. 219) is apparently intended as
a broad translation of the same sense. “A peeling onion” (Olson 2006. 321) is in
origin a typographical error for “peeling an onion” (miscorrected by the author),
but is any case wrong.