420

Eupolis

correct, therefore, in claiming that 2 came more or less directly after 1 in
the text, 2 is most likely a separate question addressed to (A.) and referring
to the same basic fact: that some as yet unidentified party has hit him hard
enough to temporarily addle his senses. The definite form is nonetheless some-
times retained in such situations (cf. Kiihner-Gerth 1898 ii.517; Millis 2015
on Anaxandr. fr. 1.2), as perhaps here. Kaibel took (A.) to be Dionysus, who
had been punched and staggered, but was pretending to have been blasted by
lightning, and (B.) to be Phormio.
1 ένεβρόντησε To be εμβρόντητος is literally to be “thundered on” and
thus by an easy extension of meaning to be “stunned by lightning, knocked
silly”.241 For the colloquial pejorative use of the word and its cognates to mean
“senseless” vel sim., cf. Ophelio fr. 3 “an embrontetos book by Plato”; Philem.
fr. 45.3; Men. Dysc. 441; Pk. 523 εμβρόντητος; Sam. 411; D. 18.243; [Pl.] Ale. II
140c “fools and embrontetoi” (cf. fr. 172.7-8 n.); Hp. Viet. 35 = 6.518.3-4 Littre
“some call them madmen, others embrontetoi’; Poll. 5.120, 121; Phot, ε 710 =
Suda ε 965 = Synag. ε 331 (from the common source generally referred to as
Σ') εμβρόντητος· καρδιόπληκτος, μαινόμενος, εκφρων (“embrontetos: struck
to the heart, maddened, out of one’s mind”); picked up later, presumably as a
Atticism, at Luc. Tim. 1; DDeor. 15.1; Taillardat 1965 § 474 (and cf. § 698). For
the idea that being struck by lightning is a punishment from Zeus for perjury,
e. g. Ar. Nu. 395-7; Antiph. fr. 230.4; E. Ba. 26-31; and see in general fr. 99.30-2
n.; Biles-Olson 2015 on Ar. V. 323a. But all the speaker need be saying is that
someone or something has knocked him temporarily silly.
2 ώ μοχθηρέ See Text; fr. 60.1 ώ μοχθηρός with n.
έπάταξε According to Phryn. Eel. 146, the Athenians used this verb (the
present and imperfect tenses of which are generally supplied by τύπτω) to
mean not just “strike” but specifically “slap the side of the face” (την γνάθον
πλατεία τη χειρ! πλήξαι επί κόρρης; cf. e. g. Ar. Lys. 635 πατάξαι τήσδε γραός
την γνάθον; Ra. 149-50 πατρός γνάθον / έπάταξεν), although it seems to have
the more general sense “batter” also at e.g. Ar. V. 1254.

241 Note esp. X. HG 4.7.7, where the fatalities resulting from a lightning strike are
divided between men who were actually hit by the bolt (οι μέν τινες πληγέντες),
sc. and burned, and other who died from the shock (or δε καί έμβροντηθέντες).
When applied to a person, tragic κεραύνιος refers to someone who has actually
been struck by lightning (S. Ant. 1139; E. Ba. 6; cf. E. Supp. 496), and the word is
thus not merely a high-style synonym of εμβρόντητος.