Ταξίαρχοι (fr. 280)

425

song; cf. frr. 99.1-20; 386 with η.; E. El. 184-5 σκέψαι μου πιναράν κόμαν / καί
τρύχη τάδ’ έμών πέπλων (“Behold my filthy hair and these tatters of which my
clothes consist!”; Electra describes herself); Or. 225-6 ώ βοστρύχων πινώδες
άθλιων κάρα, / ώς ήγρίωσαι διά μακράς άλουσίας (“Ο filthy head of wretched
locks, how you have grown savage from lengthy lack of bathing!”; Electra
describes Orestes).
At 7.47, Pollux reports τό δέ ποικίλον Διονύσου χιτών βακχικός (“But
Dionysus’ poikilon is a Bacchic chitdn”, i. e. an inner garment), adding at 4.116
(in reference to stage-costume) ό δέ κροκωτός ίμάτιον· Διόνυσος δ’ αύτω
έχρήτο (“But the krokdtos is a himation”, i. e. an outer garment; “Dionysus
used it”). Kassel-Austin compare Cratin. fr. 40.2 θύρσον, κροκωτόν, ποικίλον,
καρχήσιον, in what appears to be a list of items carried or worn by Dionysus,
implicitly suggesting that this fragment too represents a description of the
god (thus already Kock). Given Pollux’ comment at 7.47, this is probably right,
since substantive ποικίλον is nowhere else treated tout court as the name of a
garment. There is nonetheless a problem with Pollux’ information, since in this
fragment the poikilon is replaced (3) by a τρίβων, meaning that it must be a
himation, whereas a κροκωτός is elsewhere a chitdn.251 And even if Dionysus is
the individual being described, the significance of the lament is unclear, since
there is no obvious direct connection between impoverishment as imagined
here and the soldier’s life to which the god is, on the traditional reading of the
fragments, introduced elsewhere in the course of the play.

251 Cf. Ar. 771. 253 (the κροκωτός is underclothing, the outfit being completed by
the addition of an outer garment at 261); Ra. 46 (Dionysus disguised as Heracles
wears a lion-skin rather than the expected ποικίλον ίμάτιον over his κροκωτός
(χιτών)); Callixeinus of Rhodes FGrH 627 F 2 ap. Ath. 5.198c (a statue of Dionysus
in the Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus wears a purple χιτών covered
by a diaphanous κροκωτός, i. e. a two-layer inner garment, with a purple himation
on top). LSJ s. v. κροκωτός 2, having first correctly observed “(sc. χιτών)”, then
proceeds to get matters backwards (“worn by Dionysus (or at his festivals) over
the χιτών, Cratin. 38 [= fr. 40 K.-A.], Ar. Ra. 46”). Nor does there seem to be any
evidence suggesting that anyone other than Dionysus ever wore a κροκωτός at one
of the god’s festivals. LSJ’s citation of Ar. Th. 138 at the beginning of the note as
evidence that the κροκωτός was “worn by gay women” is also misleading, since the
line refers to Agathon (while perhaps simultaneously adapting A. fr. 61, apparently
of Dionysus again), although Inlaw will eventually put on a similar item of clothing
in order to blend in with the women attending the Thesmophoria festival. The 1996
Supplement to LSJ s. v. κροκωτός deals with the by-then embarrassing phrase “gay
women” (replaced by “women on special occasions”), but passes over the other
blunders.