426

Eupolis

Unlike many ancient peoples, the Greeks bathed on a regular basis and
regarded it as disgusting not to do so; cf. frr. 272 n.; 329 n.; 490 n.; Olson 2002
on Ar. Ach. 17-18 (with further bibliography); Aristopho fr. 12.9 φθείρας δέ
καί τρίβωνα την τ’ άλουσίαν (“fleas and a peasant’s robe and the lack of
washing”; from a description of the miserable ascetic 4th-century Pythagorean
lifestyle); Alex. fr. 201.6 (another description of the Pythagorean lifestyle that
includes άλουσία).
1 ποικίλου The adjective often has the extended meaning “dappled,
multi-hued” (e.g. Ar. Αν. 777; Anaxipp. fr. 1.34) and thus “elaborate, diverse”
(e. g. Alex. fr. 89.2), but the root sense appears to be “embroidered” (e. g. Anacr.
PMG 358.3 and Sapph. fr. 39.2 (of leather goods, far more likely adorned with
needlework than dyed multiple shades); Alex. fr. 329 (a ποικιλεύς/ποικιλτής
is an “embroiderer”); Hsch. β 496 βελονοποικίλτης· ό τη ραφίδι ϋφη ποιων και
ζωγράφων, “belonopoikiltes: someone who makes a web with a sewing-needle
and produces images”); π 2717 ποικίλον ίμάτιον· ζωγραφητόν, “a poikilos robe:
one with images on it”; σ 1851 ~ Phot, σ 555 ~ Suda σ 1104 ~ Synag. σ 228
στίγματα· πληγαί. ποικίλματα, “tattoos: blows, poikilmata”; Phot, κ 237 = Suda
κ 513 κατάγραπτος· ποικίλος, “written all over: poikilos’; cf. Hermipp. fr. 63.23
Καρχηδών δάπιδας καί ποικίλα προσκεφάλαια, probably “Carthaginian rugs
and embroidered pillows”; Headlam 1922 on Herod. 5.67).
2 πιναρόν { πίνος, “filth”. Poetic vocabulary, here probably paratragic;
cf. Cratin. fr. 388 ερίων πιναρών πόκον (“a tuft of filthy wool”); E. El. 184
(quoted above; lyric);252 cognate vocabulary at Cratin. fr. 455 εύπινής; S. Ai.
381 κακοπινέστατον; OC 1597 δυσπινεϊς; Ar. Ach. 426 δυσπινή (Euripides
speaking in tragic style).
For έχω in the sense “wear”, see fr. 298.6 n.; Ar. Pl. 1199 έχουσα ... ποικίλα.
άλουσία In addition to the passages cited from comedy at the end of
the initial note on this fragment, the word appears (in the form άλουσίη) in
Herodotus (3.52.3) and Hippocrates (e.g. Morb. 1171 = 7.108.20 Littre), and must
thus be Attic-Ionic vocabulary.
3 κάρα Elevated poetic vocabulary (a useful metrical alternative for
κεφαλή) found already in Homer in the form κάρη (e. g. II. 6.509), as well as in
lyric and epinician (e.g. Stesich. fr. 180.1; Pi. P. 10.46), and extremely common
in tragedy (e. g. A. Ch. 428; S. Ai. 308; El. 99; E. Med. 1141; Heracl. 539; [E.] Rh.
716), but attested elsewhere in comedy only at Cratin. fr. 105.7 (Eupolideans);

252 Storey 1991. 1-3 (cf. Storey 2003. 247-8) argues for a specific allusion to Electra
(410s BCE) in this fragment. But the relative chronology is impossible, and given
that Euripides’ use of the word is not strikingly innovative in any case, this is no
basis on which to attempt to down-date Taxiarchoi.