Ταξίαρχοι (fr. 282)

429

is why they always run away!”. Phormio appears to have been a character
in the section of Taxiarchoi partially preserved in POxy. 2740 fr. 1 (= Eup. fr.
268.1-21); the identity of his interlocutor (or interlocutors) is unclear. For
the terrible moment when two battle-lines collided, immediately producing
casualties, see Hanson 2009. 152-70.257
έν ταΐσι γάρ μάχαισιν For the word order (a matter of metrical neces-
sity, like the Ionic forms of the dative plural in -σι, for which, cf. fr. 172.10),
cf. Eub. fr. 74.1 έν τω γάρ σ.ϋτώ; Nausicr. fr. 2.1 έν τη γάρ Αττική; Men. Mis.
178 [έν τω γά]ρ οΐκω; S. Ant. 661 έν τοΐς γάρ οίκείοισιν; Ε. Ιοη 370 έν τοΐς γάρ
σ.ύτοϋ δώμασιν; frr. 401.3 έν τε τοΐσι γάρ καλοΐς; 641.2 έν τω γάρ όλβω; and on
postponement of the particle, see in general Dover 1985. 338-40 = 1987. 61-3.
κόκκυ is the call of the cuckoo at Hes. Op. 486 (and cf. Ar. Av. 505 below),
whence the bird’s name, but the rooster’s crow in Attic, at least in the comic po-
ets (Cratin. fr. 344; Ar. Ec. 31; Pl. Com. fr. 231; Heraclid. Com. fr. 1.1-2; cf. Phryn.
PSp. 35.14-15 (a more complete version of the note at Hsch. a 1763); Antiatt.
p. 101.4-5, citing Diphilus’ Plinthophoros (i. e. fr. 66.2, preserved complete only
by Eustathius)). But the word seems to have a colloquial sense ~ “Now!” at Ar.
Av. 505-7 (Πε.) χώπόθ’ ό κόκκυξ εϊποι “κόκκυ,” τότ’ άν οί Φοίνικες άπαντες
/ τούς πυρούς άν και τάς κριθάς έν τοΐς πεδίοις έθέριζον. / (Ευ.) τούτ’ άρ’
έκεΐν’ ήν τοϋπος άληθώς· “κόκκυ, ψωλοί πεδίονδε.” (“(Peis.) And whenever the
cuckoo would say ‘Kokkul’, then all the Phoenicians would begin to harvest
their wheat and barley in the fields. (Eu.) That’s obviously the famous say-
ing: ‘Kokku, circumcised, off to the field!”’) and Ra. 1434 (Δι.) κόκκυ. (Αι. Ευ.)
μεθεΐται (“(Dionysus) Kokkul (Aeschylus and Euripides) It’s released”, as they
drop a fragment of their poetry into the scale-pan to be weighed). Here the
word functions as an intensifier with πρώτοι, “now-first”, i. e. “the very first”.

fr. 282 K.-A. (260 K.)
ΣνΕ Ar. Av. 1294
Δίδυμος (Hypomnemata Aristophanous fr. 42, p. 255 Schmidt)· ώς τοιούτου την όψιν
όντος μνημονεύει αυτού καί μέγα ρύγχος έχοντος καί ό τάς Άταλάντας γράψας (Call.
Com. fr. *4) καί Εΰπολις έν Ταξιάρχοις

257 Storey argues that “fr. 281 implies combat on land”, which is not true—έν ταΐσι...
μάχαισιν could just as well refer to naval battle—even if everything else we know
of the play does in fact suggest that it was concerned exclusively with the hoplite
experience (nullifying Storey’s larger point, which is that Dionysus “appears to be
learning more than naval expertise” [my emphasis]).