Ταξίαρχοι (fr. 283)

431

seem to support the notion that Aristophanes took the image one step further
and that Opountios either had only one eye or squinted so badly that it seemed
funny to pretend that he was actually disfigured. The basic sense of ρύγχος
(perhaps cognate with ρέγκω/ρέγχω, “snore”) is “nostrils, nose”. But the word
appears to be used properly only in reference to animals, and is thus either
“snout” (as at e. g. Pherecr. fr. 107 ρύγχος ... ΰός; Ar. Ach. 744) or “beak” (as at
e.g. Ar. Av. 672, 1138). Callias and Eupolis might have meant either, but the
fundamental point is that Opountios not only was missing an eye or the like
but had a strikingly large nose as well. Cf. the similarly abusive Cratin. fr. 486
with Olson-Seaburg 2017 ad loc.·, Hermipp. fr. 74.2-3 αίμορυγχιάν (“to have
a bloody nose”).

fr. 283 K.-A. (263 K.)
Poll. 7.106
χαλκεύειν δε καί τό σιδηρεύειν έλεγον καί χαλκέας τούς τον σίδηρον εργαζομένους,
σιδηρϊτιν δέ τέχνην έν Ταξιάρχοις Εϋπολις εϊρηκε την Ξανθίου τού σιδηρέως,
ού έπί τής είκόνος έπιγέγραπται σιδηρόφυσα
They referred to working iron as chalkeuein (lit. “to work bronze”) and to those who
work iron as chalkeis (lit. “bronze-workers”). But Eupolis in Taxiarchoi calls the trade
of Xanthias the iron-worker, upon whose statue an iron-worker’s bellows are inscribed,
a ferric trade
Meter σιδηρϊτιν τέχνην scans -and may be part of an iambic tri-
meter (e. g. ^x—x— , as in Aeschylus (see Citation context)),
and the fact that both Pollux and Hesychius (see Citation context) have the
words in the accusative can reasonably be treated as evidence that Eupolis
used them that way.
Discussion Meineke 1839 11.531; Storey 2003. 257
Citation context From the beginning of a list of words associated with
smithing, within a larger treatment of vocabulary having to do with mining,
metal and the like. Hsch. σ 596 σιδηρϊτιν τέχνην· τήν πολεμικήν, άλλοι δέ
τήν Ξανθίου φασίν, ήγουν τήν χαλκευτικήν (“iron trade: the trade of war.
But others say it is the trade of Xanthias, i. e. the bronze-working trade”) is an
abbreviated version of the same material, and was used by Lobel to restore A.
fr. **78a.67-8 ώς ούδέν είμι τήν σιδηρϊτι[ν τέχνην] / γύννις δ’ άναλκις (“that
I am nothing in the iron trade, but a defenseless sissy”; a vicious rumor), the
only other 5th-century attestation of the adjective.