432

Eupolis

Interpretation Xanthias the iron-worker (PAA 730220 add.) is otherwise
unknown, but the reference to his statue, i. e. his grave-marker, suggests that
he was relatively well-to-do. Whether the grave-marker was already in place
in Eupolis’ time (meaning that Xanthias was dead by the final quarter of the
5th century and that Taxiarchoi mentioned the bellows carved on it) or the
reference is a product of Hellenistic attempts to gather information about
5th-century kdmdidoumenoi is unclear. Meineke suggested that Xanthias must
have been brought onstage in Eupolis’ play, but all we know is that he was
mentioned. The name is often borne by Aristophanic slaves (e. g. Ach. 243; Nu.
1485) and occasionally by real 5th- and 4th-century Athenians (e.g. IGI31150.11
(a war casualty in 446 BCE) = PAA 730170).
For bronze- and ironworking in and around the Athenian Agora, see
Mattusch 1977, esp. 357-8 (a mid-4th-century ironworks, perhaps an armorer’s
shop). For iron-working generally, see Rickard 1939; Treister 1996. 213-37. For
bellows, see Papadopoulos 1992, esp. 206-8 (with bibliography); Betancourt
and Muhly 2006.
σιδηρίτης—σιδηρΐτις is the feminine form of the adjective—is attested
before this only at A. fr. **78a.67 (quoted in Citation context; tentatively as-
signed to the satyr play Thedroi e Isthmiastai) and at Pi. N. 5.19 σιδαρίταν
έπαινήσαι πόλεμον. Eupolis may thus be echoing—and twisting—Aeschylus
by converting a figurative sense of the phrase (~ “warfare”) to a literal one
(“iron-smithing”). For the formation of the adjective, cf. e.g. άργυρίτης «
άργυρος, “silver”), χαλκίτης « χαλκός, “bronze”), ύαλίτης « ϋαλος, “glass”).

fr. 284 K.-A. (262 K.)
Synag. B a 123
άγκυρίσας- κάμψας τον πόδα· σχήμα δέ έστι παλαιστρικόν. Ευπολις Ταξιάρχοις
a η k y r i s a s: bending one’s foot; this is a wrestling move. Eupolis in Taxiarchoi
Discussion Bergk 1838. 365-6; Meineke 1839 11.528—9; Fritzsche 1857/58. 6;
Kock 1880 1.329-30
Citation context In origin a note on Ar. Eq. 262-3 διαβαλών, άγκυρίσας, /
είτ’ άποστρέψας τον ώμον (“you grab/slander him and catch his foot, then
twist his shoulder about”; the Paphlagonian’s treatment of any decent citizen
who falls into his clutches); cf. ΣνΕΓΘΜ ~ Suda a 261. Hsch. a 582 (quoted in
Text) is likely drawn from the same source, and cf. Antiatt. p. 81.4-6 (also
quoted in Text).