Ταξίαρχοι (fr. 285)

433

Text Hsch. a 582 άγκύρισμα· σχήμα των έν πάλη (“ankyrisma: a wrestling
move”; cf. Suda a 261 άγκύρισμα- είδος καλαΐσματος) may suggest that the
word originally attributed to Eupolis and glossed “this is a wrestling move”
was άγκύρισμα. Hermann (ap. Meineke), on the other hand, noted Antiatt. p.
81.4-6 άγκυρίσαι- επί τού καλαΐσματος, άγκυρΐσας έρρηξεν, Αριστοφάνης
Ίππεϋσιν (“ankyrisai: in reference to wrestling. ‘He caught his foot and broke
him’, Aristophanes in Knights’) and took the phrase άγκυρΐσας έρρηξεν (not
actually in Knights) to be drawn from Taxiarchoi (= fr. 262 K.).
Interpretation An άγκυρα is an “anchor” (e.g. Thgn. 459; E. fr. 774.4;
Anaxandr. fr. 12.1 with Millis 2015 ad loc.), and an άγκύρισμα (lit. “anchoring”)
is likely a heel-hook intended to trip one’s opponent; cf. Poll. 3.155; Poliakoff
1986. 1. Eupolis may well have used the cognate noun or verb metaphorically.

fr. 285 K.-A. (264 K.)

Poll. 10.17
τον μέντοι σκευοφόρον έν Ταξιάρχοις Εϋπολις σκευοφοριώτην παίζων
έκάλεσεν
Eupolis in Taxiarchoi, however, playfully referred to a porter (skeuophoros) as a
skeuophoridtes
Discussion Meineke 1839 1.145, 11.530; Kassel-Austin 1986. 466; Tammaro
1990-1993.136
Citation context From a discussion of words for porters and porters’ poles
(σκευοφόρια or άνάφορα) in the course of the long catalogue of words cognate
with or otherwise related to σκεύη (“gear, equipment” vel sim.·, see frr. 191
σκευάρι(α) with n.; 307 with n.) that makes up Pollux Book 10.
Interpretation Pollux attests that σκευοφοριώτης—attested nowhere else
and presumably a nonce-word (cf. Sarati 1996. 117)—in place of the expected
σκευοφόρος (e. g. Ar. Ra. 497; Th. 2.79.5) involves word-play (παίζων). Meineke
suggested that this might be a pun on Dionysus’ epithet είραφιώτης (hHom.
1.2, 17, 20); Kassel-Austin connect the word with fr. 272 (n.), where someone
(Dionysus?) is attacked by another character for having come (to a military
mustering point?) with excess luggage; and Tammaro proposed that the point
was that if Dionysus was είραφιώτης, the slave forced to carry his gear might
be called a σκευοφοριώτης. But the joke might just as easily involve the far
more common στρατιώτης (“soldier”, thus e.g. “X is not a στρατιώτης but a