Φίλοι (fr. 289)

447

with ρέγκειν δέ τούς όλμους, since ο’ίμοι always stands first in its clause.269
Meineke’s <άν>, which would make the action described in the first half of the
line unreal or iterative (“would be wheezing”), is not easily improved upon;
see Interpretation.
Interpretation A complaint, perhaps about the buzzing/droning of the pipes,
but alternatively (if Meineke’s conjecture is correct) about the fact that they
are not droning or not likely to be droning, whereas the speaker wishes that
they were.
ρέγκειν (onomatopoeic; perhaps cognate with ρύγχος, “snout”) is gener-
ally “to snore” (e. g. A. Eu. 53; Ar. Eq. 104; Nu. 5,11) or “breathe with difficulty,
wheeze” (e.g. [E.] Rh. 785 (of the choking gasps of dying men); Hp. Aph. 6.51
= 4.576.7 Littre). Here the word serves as a description of the sound the pipes
produce, like Dicaeopolis’ unflattering comparison of them to wasps at Ar.
Ach. 864 and the Scythian’s more appreciative βομβο (i. e. βόμβος, “buzzing”
velsim.) at Ar. Th. 1176; cf. Taillardat 1965 § 789; West 1992a. 105 (neither with
reference to this fragment).
τούς όλμους West, comparing Ptol. Harm. p. 9.3, takes a holmos (used of
any mortar-like—i. e. round and hollow—object; see Palmer 1946. 54-5) to be
the bulb occasionally visible near the mouthpiece of pipes in vase-paintings,
and a hypholmion to be the cup into which the reed was fitted. Adjusting the
position or number of these parts of the instrument must have allowed the
musician to modify its pitch, hence the complaint registered here, the pipe-sec-
tions standing via synecdoche for the pipe as a whole. Further bibliography on
the problem of precisely what a holmos is at Solomon 2000. 13 n. 63.
ο’ίμοι των κακών ο’ίμοι (Homeric ώ μοι) is attested in inscriptions already
in the late 6th century BCE (e. g. IGI3 1267.1 (“c. a. 530-520 ?”); SIG311a = SGDI
3044 (found at Delphi, but commemorating a man from Selinous); IGF 1248.1
= CEG 49 (Attica; restored)) and is exclusively poetic (in comedy also at e. g.
Cratin. fr. 195.3; Pherecr. fr. 118; Hermipp. frr. 13 (paratragic); 51.1; Ar. Ach.
67 ο’ίμοι των δραχμών; Nu. 1476 ο’ίμοι παρανοίας; Pl. 389 ο’ίμοι των κακών*;
Archipp. fr. 37.1; Pl. Com. fr. 208.1; Antiph. fr. 257.1; in tragedy at e.g. A. Ch.
875; S. El. 1179; Tr. 971; E. Heracl. 224 ο’ίμοι κακών; Hipp. 1454; Andr. 394
ο’ίμοι κακών τώνδ’, 846; Hec. 1255; fr. 759a.l609 ο’ίμοι κακών σών; note also
Emped. 31 B 139.1 D.-K.). See in general Labiano Ilundain 2000. 251-70. For

269 Kassel-Austin include Herwerden’s ίώ μοι των κακών (cf. Ar. Th. 1047 ίώ μοι
μοίρας (paratragic)) in their apparatus, but this produces medial caesura and is
thus not to be considered if other options are available.