450

Eupolis

(Δι.) άνθρωπε, βούλει σκευάρι’ είς'Αιδου φέρειν; / (Νε.) πόσ’ άττα; (Δι.) ταυτί.
(Νε.) δύο δραχμάς μισθόν τελείς; / (Δι.) μά Δί’, άλλ’ έλαττον. (Νε.) ύπάγεθ’
ύμεΐς τής όδοϋ (“(Dionysus) Sir, are you willing to carry some bags to Hades?
(Corpse) How many exactly? (Dionysus) These here. (Corpse) Are you going
to pay two drachmas? (Dionysus) No, by Zeus; less. (Corpse) [to the men
carrying him] You—get a move on down the road!”).
Porters hauling goods of all sorts from one place to another must have been
ubiquitous in Athens (and other cities as well); cf. fr. 200 with n.; Hermipp.
Phormophoroi (“Basket-bearers”, i. e. “Porters” or perhaps “Stevedores”);
Ar. Ach. 211-13 with Olson 2002 ad loc. (peasant-farmers carrying baskets
of charcoal into the city from the countryside); fr. 830 θυλακοφορεϊν (“to
carry sacks”, referring to miners transporting ore); Aristomenes’ Hylophoroi
(“Wood-carriers”, i. e. men who delivered carpentry material or fuel); Diphilus’
Plinthophoros (“The Brick-carrier”, a man who moved fired bricks from the
kiln-yard to construction sites); Men. fr. 326 (a reference to a slave porter who
picks up freelance jobs and pays his master a daily sum); Broughton 1938. 57
(evidence for porters’ guilds in Asia Minor in the Roman period); Wright 1971
(on porters—mostly mutes—in Roman comedy); Robert 1977. 90-1 (again on
porters’ guilds in Asia Minor in the Roman period). For the transport-poles
used to carry goods, Ar. Ach. 860 with Olson 2002 ad loc.·, Ra. 8; Ec. 833; frr.
571; 886; Phryn. PS p. 15.9-10; cf. Pl. Com. fr. 50.
The middle of μισθόω is “hire (a person), rent (a thing)”, sc. for one’s own
use (e. g. Ar. V. 52; Av. 1152; Ra. 167; Stratt. fr. 1.3-4; Men. Dysc. 264; Hdt.
1.24.2; Th. 4.52.2; 6.90.3; contrast the active at Ar. Lys. 958 μίσθωσόν μοί τινα
τίτθην, “Hire a nurse for me!”), μισθοί must accordingly be second-person
singular (pace Storey 2011. 225 “What does he have to hire?” [sic]), with τί
as accusative of respect. LSJ s. v. I seems to imply that in the present and
imperfect the verb is attested only in the active, but cf. e.g. Alex. fr. 259.5-6
μισθούμενον / εις έστίασιν; Hdt. 3.131.2 δημοσίη μισθοϋνται; 5.62.2 τον νηόν
μισθοϋνται τον έν Δελφοΐσι; X. HG 2.4.43 ξένους μισθοΰσθαι τούς Έλευσΐνι;
Pl. Prt. 347d μισθούμενοι άλλοτρίαν φωνήν τήν των αύλών; Isoc. 27.19 τά μεν
των ξενιτευομένων στρατόπεδα μισθούνται. For μισθός (“wage”), see fr. 470 n.
ποΐ; i. e. “Where (will I need to carry the load) to?”, distance, change
in elevation and the like all presumably being among the factors taken into
account when a price was negotiated.
πόση τις; For the colloquial use of τις/τι after forms of πόσος and ποιος,
seemingly serving to sharpen the question or observation, e.g. Ar. Eq. 1339;
Nu. 765; Ra. 55 πόσος τις;; S. Ant. 42; fr. 314.301; E. Heracl. 674 πόσον τι;; Ph.
842 πόση τις; X. Mem. 3.6.5 πόσαι τινές εισι;; Pl. Tht. 198c πόσος τις; D. 27.33
πόσον τινά.