Χρυσοϋν γένος (fr. 300)

473
all unclear.285 Cf. the dreams of the two slaves at Ar. V. 31-45, which feature
a similar mix of scenes from daily life with political imagery, and which use
έπειτα (19, 34) and ειτα (39, 44) as a basic structuring device.
For the colloquial use of έπειτα, see Lopez Eire 1996. 206-9.
ό κουρεύς For barbers and barbershops, see fr. 194 n. For nouns of this
type, see Perpillou 1973 §§ 344-50.
τας μαχαιρίδας At Cratin. fr. 39, μάχαιραι κουρίδες are used to shear
both sheep and shepherds, while at Ar. Ach. 849 Cratinus is mocked for having
his hair cut “adulterer style” μια μαχαίρα (lit. “with a single knife”), μαχαιρίδες
are thus presumably spring shears, made of a single, U-shaped piece of metal
with two overlapping blades (contrast the normal modern pivot scissors,
which consist of two separate pieces of metal linked in the middle); also in a
list of barber’s equipment at Luc. Ind. 29 (presumably as a learned Atticism),
along with a razor and a mirror (and see Citation context).286
ύπό τής ϋπήνης If the paradosis text is right, this must refer to the
position of the shears just before the barber attacks the beard with them
(cf. Poultney 1936. 197-8)—although what follows makes it clear that it is

285 Meineke compared Cratin. fr. 223.3 and tentatively identified Eupolis’ barber with
the Dionysius he took to be concealed there in the corrupt Διονυσοκουρώνων,
while simultaneously suggesting “In verbis ύπό τής ύπήνης acumen inesse suspicor
hodie fortasse inexplicabile” (“I suspect that the words ‘beneath his beard’ contain
some point that is today incapable of explication”). Edmonds apparently believes
that the man being shaved is Alcibiades because he is having his moustache
trimmed, an extravagant conclusion (and cf. in any case Millis 1997).
286 At Ar. Eq. 411-12, the Sausage-seller describes how as a boy he endured countless
punches (κόνδυλοι, literally “knuckles”) “and blows from machairides” (μαχαιρίδων
τε πληγάς). Translators and editors, seemingly anticipating the mention of thefts
of meat in the Sausage-seller’s continuing account of his youthful misadventures
at Eq. 417-20, routinely take this as a reference to butchers’ knives (e. g. Ribbeck
1867. 93 translates “Messerschlagen”; Neil 1901. 63 glosses the word (in the sin-
gular) “a small cook’s or carver’s knife”; Sommerstein 1981. 51 translates “slashes
of butchers’ knives”; and Henderson 1998. 283 translates “knife slashes”). But the
context suggests fast, summary blows of a sort judged appropriate to discipline
an underaged trouble-maker, not an assault with a deadly weapon; and since the
lexicographers (quoted in Citation context) agree in any case that μαχαιρίδες was
the Attic word for “shears” rather than “butchers’ knives”, what the Sausage-seller
presumably means is that he hung about the barbers’ shops with everyone else
(see fr. 194 n.), and that the proprietors occasionally struck him with the standard
tool of their trade to drive him away, sc. for verbal insolence, an attempt to filch
something from one of the customers or the like.