478

Eupolis

Meter lambic trimeter.
Discussion Fritzsche 1835. 146 n. 10; Edmonds 1957. 413; Ruffell 2000. 491-2;
Storey 2003. 270
Citation context An isolated geographic gloss.
Interpretation Mariandynia was very far from Athens289 (see below)—con-
trast the otherwise superficially similar Ar. Nu. 92-3 (Στ.) όρας τό θύριον
τούτο και τώκίδιον; / (Φε.) όρώ (“(St.) Do you this little door and the small
house? (Ph.) I see (them)”)—and Fritzsche accordingly compared Ar. Eq.
162-75, where the Sausage-seller is asked to look out at the audience (162-3
δευρ'ι βλέπε. / τάς στίχας όρας τάς τώνδε των λαών;, “Look over here. Do you
see the rows of these people here?”); responds όρώ (163 “I see (them)”); and
is then told to climb up onto his chopping block to look even further away,
first out to the islands (170-1 (Οι.) κάτιδε τάς νήσους άπάσας έν κύκλω. /
(Αλ.) καθορώ, “(Slave) Observe all the island in a circle. (Sausage-seller) I’m
observing them”) and then as far as Caria and Carthage (173-4 (Οι.) έτι νύν
τον οφθαλμόν παράβαλ’ εις Καρίαν / τον δεξιόν, τον δ’ έτερον εις Καρχηδόνα,
“(Slave) Now cast your right eye even further aside, to Caria, and your other
one to Carthage”). But Mariandynia might instead be represented on a map, as
at Ar. Nu. 206-17, where Strepsiades is able to view “the circumference of the
entire earth” (206), including Athens (206-7 όρας; / αϊδε μεν Αθήναι, “Do you
see? This is Athens”), Euboia (211 ή δέ γ’ Εύβοι’, ώς όρας, “And Euboia, as you
see,...”) and Sparta (214 αύτηί, “Here it is”). Or the place might be represented
somehow onstage, like the various individual cities that apparently made up
the chorus in Poleis (esp. fr. 247.1 ήδε Κύζικος, “This is Cyzicus”); or the iden-
tification might be a joke or allusion, with (B.) seeing someone or something
who/which merely resembles Mariandynia (sc. by being enslaved?; cf. below).
θεάομαι seems generally to refer to a more concentrated and critical
form of viewing than όράω, i. e. “notice; inspect, examine; watch (as a θεατής,
audience member)” vs. simply “see”: e. g. Magnes fr. 2.1; Hermipp. fr. 37; Ar. Nu.
370; V. 578, 1215; Pax 906; Th. 234, 797; Pl. Com. fr. 199.3-4 τούς έκπλέοντάς
είσπλέοντάς τ’ δψεται, / χώπόταν άμιλλ’ ή τών νεών θεάσεται (“(Your tomb)
will see the merchants as they sail in and sail out, and whenever there’s a boat
contest, it will watch”); and cf. fr. 205.1 n.

289 Ruffell notes that it was directly next to Paphlagonia (cf. Str. 12.541, 544), however,
and suggests a connection of some sort with Aristophanes’ Knights.