Χρυσοΰν γένος (fr. 308)

487

Meter lambic trimeter.
— -<-.->
Discussion Meineke 1839 11.543; Kock 1880 1.336; Crusius 1892; Storey 1990.
18; Platter 2007. 49-50
Citation context Two separate, richly informed scholia, drawing ultimately
at least in part on the same source, to which Hsch. ψ 59 ψαμμακοσιογάργαρα-
πολλά αναρίθμητα, από τής ψάμμου καί των γαργάρων (“psammakosiogar-
gara: many, numberless; from psammos (‘sand’) and gargara”) and Macrobius
5.20.11-13 are to be traced as well. The scholia have been taken over in com-
bined form at Suda ψ 22 (not an independent witness to the tradition).
Interpretation Presumably a reference to the audience, and associated on
that ground with fr. 298 (n.) by Crusius. For the idea, cf. Cratin. fr. 392 Λέρνη
θεατών (“a Lerna of spectators”, which includes the sense “100-headed”); Ar.
V. lOlOb/lla ώ μυριάδες άναρίθμητοι (“O countless millions!”); Luc. Nigr. 18
έν θεάτρω μυριάνδρω (“in a theater of a million men”).
άριθμεΐν is best understood as an epexegetic infinitive with ψαμμακο-
σίους (lit. “sand-hundred to count”, i. e. “to be counted”).
θεατάς See fr. 205.1 n.
ψαμμακόσιος is not attested elsewhere in the classical period except as
one element in the compound adjective at Ar. Ach. 3 (for the second element in
which, most attestations of which are preserved in one of these two scholia, see
Olson 2002 ad loc.). But Athenaeus’ characters use the adjective several times
(3.113d; 6.230c; 15.671a), as did Varro “frequently” in his Menippean satires,
according to Macrobius 5.20.13 (Varro fr. 585 Buecheler; cf. fr. 528 Romani
ψαμμακόσιοι, non qui in urbe inter nundinum calumniarentur), all of which
suggests that it was taken for an Atticism. For the numberlessness of the sand
(a traditional image), e. g. Ar. Lys. 1260-1 (the men who made up the invading
Persian army “were not less than the sand”); II. 2.800; 9.385; Pi. O. 2.98; Hdt.
1.47.3 (the oracle offers as evidence of its omniscience the fact that “I know the
number of the sand and the measure of the sea”); Catullus 7.3-4 (Lesbia asked
for as many kisses as the number of the Libyan sand); cf. McCartney 1960.
81-2 (accompanied by a survey of many other similar images); Taillardat 1965
§ 659. For the etymology of ψάμμος (disputed; cf. άμμος), see Deroy 1956. 183.