Χρυσούν γένος (fr. 314)

495

Citation context Similar material is preserved at Poll. 9.102-3 (citing fr. 269)
and Hsch. ω 194, both likely drawing on the same source, which Erbse took to
be Aelius Dionysius (ω 6) and Taillardat took to be Suetonius On games (fr. 1,
pp. 67-8), but which apparently goes back in any case to Pamphilus (Taillardat
1967. 41). Note also CGFPR 342.31 (ώμιλλα in an alphabetically organized list
of comic words).
εις τον κύκλον in Phot. = Suda confirms that έκ κυκλώπων in Σ Pl. is
corrupt, and thus removes any mention of the Cyclopes in the sources for the
play (thus already Meineke 1839 1.146).
Text If 2 is sound, these are anapaests (f^-—— /-—)
and 1 must be corrupt, hence the suggestions of Bergk and Meineke; Gelzer
took this to be part of an anapaestic pnigos. Alternatively, 1 might be aeolic
x—x—— (reading elided εϊσειμ’ for the paradosis εϊσειμι), in which case
the problem is in 2.
In 2, Erbse’s μεθίη (“even if he/she/it doesn’t let me go”, i. e. “throw me”)
for the paradosis μετίη renders the image more consistent; but the text is too
obscure to warrant such intervention.
Interpretation Assuming that Meineke’s emendation of the problematic
paradosis έκ κυκλώπων is correct, the “lying down in a circle” to which Σ Pl.
claims the speaker metaphorically refers is presumably the arrangement of
guests at a dinner party or symposium, which the speaker (A.) tells another
party (B.) that he (note masculine μείνας) intends to join even if a third party
(C.) refuses to accompany him. On the most economical interpretation of
the fragment, the failure of (C.) to act must also be the motivation for (A.)’s
current hesitation: if (C.) does not make an appearance, (A.) will be forced to
act alone. Perhaps part of the point of the image is that there is a risk of being
thrown out, sc. because the speaker does not really belong in the group; cf.
fr. 172.12-16.
Nothing else is known of ώμιλλα (etymology uncertain; also mentioned
in fr. 269.2), which must be a simple gambling game like άρτιασμός (“odds
or evens”; cf. Ar. Pl. 816-17, 1055-9; Pl. Lys. 206e) and τρόπα (defined by
Suetonius, preserved at yAreth (B) pf £y$. 206e (p. 457 Greene) and citing Cratin.
fr. 180, as “throwing something into a hole from a distance”, as in modern beer
pong) (both also mentioned at Poll. 9.102-3).