Χρυσοΰν γένος (fr. 315)

497
come to the rich meals of good
men.
One proverb says:
but good men go of their own accord to good men’s feasts ([Hes.J fr. 264* M.-W.
= fr. 203 Most),
whereas another (says):-
Meter Dactylic hexameter.
Discussion Meineke 1839 1.146
Citation context Athenaeus’ remarks are a comment on Pl. Smp. 174b-c,
in the context of a larger discussion of II. 2.408 αυτόματος δέ οί ήλθε βοήν
αγαθός Μενέλαος (“But Menelaos good at the war-cry came to him of his
own accord”, of Menelaos’ attendance at the feast in Agamemnon’s tent
even though Agamemnon has not explicitly invited him). Cf. also Phot, a
3236 αυτόματοι δ’ αγαθοί· παροιμία τριχώς λεγομένη· αύτόματοι δ’ αγαθοί
αγαθών επί δαΐτας ϊασιν. ή δέ· αυτόματοι κακοί αγαθών επί δαΐτας. Πλάτων
έν Συμποσίω (174b) τή πρώτη κέχρηται, Κρατΐνος δέ έν Πυλαία (fr. 182) τή
δεύτερα· ο'ίδ’ αύθ’ ήμεϊς, ώς ό παλαιός / λόγος, αυτομάτους άγαθούς ίέναι /
κομψών επί δαΐτα θεατών (“good men of their own accord: a proverb said
in three ways: ‘but good men go of their own accord to feasts of good men’.
And this: ‘bad men go of their own accord to good men’s feasts’. Plato in the
Symposium (174b) uses the first, whereas Cratinus in Pylaia (fr. 182) uses the
second: ‘we here again, as the ancient saying goes, that good men of their
own accord go to a feast of clever audience-members’”); Lelli 2006. 129-30.
As all four sources reference Plato’s dialogue and overlap in various ways,
they likely derive from a single learned early note on the same passage. Ath.
1.8a (preserved in the Epitome only) appears to have originally been another
allusion to the same proverb.
Suda ζ 73 claims that Zenobius’ collection of proverbs was an epitome of
earlier collections by Didymus and Tarrhaios, i. e. Lucillus of Tarrha; Didymus,
at least, was certainly drawing on older scholarship on comedy. Related ma-
terial, although without reference to Eupolis or his variant of the saying, is
preserved at Zenob. 2.46 = Diogen. 1.60 etc.
Interpretation In comedy, dactylic hexameters are used mainly for riddles,
oracles and mock-epic; see in general White 1912 §§ 356-66. Eupolis’ δειλών
must be a mocking reversal of the usual άγαθών (see below). But who is being
made fun of, why and in what context is impossible to say (although cf. fr.
314 with n.). Meineke suggested that Lampon (cf. fr. 319) playing prophet was
the speaker.