508

Eupolis

Interpretation Lampon (PA 8996; PAA 601665) was one of the founders of
the Panhellenic colony of Thurii in Southern Italy in 444/3 BCE (cf. Ar. Nu.
332 with Σεμ); proposed a decree concerning first-fruit offerings at Eleusis in
the mid-430s? BCE (IG I3 78.47, 60 = I.Eleusis 28);293 was among the delegates
who swore to the peace treaty with Sparta in 421 BCE (Th. 5.19.2, 24.1); is
mentioned as still active in 414 BCE at Ar. Av. 521 (with Dunbar 1995 ad loci),
988; and is attacked at adesp. com. fr. 1105.98-103 (apparently late 5th-century;
attributed by some to Eupolis) as a pederast who has systematically extorted
money out of cities. He is also referred to at Cratin. frr. 62 (a glutton); 125;
Call. Com. fr. 20; Lysipp. fr. 6; and see Storey 1988. 380; Flower 2008. 123-4.
The έξηγηταί (“exegetes, expounders”) were religious authorities with
whom private individuals might consult to find out what a dubious situation
potentially touching on matters of divine law meant and thus what sort of
response was necessary or advisable; cf. IG I 131.9-10 (ca. 440-432? BCE);
137.4 (ca. 422-416 BCE); Is. 8.39 with Wyse 1904 ad loc.\ Pl. Euthphr. 4c, 9a
(etc.); Lg. 775a; D. 47.68; Thphr. Char. 16.6 with Diggle 2004 ad loc.; Jacoby
1949. 8-51 (with a full collection of literary and epigraphic sources); Oliver
1950, esp. 18-52 (arguing independently, against the view put forward by
Jacoby, that official Athenian exegetes were introduced only at the very end
of the 5th century); Bloch 1953 (refuting Oliver); Clinton 1974. 89-93; Garland
1984. 82-3, 114-15; Parker 1996. 49 n. 26, 53, 295-6; and note Hdt. 3.31.3
έξηγηταί των πατρίων θεσμών (“expounders of the ancestral laws” in Persia),
έξηγηταί are to be distinguished from μάντεις (“seers”; cf. fr. 225.1 n.), on the
one hand, and from χρησμολόγοι (“oracle-mongers”; see fr. 231 n.), on the
other, although there is no reason why an individual man might not have
taken on two or more of these roles.

fr. 320 K.-A. (298 K.)
Ath. 9.408e-f
ή πλείων δέ χρήσις κατά χειρός ϋδωρ εϊωθε λέγειν, ώς Εύπολις έν Χρυσω
Γένει καί Αμειψίας Σφενδόνη (fr. 20) Αλκαίος τε έν Ιερώ Γάμω (fr. 16). πλεΐστον δ’
έστί τούτο. Φιλύλλιος δέ έν Αύγη κατά χειρών εϊρηκεν ούτως (fr. 3)·-. Μένανδρος
Υδρία (fr. 360)·-
The general usage was to say “water over the hand”, like Eupolis in Chrysoun
genos, Amipsias in Sphendone (fr. 20) and Alcaeus in Hieros gamos (fr. 16). This is the

293

For the date, see Cavanaugh 1996. 21-7; Clinton 2008. 52-3.