156

Eupolis

down, yielding a Spartan A. Hsch. λ 8 λάβδα· δπλον (“labda: a shield”) is
likely another, much abbreviated echo of the tradition found in Photius and
Eustathius.
Text Either Photius’ έξεπλάγη or Eustathius’ εξεπλάγην might be right; with
the latter reading, the speaker is confessing his own lack of courage rather
than attacking someone else. Dindorf’s λάβδα (thus also Hesychius) rather
than the paradosis λάμβδα is the proper form in this period (evidence collected
at Cronert 1903. 73), and only with this spelling can the entry stand where it
does in Photius.
Interpretation Most easily taken as an explanation of something said in the
preceding line or lines, e. g. why the individual in question threw away his
own shield and ran (thus Kaibel (taking the reference to be to Cleonymus)
and Gomme (taking it to be to Cleon); Kock suggested that Xerxes was in
question); cf. fr. 352 with n. But the line might instead be an emphatic response
to something another speaker has just said: “(Yes!) For ...” or “(No!) For ...”
(Denniston 1950. 73-5).
If the reference is in fact to a shield device, as Photius and Eustathius—i. e.
the common source behind them—believe, this is the earliest evidence for
the use of the Spartan λάβδα. What relationship, if any, there is between
this passage and the claim at Philodem. On Poems 1.21.8-14 that “lambda is
the most resplendent (letter), for it is first in splendor and chief among what
gleams, as it is the cause of the flamboyant in language”, is uncertain.
στίλβοντα Poetic vocabulary (e. g. II. 3.392; Bacch. 18.55; E. Hipp. 194;
Achae. TrGF 20 F 4*.3; Ar. Av. 697); first in prose in Plato (e. g. Phdr. 250d).
τά λάβδα λάβδα is indeclinable, like other names for letters; cf. X.
HG 4.4.10 τά σίγμα τά έπι των άσπίδων (of Sicyonian shield-devices); Arist.
Metaph. 1087a8 τά άλφα καί τά βήτα. In addition to the Spartan labda and the
Messenian mu, the Sicyonians used a sigma as their city’s shield device (X.
HG 4.4.10, quoted above), the Mantineans a trident of Poseidon (Bacch. fr. 21)
and the Thebans a club (X. HG 7.5.20), sc. of Heracles.17 The visual evidence is
otherwise strikingly uninformative, the vast majority of shield devices shown
on vases being generic symbols or representations of one sort or another. See
Chase 1902, esp. 77, 87 (on letter-devices); Anderson 1970. 18-20.

17 There are also a half-dozen vase-painting examples of A or ΑΘΕ, perhaps standing
for “Athens” (Chase 1902. 87) and representing standard shields carried in the
armored race.