Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 395)

159

implicitly suggesting μυρρίνην; cf. Ar. Nu. 1364-5 έπειτα δ’ έκέλευσ’ αυτόν
άλλα μυρρίνην λαβόντα / των Αισχύλου λέξαι τί μοι (“and then I urged him
to take a branch of bay and recite a bit of Aeschylus for me”); fr. 444.1 ό μεν
ήδεν Αδμήτου λόγον προς μυρρίνην (“one man sang a tale of Admetus to a
branch of bay”). Another possibility is ποίησιν, as at Dionys. Chalc. fr. 1.1-4
δέχου τήνδε προπινομένην / τήν απ’ εμού ποίησιν· εγώ δ’ επιδέξια πέμπω /
σοί πρώτω ... / καί σύ λαβών τάδε δώρον άοιδάς άντιπρόπιθι (“Accept this
poetry I offer you as a toast; I am sending it to you first, from left to right. ...
And as for you, after you get this gift, offer me a toast of song in return”),
(κιθάραν/λύραν will not do, since the use of the latter word in 2 would then
be intolerably awkward.)
That Socrates is named near the beginning of v. 1 suggests that the be-
havior of someone else (the man who offered him the cup?) was the focus of
the preceding verse or verses. There may thus have been many guests at the
imaginary party, with the eccentricities of each taken up for only a line or
two. Fr. 172 is certainly from a parabasis, and given the rarity of the meter,
these verses likely are as well. For the theft by one guest of symposium goods
all the others are expecting to enjoy, Hermipp. fr. 38; Ar. V. 1345-6, 1368-9
(Philocleon runs off with the pipe-girl before she can service the guests);
Strattis fr. 62.1-2; and cf. Timocl. fr. 19.3-6. For Socrates as a sneak-thief, cf.
Ar. Nu. 178-9 (quoted in Citation Context). For his supposed attempt as an
old man to learn to play the kithara, Pl. Euthyd. 272c, 295d.
2 Στησιχόρου For the lyric poet Stesichorus (early 6th c.), see fr. 148.1
with n.; portions of his Oresteia are adapted at Ar. Pax 775-81, 796-801 (dis-
cussion in Zogg 2014. 196-212). For the use of the genitive, cf. Ar. V. 269
αδων Φρυνίχου (“singing a snatch of Phrynichus”); Lys. 1236-7 εί μέν γέ τις /
αδοι Τελαμώνος, Κλειταγόρας αδειν δέον (“if someone were to sing (a bit) of
Telamon, when some Cleitagoras was wanted”); Poultney 1936. 31-2.
προς τήν λύραν For the preposition used + acc. in the sense “to the
accompaniment of”, e. g. Archil, fr. 121; X. An. 6.1.5; [Arist.] Prob. 918a22-3;
Theoc. ep. 21.6; LSJ s.v. C.III.6. λύρα (first attested at Sapph. fr. 103.9; Stesich.
PMG 278.2; substrate vocabulary) appears to be a generic term for lyres of
all sorts; more specific terms are φόρμιγξ, κίθαρις/κιθάρα, and βάρβιτος (all
likewise pre-Greek; αύλός (“pipe”), by contrast, is Indo-European). See Maas
and Snyder 1989. 79-80; West 1992. 50-1; Bundrick 2005. 14-33. Also used
to accompany sung poetry at e. g. Ar. Nu. 1355-6 τήν λύραν λαβόντ’ έγώ
’κέλευσα / άσαι Σιμωνίδου μέλος (“I told him to take the lyre and sing one
of Simonides’ songs”); E. fr. 223.119-21 Αμφίονα / λύραν ά[νωγ]α διά χερών
ώπλισμένον / μέλπειν θεού[ς ώ]δαϊσιν (“I told Amphion outfitted with a lyre
in his hands to hymn the gods with songs”). For lyre-playing and elite culture