Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 397)

161

Interpretation Most likely from a parabasis, if these are Eupolideans,
although not necessarily from the kommation itself, since the remark might
be retrospective.
A κομμάτιον (< κόπτω in the sense “chop off”) is simply “a little segment,
little chunk, little piece”. Modern scholars, relying on Hephaestion, use the
term for the brief section (sometimes including lyric) at the beginning of the
parabasis preceding the “parabasis proper” (e. g. Ar. Nu. 510-17; V. 1009-14).
But there is no other evidence that κομμάτιον had this technical sense in 5th-
century Athens or (more important) that even if it did, it was restricted to this
sense, regardless of how Hephaestion—or Heliodorus—understood the word
in this passage of Eupolis.

fr. 397 K.-A. (363 K.)
t τί χορός ούτος κλαίειν ε’ίπωμεν πυρανι8 ψ
τί Σ : τίς Meineke πυρανι8 Σρε: πυρωνι8 Σ“
t why this chorus we should say to wail puranid() f
Σβ E. Med. 520
ή διστιχία τοΰ χορού έστι. κατά δέ τούτους (τούς χρόνους) (add. Hermann) ήδη τα
των χορών ήμαύρωτο· τα μέν γάρ αρχαία διά των χορών έπετελεϊτο, δθεν καί Εϋπολίς
φησι·-, ϊν’ ή κατ’ αύτά ίαμβεϊα δύο
The two-line section belongs to the chorus. In this <period> (add. Hermann) the choral
sections had already diminished; for the ancient (dramas?) were brought to a conclu-
sion by the choruses, wherefore Eupolis too says:-, so as to produce two iambic
lines in the same way
Meter Perhaps originally anapests (thus Hermann) or iambs (thus Fritzsche)
t -ψ
Discussion Kock 1880. 355-6
Assignment to known plays Tentatively assigned to Demoi by Kassel, who
took πυρανι8 (πυρωνι8 before correction) to be a reference to the character in
that play called Pyronides.
Citation Context A scholion on E. Med. 520-1 δεινή τις όργή καί δυσίατος
πέλει, / όταν φίλοι φίλοισι συμβάλωσ’ εριν (“There’s quite a terrible wrath,
hard to heal, when those who love one another quarrel”; the chorus react