176

Eupolis

Interpretation άνωφέλητος is 5th- and early 4th-century Athenian poetic
vocabulary (also A. Ch. 752; S. El. 1144; Ant. 645; Strattis fr. 68 (quoted above);
in prose at X. Cyr. 1.6.11), used metri gratia for the more common and more
widely dispersed ανωφελής. Eupolis’ use of the word is sufficiently bold to
suggest that it was intended to be humorous, paradoxical, ironic or the like.
Perhaps άνθρωπος (or άνθρωπος) is his as well, but the word might just as
well have been inserted as a place-holder (cf. frr. 406; [408]).

fr. 410 K.-A. (378 K.)
Σμ [A.] PV451
(προσείλους) προς ήλιον όρώντας. καί Εϋπο(λις)· αύλή πρόσειλος·ή προς
τον ήλιον τετραμμένη
πρόσειλος] πρόσηλος ΣΜ, sed ει"
(proseilous) looking toward the sun. Also Eupolis: a proseilos courtyard, one
turned toward the sun
Discussion Meineke 1839 11.569
Meter Probably iambic trimeter, e. g.
-^|<--->
Citation context A scholion on [A.] PV 450-2 (on the life of human beings
before Prometheus taught them crafts of all sorts) “they knew neither pros-
eilous houses built of bricks nor wood-working, but dwelt beneath the earth...
in the sunless recesses of caves”. A different version of the note is preserved
at Phryn. PS p. 23.11-12 αύλή πρόσειλος· ή προς τον ήλιον τετραμμένη. καί
τέγος πρόσειλον (“a proseilos courtyard, one turned toward the sun. Also: a
proseilos chamber”); presumably all this material was found in the complete
original version of the Praeparatio Sophistica.
Similar material is preserved at Phot, π 1306 πρόσειλος· προς τήν τού
ήλιου αυγήν έστραμμένος, where Aelius Dionysius (π 65) is cited as a source,
suggesting that all these notes go back to a lost Hellenistic source.
Interpretation πρόσειλος is formed not from ήλιος (“sun”), which would
yield προσήλιος, but from ε'ίλη (“warmth of the sun”; cf. Epich. fr. 113.243,
246 (in the form έλα); Ar. V. 772; frr. 636; 823 εϋειλος; A. fr. 334 άειλα;
Homeric είλόπεδον (Od. 7.123, assuming that is the right reading); and pro-
saic είληθερής and είληθερέω). The easy false etymology, combined with the