Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 416)

181

Assignment to known plays Tentatively assigned to Kolakes by Meineke
(“coniectura incerta” Kock).
Meter Accepting the order of the words in Hesychius, probably iambic tri-
meter, e. g.
<x— x—>|- o-o-
Citation context Poll. 10.92-3 discusses terms for “vessels for seasonings”
(ήδυσμάτων αγγεία); Ar. Ach. 1128 and fr. 220 are cited (the former mislead-
ingly) as further evidence for the use of χαλκίον to refer to an oil cruet. At
Poll. 6.103—patently drawn from the same source—the notice appears near
the end of a discussion of terms for lamps, the connection apparently being
that lamps burn oil, hence the quotation of Pl. Com. fr. 206 (“Be very sparing
with the oil; I’ll buy a lamp that doesn’t use much from the marketplace”) that
follows. Hsch. χ 93 is a condensed version of the same material but seemingly
presents Eupolis’ words in their proper order, and I have accordingly cited it
as a witness to the text rather than as a parallel here.
Text Hesychius’ χαλκίον μακράν scans as the end of an iambic trimeter line
with hepthemimeral caesura and is thus more likely to be correct than Pollux’
metrically less tractable μακράν χαλκίον.
Interpretation One would expect an oil cruet to be a small vessel. That this
one is described instead as “tall” or “long” suggests wealth or excess, hence
presumably Meineke’s association of this fragment and fr. 453 with Flatterers,
as references to some of the looted and divided household goods of Callias.
For olives and olive oil, see fr. 338.2 n.
For the vessel, Varro 5.124; ThesCRA V 348; Radice Colace and Mondio
2005. 150-2.
For the term χαλκίον (absent from elevated poetry), see frr. 99.41 with
n.; 272.1.

fr. 416 K.-A. (434 K.)
Hsch. o 925
όνου γνάθος· Εϋπολις παίζει εις πολυφαγίαν, έστι δέ καί τόπος οϋτω καλούμενος
πολυφαγίαν Hsch.: πολυφάγον Prov. Bodl. = Diogenian. (etc.)
Donkey’s jaw: Eupolis plays with the term in reference to gluttony. There is also
a place by this name