Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 418)

185

Latte traced the material in Hesychius to Diogenianus. See also fr. 192.170
with n.
Interpretation Precisely what the leatherworkers’ tool known as an δπεας/
όπήτιον/ύπεαρ (the Ionic form?) is is obscure; LSJ s. v. δπεας suggests an awl.
Hdt. 4.70 τύψαντες ύπέατι (“striking with a hupear”·, parallel to cutting with a
knife as a means of drawing blood from one’s face) shows that it had a sharp
edge or a point, as perhaps also in Nicoch. fr. 12 (corrupt). Hippon. fr. 78.6
ύ]πέατι καί μιν[ (love-magic?) is too fragmentary to be of any help. If LSJ is
right, and if the use of χήλευμα as an equivalent term is not simply a bit of
poetic imprecision, the tool may have been used in rope-making and similar
industries to manipulate the individual strands of linen, hemp or leather being
woven together when they became too tight for fingers to do the job. For
leather-working generally, see Blumner 1875 i.260-92; Forbes 1966. 46-53;
Lau 1967, esp. 76. For vase-painting representations of cobblers’ shops, see
Haug 2011. 19 with pll. 25-6.
A χηλή is a cloven hoof or split foot, like a cow’s foot, on the one hand,
or a bird’s claw, on the other, χηλεύειν (“to plait”) is thus to produce a split
pattern of this sort via weaving, as for example when making rope or braiding
thongs. The κράνεα χηλευτά worn on the heads of heavily-armed Egyptian
marines at Hdt. 7.89.3 are generally taken to be braided leather caps similar to
the κράνεα πλεκτά and κράνεα πεπλεγμένα worn by other Eastern allies of
the Persians at Hdt. 7.63, 72.1, 79. Cf. X. An. 5.4.13 κράνη σκύτινα οίάπερ τά
Παφλαγονικά (“leather helmets like those worn by Paphlagonians”).
Eupolis himself is most naturally taken to be referring to whips (Anacr.
PMG 388.8 σκύτινη μάστιγι; Olson 2002 on Ar. Ach. 723-4; cf. fr. 467 with
n.; Hdt. 7.85.1 σειρήσι πεπλεγμένησι έξ ιμάντων (“cords woven from leather
straps”; of the battle-lassos used by the barbarian Sargatioi)). Any mention of
leather in Athenian comedy of the 420s BCE raises the possibility of an abusive
allusion to Cleon “the leather-tanner” (e. g. Ar. V. 38 with Biles-Olson 2015
ad loc.\ But the Corcyreans, who fought a nasty civil war in the same period,
were also famous for their whips (e. g. Diogenian. 5.50).
σκύτινος is first attested in Anacreon, but is otherwise absent from ele-
vated poetry. In the 5th and 4th centuries, the adjective is found only in comedy
(also Crates fr. 32.1; Ar. Nu. 538; Lys. 110; Strattis fr. 57) and prose (e. g. Hdt.
1.194.1; Hp. Epid. 22.17 = 5.90.7 Littre; Heraclid. Pont. fr. 154.9 Wehrli = 142a.ll
Schutrumpf).