Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 423)

189

Interpretation For αμαρτωλός and its cognates (poetic vocabulary), see fr.
213 n. The adverb is attested nowhere else, which does not mean that Eupolis
coined it, although whoever originally cited the word thought it was unusual.

fr. 423 K.-A. (392 K.)
St.Byz. a 287
Άμυρος, πόλις Θεσσαλίας. ... τό εθνικόν Άμυρεύς ... Εϋπολις δέ Άμυρίους αυτούς
λέγει, πλησιοχώρους τής Μολοττίας
Άμυρίους Meineke 1849 : Άμύρους St.Byz.
Amyrus: a Thessalian city. ... The ethnic is Amyreus ... but Eupolis calls them
A m y r i o i, bordering on Molottia
Discussion Meineke 1847. 224; Meineke 1849. 88; Blaydes 1896. 50
Assignment to known plays Assigned to Cities by Meineke 1847.
Citation context Lentz 1870 vol. 2 p. 891.20-2 traced the material in St.Byz.
to Herodian’s περί παρωνύμων (On By-names), with various later addi-
tions, including the problematic clause πλησιοχώρους τής Μολοττίας (see
Interpretation), which on Lentz’ understanding of the evidence does not
belong to Eupolis.
Text Αμυρος cannot be an ethnic, and Meineke 1849 compared St.Byz. p.
708.9,12 Ώλίαρος... Ώλιάριος ώς Αμυρος Αμύριος and emended the paradosis
Άμύρους to Αμυρίους. But the problems in St.Byz. go deeper than this; see
Interpretation.
Interpretation Amyrus, in Magnesia in Western Thessaly, was located on a
river by the same name that emptied into Lake Boebe. Hesiod mentioned the
place in the Catalogue of Women (fr. 59.2-4 ap. Str. 9.442; v. 3 is also quoted
by St.Byz.), calling it “rich in grape-clusters” and associating it with Coronis
the mother of Asclepius. Cf. Leake 1835 vol. 4 p. 447; Walbank 1957 on Plb.
5.99.5. The Molottians/Molossians, on the other hand, were a tribal people in
Epirus, on the opposite side of the Greek peninsula; for Athenian involvement
in the area during the Peloponnesian War years, see Hammond 1967. 498-508.
If Eupolis actually described the inhabitants of Amyrus as living close
to Molottia, he was either confused or making a joke; Lentz instead rejected
πλησιοχώρους τής Μολοττίας as a late and incoherent intrusion. The St.Byz.
passage has in any case patently been assembled out of various bits and pieces