240

Eupolis

fr. 478 K.-A. (442 K.)
Phot, σ 72 = Suda σ 104
σ a π p ό v · ού τό μοχθηρόν καί φαΰλον άλλα τό παλαιόν. Εϋπολις
s apr ο η: not what is wretched and bad but what is old. Eupolis
Citation context Drawn from the source shared by Photius and the Suda
commonly designated Σ", and thus ultimately to be traced to some lost
Hellenistic or Roman-era work laying down rules for proper Attic usage.
ΣνΓ Ar. Pax 554 κυρίως μέν σαπρόν οί παλαιοί έλεγον τό σεσηπός διά τον
χρόνον· χρώνται δε αύτω και αντί τού αρχαίου και παλαιού (“The ancients
used sapron properly to refer to what has grown rotten with the passage of
time. But they also use it to mean ‘ancient and old’”) is similar, as is Phryn.
Ecl. 355 σαπράν οί πολλοί επί τού αίσχράν. Θεών φησί ό γραμματικός (fr.
39 Guhl) εύρηκέναι παρά Φερεκράτει (fr. 263), πταίων· άπαντα γάρ ά φέρει
μαρτύρια επί τού παλαιού καί σεσηπότος εύρηται κείμενα (“Most authorities
take sapra (fem.) to mean ‘shameful’. The grammarian Theon (fr. 39 Guhl)
claims to have found it (sc. in this sense) in Pherecrates (fr. 263) but is wrong;
for all the passages he cites would be found to refer to what is old and rotten”).
Interpretation σαπρός (< σήπομαι, “rot”; first attested at Thgn. 1362;
Hippon. fr. 9.2) appears occasionally in comedy in the neutral sense “old”
(Ar. Pax 554 μεστά ... ειρήνης σαπράς (“full... of old peace”, playing on “old
wine”); Theopomp. Com. fr. 51 αύλεϊ γάρ σαπρά / αύτη γε κρούμαθ’ οία
τάπί Χαριξένης (“for she plays old notes, like those in Charixenes’ time”);
Alex. fr. 172.4 (of wine); cf. σαπρίας (old and particularly delicious wine)
at Hermipp. fr. 77.6), but is more often pejorative, especially when applied
to persons (“decrepit”; e. g. Hermipp. fr. 9; Ar. V. 1380; Lys. 378; Ec. 884; Pl.
Com. fr. 57.1). At fr. 237 (from Poleis), however, the speaker says ούδέν έσμεν
οί σαπροί (“We saproi are nothing”, i. e. “powerless”), which is tautologous
unless he means “We old men”. Although the adjective is given in the neuter
singular in Photius = Suda, therefore, this may be another reference to fr. 237
and thus a “ghost fragment”. Cf. fr. 189 with n.

fr. 479 K.-A. (443 K.)
Phot, σ 210
σ ι λ η v ο ί · οί σάτυροι. Εϋπολις
silenoi: satyrs. Eupolis