244

Eupolis

For the administrative building in the Athenian Agora known as both
the Tholos and Skias, cf. Harpocration p. 156.12-13, citing Ammonius ό δε
τόπος όπου έστιώνται οί πρυτάνεις καλείται Θόλος, ύπ’ ένίων δε Σκιάς (“the
place where the prytaneis eat is called the Tholos, but by some the Skias”);
Wycherley 1957. 179-84.
fr. 482 K.-A. (446 K.)
Phot, σ 368
σκοπός· σχήμα ορχηστικόν, οϋτως Εϋπολις
skopo s: a dance step. Thus Eupolis
Citation context Hsch. υ 739 ύπόσκοπον χέρα· Αισχύλος (fr. 339). ώσπερ οί
άποσκοποϋντες, οϋτω κελεύει σχηματίσαι τήν χεϊρα, καθάπερ τούς Πάνας
ποιοΰσι. σχήμα δε έστιν ορχηστικόν ό σκοπός (“a hyposkopon hand: Aeschylus
(fr. 339). He urges them to hold their hand as people do who look off into the
distance, in the same way that they make Pans. But the skopos is a dance step”)
appears to preserve additional portions of the same original material, which
Cunningham traces to Diogenianus.
Interpretation A σκοπός is a “watcher, look out”, so presumably the dance
in question mimicked the behavior of such a person. Ath. 14.629f (cf. 9.391a)
describes a skdps (“little owl”) dance in which the dancers “cupped their hand
over their brow and looked off into the distance” (των άποσκοπούντων τι
σχήμα άκραν τήν χεϊρα ύπέρ τού μετώπου κεκυρτωκότων), as if the name
were not skdps but skopos. This may thus be another garbled reference to
Eupolis’ dance or to the source that mentioned it, particularly since Athenaeus
too cites Aeschylus (fr. 79 καί μήν παλαιών τώνδέ σοι σκωπευμάτων) in a
somewhat inapposite fashion. For the gesture, Jucker 1956. On dance in gen-
eral, see fr. 447 (another obscure dance step) with n.

fr. 483 K.-A. (447 K.)
ΣΤ II. 15.412
(σοφίης) άντί τού τέχνης ... πάσαν δέ τέχνην οϋτω καλοΰσι, σοφούς τούς τεχνίτας·
καί τον κιθαρωδόν σοφιστήν Σοφοκλής (fr. 906) καί τον ραψωδόν Εϋπολις
(sophies) In place of “craft” ... They refer in this way to every craft, and to craftsmen
as sophoi. Sophocles (fr. 906) even calls a citharode a sophistes, and Eupolis uses
the term for a rhapsode