Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 486)

247

Interpretation “Constantly, incessantly, unrelentingly” appears to be the
normal meaning of συνεχώς in the classical period (LSJ s. v. συνεχής B.I.a; e. g.
Hes. Th. 636; Bacch. 5.113 (both in the form συνεχέως and with long upsilorr,
Th. 4.43.5; Ar. Ra. 914-15 ό δέ χορός γ’ ήρειδεν ορμαθούς άν /μελών εφεξής
τέτταρας ξυνεχώς άν, “and the chorus would push four strings of songs with-
out a break, one after the other”; Lys. 19.29; Antiph. fr. 268 “when someone
always (συνεχώς) has a full belly, he grows negligent”; Nicostr. Com. fr. 28 “If
talking constantly (συνεχώς) and a lot and rapidly were a sign of intelligence,
swallows would be said to be wiser than us”). For the sense “repeatedly, again
and again” (disowned here), e. g. Hdt. 7.16.y.2. The adverb is treated as prosaic
in the late 5th century; attested in elevated poetry only at E. IA 1008.

fr. 486 K.-A. (370 K.)
ΣνΕΓΜ Ar. Av. 78
τ ο p ύ v η δέ λέγεται τό κινητήριαν τής χύτρας, σημειωτέον δέ ότι τορύνη πανταχοΰ
έκτέταται εΐ μή παρ’ Εύπόλιδι
torune is the term for the implement used to stir a pot. Note that torune has a long
syllable everywhere except in Eupolis
Citation Context A note on the servant-bird’s description of one of his du-
ties: “(The Hoopoe) desires pea-soup, there’s need of a torune and a pot—I run
to fetch a torune’. But the real concern of the material preserved in the scholion
is not in explicating Aristophanes but in the word τορύνη; presumably drawn
from some Hellenistic or Roman era glossographer.
Interpretation A τορύνη is a “stirring tool” and as such is repeatedly connect-
ed with the production of ετνος (“pea-soup”; also Ar. Eq. 1171-2; Pl. Hp.Ma.
290d; Leon. AP6.305.6 = HE 2318; cf. Ar. Eq. 984 (paired with a pestle); Poll. 6.88
τορύνην, ή καί εύέργην ώνόμαζον καί έόργην, καί έοργήσαι τό τορυνήσαι (“a
torune, which they also called an euerge and an eorge, and eorgesai is to work
with a torune”); 10.97-8, citing Eub. fr. 84 for the cognate verb τορυνάω; Hp.
Int. 44 = 7.276.17 Littre; Sophr. fr. 105); see also ThesCRA V 328-9 #1136-8,
340. The long upsilon is metrically guaranteed at Ar. Eq. 984; Av. 78-9, but is
short in Leonidas’ epigram. Either the pronunciation of the word was more
varied than the source quoted here seems to assert, or the text of Eupolis was
corrupt, or the poet took metrical license for reasons we can no longer recover.