Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 491)

253

the Et.Gen. can be punctuated to make it appear that it is (i. e. with a half-stop
rather than a full stop after the poet’s name).
lacobi compared Thphr. HP 3.16.3, which tentatively identifies the άρία
as the female form of the πρίνος (for which, see fr. 13.1 η.): δ δέ καλοϋσιν οί
Αρκάδες φελλόδρυν τοιάνδε έχει τήν φύσιν·... και ένιοί γε ύπολαμβάνουσιν
είναι θήλυν πρίνον- δι’ δ καί δπου μή φύεται πρίνος, τούτω χρώνται προς τάς
άμάξας καί τα τοιαϋτα, καθάπερ οί περί Λακεδαίμονα καί ’Ηλείαν, καλοϋσι δέ
οί γε Δωριείς καί άριαν τό δένδρον- έστι δέ μαλακώτερον μέν καί μανότερον
τού πρίνου, σκληρότερον δέ καί πυκνότερον τής δρυός (“What the Arcadians
call phellodrus has the following character ... And some suggest that it is the
female prinos, as a consequence of which in places where the prinos does
not grow, they use (phellodrus) for wagons and the like, as the inhabitants of
Lacedaimon and Elis do. The Dorians also call the tree aria·, it is softer and
less close-grained than the prinos, but harder and more close-grained than
the drus”). Kock took the sense of the line to be “When the best is unavail-
able, one turns to the second-best”, although if Theophrastus’ explanation of
the terms άρια and πρίνη is correct, what it really means is “When the best
is unavailable, one looks for it under a different name”. More likely this is
a snippet of didactic Hellenistic poetry—Nicander’s Georgica is an obvious
candidate—treating different varieties of wood and what they are good for,
and reminiscent of Hes. Op. 420-36 (on pegging a plow together at 430-1);
cf. Verg. G. 2.440-53. For the wood of the άρια as exceptionally hard, see also
Thphr. HP 5.3.3, 5.1, 9.1.
τοι Used here, as often, “with a proverb or general reflection” (Denniston
1950. 542-3; in comedy at e.g. Ar. Lys. 16; Th. 1130; Ec. 321; Antiph. frr. 205.4;
218.1; Men. fr. 311).
γόμφους For pegging as a basic construction technique, especially but
far from exclusively for naval construction, e.g. Od. 5.248; Hes. Op. 431; A.
Supp. 846 γομφοδέτω τε δόρει (“a ship held together with pegs”); Hdt. 2.96.2;
Ar. Eq. 462-3 ήπιστάμην / γομφούμεν’ αύτά πάντα καί κολλώμενα (“I knew
it was all being pegged and glued together”); Ra. 824 ρήματα γομφοπαγή
(“pegged-together words”); cf. A. Supp. 944-5; Arist. Metaph. 1052a23-4 ώσπερ
δσα κάλλη ή γόμφω ή συνδέσμω (“just like whatever is (held together) by glue,
a peg or a band”); X. Cyn. 9.12 (referred to as “wooden nails”).