Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 497)

257

Et.Gen. AB a 932 (~ EMp. 112.25-7 ~ Et.Gud. p. 345.47 etc.)
ώσπερ γάρ άσπίς άσπίδος, καί σανίς σανίδος,... οϋτω ούν καί άντηρίς άντηρίδος, ώς
παρ’ Ευριπίδη (Εύπόλιδι Nauck) (fr. dub. 1111)·-
For just like aspis (nom.) aspidos (gen.), and sanis (nom.) sanidos (gen.),... so too then
anteris (nom.) anteridos (gen.), as in Euripides (Eupolis Nauck) (fr. dub. 1111):-
Meter lambic trimeter
Discussion Nauck 1889. 709; Nauck 1894. 75; Kannicht 2004. 1022
Citation Context From an anonymous grammarian’s note on the word
άντηρίς, with the line from Euripides (or Eupolis) cited as evidence for the
genitive form. Kannicht notes a number of additional citations of the line from
Eustathius and the lexica.
Text The paradosis κρήμνη is an aural error, iota and eta having come to be
pronounced alike by the early Byzantine period at the very latest (Horrocks
2010. 167-70).
Interpretation A curse addressed to a woman (hence feminine σεαυτήν).
Nauck took the sentiment to be more suited to a comic than a tragic poet and
accordingly proposed emending Ευριπίδη to Εύπόλιδι. For the confusion of
the names, cf. fr. 430 n. For a woman urged to hang herself in tragedy, cf. E.
Or. 953-4, 1035-6 (cited by Kannicht).
έκ μέσης άντηρίδος For μέσος used to mean “the middle of” (as opposed
to “central”, i. e. located between two other objects of the same sort), e. g. Ar.
Ach. 1216 τού πέους ... μέσου; V. 218 άπό μέσων νυκτών; Th. 1099 διά μέσου ...
αίθέρος; Antiph. fr. 26.3 έκ μέσου ... τού λέβητος; LSJ s.v. La. An άντηρίς is a
“prop”; otherwise prosaic (Th. 7.36.2 (timbers used to shore up ships’ hulls); X.
Cyn. 10.7 (sticks holding up the central portion of a hunting net)).

fr. 497 (456 K. = adesp. com. fr. 461 K.-A.)
Κλέων Προμηθεύς έστι μετά τά πράγματα
Cleon’s a Prometheus after the events
Luc. Prom. 2
ώστε μοι ένθυμεϊσθαι έπεισι μή άρα οϋτω με Προμηθέα λέγεις είναι ώς ό κωμικός τον
Κλέωνα· φησίν δέ, οίσθα, περί αύτοΰ·-