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Pia Carolla

the adjective ούΛος: properly, it means “wooly, of thick, fleecy wool” (LSf)·, the rare
compound ένουΛος signifies “curled, curly”, e.g. referring to abundant hair covering
a head (Callistratus, Descriptions of Statues 3). ΟύΛος has a metaphorical extension,
linked to various verbs: related to dance it means “quick, rapid” (probably from “thick,
dense, frequent”), is attested already in Homer, in ps.-homeric Hymns, and is present
in Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 247.44
The extended meaning is normal for πυκνός, which mean not only “compact,
solid”, but also “thick, dense”, and thus “thick-falling” (snow, rain), or “quick” (breath);
his rare compound έμπυκνος means “thick, dense”, e.g. of snow in Alexander of
Aphrodisias, Problems 3,24 (DGE).
It is time to conclude: adjectives related to thickness use to shift from a concrete to
a metaphorical meaning; ούΛος shows up in contexts related to dance both in classical
and in later Greek in the sense of “quick, rapid”. On the other hand, rare compounds
in έν- have usually a material context and the extended meaning, even though it is
hard to draw the line: e.g., the description of Callistratus may well be interpreted as
“thick” (instead of “curly”) hair covering a head.45
Coming back to where we started: the rare έμμαΛΛος is attested in Atticistic
Greek as “wooly/ fleecy/ thick as wool”: can the meaning be extended (somewhat
“technically”) to the quickness of feet during the dance? If this is possible, the passage
would sound “and he gave to the four factions four quick and little dancers”.
Of course this is just a hypothesis to be verified, and I am especially glad that these
notes are meant for an on-line commentary.46
7. Riots and stylistic levels of Malalas’ prose in El
The fortune of dancers went up and down with the four factions, so we find them
again exiled in a second passage. This is only in El, not in O; Thurn inserted it between
chapter 4 and 5 of book 16, as the name of Constantius Tzurukkas, praefectus Urbi,
points to the year 501.
El39, p. 168 de Boor:
When Constantius [Constantinus S], surnamed Tzouroukkas, was city prefect, a
disturbance took place. While Constantius the prefect was watching the afternoon
session during the festival known as the Brytai in the theatre, the factions set on
each other in the theatre. Many were drowned in the water, wounded or killed in
fighting with swords, resulting in the death in the theatre of the emperor’s son by
44 Bornmann, ad loc., pp. 120-121: probably imitating the dance of the Nymphs in ps.-homeric Hymn to
Pan 19-23.
45 “Blooming and thick curly hair shadowed his head”.
46 For the same reason I presented a different hypothesis during the first Malalas Tagung (when I was still
convinced that there was no way to retain emmallos). I conjectured embasimallos by then, given the lack
of single syllables in S, on one hand, and the meaning of embas, “felt-shoe”, used also on stage as co-
thurn, on the other hand.