Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- Preface
- Systems of reference
- GENERAL
- ATHENIAN
- 9 Public property in the city
- 10 Cleisthenes and Attica
- 11 Review of J. S. Traill, The Political Organization of Attica
- 12 Review of P. Siewert, Die Trittyen Attikas und die Heeresreform des Kleisthenes
- 13 The Kerameikos ostraka
- 14 Megakles and Eretria
- 15 The Athenian Coinage Decree
- 16 Athena's robe
- 17 The treaties with Leontini and Rhegion
- 18 Entrenchment-clauses in Attic decrees
- 19 Apollo Delios
- 20 After the profanation of the Mysteries
- 21 Aristophanes and politics
- 22 Who was Lysistrata?
- 23 A note on IG i2114 [= i3105]
- 24 The epigraphical evidence for the end of the Thirty
- 25 The financial offices of Eubulus and Lycurgus
- 26 The dating of Demosthenes' speeches
- 27 Law on the Lesser Panathenaia
- 28 The Athenian Rationes Centesimarum
- 29 The chronology of the Athenian New Style Coinage
- 30 Review of M. Thompson, The New Style Silver Coinage of Athens
- NEAR EASTERN
- Bibliography
- Publications of David M. Lewis
- Indexes
22 - Who was Lysistrata?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- Preface
- Systems of reference
- GENERAL
- ATHENIAN
- 9 Public property in the city
- 10 Cleisthenes and Attica
- 11 Review of J. S. Traill, The Political Organization of Attica
- 12 Review of P. Siewert, Die Trittyen Attikas und die Heeresreform des Kleisthenes
- 13 The Kerameikos ostraka
- 14 Megakles and Eretria
- 15 The Athenian Coinage Decree
- 16 Athena's robe
- 17 The treaties with Leontini and Rhegion
- 18 Entrenchment-clauses in Attic decrees
- 19 Apollo Delios
- 20 After the profanation of the Mysteries
- 21 Aristophanes and politics
- 22 Who was Lysistrata?
- 23 A note on IG i2114 [= i3105]
- 24 The epigraphical evidence for the end of the Thirty
- 25 The financial offices of Eubulus and Lycurgus
- 26 The dating of Demosthenes' speeches
- 27 Law on the Lesser Panathenaia
- 28 The Athenian Rationes Centesimarum
- 29 The chronology of the Athenian New Style Coinage
- 30 Review of M. Thompson, The New Style Silver Coinage of Athens
- NEAR EASTERN
- Bibliography
- Publications of David M. Lewis
- Indexes
Summary
Papademetriou, in publishing a new grave-inscription from Zographo (see Plate), has propounded a theory which, if true, has important consequences for our understanding of Attic comedy in general and of the Lysistrata of Aristophanes in particular. For convenience I reprint the text with two slight modifications.
Καλλιμάχo θ∪γαΤρòς Τηλα∪λEς μνñμα [ΤóEσΤιν,]
n πρώΤη Nίκης aμϕɛπóλɛ∪σɛ νɛων
ɛUλOγίαι δ' Oνoμ' Eσχɛ σ∪νέμπoρoν, wς άπò θɛίας
M∪ρρίν[η E]κλήθη σ∪νΤ∪χίας EΤύμως:
πρώΤɛ ‘Aθηναίας Nίκɛς Eδoς aμϕɛπóλɛ∪σɛν
Eκ πάνΤων κλήρωι M∪ρρίνη ɛUΤ∪χίαι
In line 4 the stone has MYPPINEHKΛHθH. I prefer to assume that the stone-cutter, uncertain of the correct use of eta (cf. πρώΤɛ and Nίκɛς in line 5), has transposed the letters, rather than assume with Papademetriou an unnecessary and unparalleled lengthened form and an omitted augment. After EΤύμως the three dots of punctuation are clear. Even if they were not, metre and sense would suggest that EΤύμως went with the previous sentence. EΤύμως has nearly all its later meaning here. Papademetriou has illustrated the cult-significance of the name M∪ρρίνη.
His thesis is this. We know the first priestess of Athena Nike was appointed round about 450, perhaps after the Peace of Kallias. Here is her gravestone, which, from the style of its lettering and the transition to Ionic which it illustrates, ought to be close to 400. Therefore in 411, when the Lysistrata was performed, the Priestess of Athena Nike was called Myrrhine. In the Lysistrata a Myrrhine appears at the Propylaea, perhaps even on the Nike Bastion, and appears to have a bed and other equipment close at hand. We should therefore assume that Aristophanes' Myrrhine is meant as a portrait.
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- Selected Papers in Greek and Near Eastern History , pp. 187 - 202Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997
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