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Some Passages in Menander

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2019

F. H. Sandbach*
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Cambridge

Abstract

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Other
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press 1967

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References

Page 37 note 1 Od. 17. 541, Hymn to Hermes, 297; Xen. Anab. 3. 2. 9; Theoer. 7. 96, 18. 16; Plut. Them. 13; [Arist.] Probl. 33. 9, , cf. Athen. 66c; Rscher, Lexikon, s.v. Ptarmos.

Page 37 note 2 L.S.J., II. But in the discussion it was suggested that disregard, pass over', ibid. IV, would be a more likely sense.

Page 37 note 3 Nouoi has been doubted, but recurs in the parallel passage, Philemon fr. 93, and is also supported by Antiphon fr. 44 ( V S . 2. 346), .

Page 38 note 1 Cf. Plato, Rep. 509 c. The phrase does not suit Knemon, to whom editors assign it, usually as a question ().

Page 38 note 2 In Perik. 219, quoted by Handley, is, I think, literal: Sosias is told to go away and sleep off his drunkenness. Handley contdnues: the tone of taunting sarcasm is evident. When the wretched Knemon does lie still he is bullied in the opposite direction, 941 f. The humour of the Situation is underlined by the verbal echo. This makes the best of it, but I am not convinced.

Page 38 note 3 I take it to be most likely that he was carried out on a bed. Perhaps he slept on the ground and was carried out on his rg or mattress (Diano). I doubt whether he was carried out by Sikon single-handed in his arms (J. Martin, etc.), and dumped on the stage. But in either case my argument here would not be affected. It would, however, be destroyed if Lloyd-Jones is correct in supposing him to have been transported in an easy chair, in cathedra dormientem. Even although, with their lack of upholstery, they might not invite a modern man, there were Greek chairs in which one could relax, as their name, , indicates. Knemon might have chosen to sleep in such a chair, if he possessed one, rather than in a bed. But his parsimonious lack of household equipment is a feature of the play (T. B. L. Webster, Proc. Class. Assoc. 1960, pp. 19-20), and I imagine him as owning no such luxuries, but sitting,when he did sit , 31), on a stool at the best.

Page 39 note 1 There may have been an ocAs-solo between 908 and 909, but thereafter the movements of Getas and Sikon, as one comes and the other goes, are always covered by Speeches from Knemon; there is never action or movement without simultaneous words. The frequency of enjambement suggests that there was normally no pause between lines, as well as none within them.

Page 39 note 2 The matter is of importance for understanding the poet's dramatic skill. At Dysk. 378 Daos leaves for the fields, telling his master to follow. This fits his characterization as a glutton for hard work but, if only three actors were available, must also be a device to allow him to come on again at 393 as Sikon. Then Gorgias leaves at 381, but Sostratos for no clear reason does not accompany him, lingering for a short chat with the audience: is this to give Gorgias time to get round to the other parodos to enter as Getas at 402? In the theatre of Lykourgos this would involve the actor in a walk of some 60 yards. At Sik. 385 Stratophanes does not leave the stage with Kichesias and Dromon, but remains to give detailed instruetions about the disposal of his luggage, slaves, donkeys, etc. Whether these instruetions had any dramatic significance, there is no telling; but it could be that part of their purpose is to give time for Dromon to come on again at 397 as Moschion.

Page 40 note 1 This would surely be necessary at Sam. 183, where the cook, who goes indoors at 175, must reappear from the parodos as Nikeratos at 184.

Page 40 note 2 Names of Speakers do not seem to have been part of the text of plays as originally transmitted, but were added by readers who may have been no better placed than ourseives to infer them from the words of the text. There are to my mind two certain mistakes of attribution in Menandrean papyri: Dysk. 214-15 and Epitr. 94. At Epitr. 152 the error may be due to accidental displacement.

Page 42 note 1 Lysias, in Theomnestum 1. 10, Z Plutus 521.

Page 42 note 2 Epikrates in Hypereides speech in Athenogenem says that he was urged by his friends to arrest the Egyptian Athenogenes as an 4v8pocTroSianI|s,when he had, so far as can be seen, not a shadow of a case. This is evidence of the way in which the law might be stretched by the unscrupulous, at any rate against the non-citizen.

Page 43 note 1 Lloyd-Jones provisionally printed (Greek Roman and Byantine Studies, 7 (1966), 152). This disregards the Space after which presumably, like others hereabouts, indicates a change of Speaker: he offers no Suggestion for completing the sentence. Even if we allow that Stratophanes should speak as if his hope of being found to be an Athenian had already been realized (contrast his more cautious language at 249 ff., , how can the suddenness of the discovery be relevant here in his mouth? Mette, Lustrum, 10, 177, makes Stratophanes say : I cannot guess how this sentence might continue.

Page 44 note 1 A similar problem occurs at Misoumenos C. After conversing Demeas and Krateia go in, leaving the stage empty. They are succeeded by Thrasonides and Getas. One would expect the latter to be played by apersona muta, but the papyrus gives him the five final words of the scene: . I must confess that I do not understand their purpose.

Page 44 note 2 It is assumed by most editors that 696-701 (U2) followed immediately or closely on 4, the Position of which is fixed because 1 overlaps with P.Oxy. 1236, which in turn overlaps with sheet H of the Cairo codex. But Gueraud, Bull. Inst, franfais d'archeol. Orientale, 27 (1927), p. 141, pointed out that U1, which must on this assumption follow 3, has a left-hand margin wider [by more than 1/2 cm.-F.H.S.] than that of 3, which is complete, extending to the fold. Since such an irregularity in the margin is unparalleled in this codex, he doubted whether U1, 2 and 3, 4 belonged to the same sheet.

Page 45 note 1 Plut. Mor. 447 E, ibid. 713 A of the emotional playing of the , Lucian, Amores 29, , of a speech with emotional passages, Plut. Mor. 1101A, Porphyry, De Abstinentia 1. 44. Hesychios has .

Page 45 note 2 Possibly .

Page 46 note 1 vn was altered by the second hand to vu, whence editors print . But the same exchange of and is to be found in the MSS of Lucian, Timon 46, Dial. Mort. 20. 3, Dial. Deor. 20. 7.

Page 46 note 2 A minor point, irrelevant to the main issue, is whether in 766 belongs, as the papyrus makes it, to Smikrines. I suspect that the words are those of Onesimos, for means dull, stupid, unintelligent', and this word admirably describes Smikrines, who will not understand. It does not seem appropriate of Onesimos, who is showing his cleverness. Moreover the word, although not unusual in tragedy, occurs nowhere eise in New Comedy except Menander fr. 131, , and it is only a guess that this is from Menander. Smikrines' language is piain and colloquial: he expresses disapproval by such words as .