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Philology in Theocritus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

A. S. F. Gow
A. S. F. Gow
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Cambridge.
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Extract

There can be no doubt about the object which Delphis was in the habit of leaving at Simaetha's house. The word ὄλπη is capable of meaning a ladle or jug for wine (Ion, fr. 10 N2ap. Ath. 11. 495 B), and the name is conventionally applied by archaeologists to a particular form of jug, but Delphis did not carry a jug about with him. What he took to the gymnasium or palaestra where he appears to have spent most of his time (8, 80, 97, 115) was the portable flask of oil, carried indeed by others, but, together with sponge and scraper, the regular equipment of the athlete. ὌΟλπις, which appears to be a mere synonym, also has the same two meanings. At Sapph. fr. 51 it is a wine-jug, but at T. 18. 45, where the Spartan girls will make libation of oil at Helen's plane-tree, the silver ὄλπις containing it is no doubt that from which they anoint themselves in their masculine way by the Eurotas (23).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 34 , Issue 3-4 , October 1940 , pp. 113 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1940

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References

1 It is as an athlete that he wears the white poplar garland of Herakles, patron-god of athletes (121, cf. R.E. Suppl. 3. 1007).Google Scholar

2 An ὄλπις is carried by cynics at A.P. 6. 293, 298 (Leonidas), 7. 68 (Archias).Google Scholar

3 See B.S.A. 29. 216.Google Scholar

4 See B.S.A. 29.1941Google Scholar. The implied etymology ἐλαιόπιν is given at Et.M. 623. 2Google Scholar, but unless they were of vellum they can hardly have been translucent.

5 This idea might seem to derive some support from Nic. Ther. 80Google Scholar ἐς τεχος κεραμήιον ἠὲ καὶ ὄλπηνκεδρίδας ἐνθρύπτων, which, unless Nicander attaches some unusually precise meaning to τεχος, suggests that his ὄλπη is not of pottery. Nicander writes also (97) αα δ᾽ ἐν ὄλπ θρύπτε, and the passages are puzzling, for neither wine-jug nor oil-flask in view of its narrow neck is very suitable for pounding or triturating in; but neither suggests leather as the material of an ὄλπη.

6 Ἀλάβαστος, ἀλάβαστρον no doubt once meant an alabaster vessel, but T. can write (15. 114) χρύσει᾽ ἀλάβαστρα, and the origin of the word was so far forgotten in antiquity that it could be explained as ἄγγος μὴ ἔχον λαβάς(Suid. s.v.).

1 See on such names Payne, , Necrocorinthia, p. 210Google Scholar; Rumpf, , Chalk. Vasen, 123Google Scholar; A.J.A. 31. 350Google Scholar; Röm. Mitth. 46. 150Google Scholar. Similarly perhaps of furniture Μιλησιουργής, on which see J.H.S. 58. 194.Google Scholar

2 See on these words B.S.A. 29. 193.Google Scholar

3 A prose-writer would naturally say τὴν παρὰ Δωριεσι, or ὑπὸ Δωριεν καλουμένην, ὄλπην, and, as poets have little occasion to say such things at all, I cannot lay hand on an adjective exactly so used elsewhere; for in such examples as Aesch. Suppl. 873Google Scholar Αἰγυπτίαν βριν, fr. 364 Λιβυρνικς μίμημα μανδύης χιτών, Eur. Or. 1370Google Scholar ἐν εὐμάρισιν, Eubul. fr. 102 Αἰγυπτί ψάγδανι, though the name is exotic so also is the thing named. The use does not, however, seem to me unnatural and it has something in common with that of σός in the sense of which you speak, as you call it of which examples are collected by Pearson on Soph. fr. 165Google Scholar. At Ephippus, , fr. 10Google Scholar κεράσας ζωρότερον Ὁμηρικς the adverb plainly refers to the language and implies the possibility of a similar use of the adjective.

4 All the examples of ὄλπη (and ὄλπις) known to me are mentioned above. In case they should seem too numerous for T. to treat the word as a γλσσα, I remark that Ion and Achaeus (one of whom used it in a different sense) are the only authors who certainly used it before T., and that in Alexandrian poetry ἀίτης also occurs more than once.

1 Naturally the adverb has been suspected, but the emendations, of which δώροισι (Meineke) and ὤριστε (Haupt) are the best, are not attractive, 3 preserves only the last letter of the word, which seems to be ι.

2 Hesych. S. VV. ἀννέμειν, ἐπινειμάτω, νέμει, νέμεις, νέμω cf. Σ Pind. I. 2. 47Google Scholar (68) citing T., Sophocles, and Parthenius, , and Σ Ar. Av. 1289.Google Scholar

3 It resembles ἀνανεμέεται at Herod, , I. 173Google Scholar, where the meaning is recounts or recites.

4 Hence Wilamowitz writes τὸν δ᾽ ἕτερον πάλιν, ὡς καὶ ὁ Θεσσαλός, εἴποι ἀίτην—the Amydean-speaker would call the one εἴσπνηλος and, like the Thessalian, the other ἀίτης. This regularizes the syntax and may be right, but it makes the couplet even odder than before.

1 On λωτός see R.E. 13. 1515.Google Scholar

2 They are collected and discussed by Visser, Götter u. Kulte, 19, 84.Google Scholar

3 Hiller thought that the function of the phrase was to distinguish trefoil from the tree or trees also called λωτός, but one would not expect these to be used for garlands.