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Herodas ii 12 ff. (Headlam)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

J. F. Killeen
Affiliation:
University College, Cambridge

Extract

Headlam wrote: ‘ἔτι ἄγχϵι in conjunction with 1.18 n. suggests amatory capabilities[1] … [Battaros'] powers of “wrestling” being compared with Mennes' old victories at boxing. Either this or Blass' supposition that he is a street rowdy will suit τοῦ ἡλίου δύντος: the former hypothesis suits better the character of Battaros…’ I have no doubt that the word ἄγχϵι, like the πύξ which it matches in 1. 11, is a double-meaning one, and contains the sense: ἔτι οἴός τε ἐστὶ γυναικὶ συγγίγνεσθαι. That, as a buffoon's method of raising a laugh, the punning use of ἅγχω and a congener in their agonistic and erotic senses would not be alien to the proceedings of even a real court, let alone the fictional court of a literary genre having affinities with Old Comedy, is shown by Dem. liv 20 (Contra. Con. 1263.5), where it is assumed that defendants on a charge of assault will try τὸ πρᾶγμα ‥ εἰς γέλωτα καὶ σκώμματ᾽ ἐμβαλεῖν (liv 13 = 1261.13).

Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1971

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References

1 cf. Trypanis, , JHS lxxvii (1954) 204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 cf. Van Leeuwen on Ar. Ec. 964, and for Love as a boxer, Anacr. fr. 62; Soph., Tr. 442.Google Scholar

3 Arist., Rh. iii 1419 b, where the device is attributed to Gorgias.

4 Groningen, 1922: ‘Vous restez sceptiques à l'égard du mérite de mon noble patron…? Aussi je vous en donnerai une preuve éclatante: le manteau qu'il porte, Messieurs, il l'a volé après le coucher du soleil.’

5 Florence, 1950: ‘“se voi non credete che io dico la verità, fate uscire Aristofonte dopo il tramonto vestito di quel mantello che ha indosso, e vi accorgerete da che razza di patrono sono difeso io”: cioè Aristofonte e un brigante pieno di forza che agisce nell' oscurità della notte assaltando i viandanti.’

6 CR xxxvi (1922) 110, with a witty and convincing interpretation of lines 65–71.

7 See Gerhard, PWs.v. ‘Herondas’, p. 1092Google Scholar.

8 cf. line 44, and Housman, loc. cit.

9 Vorberg, , Ars Erotica Veterum, 29, 35, 51.Google Scholar

10 cf. Homer Il. iii 57.