Two ‘Fragmenta Dubia Incertae Sedis’, Possibly Comic

• Published in: Classical quarterly 1991-05, Vol.41 (1), p.247-248
• Main Author: Boegehold, Alan L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Classical literature; Criticism & critics; Eustathius of Thessalonica; Greek literature; Homer (C 8th Century BC); Literature; Poetry; Shorter Notes
• ISSN: 0009-8388; 1471-6844
• DOI: 10.1017/S0009838800003724

Eustathios, in his commentary to Homer's Iliad 768.20–2 preserves two elements of Attic speech which could derive originally from comedy. Although neither of them appears as so much as a conjecture in standard collections, a possibility that they are quotations from a lost comedy merits testing. They may, as it turns out, even be fragments of a comedy by Kratinos. The argument for this possibility rests on a manner Eustathios (and other Greek writers) has of presenting evidence to support his general observations. The pattern is as follows: He will say that such-and-such a usage can be observed among the ancients, and then he will cite an ancient author in whose work he has observed such a phenomenon. A good, simple, short example of this presentation can be found at Eustathios' Commentary to Homer's Odyssey 1419.50–4; λλ κα πλλαξ ξ οὗ κα παλλακή κα παλλκια δ κατ Aἴλιν Διονσιον οὑ παλλήκια οἱ παδες, στιν εὑρεν παρ τος παλαιος οἲ δικαστήριον ἱστοροσιν πώνυµον τς Παλλδος. 'Aριστοφνης ἄκων κτεν σε τκνον. δ'ὑπεκρνατο π Παλλαδωι κτλ (Aristophanes, frag. 602 PCG).