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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Euboulos' 'αγκελ⋯ων is represented by only four fragments (frr. 1–3 frr. 1–4 Hunter), all culled from Athenaeus, which tell us nothing about the plot of the play or about the identity of its titular character. R. L. Hunter, in his recent commentary on Euboulos, discusses at length the name 'αγκελ⋯ων and concludes that it could belong to either (1) a humble and poor man; (2) ‘a character from folklore notorious for sexual relations with his mother’ ; or (3)’ a wily slave such as those foreshadowed in Aristophanes and familiar from New Comedy'. In view of our ignorance of the play's plot, each of these possibilities has an equal claim to our consideration. I believe, however, that the context in which the fragments are embedded in Athenaeus allows us to refine our understanding of the name even further.
1 Hunter, R. L., Eubulus: the Fragments (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 85–6Google Scholar [ = Hunter].
2 The argument is based on Aristophanes, , Wasps 1396–7Google Scholar, where the name seems to be used humorously for its connotations of humble origins.
3 cf. σ Aristophanes, , Wasps 1178a, 1178bGoogle Scholar, with Hunter 85.
4 Hunter 86: ‘as a nickname, 'αγκελ⋯ων might refer to crooked legs or to a crooked spine… or to an aspect of character…; it would be particularly appropriate for a slave, as slaves were often named from peculiarities of physique.’
5 There were two main forms of the game: (1) the ‘descending kottabos’ (κ⋯τταβος κατακτ⋯ς), where the player aimed his wine drops at a disc (πλ⋯στιγξ) balanced on top of a rod, trying to dislodge it so that it in turn would strike another disc (μ⋯νης cf. below, n. 20) with a loud noise; (2) the ‘kottabos with saucers’ (κ⋯τταβος δι' ⋯ξεβ⋯φων) in which one tried to sink saucers floating in a basin by hurling wine drops on them. For a full treatment of the ancient evidence of the game, see Sartori, K.Das Kottabos-Spiel der alien Griechen (Munich, 1893)Google Scholar [ Sartori]; cf. also Schneider, K. s.v. ‘Kottabos’ in RE 11.2 cols. 1528–41Google Scholar, and Sparkes, B., ‘Kottabos: an Athenian After-Dinner Game’, Archaeology 13 (1960), 202–6Google Scholar.
6 For κ⋯τταβος as a term for the cup used in the game, cf. Eupolis, Baptai fr. 95 KA (Athen. 666d). Euboulos fr. 15KA ( fr. 16 Hunter Athen. 666e/f) seems to employ κοττ⋯βειον to mean ‘kottabos stand’ in the game of κ⋯τταβος κατακτ⋯ς; cf. Hunter 109.
7 A very troublesome text; Radt diffidently prints the MS. reading, though Kaibel's emendation, ⋯γκελητοὐς κοσσ⋯βοες (as object of ⋯φ⋯ετο; το⋯ δ' ‘capitis’) may be right. For the plethora of other emendations, cf. Radt ad loc. 293.
8 781–4 is a section from the Epitome, traditionally inserted at 466d, following Casaubon, I., Animadversionum in Athenaei Deipnosophistas Libri XV (Leiden, 1600), pp. 492–3Google Scholar.
9 Athenaeus cites Cratinus as an example of ⋯γκὑλη ‘cup’ (ποτ⋯ριον), though in fact Cratinus uses ⋯π' ⋯γκὑλης here more as Athenaeus explains it at 667c ( ‘from the bend’, quoted above); cf. Kock's remarks ad Cratinus fr. 273, and Sartori 94–5.
10 Note also Anacreon, , PMG 415Google Scholar: σικελ⋯ν κ⋯τταβον ⋯γκὑλῃ †δα⋯ζων†.
11 cf. Jahn, O., ‘Kottabos auf Vasenbildern’, Philologus 26 (1867), 214CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Sartori's Appendix V ‘Bedeutung und Etymologie des Wortes ⋯γκὑλη’. The iconographical evidence certainly makes it clear that a bent, almost contorted, hand was an important feature of the kottabos; cf., e.g., CVA, Munich, vol. 5, plate 225.2; Berlin, vol. 2, plates 92.2, 95.1.
12 This is not to say, of course, that the name 'αγκελ⋯ων necessarily had an original connection with the kottabos (note its earlier occurrence in Aristophanes, for example [cf. above, n. 3], which offers no indication of its nuance). What is important, however, is the connotation of the name that Euboulos exploited for the purpose of his play.
13 Strictly speaking, the ‘περαμο⋯ντα‘ in the Callimachus quotation above (fr. 227 Pf) reminds Athenaeus of Euboulos' ‘cakes’ (⋯γ⋯νετο δ⋯ καǶ πεμμ⋯τι⋯ τινα ⋯ν ταῖς παννεχ⋯σιν). But Athenaeus' larger subject remains the κοττ⋯βεια, a type of ‘victory-prize’, and it seems that he cites Euboulos' χαρ⋯σιοι as a species of κοττ⋯βεια. He clearly implies, after all, that Euboulos referred to χαρ⋯σιοι as νικ⋯τηρια (‘victory-prizes’, fr. 1 quoted above). It is, nevertheless, rather bold of Jahn, art. cit. (n. 11), 215 n. 67, to cite these frr. as examples of the κοτ⋯βεια prizes offered at the kottabos game. Even Pfeiffer ad Call. fr. 227.7 implies as much. It is intriguing, however, that according to σ Aristoph. Peace 1242, Pherecrates makes mention of the κ⋯τταβος κατακτ⋯ς in a play entitled Παννεχ⋯ς (elsewhere referred to with the double title ιπν⋯ς ἢ Παννεχίς, cf. Athen. 612a).
14 Fr. 1, ‘She (?) has been baking victory cakes for a long time’, sounds as if it is a response to someone marvelling at a cornucopia of delicacies. Note also that the prizes mentioned for the Παννεχίς were among those offered for the kottabos: cakes and kisses. For comestibles cf. Athenaeus 667d: ⋯τι δ⋯ ἆθλον προὔ προεμε⋯νῳ τ⋯ν κ⋯ταβον προε⋯ρηκε μ⋯ν κα⋯ ⋯ 'αντιφ⋯νης [fr. 55.2–3 K; the verse is incomplete at Athenaeus 667b] ὠ⋯ γ⋯ρ ⋯στι κα⋯ πεμμ⋯τια κα⋯ τραγὴματα; for kisses cf. Sophocles, Salmoneus fr. 537 Radt, Plato Comicus, fr. 46.5K.
15 The paragraph that immediately follows the quotation of Euboulos, fr. 2KA (fr. 3 Hunter), at 668d/e, certainly reads as if Athenaeus had had the game of kottabos on his mind the whole time: ὅτι δ⋯ ⋯σποὑδαστο παρ⋯ τοῖσv σικελιώταις ⋯ κ⋯τταβος δ⋯λον ⋯κ το⋯ κα⋯ οἰκὴδεια τῇ παιδ⋯ᾳ κατασκεε⋯ζεσθαι. We cannot even be sure that the prizes mentioned in fr. 3 apply specifically to the night-dancing of the first two verses. They might easily refer to something (e.g. a kottabos competition) mentioned earlier, and taken up again after a charge to the γεναῖκες (the chorus perhaps, cf. Hunter 87) to continue their dancing through the night. This would be even more likely if Hunter is right to suggest (87–8, with ZPE 36 [1979], 35 n. 62) that this fragment is an example from Middle Comedy of the technique, common in New Comedy, ‘whereby a character enters the stage speaking back into the house from which he or she emerges’.
16 At Ach. 523–37 Aristophanes has Dikaiopolis trace the beginning of the Peloponnesian War to a band of drunken kottabos revellers (μεθεσοκ⋯τταβοι, 525), who allegedly abducted a prostitute from Megara. It would not be surprising if this theme actually served as the plot of Ameipsias' 'αποκοτταβ⋯ζοντες Ameipsias’ play cannot be dated, though the stories of a rivalry between him and Aristophanes were famous; cf. Aristophanes, , Frogs 12–14Google Scholar, vita Aristoph. XXVIII.8–10, XXIXa.10–12, XXXIIb.8 in Koster, W., Scholia in Aristophanem i. la (Groningen, 1975)Google Scholar, and Meineke, F., Fragmenta Comicorum Graecorum (Berlin, 1839), i. 199Google Scholar.
17 Fr. 1K presents an exchange between two people, the one of whom had been following the other for food ‘like a mullet’ (a fish proverbial for hunger):…⋯γὼ δ' ἰὼν πειρ⋯σομαι ∥ εἰς τ⋯ν ⋯γορ⋯ν ἔργον λαβεῖν. B. ἧττ⋯ν γ' ἄν οὖν ∥ ν⋯στις καθ⋯περ κεστρεὐς ⋯κολοεθ⋯σεις ⋯κολοεθ⋯σεις ἐμο⋯; fr. 2K (on which cf. below) gives an order for setting up the κ⋯τταβος δι' ⋯ξεβ⋯φων fr. 3K mentions the purchase of cosmetics: δεοῖν ⋯βολοῖν ἔγχοεσα κα⋯ ψιμὑθιον; fr. 4K apparently has Dionysus speaking of the mixing of wine: ⋯γὼ δ⋯ Δι⋯νεσος π⋯σιν ὑμῖν εἰμι π⋯ντε κα⋯ δὑο; and fr. 5K. mentions a kind of baked bread, κλιβαν⋯της ἄρτος.
18 Especially, though not only, in the parodos; cf. Wasps 403–7, with 420: Clouds 275–90, 375–94; Frogs 209–68.
19 cf. Sartori 31f; Aristoph. Birds 523 with σ ad loc. On μαν⋯α cf. Athenaeus 578b ff. Machon fr. 14 in Gow's, A. S. F.Machon: the Fragments, with his comments p. 97Google Scholar; and Aristoph. Thesmo. 728 with σ ad loc.
20 Boehm, C., de Cottabo (Bonn, 1893), p. 27Google Scholar held that the μ⋯νης referred to a basin (Athenaeu s 667e λεκ⋯νην ὑποκειμ⋯νην) or disc which surrounded the kottabos-shaft. Hayley, H., ‘The κ⋯τταβος κατακτ⋯ς in the Light of Recent Investigations’, HSCP 5 (1894), 79–82Google Scholar argues that it was a statuette representative of a slave μ⋯νης sitting in a basin at the base of the shaft. Sparkes, art. cit. (n. 5), 205–6 is probably correct to argue that the μ⋯νης was a central disc that broke the fall of the πλ⋯στιγξ.
21 Sartori 31 n. 3 seems to have been on the verge of making just such a suggestion, but merely notes that the name appears in Ameipsias' play. It is true that μαν⋯α is ordered in fr. 2 K to set up the κ⋯τταβος δι' ⋯ξεβ⋯φων, which did not apparently use a μ⋯νης, but in a play with a chorus of kottabos revellers, we may feel certain that fr. 2 does not represent the only scene in which the kottabos was portrayed or discussed. The κ⋯τταβος κατακτ⋯ς no doubt appeared elsewhere in the play, at which point a servant named μαν⋯α would have her full comic effect, and probably occasioned several pointed jokes. Naturally the humour inherent in her name in such a context would remain operative throughout the play. An Aristophanic example of an otherwise unobtrusive or historical name made to serve as a pun in a specific context can be seen in the manipulation of the name Λ⋯μαχος at Ach. 269, 1071 andPeace 304.
22 A possible translation would be ‘Bend-y’ or ‘Bendy-boy’.
23 Hunter 86; Hunter cites incorrectly Lambertz, M., Die griechischen Sklavennamen (Vienna, 1907), who discusses this category of slave names in part II, pp. 7–11Google Scholar. We even find a slave called κ⋯τταβος in a second-century B.C. manumission decree from Thera (IG xn.3 1302).
24 cf. Hunter 86.
25 The name also serves as the title for one of Alexis' plays, from which one fragment survives ( Diog. Laert. 3.27), and may have been applied to a stock figure of Middle and New Comedy. The relative chronology of the two plays, however, is impossible to determine.
