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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
In response to Mnesilochus′ disparaging comments regarding Agathon's unusual dress, the tragic poet replies: 
. 
1 Campbell, D.A.inGreek Lyric Poetry(Exeter,,1982), p.283 suggests that the joking may have a more intellectual aspect:‘Perhaps she is mockingly making the conventional point that the bridegroom(together with his attendants?)is of epic stature, an Achilles...or an Ares’.But in the lines that we have only the feet(and the sandals)are said to be large, and they seem to me to be too enormous to make one think of epic or even mock-epic sizeGoogle Scholar
2 It may not be a pure coincidence that Sappho′s measurements are two units less each time than Homer′s
3 Although
and its one other variant
subsequently appear only in poetry, compounds involving
did later become common enough in prose, and the rest of Sappho′s language is quite at home in prose and comedy. All of this presumably explains the remark of Demetrius(Eloc. 167)that the poetess here mocks the doorkeeper
4 SeeHarvey, A.E., CQ 7(1957),211–13.Google Scholar
1 See CQ 32 (1982), 53. He had earlier suggested reading PCPhS 20 (1974), 1. Dr Austin, for whose help in the preparation of this note I am very grateful, informs me that he still holds the view expressed in 1982, which is, in effect, the standard view.
2 Cf. II. 16.149, 19.415; Hes. Th. 268.
3 The Greek for which would surely require the article: The only other place in Aristophanes where ap.a precedes a noun without an article is in the Homeric phrase at Av. 1397: ap. This is (presumably) the reason for Meinekes (Vindiciae Aristophaneae [Leipzig, 1865], p. 148) conjecture ap.a which is adopted in the Bude edition (en rapport avec mon esprit) and by Cantarella (consono al mio spirito). But no evidence has been produced that can bear this signification.
4 Dr Austin refers me to Jebb on Soph. Ant. 705 for used of mental features (add Aesch. Sept. 622; Agathon (!) frag. 14.2 Snell; TrGFd. 519). It should be noted, however, that in all these instances the mental feature is somehow qualified. In other words, while it is apparently possible to say it may not be possible to say.
5 Tyrt. 2.14 West; Alan. 26.3 Page; Ale. B 6 1 L–P; Semon. 5 West; B. 3.91.
6 Ol. 8.45, 9.70, 13.30, Nem. 9.25, 46, 52, frag. 74 Snell.
7 Cratin. frag. 151 K.–A; Ar. Ach. 346, Eq. 519, 520, Vesp. 246, 609, 712, Pax 1233, Av. 1397, Thes. 148, Ran. 512. At Pax 727 the dative is probably governed by ZneoOov; cf. Soph. El. 253; Eur. HF 1323, Tro. 946, 1009; Emped. B 112.8 D–K.
8 The occurrence at Sept. 1072 should be added to Dawes already substantial litany of non–Aeschylean features to be found in the final scene of that play (in Dionysiaca [Cambridge, 1978], pp. 93–101).
9 Ant. 1150, Phil. 983, 1026.
10 Hipp. 54, El. 78, 179, 642, //F935, Tro. 805, Ion 41, 122, Phoe. 174, Ba. 166, 567, 943.
11 Tycho Mommsen, whose Beitrdge zu der Lehre von den griechischen Prapositionen (Berlin, 1895) is an examination of the uses of from Homer to the Byzantine period, says (647) of the occurrences of ap.a in Aristophanes, Nur das (in Uebereinstimmung mit meinem Gedanke, nach meinem Sinne) weicht ab und errinert an das.
12 As at Ale. 579, El. 401; Aesch. Ag. 1630. In which case, compare Horn. Od. 19.471 and Soph. Ant. 436 for
13 Maia 31 (1979), 240.
14 Or perhaps′I wear these clothes′? For what it is worth, the Ravennas manuscript reads, but it is doubtful whether the absence of either the aspirate or the subscript iota is significant.
15 Dr Austin kindly informs me that I am not alone in making this suggestion. He writes, ′In 1964 I picked up at Thornton′s in Oxford Paul Maas′ copy of vLeeuwen′s edition of the play with various marginalia, including suggestions taken down in the late twenties at one of Wil [amowitz]′s famous Graeca or seminars at his home (for these see F. Solmsen,′ Wilamowitz in his Last Ten Years′, GRBS 20, 1979, 89ff.). Wil. himself published some notes on the play but Maas′ marginalia contain more and at 1. 148 his note on apa reads: miiBte am Wil.′
16 P. Rau, Paratragodia (Zetemata 45, 1967), pp. 108–14.Google Scholar
17 Aesch. Eum. 674; Soph. Track. 389; Eur. Ion 1313.
18 Deaud. 44d; cf. Aesch. Eum. 674–5 and the excellent discussion in B. P. Hillyard, Plutarch. De Audiendo (New York, 1981), pp. 181–2.
19 Alex. 38.8; cf. 50.2, on the murder of Cleitus
20 59.2.4. The expression is a favourite of Dio′s; cf. 39.10.2, 54.10.7, 57.22.3, 74.1.5, and see note 22, below.
21 16a30.
22 I find the expression airo also at Philo, De migr. Abr. 225 and Hesychius, s.v. axpeiov ISwv. In addition, we frequently find the phrase expanded by the addition of some attribute to yvwfiris: Eur. Ion 1313; Thuc. 3.92.1, 4.68.3 (see P. Huart, FNQMH chez Thucydide et ses contemporains [Paris, 1973], p.l48); Dem. 18.161; D.S. frag. Bk. 27 (6.366.9–12 Fischer) and frag. Bk. 29 (6.382.8 Fischer); Cassius Dio Bk. I frag. 5.11, Bk. 3 frag. 12.10,38.18.2, 38.42.4, 42.53.5, 46.52.3, 48.45.1, 60.31.2.
23 Aesch. Ag. 988; Soph. OC 15; Eur. Hec. 240. Compare also dw′ otfiews, ′on the basis of external appearance′ (Lysias 16.19), with, ′out of sight′ (Horn. II. 23.53).
24 By Emmanuel Viketos, Hermes 113 (1985), 494–5.
1 Elmsley, P., Euripidis Bacchae (Leipzig, 1822), ad loc.; I was not able to see the earlier edition (Oxford, 1821), but the second is the editio auctior anyway.Google Scholar
2 Jacobs, F., Animadversiones in Euripidis tragoedias (Gotha, 1790), according to the citation in C. KopfFs new Teubner edition (Leipzig, 1982); Elmsley, however, quotes the conjecture as coming from Jacobs′ Exercitationes criticae in scriptores veteres (Leipzig, 1796). I have seen neither.Google Scholar
