Scholars on Comedians on Lyric Poets: Ar. Nub. 967 from Stesichorus to Didymus

Book section : Chapter

In a passage from Aristophanes’ Clouds, Just Argument evokes a golden past when boys still learned to sing traditional songs; the incipits of two of these are cited verbatim (Ar. Nub. 967). As the pertinent scholia show, ancient scholars including Eratosthenes of Cyrene then sought to identify the exact sources alluded to. In this connection, they clearly made mention of compositions by Stesichorus, Lamprocles, and/or Phrynichus; but due to the poor state of the transmission of the individual pieces of evidence we have (which also include P.Oxy. 1611), the exact connections and interactions between the various players are difficult to disentangle. However, if appropriate attention is paid to the likely role of each of them within the entire web, much less editorial intervention on the scholiastic text may actually be required than has hitherto been assumed. According to the new reconstruction proposed here, one of the ‘old’ songs referenced by Aristophanes was in fact also mentioned, but parodically transformed and arguably misascribed, in a comedy by Phrynichus.

Authors: Willi, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Host title: Playing in the Sun: Ancient Theatre Between Disciplines: Essays on the 70th Birthday of Bernhard Zimmermann
• Pages: 407-430
• Place of publication: Berlin/Boston
• Publication date: 2025-09-22
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.1515/9783111594804-026
• EISBN: 9783111594804
• ISBN: 9783111594194
• Language: English
• Keywords: Aristophanic scholia; Eratosthenes; Phrynichus; Lamprocles; Stesichorus
• Subtype: Chapter