Laudator Temporis Acti

Euripides, fragment 693 (Heracles speaking, from the satyr play Syleus; tr. Christopher Collard and Martin Cropp, with their note):

Come on then, my dear club, stir yourself, please, and be bold!<sup>1

1</sup>Heracles prepares his club for violent action against Syleus' vines or more probably the man himself and any helpers (test. iiib (104)). For his 'dear' club cf. Bellerophon addressing his horse Pegasus, Bellerophon F 306. Alternatively (see note to the Greek text), Heracles is preparing himself to bed Xenodoce (F 694).

Greek text, with note by Collard and Cropp:

                             εἷα δή, φίλον ξύλον,
ἔγειρέ μοι σεαυτὸ καὶ γίγνου θρασύ.

George Choeroboscus (on the use of εἷα) in Etymologicum Genuinum B (= Etym. Magnum p. 294.45 Gaisford); cited by other grammarians, sometimes beginning at ἔγειρε and with slight variations. A terse entry in Hesychius τ 1626 (τύλον = 'penis') prompted Meineke to suggest that Euripides wrote τύλον rather than ξύλον here, but Ηesychius may reflect a coarse comic adaptation of the verse: cf. on Stheneboea F 664.2.

The note on the Greek text in the Digital Loeb Classical Library is faulty — it omits Etymologicum Genuinum, Etym. Magnum, and Stheneboea.

See Dana Ferrin Sutton, "The Hercules Statue from the House of the Stags, Herculaneum," Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 127.1 (1984) 96; Pierre Voelke, "Figure du satyre et fonctions du drame satyrique," Mètis 13 (1998) 227-248 (at 237-238); and Franco Maltomini, "'Magia' in Euripide, "Syleus" fr. 693 N²?" Studi Classici e Orientali 46.1 (December, 1998) 209-212.

When he quotes the second line of the fragment Eustathius has ἔκτεινέ instead of ἔγειρέ.


Hercules Statue from the House of the Stags, Herculaneum

Labels: typographical and other errors