Monday, February 21, 2022
An Aristophanic Coinage?
According to Liddell-Scott-Jones, the compound πλουθυγίεια (wealth-and-health) occurs only in the plays of Aristophanes, at Knights 1091, Wasps 677, and Birds 731. Likewise Franco Montanari in The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, who adds however that Philo, On the Posterity of Cain and His Exile 114, has πλουθυγεία. In a list of blessings of peace, Philemon, fragment 74 Kassel and Austin, line 10, juxtaposes πλοῦτον and ὑγίειαν. Wealth and health are among the four best things, according to an
anonymous drinking song (D.L. Page, Lyrica Graeca Selecta no. 447, tr. C.M. Bowra):
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For a man health is the first and best possession,
Second best to be born with shapely beauty,
And the third is wealth honestly won,
Fourth are the days of youth spent in delight with friends.
ὑγιαίνειν μὲν ἄριστον ἀνδρὶ θνητῷ,
δεύτερον δὲ φυὴν ἀγαθὸν γενέσθαι,
τὸ τρίτον δὲ πλουτεῖν ἀδόλως,
καὶ τὸ τέταρτον ἡβᾶν μετὰ τῶν φίλων.
