Icus

Fr. 178

ἠὼς οὐδὲ πιθοιγὶς ἐλάνθανεν οὐδ' ὅτε δούλοις

ἦμαρ Ὀρέστειοι λευκὸν ἄγουσι χόες·

Ἰκαρίου καὶ παιδὸς ἄγων ἐπέτειον ἁγιστύν,

Ἀτθίσιν οἰκτίστη, σὸν φάος, Ἠριγόνη,

5 ἐς δαίτην ἐκάλεσσεν ὁμηθέας, ἐν δέ νυ τοῖσι

ξεῖνον ὃς Α[ἰ]γύπτῳ καινὸς ἀνεστρέφετο

μεμβλωκὼς ἴδιόν τι κατὰ χρέος· ἦν δὲ γενέθλην

Ἴκιος, ᾧ ξυνὴν εἶχον ἐγὼ κλισίην

οὐκ ἐπιτάξ, ἀλλ' αἶνος Ὁμηρικός, αἰὲν ὁμοῖον

10 ὡς θεός, οὐ ψευδής, ἐς τὸν ὁμοῖον ἄγει.

καὶ γὰρ ὁ Θρηϊκίην μὲν ἀπέστυγε χανδὸν ἄμυστιν

ζωροποτεῖν, ὀλίγῳ δ' ἥδετο κισσυβίῳ.

τῷ μὲν ἐγὼ τάδ' ἔλεξα περιστείχοντος ἀλείσου

τὸ τρίτον, εὖτ' ἐδάην οὔνομα καὶ γενεήν·

15 ʿἦ μάλ' ἔπος τόδ' ἀληθές, ὅ τ' οὐ μόνον ὕδατος αἶσαν,

ἀλλ' ἔτι καὶ λέσχης οἶνος ἔχειν ἐθέλει.

τὴν ἡμεῖς— οὐκ ἐν γ[ὰ]ρ ἀρυστήρεσσι φορεῖται

οὐδέ μιν εἰς ἀτ[ενεῖ]ς ὀφρύας οἰνοχόων

αἰτήσεις ὁρόω[ν] ὅτ' ἐλεύθερος ἀτμένα σαίνει—

20 βάλλωμεν χαλεπῷ φάρμακον ἐν πόματι,

Θεύγενες· ὅσσ[α] δ' ἐμεῖο σ[έ]θεν πάρα θυμὸς ἀκοῦσαι

ἰχαίνει, τάδε μοι λ[έ]ξον [ἀνειρομέν]ῳ·

Μυρμιδόνων ἑσσῆνα τ[ί πάτριον ὔ]μμι σέβεσθαι

Πηλέα, κῶς Ἴκῳ ξυν[ὰ τὰ Θεσσαλι]κά,

25 τεῦ δ' ἕνεκεν γήτειον ιδ[. .]υτ[. . . .]ρτον ἔχουσα

ἥρωος κα[θ]όδου πα[ῖς

εἰδότες ὡς ἐνέπου[σιν

κείνην ἣ περὶ σὴν [

οὔθ' ἑτέρην ἔγνωκα· τ[

30 οὔατα μυθεῖσθαι βουλομέν[οις ἀνέχων’.

τ[αῦτ'] ἐμέθεν λέξαντο[ς

‘τρις μάκαρ, ἦ παύρων ὄλβιός ἐσσι μέτα,

ναυτιλίης εἰ νῆιν ἔχεις βίον· ἀλλ' ἐμὸς αἰών

κύμασιν αἰθυίης μᾶλλον ἐσῳκίσατο

notes

Fragment 178 Harder (= 178 Pf., = 89 Mass.)
  1-34 P.Oxy. 1362, fr. 1 col. 1 (1-25) and col. II (26-34)
[image], Trismegistos 59367
  11-14 Ath. 11.477c
  11-12 Ath. 10.442f
  12 Σ Theoc. 1.27a
  15-16 Ath. 1.32b-c
  23 Hdn. Π.μον.λεξ 2.923.5 sqq
  30 Str. 9.5.17, 438C
  32-34 Stob. 4.17.11
  33-34 Σ Arat. 299

This unplaced fragment contains a description of a symposium held at the house of an Athenian named Pollis, who was a resident in Egypt (presumably Alexandria), but who nevertheless celebrated Attic festivals. The occasion was the festival of the Aiora. In the course of the party Callimachus asked his neighbor, a visitor to Egypt from Icus, to tell him about a cult of Peleus that the Icians celebrated. There is a growing consensus that this fragment belongs at the beginning of Book 2. This fragment has been used to argue that the three events mentioned—the Pithoigia, the Choes, and the Aiora—are separate days of the Anthesteria (see Burkert 1985: 237-42, and for a different opinion Hamilton 1992: 48-9). For various interpretations of the fragment see Fantuzzi-Hunter (2004, 76 ff.), and Stephens (2013).

2. The Choes supposedly commemorated Orestes as an exile in Athens after killing Clytemnestra. Because of his pollution he could not be accepted as a guest, but was compelled to sit alone and drink in silence.

3-4. In Attica, Dionysus taught Icarius to make wine; when he demonstrated his new product to the locals, they thought they had been poisoned and killed him and buried his body. His daughter Erigone with her dog Maera searched for him and when she found him, hanged herself on a nearby tree. Dionysus punished them by driving Attic women to hang themselves. The festival of the Aiora is both an expiation and a remembrance of these events. Erigone and her dog were subsequently turned into constellations.

9-20. The details of eschewing deep drinking and preferring conversation recall Plato's Symposium, but the passage also has many recollections of Homer (e.g., Od 4.220-21 and 17.217-8).

24. At the end of Peleus' life he sails out to meet his grandson Neoptolemus, who is coming from Troy. The former is shipwrecked on Icus, received by Molon, but dies there. Nothing further is known about the rites for Peleus on Icus.

Bibliography

Burkert, W. 1985. Greek Religion. Translated by John Raffan. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Fabian, Klaus. 1991. ‘Il banchetto di Pollis. Callimachi fr. 178-185 Pf. (Icus).’ In “Oinera Teuche.” Studi triestini di poesia conviviale, edited by Klaus Fabian, Ezio Pellizer, and Gennaro Tedeschi, 131-66. Alessandria: Ed. dell'Orso.

Fantuzzi, Marco and Richard Hunter, 2004. Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hamilton, R. 1992. Choes and Anthesteria: Athenian Iconography and Ritual. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Hunter, Richard L. 1996. "Callimachus Swings (frr. 178 and 43 Pf.)." Ramus 25:18-26.

Scandroglio, Laura. 2003. 'Callimaco e Teogene di Ico.' Sungraphe 5:181-9.

Scodel, Ruth. 1980. ‘Wine, Water, and the Anthesteria in Callimachus Fr. 178 Pf.’ Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 39:37-40.

Stephens, Susan A. 2013. "Deregulating Poetry." In Performance and Culture in Plato's Laws, edited by A. Peponi, 371-91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

vocabulary

Fr. 178

ἠώς ἠοῦς, ἡ: dawn, morning, day

πῐθοίγια, τά: (οἴγνυμι) festival at the opening of casks of new wine, held at the Anthesteria; πῐθοιγὶς ἠώς, the morning of this festival

ἦμαρ -ατος, τό: day

Ὀρέστειος -α -ον: Orestean, of Orestes

λευκός -ή -όν: light, bright, clear; λευκὸν ἦμαρ, a joyful day or holiday

χοῦς χοός, ὁ/ἡ: a liquid measure, the chous (about 3.27 litres); a pitcher

Ἰκάριος -ου, ὁ: Icarius, an Athenian whom Dionysus taught to make wine. When he shared the wine with others, they thought Icarius had poisoned them, and murdered him.

ἐπέτειος -ον: annual, yearly

ἁγιστύς -ύος, ἡ: ceremony

Ἀτθίς -ίδος, ἡ: a woman of Athens

οἴκτιστος -η -ον: most pitiable, lamentable

φάος -εος, τό: light, daylight; day

Ἠριγόνη -ης, ἡ: Erigone, the daughter of Icarius. When she learned of his murder she hanged herself in grief. In revenge, Dionysius drove the women of Athens mad so that they hanged themselves like Erigone until a festival was founded in her honor.

δαίτη -ης, ἡ: feast 5

ὁμοήθης -ες: (adj.) of the same habits or character; friend(ly)

καινός -ή -όν: new, strange

ἀναστρέφω: turn back; (pass.) to stay or dwell in a place

βλώσκω, aor. 2 ἔμολον, perf. μέμβλωκα: go, come

ἴδιος -α -ον: pertaining to oneself; private, personal; separate, distinct

χρέος χρέους, τό: an obligation, debt; business, matter, affair

γενέθλη -ης, ἡ: race, stock, family

Ἴκιος -ου, ὁ: Ician, of Icus, modern Alonissos, one of the Northern Sporades islands

ξυνός -ή -όν: common, shared

κλισίη -ης, ἡ: a couch (Ion. for κλισία)

ἐπιτάξ: (adv.) by command or pre-arrangement

Ὁμηρικός -ή -όν: Homeric, in the manner of Homer

αἶνος -ου, ὁ: a tale, story; saying, proverb

ψευδής -ές: lying, false, untrue 10

Θρηΐκιος -η -ον: Thracian, of Thrace

ἀποστυγέω: to hate violently, abhor

χανδόν: (adv.) with mouth wide open, greedily

ἄμυστις -ιος, ἡ: a long draught, large cup

ζωροποτέω: drink neat or unmixed wine

ἥδομαι: enjoy oneself, take one's pleasure

κισσυβίον -ου, τό: a rustic drinking-cup

περιστείχω: go round about

ἄλεισον -ου, τό: cup, goblet

εὖτε: (adv. of time) when, at the time when; (adv. of comparison, = ἠΰτε) as, even as

δάω δαήσομαι ἐδάην: learn; ἐδάην = ἔμαθον

αἶσα -ης, ἡ: share, portion 15

λέσχη -ης, ἡ: talk, conversation

οἶνος -ου, ὁ: wine

ἀρυστήρ -ῆρος, ὁ: liquid measure, a cup or ladle

φορέω: bear to and fro, bear along, (pass.) to be born along

ἀτενής -ές: strained tight, intense, straight, unbending

ὀφρύη -ης, ἡ: eyebrows (= ὀφρύς -ύος)

οἰνοχόος -ου, ὁ: cupbearer, wine-pourer

ἀτμήν -ένος, ὁ: slave, servant

σαίνω: to wag the tail, fawn on

φάρμακον -ου, τό: a drug, medicine, remedy 20

πῶμα -ατος, τό: a drink. The short form πόμα πόματος occurs in Pindar and in later poets

ἰχαίνω: long to, crave (= ἰχανάω)

λέχομαι: lie down

ἀνείρομαι: inquire of, question

Μυρμιδόνες -ων, οἱ: Myrmidons, a warlike people of Thessaly, subjects of Peleus and Achilles

ἑσσῆν ἑσσῆνος, ὁ: king

πάτριος -α -ον: (adj.) of the father, hereditary, ancestral custom

σέβομαι: feel awe, revere, worship

Πηλεύς -έως, ὁ: Peleus, son of Aeacus, husband of Thetis, father of Achilles

ξυνός -ή -όν: common, public, general

Θεσσαλικός -ή- όν: Thessalian, of Thessaly

ἕνεκεν: because of, thanks to 25

γήτειον -ου, τό: a leek, a horn onion

κάθοδος -ου, ἡ: a going down, descent

. . . . .

οὖας οὔατος, τό: ear (= οὖς, ὠτός, τό) 30

μυθέομαι: say, speak

ἀνέχω: hold up, lift up

παῦρος -ον: little, small

ὄλβιος -α -ον: happy, blessed, prosperous

ναυτιλίη -ης, ἡ: sailing, seamanship, seafaring (Ion. for ναυτιλία)

νῆϊς -ϊδος: (adj.) unknowing of, unpracticed in

αἰών -ῶνος, ὁ: life, lifetime, time

κῦμα -ατος, τό: wave, billow

αἴθυια -ης, ἡ: a gull, shearwater, sea-bird

εἰσοικίζω: bring in as a dweller or settler; (mid. and pass.) establish oneself or be established in; (metaph.) make oneself at home

translation

Fr. 178

He did not miss the day of the opening of the jars, nor thε day when

the pitchers of Orestes bring a happy day for slaves;

and while celebrating the yearly festival of the child of Ikarios—

your day, Erigone, who are most pitiable to Attic women—

he invited congenial friends to the feast, and among them5

now a new person, who was lately staying in Egypt,

having come on some personal business. He was by

birth an Ician, and with him I shared a couch—

not by pre-arrangement: rather the Homeric proverb

is not false, that the god always leads like to like.10

For he too hated to drink unmixed wine with his mouth wide

open in large Thracian gulps, but enjoyed the small cup.

To him I said these things, as the beaker was going around

for a third time, when I had learned his name and birth:

"This saying is indeed very true that wine needs its15

share not just of water, but also of conversation.

That is something not brought around in ladles,

and you won't ask for it by looking at the stern

brows of the cupbearers, at a time when the freeman fawns on the slave—

so let us throw some into the harsh drink like a drug,20

Theogenes: there are things that my heart longs to hear

from you. Tell me all, in response to my questions.

Why is it the custom of your country to worship Peleus, the king

of the Myrmidons? How much does Icus have in common with Thessaly?

On account of what ... holding an onion . . .25

the descent(?) of the hero . . .

. . . . .

hold ears at the ready for those who want to tell a story30

I myself having said these things. . ."

"Thrice-blessed one, truly you are blessed as few are

if you lead a life ignorant of seafaring; but my life

is more at home in the waves than that of a seagull ..."

Suggested Citation