Origins and Life of Euripides IV

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M = reading of the whole MS tradition
m = reading of part of the MS tradition
P = reading on a papyrus
 

1 ἔσκωπτε δὲ τὰς γυναῖκας διὰ τῶν ποιημάτων δι’ αἰτίαν τοιάνδε τοιάνδε m : τοιαύτην m· εἶχεν οἰκογενὲς μειράκιον ὀνόματι Κηφισοφῶντα. πρὸς τοῦτον ἐφώρασε τὴν οἰκείαν γυναῖκα ἀτακτοῦσαν. τὸ μὲν οὖν πρῶτον ἀπέτρεπεν ἁμαρτάνειν· ἐπεὶ δ’ οὐκ ἔπειθε, κατέλιπεν αὐτῶι τὴν γυναῖκα, βουλομένου αὐτὴν ἔχειν τοῦ Κηφισοφῶντος. λέγει οὖν καὶ ὁ Ἀριστοφάνης Fr. 596 K-A.·

Κηφισοφῶν ἄριστε καὶ μελάντατε,
σὺ γὰρ συνέζης ὡς τὰ πολλ’ Εὐριπίδηι
καὶ συνεποίεις, ὥς φασι, τὴν μελωιδίαν φασι, τὴν μελωιδίαν Rossignol : φησι καὶ τὴν μελωιδίαν M.

1 He mocked women through his poetry for the following reason: he had a homegrown slave-boy called Cephisophon, with whom he discovered his own wife cavorting. To begin with, he tried to persuade her to give up the indiscretion. But when she did not obey, he left his wife to him, since Cephisophon wished to have her. So Aristophanes, too, says:

Cephisophon best and blackest, for you lived for the most part with Euripides and, so they say, composed his lyrics with him.

2 λέγουσι δὲ καὶ ὅτι ⟨αἱ⟩ <αἱ> Kirchhoff γυναῖκες διὰ τοὺς ψόγους, οὓς ἐποίει εἰς αὐτὰς διὰ τῶν ποιημάτων, τοῖς Θεσμοφορίοις cf. Ar. Thesm. 181-2, 372 ff., 1160 ff. ἐπέστησαν αὐτῶι βουλόμεναι ἀνελεῖν. ἐφείσαντο δὲ αὐτοῦ πρῶτον μὲν διὰ τὰς Μούσας, ἔπειτα δὲ βεβαιωσαμένου μηκέτι αὐτὰς αὐτὰς Meineke : αὐταῖς M κακῶς ἐρεῖν. ἐν γοῦν τῆι Μελανίππηι Fr. 494, 1-3 Kannicht περὶ αὐτῶν τάδε φησί·

μάτην ἄρ’ ἐς ἐς Kannicht : εἰς M γυναῖκας ἐξ ἀνδρῶν ψόγος
ψάλλει κενὸν τόξευμα καὶ κακῶς λέγει·
αἱ δ’ εἴσ’ εἴσ’ Rossignol : εἰς M ἀμείνους ἀρσένων, ἐγὼ λέγω

καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς.

2 They also say that, on account of the criticisms which he made of them in his poems, women attacked him at the Thesmophoria, wishing to do away with him. But they spared him, first, on account of the Muses, and then because he made a pledge not to abuse them any more. In the Melanippe, at any rate, he says the following about them:

In vain, then, do men’s criticisms twang against women, an empty arrow, speaking ill of them. For they are better than men, I say…

And so forth.

3 οὕτω δὲ αὐτὸν Φιλήμων Fr. 118 K.-A. ἠγάπησεν ὡς τολμῆσαι περὶ αὐτοῦ τοιοῦτον εἰπεῖν·

εἰ ταῖς ἀληθείαισιν οἱ τεθνηκότες αἴσθησιν εἶχον ἄνδρες ὥς φασίν τινες, ἀπηγξάμην ἂν ὥστ’ ἰδεῖν Εὐριπίδην.

3 Philemon loved him so much that he dared to say the following about him:

If truly the dead had the powers of perception as some men say they do, I would have hanged myself so as to see Euripides.

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