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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013
As the last of his ‘artis metricae scriptorum testimonia’ for Stesichorus, 275 (b), Page gives the following entry: ‘Suda iv 586 A[dler] s.v. τρία Στησιχόρου … ἐπῳδικὴ γὰρ πᾶσα ἡ Στησιχόρου ποίησις; Diogenian. cent. vii 14 (et alii) οὐδὲ τὰ τρία Στησιχόρου γινώσκεις, sim. al., vid. L–S ad loc. i 288’. There are, in fact, far more testimonia than indicated by the out-dated and rather meagre note of Leutsch-Schneidewin, and it is essential to discover the way in which these various references are phrased. For an attempt to reach the original form of the proverb, and an interpretation based on the exact wording of this original, was the basis of Otto Crusius’ ‘Stesichorus und die epodische Composition in der gr. Lyrik’, the only truly critical examination of the proverb's various forms and sources that has so far been undertaken.
1 PMG p. 135.
2 In what follows L–S = Leutsch, E. and Schneidewin, F. G.. Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum (Göttingen 1839Google Scholar: repr. Hildesheim 1958) and Corp. Par. Gr. Suppl. = the Supplement to that work (Hildesheim 1961)Google Scholar containing six articles adding to the paroemiographic corpus. Miller = Miller, M. E., Mélanges de littérature grecque (Paris 1868; repr. Amsterdam 1965) on pp. 341 ff.Google Scholar of which was published for the first time the Athous text of Zenobius' collection of Greek proverbs. On these last two works see Bühler, W., ‘On Some MSS of the Athous Recension of the Greek Paroemiographers’, Serta Turyniana, Studies … in honor of Alexander Turyn (Urbana 1974) 412Google Scholar.
3 Note Bühler's conclusion (n. 2) that ‘for an accurate knowledge of the transmitted wording and a conclusive appreciation of the mutual relationship of the texts, it is still indispensable to refer to the manuscripts, since several of the transcriptions are either inexact or incomplete or both’. Bühler's article is fundamental for the textual transmission of the corpus of Greek proverbs, and he has placed me further in his debt by sending me additional information about the sources of the proverb considered here.
4 In Commentationes Philologae (quibus Ottoni Ribbeckio … congratulantur discipuli Lispsienses) (Leipzig 1888) 3 ff.Google Scholar
5 Bühler (n. 2) 411.
6 For ‘alphabetization in this kind of literature’, as ‘always open to the suspicion of later origin’ see Bühler (n. 2) 410 and n. 2.
7 See Ed. Fraenkel, , Philol. lxxxvii (1932) 470 ff.Google Scholar = Kl. Beitr. i 465 ff.Google Scholar
8 τὰ Στησιχόρου by analogy with τὰ Αἰσχύλου etc. (cf. τῶν Αἰσχύλου … τι from the Clouds as cited in the text). This nuance of the definite article is not recognised by LSJ s.v. ὁ, ἡ, τό but cf. Athen. xiii 610c = Stes. fr. 199P ἐκ τῶν Στησιχόρου (rightly translated ‘from the poems of Stesichorus’ by Gulick, C. B., Athenaeus vol. vi [Loeb 1937] p. 289Google Scholar), and Σ RV on Ar., Pax 797 ff.Google Scholar = Stes. fr. 212P: ἐστὶ δὲ παρὰ τὰ Στηαιχόρου (παρὰ Στησιχόρῳ V) ἐκ τῆς ᾿Ορεστείας (correctly rendered ‘this comes from the passage of Stesichorus’ by Edmonds, J. M., Lyra Graeca ii [Loeb 1924] p. 53Google Scholar). For ἔπη used of Stesichorus' lyric verses see Heraclides Ponticus fr. 157 Wehrli καθάπερ τὴν[sc.λέξιν]Στησιχόρου τε καὶ τῶν ἀρχαίων μελοποιῶν οἵ ποιοῦντες ἔπη, and Paus. ix 11.2 = Stes fr. 230P Στησίχορος ὀ ῾Ιμεραῖος καὶ Πανύασσις ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν έποίησαν .
9 Textgeschichte d. gr. Lyriker (Berlin 1900) 35Google Scholar; Sappho und Simonides (Berlin 1913) 242Google Scholar.
10 See, for instance, Korzeniewski, D., Gr. Metrik (Darmstadt 1968) 12, 129 f.Google Scholar, or West, M. L., CQ xxi (1971) 312 f.Google Scholar
11 See, e.g., West, , CQ xxiii (1973) 180Google Scholar.
12 The scheme does not imply that Stesichorus' poems were composed for the chorus. I shall expand upon this in my commentary: for the moment see e.g. West (n. 10) 309, 313, Haslam, M. W., QUCC xvii (1974) 33Google Scholar.
