Abstract

The second line of the poem in which Archilochus related his fable of the fox and the ape was a source of perplexity to Hellenistic scholars. According to Athenaeus Apollonius Rhodius explained it by reference to the Spartan practice of winding official dispatches round a staff or baton: τι δ λευκ μντι περιειλοντες τν σκυτλην ο Λκωνες γρφον βολοντο ερηκεν κανς πολλνιος διος ν τ περ ρχιλχου. This interpretation evidently failed to satisfy Aristophanes of Byzantium, who wrote a monograph περ τς χνυμνης σκυτλη' view has held the field