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Grad. I

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Miss Gertrude T. Breed

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PETERSEN, WALTER, Latin Diminution of Adjectives

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Classical Philology

VOLUME XI

January 1916

NUMBER I

ΤΥΧΗ ΠΡΟΛΟΓΙΖΟΥΣΑ, ΑND THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE SPEAKER OF THE PROLOGUE

BY CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE

The mutilated prologue in the comic fragments published in PSI, 126, ends thus:

λοιπὸν τούνομα

[το]ἐμὸν φράσαι, τίς εἰμι· πάντων κυρία

τούτων βραβεῦσαι καὶ διοικῆσαι, Τύχη.

This adds another divinity to the list of θεοὶ προλογίζοντες. As a parallel to Túxn we naturally think, with the editor Vitelli, of "Ayvola in the Periceiromene. Other names will at once occur to every student of ancient comedy: 'Ańp in an unknown play by Philemon (άδ. 91), Menander's Ἔλεγχος (άδ. 545), Πάν(?) (Δύσκολος 127), Ηρως (Ήρως, dram. pers.), and possibly two δαίμονες in the Φάσμα (Kaibel, Men.2, p. lvi); likewise 'Huépa κai Núž (adesp. 819), Þóßos (adesp. 154), Aióvvσos(?) in the Strassburg fragment published by Kaibel (Gött. Nach., 1899, pp. 549 ff.), "Epws and 'Appodirŋ in a papyrus from Ghoran (BCH, XXX, 141), not to mention Plautus' Arcturus, Auxilium, Fides, Lar familiaris, Luxuria, Inopia, and Mercurius, or Afranius' Priapus (Inc. fab. ii), Remeligo (Prod. iii), and Sapientia (Sella i). That this custom of introducing a superhuman character to make the initial or explanatory speech of a comedy was not confined to the later period is proved by Aristophanes' use of Kaλλyéveia in his second Thesmophoriazusae (335) and by Philyllius' Aóρπa (8).

[CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY XI, January, 1916] 1

It is true that in these two cases from the Old Comedy we have personifications of days; but this offers no difficulty, and indeed the scholiast on Thesmophoriazusae 298 says that Aristophanes represented Kayéveia as a daiμwv, attendant on Demeter. Besides this we have of course the evidence given by tragedy, the sister of comedy, for the participation of divinities in the drama; and even if all such evidence were lacking, considering the origin of the drama, we should expect gods to appear.

It will be observed that Túxŋ appends her name as a mere tag to the expository prologue (λοιπὸν τοὔνομα | [το]ἐμὸν φράσαι τίς εἰμι) without bringing herself into any real relation to the comedy, even to the extent done by "Ayvola (Peric. 20 ff.):

μή ποτε

δι' ἐμέ τι τὴν "Αγνοιαν αὐτοῖς συμπέσῃ
ἀκούσιον, κτλ.

Although it is only a small matter of dramatic technique which is involved, it may be worth while to trace the descent, so to speak, from the forms by which in the earlier period of the drama the initial speaker was identified, down to this flat statement by Túxŋ. We are especially interested in the θεὸς προλογίζων, but it is obviously impossible to separate the divine from the mortal speakers.

The Supplices and Persae of Aeschylus each begins with a chorus, whose identity and relation to the drama are made clear in the opening songs. In the former play this is done by what we may call narration; in the second the identification is given by the opening words:

Τάδε μὲν Περσῶν τῶν οἰχομένων
Ἑλλάδ ̓ ἐς αἶαν πιστὰ καλεῖται, κτλ.

In the Prometheus, dialogue reveals the initial characters, none of which, however, is important throughout the play. But in each of the four remaining tragedies the first speaker appears alone and discloses his identity, not in direct statement, but incidentally while filling our minds with weightier matters. Thus the púλaέ in the Agamemnon centers our attention on the expected signal of Troy's fall and on his lord's return to his polluted home, but while so doing makes known his own position; in the Eumenides the opening words

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