The Cologne Fragment of Alcaeus Lloyd-Jones, Hugh Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1968; 9, 2; ProQuest pg. 125

The Cologne Fragment of Alcaeus 
Hugh Lloyd-Jones 

REINHOLD MERKELBACH has lately published a new fragment 
of Alcaeus which is of great interest.1 Following the civilised 
practice of Girolamo Vitelli and his Florentine successors, 

Merkelbach has shown the piece to many scholars before its publi­
cation, and the first edition contains suggestions by many experts, 
including the two leading authorities on Lesbian poetry, Edgar Lobel 
and Denys Page. The first publication is admirably done and is 
accompanied by a good photograph of the manuscript, which prob­
ably dates from the first century of our era; Merkelbach compares 
the writing of POxy. 2295. I have little to contribute in the way of new 
readings, and owe much of the material here presented to Merkel­
bach's publication and to the commentary on a fragment of the same 
poem given by Page in Sappho and Alcaeus;2 readers will find it useful 
to have Merkelbach's publication in hand while studying this article. 
Still, I hope a rather fuller commentary on this important piece may 
be found useful. 

[ 
[ 

[ 

TEXT 

p:r/v8tK" 7a /LTJ ~-[v8tKa 7]a /LTJ £v 8tKfI K£[t]/L€V" 

]aavTas alaxvvL . .JTaTa ,..,.7JVDLKa 
]7]v DE 7T€pl'aAov[ T' av]aYKa 

AE[ V]O'/LW 

]~~VL ~lf.f)OAtWL 7T. L Jav· 

OtJ'TWS £tp"7 

K£ 8£0'/LOV 
7"T]V avaYK 

TJV 

1 8p&]aaJI'Tas- Merkelbach: alaxvv[vov}Ta Ta Lobel: alaxvv[8EvJTa Ta Page 
2 utrum avJ&YKaL (Merkelbach) an avJ&YKa (Page) incertum 3 aV]XEvL 
Merkelbach 

1 Pe%n. inv. no. 2021, in Zeitschr.jur Papyr%gie u. Epigraphik 1 (1967) 81f [cited hereafter 
as MERKELBACH]. 

2 POxy. 2303 fr.1(a) and (b)= fr.298 L.-P.; for commentary, see D. L. Page, Sappho and 
Alcaeus (Oxford 1955) 283ff [cited hereafter as PAGE, S&A]. The poem is mentioned in the 
ancient book on the early lyric poets published in Part 29 of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri; see 
p.l38 below. The piece appears as Alcaeus fr.l38 in D. L. Page's Lyrica Graeca Se/ecta 
(Oxford 1968) p.75. 

125 



126 THE COLOGNE FRAGMENT OF ALCAEUS 

[ ]'A ' , T 'A {3 'A Xatota 7JS 7T0 V € T€POV 
5 [ ] •. TJl!'r:tt- Ka'rEKral/OV 8fiocrvA'I(V)OVTC% 

[ 7T ]tt-p'~~€ol/r€s A iyats 
[ ]s ErVXOI/ OaAaaaas 
[ ]~v vavwt Ilpta!-'w mxrs 
[ , A]Oavaas 7ToAvAarSos 

10 [ ] , I , €7Ta7T7T€Va y€V7JW w/niJLJL£VT} 

[ ]I/€€S S~ m$Aw E7T7J7TOV 
[ ] ...... as Llatcf>o{3ov T' u!-'a 
[ ] " 8' [' ]' . v Ot!-,wya a7T v T~fX€OS 
[ ]' l8 ' .. Ka /, 7Ta wv avra 

15 [ ]9V 7T€SWV KaT7JJx€. 
[ A]~ Jaaav ~AO' oAoav EXWV 
[ ] !Xy'vasJ IlaAAaSos d O€WV 
[ ]9'/' O€ JoavAa/,G/, 7Tavrwv 
[ ]Ta l!-,aKapwv J 7T€cf>VK€. 

20 [ ]9't S' djLcf>o Jiv 7TapO€v{Kav EAwv 
[ ] 7TapwraKo Jtaav dyaA!-,aTt 
[ ] 0 AOKpOS 0138' E8€ Jta€ 
[ ] . os 7ToM!-'w 86r~p[p ]Jav 
[ ]v' d 8~ 8€ivov thr' [O]cf>p Jva/, 

4 Kat p.&.v K'] Merkelbach: ~ p.&.v K'] Kassel: Kat K' ws] Page 5 al 
rov 9€ofJA]~fJ~vra Page 6 iaws K€] Page: ovrw K€]? 71Tpaifrlpa]s 
Page: A'Y/or€pa]s Merkelbach 8 ip'Y/a 8'] vel y€patpa S'] Merkelbach 
9 ayaAp.'] Merkelbach: iKTwp] Page 10 K&'T71X'] Merkelbach: 
Kana8'] Page; E1Ta1T1T€Va Lobel: a1Ta1T1Tlva PColon.; y~w Merkelbach: Y€V€tw 
PColon. 11 8vap.€1vE"ES Merkelbach; 1ToA'Y/'? 12 ]YV Merkelbach 
13 €'1T€~v]9v(e.g.)Merkelbach 14fort. €,Aap.!f€ Ka]t 15 Jap8&.Vt]9V 
Page, Treu; incipit POxy. 2303 fro 1 (a) et (b) 16 init. Merkelbach; 
]v[.]avna9ott-.[.] €'Xwv POxy. 17 ES vavov (e.g.) Page, Kassel 
18 ~wr€aJat vel av8p€a]at Merkelbach: 9varot]at vel fJporot] at Page 
19 8€wora]ra Merkelbach: 1TtKpora]ra vel alvora]ra Page, S&A pp.283-84; 
p.aKapwv om. PColon. 20 xlpp€a]qt Page, S&A p.283: EV xlp]at West 
21 alp.vwt] Page: 9€as-] Kassel: lliwsJ Merkelbach 22 v{Jptaa'J Page 
S& A p.2S3: €'pvaa'] Merkelbach, Kassel: €,f'Y/AK'] West: fort. 7}taxvv' 
23 1Ta,Sa JJt9? Page, S&A p.283: rav {JapJ~9? West 24 yopyW1Tt]v 
Page, S& A p.283 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 

25 UJ.L[ l7TEH[L]8v(.M1ELua K~'T OtV07Ta ]p.(AOVTO S~ ["€K€!,[ • • ] 

]~£ T~" 'lToA£" Kat [ 

127 

f!. •. l7T6v ]T9[V] €K 0' acPavTOL[S 

Jga7T[tvasJ L €KVKa ()Vl» ... CXLS· 
]rov AZ( aVTo,) /5po(,) ~V0fy'9I,£f!'[ 0" 

aLoTJ . [ LJrf.>[ 
lpcuu. [ 

30 AZas ax,[ 
avopo~[ 

• • f.L9[ 
· . ~p. . [ 
~f3aaKe[ 

3S 7TavvvXLa[ 

1TpWTOW[ 
oELVa • • [ 

arte 1T(~v[ TOV 

cLpue {3{f!.[v 

40 ... 9'W~[ 
1TavTa 1T~[ 

• •• ]T9P99'[ 
9[ .. ]. POUEVOU[ 

ov9419EKCXJ.L[ 

4S ~weL ]LEV W . [ 

aTav{3pO'T.[ 

wvppaoov. [ 

€7TEL KEA'T}T9[ 

• .•• • 9'W7T[ 

]Xap£" a"Spo, 991 

25-31 o be lis notantur 25 up.[J'XEt Treu: up.['pSov Merkelbach 
26 aig[E 7TC5v}ro[v Page, S&A p.283 28 desinit POxy. 30 "a 
vel TJ" Merkelbach 32 "Statt fL kann vielleicht auch ap gelesen 
werden. Vor der Lucke ein runder Buchstabe, E oder U oder 0" Merkelbach 
33 ad init. fort. 7T Merkelbach; in tertio loco U vel E 37 fort. ~[Merkel-
bach 44 "ov vel8v" Page 46 "a vel TJ" Merkelbach 

In scholio sub v.24 posito, v.3] TOU Ai( aV'Tos) opo( s) ~V!~~rpf.L~!'{ov Lloyd-Jones 
et Rea: ]xova·9P.° €V!'\Er9f.L~!'[ Merkelbach 

TRANSLATION 

<c ••• (putting to shame?) those who (had acted?) unjustly. We must 
put a (noose 1) about his neck and destroy him by stoning ... it 
would have been far better for the Achaeans if they had killed (the 
man who offended against the gods); then as they sailed past Aegae 



128 THE COLOGNE FRAGMENT OF ALCAEUS 

they would have found the sea (more gentle) ... the daughter of 
Priam in the temple (clasped) the image of Athene, giver of much 
booty, holding its chin, while the enemy were besetting the city. 
(They killed) ... and Deiphobus, and a wail of grief (went up) from 
the wall, and the cry of children filled the whole (Dardanian) plain. 
(Ajax) came in deadly madness to the temple of holy Pallas, her who 
of all the immortal gods is (most terrible) to sacrilegious (mortals). 
And with both hands the Locrian seized the girl as she ... stood by the 
image and (ravished?) her, not fearing (the daughter of Zeus) who 
gives strength in war, (her of the fearful eyes?). But she went and (her 
eyes burned?) terribly beneath her brows, and she (darted) over the 
wine-dark sea and suddenly stirred up the hidden blasts of the 
storm ... " 

I 
When he discussed the Oxyrhynchus fragment at S& A p.283, 

Page classed the piece among the "Non-Political Poems." We now 
see that although it narrates a story from ancient myth, it does so in 
order to furnish an example that is meant to illustrate a modern 
happening. The citation of examples from past history to throw light 
on actual events3 is common already in the Iliad; among many 
instances, it is enough to recall how Achilles in urging Priam to eat 
with him reminds him that even Niobe in the hour of her deepest 
sorrow was persuaded to eat (24.602). Choral lyric took over the prac­
tice from the epic; in Aleman's Louvre Partheneion (fr.l) the story of 
the defeat of the sons of Hippocoon is used to point a moral (36f),4 
and in later poets of this genre there are innumerable instances. In 
monodic lyric there are naturally fewer cases, but even here the 
practice is attested. Sappho in a famous poem (fr.16) illustrates her 
declaration that the most beautiful thing on earth is what one loves 
by pointing to the case of Helen, who sacrificed everything for the 
sake of Paris.5 Aleaeus (fr.38) supports his advice to Melanippus to 

3 Many instances are listed and discussed in the invaluable Basle dissertation of Robert 
Oehler. a pupil of Von der Mtihll. Mythologische Exempla in der itlteren griechischen Dichtung 
(Aarau 1925). See also Ed. Fraenkel. Aeschylus. Agamemnon II (Oxford 1950) 461. 470. 

'H. Patzer. Die Anfitnge der griechischen Tragodie (Wiesbaden 1962) 104f. makes some 
good observations about Aleman in this connection, and about the history of this tcpos 
in choral lyric and in tragedy. On Pindar see C. M. Bowra, Pindar (Oxford 1964) 290f, 304f. 

6 See Page, SerA p.129. for other pOSSible instances in Sappho. 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 129 

drink and enjoy life while it lasts by recalling the example of Sisyphus, 
whose cleverness earned him a respite from death, but not for long.6 

If we had more long fragments of Alcaeus, I suspect that other mytho­
logical narrations in his poetry would turn out to be there in order 
to furnish examples; for instance, the story of how Helen left her 
husband and caused the Trojan War in fr.283 and the comparison 
between Helen and Thetis in fr.42 both look as if they were meant 
to point a moral. Had we more long fragments, the gap between 
"political" and "non-political" poems might be bridged in other 
instances also, as it has been in this. As in Sappho fr.16, this poem 
seems to have returned towards its end to the modern instances 
which the example was meant to illustrate, for at v.47 there seems 
to be an undoubted reference to Pittacus. That seems not to have 
been Alcaeus' invariable practice in such cases; the poem partly pre­
served in fr.42 ends with the end of the myth, as the coronis shows. 

COMMENTARY 

1 The poem begins in the middle of a sentence, and the first line cannot be 
restored with safety while we remain ignorant of what went before it. I see no 
need to assume the existence of a superlative form alaxvv[vla ]TCtTa (Merkel­
bach, p.85); what stood in the text was most probably a participle, either 
active or, less likely, passive. 
2 Merkelbach thinks that the first word of the second line meant something 
like 'a muzzle' or 'a halter'. 7 Unfortunately neither CPLfL6v J 1T<XaaaAOv nor 
ICAOL6v nor any of the commoner words meaning 'yoke' fits, and he can only 
offer cpop{3fjv, supposed to be a form of cpop{3wtv, which means a horse's feeding 
muzzle which is attached to a manger. Merkelbach takes avaYlCa to stand for 
the dative, and supplies the main verb of the sentence from what precedes. 
This may be right, but avaYKa as nominative would make sense; at fro 249 it 
is taken in this way by Page, S&A pp.196-7, and this is how Page prints it 
here. Merkelbach seems to think that the puzzling scholion indicates that 
avaYKa here means 'noose' or 'fetters'; but even if he is right in taking the 
word to be a dative, this sense is not necessarily relevant here, even if the 
author of the scholion thought so. It is quite possible that the scholion referred 
not to this word at all but to whatever word is missing at the beginning of v.2. 
Note that in the scholion 8€UfLOV (Page) and not 8€afLa (Merkelbach) seems to 

6 See Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry 2 (Oxford 1961) 162 and Ed. Fraenkel, Horace (Oxford 
1957) 185. 

7 Hirzel, op.cit. (infra n.12) 243-44, points out that victims of stoning were sometimes 
tied up so that they could not escape; thus in Philostr. Heroicus 7, Palamedes has his hands 
bound. 

3-G·R.B.S. 



130 THE COLOGNE FRAGMENT OF ALCAEUS 

have been written. At the beginning of the scholion Page prints T7}V 

CXUTXVV7JV: he tells me he would now accept T7}V CXY)(9!'?7!'. 

2-3 IfMerkelbach is right in taking the sense to be "We should place a halter 
about his neck and stone him," the verb at the end of v.3 must have meant 
<to crush', 'to punish', 'to kill', or else have been a verb that together with 
Acx{3o'Alw~ would yield the sense 'to stone'. The only verb that occurs to me 
that might do is ·1TCXAOlcxv. a1TcxAol:cxv occurs at Iliad 4.522 of the severing of 
tendons and at Callim. fr.260.1 of breaking off a horn (see HSCP 72 [1968] 125£), 
but is used by Nonnus, Dionys. 9.320 in the sense of' destroy'. But I do not feel 
confident that Alcaeus would have used the epic form of this verb, and offer 
it only with many reservations. AcxfJoAlw~ (glossed by A€VafLan) is new, but in 
view of Aa{3oAos in fr.68.3 (where it is used with gerundival sense, like AdJO­
A€VCT'TOS at Callimachus, Epigr. 41.5 pf. and Alexander Aetolus fr.3.12 Powell) 
it is not surprising. 
4 Kassel's.ry fLay K'J] suits the space, and also, I think, the style, better than 
Merkelbach's KCXt fLay K']: the latter combination of particles is not so far 
attested in the Lesbian poets. Clearly the sense is that the Greeks would have 
been better off if they had stoned Ajax the son of Oileus for having violated 
Cassandra in the temple of Athene, for they would not then have encountered 
the famous storm which scattered their returning fleet, leading to the death of 
Ajax and delaying the return of many others. See below, pp.136-8. 
5 Page's cxl TOV 8EofJAJq.fHVTCX suits the sense; for this verb, compare Aesch. 
Pers. 831 Aijgcx~ 8€ofJACXfJOUVO' {J1T€pK6fL1TW~ OpaaEt, where Broadhead is right 
against Groeneboom in taking the sense as active, 'damaging the gods', rather 
than passive. 
6 Page suggests taws K€ but I slightly prefer OVTW KE: the simplicity of the 
latter seems to me more like Alcaeus than the irony of the former. On Aegae, 
see below, p.138; Merkelbach must be right in thinking that a place of that 
name in Euboea is in question. 
7 Whether we adopt Page's 1Tpcxifdpcx]s or Merkelbach's (somewhat less 
attractive) A7JoT€pa ]s, a usage is in question which is not uncommon in prayers 
as when the Chorus of the Oedipus Coloneus (1482) say to the unknown daimon 
whose wrath they fear, €vcx~alov 8l aou nJXO~fL~. One implores a divinity that 
one may find him €vcxtuws, iA€WS, 1Tpaws: which inclines me to prefer Page's 
guess. 
8 Cassandra was not a priestess, so I do not like the suggestion tp7Jcx. Sappho 
fr.44.16 has the form nEpafLoLo and Alcaeus fr.42.2 has n€ppafLWL, but it 
would not be safe to conclude that Alcaeus really wrote ll€pafLW in this place. 
Alcaeus might well use the epic as well as the vernacular form of such a name; 
at fr.42.1l he has N7Jpd8wv. though Sappho (fr.5.1) has N7JP~L8ES.8 

8 See I. Kazik-Zawadzka, De Sapphicae Alcaicaeque elocutionis co/qre epico (Wrodaw 1958) 
43-44. 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 131 

9 7ToAvAarSOS' looks back to Athene's Homeric epithet of ay€A€LTJ; ef ATJ'iTtS' in 
the Doloneia (II. 10.460). 

10 a7Ta7T7T~va glossed by arpTJJL/1ivTJ is surprising. First, Lobel (ap. Merkel­
bach, p.87) must surely be right in suggesting that E7Ta7T1r~va instead of 
E1>TJJL,..dvTJ was intended; in similar contexts one often finds such verbs as 
Cx7TapTw/L'VYJ 'hanging from', but a compound of a7TT0f.tat 'I touch', would 

have Em- and not a7To-. Next, Merkelbach explains the form by comparing 
(J7T7TaTa the Lesbian equivalent of of.tf.taTa. But that is a noun, and here we are 
dealing with a verbal ending, which we should not expect to suffer this muta­
tion; none of the forms set out by E.-M. Hamm, Grammatik zu Sappho und 
Alkaios (AbhBerl195l) p.2l §30, which Merkelbach refers to, is parallel to this, 
nor do fr.130.10 and Sappho fr.24(b).5 serve to confirm it. Lobel and Page both 
think the word must be corrupt for the form with double /L, and it is hard 
not to agree with them. Or was this form an analogical absurdity forced into 
the text by the grammarians? 

The Lesbian form is y~vTJov as Merkelbach remarks Cef Alcaeus fr.120.9); 
Y€V€LW is probably an error. "The word must, on this evidence, mean 'chin' in 
Lesbian, not 'beard'," says Page (ap. Merkelbach, p.7). In other dialects also it 
can mean either 'chin' or 'beard', as LS] rightly say; but I know no other place 
where it is used of the chin of a female person. 

11 The lengthening of the iota of 7TOALV is surprising. Lobel suggests7ToALV<O'), 
thinking, presumably, of the two places in the Iliad where the expression 
Erp€7TOV KpaT€pWVVxas i7T7TOVS has the indirect object J/aTpoKAwL. But these 
do not prove that €1>~7TW can be treated as if it were a verb of motion; in this 
place the sense must be 'the enemy were besetting the city', and 7TOALVO' will 
not do. Page suggests inserting after 7TOALV a T' which would couple it with 
LJ a trpo{3ov in v.l2; but even if we leave out of account the gap which precedes 
that name, the sense favours a strong stop after E7TTJ7TOV. Merkelbach quotes 
K. Strunk for two attempts to explain the lengthening by linguistic arguments; 
but supposing either could be accepted (and I find neither compelling), why 
do we find this isolated instance? I am baffled by this phenomenon, but ob­
serve that a poet who uses the genitive form 7T6ATJOS (fr.41.18) might be 
capable of using the accusative form 7T6ATJa which occurs at [Hes.] Scut. 105. 

Callim. 43.60 must have taken it from early epic. 
In view of the occurrence of ErpTJ7TOV here, the supplement' m[7T[ OLUCtL at 

fr.45.5 becomes more plausible. 

12 What stood at the beginning of this line? Merkelbach interprets the traces 
at the beginning as vv but says that the apparent v may be a grave accent and 
the apparent 7T perhaps at; in the gap, there may be room for only one 
rather than two letters. Before as there is a small circle in the middle of 
the line, "rather small for {3 or p." I should expect to find here the names 
of Trojans killed together with Deiphobus; perhaps as was the end of 



132 THE COLOGNE FRAGMENT OF ALCAEUS 

the accusative plural of a patronymic, or else 1TctLOctS followed a genitive in 
-0£0. 

13-4 Merkelbach suggests SESctE, Page OPWPE; neither will do, since a perfect 
of this kind is equivalent to a present, and the historic present is not used in 
early lyric: see J. Wackernagel, Vorlesungen uber Syntax J2 (Basel 1926) 163, and 
other literature recently listed by R. Fuhrer, Formproblem-Untersuchungen zu 
den Reden in der fruhgriechischen Lyrik (Zetemata 44 [Munich 1967] 93-4). I find 
it hard to think of an adequate supplement; one might consider EActf-LrpE, if 
only the word were used in this way in lyric as it is in tragedy. 

Lobel and Page quote II. 22.447 KWKVTOV S' 7}KOvaE Ka~ ollLwyijs a1T(~ 

mJpyov. One is also reminded of Xenophon's memorable account of how the 
news of Aegospotami reached Athens: Ev oe TctLS 'A81}VctLS rijs- IIctpaAov 
''/'' I • '\ It,/.. I ., \, ~ n ~ <:' \ ~ a'f'LKOf-LEVTJS VVKTOS E/\EyETO 'T} aVf-L'f'opct, KctL OLf-LWY'T} EK TOV €LpaLWS OLa TWV 

f-LctKPWV TELXWV Els aaTV SLfjK€V, 0 ETEpOS TWL ETEPWL 1TapayyEAA.wv. Did the 
thing really happen, or did Xenophon remember what he knew from the 
poets ought to happen? 
14-5 Kassel well compares II. 16.78f ot S' aAaA'T}TwL l1Tav 1TEOlov KctTExovaL 

and Aesch. Pers. 426f ollLwyT] S' olLoiJ I KWKVf-LaaLV KaTELXE 1TEActylav &Act: 

note also Eur. Tro. 556f {3ott KaTELXE 1TEpyaf-Lwv ESpctS and Hdt. l.1l1 KActVOf-LWL 

KaTElXETO OtKOS. aim] in the Iliad regularly refers to the cry of fighting 
warriors. Behind the present passage seems to lie ad. 14.264-8= 17.433-7: 

~.I. -'\' A' I • <:' ~ __ \ \ I , • ctL'f'ct f-LctI\ LyV1TTLWV ctvopWV 1TEPLKctI\I\EaS- aypovs 

1T(Jp8EOV, EK S€ YVVctLKctS ayov Ka~ v1}1Ttct TEKVct 

av-rovs T' EKTELVOV. Taxa 0' ES 1T(~Aw iKET' aVT1}. 
<<:'\{3~ .... ""~,/.. ,'/'' OL OE o'T}S ctLOV7'ES aIL 'T}OL 'f'awof-LEVTJ'f'L 

~'\80v' 1TMjTO Se 1T(XV 1TESlov 1TE~WV TE Kai. i1T1TWV 

XaAKOiJ TE aTEp01TfjS. 

AapSaVLJ9V 1TESLOV will do well to signify what in the Iliad is called 1TESlov 

l:KalLavopLov (2.465), or 1TESlov 'IA1}i'ov (21.558), or TPWi'K6v 1TE8lov (23.464; 

cf lO.ll). In the Iliad the Dardanians are a special people, the subjects of 
Aeneas and Anchises, but later the word is a mere synonym for 'Trojan'. 
16 Compare Ii. 9.304-5: 

~ I ' ''E ' .. , ,\.. -1\ ~ • "'8 vvv yctp X KTOP E/\OLS, E1TEL ctV f-LctI\a TOL GXEOOV E/\ OL 

'\vaaav EXWV d'\o1}v. 

In the case of Ajax, as in that of Hector, the <madness' in question was to prove 
even more <deadly' to its possessor than to others. 
17 It is odd that elsewhere the epithet ayva does not seem to be applied to 
Athene before the paean of Lamprocles (PMG 735). It is not a prerogative of 
virgin goddesses, for in the Odyssey it is applied to Persephone (11.386) as well 
as Artemis, and in the Demeter hymn it is applied both to Persephone (337) 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 133 

and to Demeter (203, 429). Both Lesbian poets use it of the Charites (Aleaeus 
fr.386, Sappho frgg. 53, 108.8). It is often applied to temples, as in the Elean 
hymn to Dionysus (PMG 871.1-3) and at Aleman fr.14(b); here it is obviously 
appropriate. 
18 Lobel, POxy. XXI p.87, points out that fJeoaVATJS is shown to be an old 
Ionic word by Hipponax fr.1l8.1 Masson (=POxy. 2176.1), whereline 14 of the 
commentary supports his supplement OEo[uVAtV against OEo[aEXOp~v (Ed. 
Fraenkel, Kleine Beitriige zur klassischen Philologie I [Rome 1964] 242-3); cf 
Alcaeus fr.59(b), where LEpoavAos probably glossed the same word. The 
synizesis, rare as it is in Aleaeus, is not abnormal; cf Lobel, l:a7Trpovs M€A'T/ 
(Oxford 1925) pp.lxiii f. 9 avAaw is the vox propria for the spoliation of the gods; 
see K. Latte, K1. Schr. (Munich 1968) 416f. Apart from the regular use for 
the robbing or seizing of property, it is also used of the seizure of persons 
(as in the Delphian manumission inscriptions quoted by W. Schulze, Kleine 
Schriften [Gottingen 1934] 163), so that the seizure of Cassandra, just as much 
as a robbery from the temple, could be accounted an act of OEoav).{a. Still, 
this word, like £Epoav/Ja doubtless served as a general term for sacrilege. 

Among the various possible supplements rpWT€aJ~t is specially attractive 
because of its contemptuous note, but it is far from certain. 
19 Alcaeus fr.327.1 calls Eros oEwoTaTos fNwv. In Homer the verb rpvw, even 
in the perfect, always conveys the suggestion of growth; this seems to be the 
earliest place in which 7T€rpVKE means little more than <is'. 
20 Lobel, POxy. XXI p.87, shows that the dual is not abnormal. To the 
Lesbian instances of 7Tap{}€VlKa given by Page (Alcaeus frA5.5, Sappho 
fr.44.15) add now Sappho, POxy. 2357 frAA. 
21 7Tap€aTcXKOtaaV is the normal Lesbian equivalent of 1Tap€aT'T/Kv'iav: see 
Page, S& A p.284. 
22 Verbs meaning <drag' are regular in this kind of context; note 11. 60465 
lAK'T/{}f.LOS and 21.62 tAK'T/OEtaas .•• {}vyaTpas. Eur. Tro. 70 uses €AKEW of this 
very incident, and Lycophron's Cassandra says of herself lAKva{}~aOf.LaL (358). 

Still, I favour i}taxvv' or v{3ptaa'. With OVO' eOEtaEV compare II. 13.623-4 and 
Od. 22.39. In Quintus, Ajax <shames' Cassandra (i}taxvv€V 130422)10 and 
Athene says of Ajax ovo' eOOELaEv Ef.LOV f.L€VOS (140438). 
23 Page quotes Hes. Op. 356 ap7Tag ••• OavaToLO SOTELpa: there is also 
Pind. fr.109.3, where aTaaLS is called 1TEvtas 80TEtpa and Nic. Alex. 612.1ToAEf.Lw 
SOTEppav probably means <giver of strength in war', as in Pind. Paean 4040 
7ToAqLOV Lhos means <Zeus' might in war'. 
24 Perhaps it is fortuitous, but yOPYW7TOS and yopyW7TLS are so far attested in 
no author earlier than Aeschylus. With V7r' JrppvaL compare Il. 15.607f Ttil 8' 

9 Cf Kazik-Zawadzka, op.at. (supra n.8) 2I. 
10 Cf Triphiodorus 647-8: 

KaaaavSp7Jv S' iJ,axVl'€V 'Orilfjos -raxvs AiaS" 
IIa>..>..aSoS" axpaV70w Beij. V110 yovva m,aovaav. 



134 THE COLOGNE FRAGMENT OF ALCAEUS 

ot OUU€ I Aap:1T€ufJ'T]V (JAOUVpijLULV lm' og,pvuw. The context seems to de­
mand that the word following Og,PVUL should be a verb, and the only verb 
beginning with uJ-L- that seems at all likely to be suitable is UJ-L[VXEV which 
Treu has suggested; note KEV€a:l yap Vl7OuJ-LvxoVTaL 017Wl7a{ at Ap. Rhod. 
2.445. But see pp.134-5 below. 
25 The Suda s.v. lmo8pag quotes 

~ 8£ 17€AL8vw(JEiua Kal. OJ-LJ-LaUL Aogdv lmo8pag , , 
OUuOJ-L€VT) 

TOV7"€(J7'LV wXPLauaua Kal lmo{JA€l/;aJ-L€VT) 8La ~v omv. Pfeiffer rightly 
prints the quotation as Callim. fr.374; Hecker's conjecture that all hexameter 
fragments quoted in the Sud a without an author's name belong to the Hecale 
has not been controverted in a single instance, despite the large amount of 
new material discovered since his time (see R. Pfeiffer, ed. Callimachus n 
[Oxford 1953] Prolegg. ad Fragm. pp. xxxiii-xxxiv and on fr.238.21). Reitzen­
stein and Wilamowitz thought the person referred to was the angry Medea 
(see Pfeiffer ad loc.). But the great rarity of the word 17€AL8vwfJ€iua, together 
with the fact that Alcaeus applied it to the angry Athene, supports Pfeiffer's 
suggestion that the passage comes from the crow's description of Athene's 
anger with her; see HSCP 72 (1968) 141-2. 
26 c'X:~€ is conjectured here by Page. atuuw is, as he observes, often applied to 
the movements of the gods in Homer. He cites Il. 4.78, where it is said of 
Athene that iftg€v £l7l xfJova: four times (2.167,4.74, 7.19, 22.187) her action 
is described in the formulaic line {Jfj 8£ KaT' OiJAVJ-Ll7OLO Kap~vwv atgaua. 
oivOl7a 1ToVTov-in Homer usually preceded by £171., once by €ls-is yet 
another Homeric expression. 
26-7 Compare ad. 5.292.3 l7auas 8' opOfJvvEV a€Mas I l7aVTo{wv aV€J-Lwv; 
11 400 " '--\ I " " , •• I 14 254 " '--\ , • opuas apyW\€wv aV€J-Lwv aJ-L€yap-rov aVTJ-L?]V; . opuas apyW\€wv 
aV€J-Lwv £1T;' 1TOVTOV a~Tas; 24.110 opuas apyaA€OVS aV€J-Lovs Kal KVJ-LaTa J-LaKpa. 
For Jgal7tvas compare ad. 12.288 ifv 1TWS £gal7tVT)S ~A(}'T]L av'ftoto (}vfEMa; 

Ii. 9.6 Bop€?]s Kal. Z€cPvpos ••• £AfJOVT' £ga1TtVT)S; 17.57 lAfJwv 19a17{VT)S aV€J-LOS 
uVv AaO .. a1TL l7oMfjL. 

ag,aVToL[S is taken by Page to mean <dark'; he compares Parmenides 9.3 
q,afEos Kal. VVK'TOS ag,aVTov. This may be right, but I think it likelier to mean 
<invisible', <lurking', like the Latin latentes; compare Soph. Phil. 296-7, where 
Philoctetes, describing how he rubbed two stones together to make fire, says 
€v l7€TPOLUL 1T€'TpOV £K'Tpl{Jwv J-LOALS I Eg,'T]V' ag,aVTov g,ws. 

KVKaw is not used of winds in Homer, but it is applied to the action of 
Achilles upon the Scamander at Il. 21.235, 240, 324 and to the sea inside 
Charybdis at ad. 12.238, 241; Sappho has it in a different sense at fr.137.4. 
25-31 Vv.25-31 have the obelus against them, and Merkelbach points out 
that it probably stood against v.24 also. Page infers that the lines obelised were 
wrongly placed and guesses that vv.32-7 represent the stanza that should have 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 135 

followed vv.20-3. "We may have to suppose," he writes, "that 32 was one of 
the obelised lines, or that 32 represents a second writing of 24, after the error 
involved in 25-31 had been detected" Cap. Merkelbach, p.91). "This is sup­
ported," he argues, "by the fact that there is no Greek word beginning ap. 
which could have made sense between a 8~ 8EtVOVV7T' orppvatand7TEAt8vwOetaa: 
af.LJpSvov could not stand together with SetVOV and af.LlSvats (for -awt) would 
be contrary to the dialect." 
30 The word following ALaS' must, as Merkelbach remarks, have been some 
case of the word' Axatol. Perhaps the sense was that Athene brought ruin upon 
the Achaeans for the sake of one man's crime. Note the scholion that stands 
below v.24, and compare Lycoph. Alex. 365-6: 

<, ~'\ IQ " , , EVOS' OE I\WfJ'Y)S' aVTt, p.vptWV TEKVWV 
<E'\\' 'i: ~ , "-I.. l\I\aS' aTEVa~et 7Taaa TOVS' KEVOVS' Ta'f'OVS. 

and Triphiodorus 650 

avO' €vOS' 'ApYE{otatV ExwaaTo 7TaatV 'AO~VYJ. 

34-5 Page observes that vv.34-5 might well follow v.25, thus: 

] a 8~ 8EtVOV V7T' oCPPVat 
] 7TEAt8vwOEtaa, KaT OLvo7Ta 

"f3 ' ,~, '-1..' E aaKE 7TOVTOV, EK () a'f'aJITotS 
7Tavvvx{atS' EKvKa OVEA.A.ats. 

Although the simple verb {JaaKELV occurs elsewhere only in the imperative, 
Sappho fr.21.7 has a!-,cpt{JaaKEt, so that the articulation appears probable. But 
the conjecture is not recommended by the fact that, if it is accepted, OVEA.A.ats 
has to carry two epithets. According to most authorities, Athene was helped 
by Poseidon, who raised the storm which scattered the Achaean fleet. Did 
vv.34-5 refer to his action? 
37-9 Merkelbach (p.93) suggests "e.g. [KaT ° Lvomx] argE 7T6v[TOV, EK 0' 
arpaVTwv] cJJpaE {Jla[v avE!-'wv . •.. " Perhaps; but the repetitions in the text are 
not so startling as to compel us to believe that something like this has 
happened. Still, cJJpae is just the verb in which we should expect the action of 
raising the winds to be described. See above, on 26-7, and compare 11. 12.253 
cJJpaEv ..• aVE!-'Oto OVEA.A.aS' and Od. 5.109; for the winds, cf Od. 5.478 and 19.440 
aVE!-'wv ... !-'EVOS' vypov aEvTwv; note also Hes. Op. 625, Theog. 869. 
41 7TaVTat occurs at Sappho fr.44.28 and fr.65.9. 
47 wvppaoov is puzzling. Pittacus is called TOV "Yppaov . •. 7Tat8a at 
fr.129.13. Callim. Epigr. 1.2 pf. calls him 7Tat8a TOV <Yppaotov and this form 
occurs so often in the grammarians (see Pfeiffer ad loc.) that it must have been 
found in Alcaeus (so A.5.P. Gow, in The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams, 
ed. Gow/Page [Cambridge 1965] 205, on his Epigr. 54.2). Perhaps wvppa80v is a 
mistake for wvppa8tov. But in that case what is the initial omega doing? 



136 THE COLOGNE FRAGMENT OF ALCAEUS 

c1Jvpp&.8< t )ov might be part of some such phrase as c1Jvpp&.8wv Y€VdJAov, <0 
offspring of Hyrras'. 
48 Merkelbach recalls that the boat (&:Ka.nov) supplied by Mnemon for the 
return of Myrsilus occurs in a commentary on Alcaeus (fr.305 col. i 17-8). But 
that can have nothing to do with this passage, and we cannot know whether 
K€A1]TO[ here means <boat' or <horse'. For all we know, Ajax as he swam to the 
rock on which he eventually perished may have bestridden a plank as 
Odysseus did: &:iUP' EVI. 8ovpaT£ {3a'iv€, K€A1]O' WS 'l7T7TOV £Aavvwv (Od. 5.371). 

II 
The commentary shows the pervasive influence of the epic on the 

poem's style and diction; «the Epic theme, here as elsewhere, brings 
features of Epic style with it," as Page wrote with only the Oxyrhyn­
chus fragment before him (S& A p.285). The rape of Cassandra had 
been described in the lliou Persis and the storm in the Nostoi, as well 
as in the Odyssey (4.495f).11 The crime of Ajax led to the greatest 
catastrophe that befell the Achaeans during the whole Trojan epi­
sode; by transforming their chief helper among the gods into a 
deadly enemy, it plunged them in the very moment of their triumph 
into disaster. Alcaeus could have chosen no more signal example 
of the general truth that it is often better for a community to destroy 
a member of it who has incurred the anger of the gods, in order that 
its other members may not share his fate. 

The punishment of stoning, which according to Alcaeus the Achae­
ans would have been wise to apply to Ajax, was particularly appro­
priate to the perpetrators of crimes likely if unpunished to bring 
disaster upon the whole community. Rudolf Hirzel in a masterly 
paper12 showed that its origins go back to an early period of society, 
and that its special aptness for punishing such crimes lay in the fact 
that every member of the community could take a part in it, so that 
the collective guilt could easily be purged by its infliction. Originally, 
indeed, it was not so much a means of inflicting death as a means of 
extruding a member from his share in the community, as in the 
Ionian ceremony the cpapp.cxKol were extruded. In the Iliad Hector tells 
Paris that he deserves stoning (3.56-7), and epic and tragic poetry 
abound with references to that punishment. 

11 For the rape of Cassandra in literature, see Juliette Davreux, La Ugende de La pro­
plu!tesse Cassandre (Bibl. Liege 94. 1942) 42f; for a short bibliography, see Page, S&' A 285 n.l. 

12 "Die Strafe der Steinigung," in AbhLeipzig 27 (1909) 225f. 



HUGH LLOYD-JONES 137 

There can be little doubt that in the !liou Persis the Achaeans came 
near to stoning Ajax for his offence against Cassandra. The famous 
painting of the scene soon after the sack of Troy with which Polyg­
notus decorated the Cnidian Lesche at Delphi showed Ajax standing 
by an altar with a shield, OfJ-VUfJ-€VO~ iJ1TEP TOll €!; KaaarXvfjpav ToA/L~/LaTo~. 
Cassandra was sitting on the ground and holding the image of 
Athene, and Agamemnon and Menelaus, wearing helmets, were 
administering the oath to Ajax (Pausanias 10.26.3). A few chapters 
later, Pausanias mentions that Ajax and Odysseus were enemies 
because Odysseus advised the' Greeks to stone Ajax for his crime 
against Cassandra (10.31.2). 

- What oath was Ajax swearing? Carl Robert was certainly wrong 
in thinkingI3 that he was swearing to redeem his offence by instituting 
the famous tribute of the maidens whom his native country of 
Opuntian Locri later used to send to Troy. In a trial according to 
Homeric justice the defendant would deny his guilt on oath; thus 
during the quarrel that arose out of the chariot-race during the 
funeral games of Patroclus, Menelaus challenges Antilochus to deny 
on oath that he has cheated (II. 23.581f). Ajax presumably took an 
oath of this nature; such an oath might be seconded by friends of the 
swearer, who would take a similar oath on his behalf, 

It seems that some standard account described a trial of Ajax for 
his crime against Cassandra; perhaps Odysseus was the prosecutor. 
Carl Robert long ago made it probableI4 that the main authority 
followed by Polygnotus in his Iliou Persis was the cyclic epic of the 
same name. On the Cypselus chest Pausanias (1.15.3) saw "the kings 
assembled on account of the crime of Ajax against Cassandra." That 
too indicates that an early standard authority described a trial scene, 
and this was in all probability the !liou Persis. The most detailed 
account of the episode which we possess occurs in a work more than 
a thousand years later than the Iliou Persis, in the second of the 
Refutationes ascribed to Libanius and in the reply to it contained in 
the third of the Confirmationes attributed to that author. I5 Calchas 

18 Die griechische Heldensage III (Berlin 1923) 1268. The right view is taken by A. C. Pearson, 
The Fragments of Sophocles I (Cambridge 1917) 11. For the oath in Homeric legal procedure, 
see K. Latte, "Der Rechtsgedanke im archaischen Griechentum," Kl. Schr. 237. 

14 Hallisches Winckelmannsprogramm 17 (1893); see pp.74ff, esp. p.79. 
15 Libanius, ed. Forster, VIII (BT, Leipzig 1915) pp.1Z8f and 15of. The author was prob­

ably the fifth century sophist Nicolaus of Myra; see RE 12 (1925) 2520 S.V. LIBANIOS and 17 
(1936) 448 S.V. NIKOLAOS 21. 



138 THE COLOGNE FRAGMENT OF ALCAEUS 

tells the Achaeans that Athene is angry with them, and Ajax is put 
on trial; Odysseus prosecutes (Ref 2.9), but Ajax escapes by taking 
refuge at an altar. An assembly is held, and Menelaus insists on sailing 
for home at once, while Agamemnon stays behind to attempt to 
placate Athene. That last detail is given also in Proclus' summary of 
the Nostoi attributed to Agias,16 and it seems probable that the 
account given in the Iliou Persis and the Nostoi is being followed. 

Further there is an indication that the story of Ajax's trial was told 
by a commentator on the particular poem of Alcaeus which we are 
now discussing. In Classical Review N.S. 15 (1965) 72 I combined frgg. 
108 and 84 of the work on early lyric published as POxy. 2506 (in Part 
XXIX of the series) to give the following result: 

'J \ \ \ \' [J • , ~ [ a I\/\a KaL TO v V7TO TWV 
Ai]avTa KaT17(L)nap,EVo[v 

]a [E7T~] TflL KaaaeXv8pa[ L 
K ]a~ ya[p] ~tiT[ ~v TWL a] yeXAf.L [ an 

It seems likely that Ajax was said to have been 'accused' by the Achae­
ans for having committed a crime (e.g. 7TapavofL~aavTa) against Cassan­
dra, and that the writer went on to describe how he seized her as she 
clasped the image of Athene. The word 'accused' indicates that this 
author knew the story of the trial of Ajax, which as we have seen 
probably occurred in the Iliou Persis. 

The storm struck the fleet as it was passing Aegae (v.6). Merkelbach 
must be right in taking this to be the place in Euboea variously called 
Aige, Aigai and Aigaia and identified by Stephanus of Byzantium with 
Carystlls.17 In the Towneleian Scholia to the Iliad (13.21), this is said 
to be the Aegae to which Poseidon repairs from Samothrace to harness 
his chariot before travelling to Troy; the same view is taken by Strabo 
386 (cf 405). The unidentified author of a work called Nesias, 'the book 
of islands', cited in the scholia to Apollonius 1.1165 (p.105 Wendel) 
takes this to be the place from which the name of the Aegean Sea 
derives. 

In the Odyssey Ajax meets his end at the 'Gyraean rocks', which are 

16 Homeri Opera, ed. T. W. Allen, V (OCT, Oxford 1946) p.l08; E. Bethe, Ver Troische 
Epenkreis (Darmstadt 1966) p.36 (= Homer, Vichtung und Sage II [Leipzig 1922] p.182); A. 
Severyns, Recherches sur La Chrestomathie de Proclos III: La Vita Homeri et les sommaires du 
Cycle I (Bib!. Liege 132, 1953) ProcH Fragmenta p. xi. 

17 See W. Spoerri in Lexikon des jruhgriechischen Epos (Gottingen 1955-) 241f s.v. Alyal. 



• 

HUGH LLOYD-JONES 139 

regularly located in the neighborhood ofMykonos, Delos and Tenos.IS 

But Proclus in his summary of the Nostoi puts the storm and the death 
of Ajax near Caphereus, the southern promontory of Euboea; and 
most later authorities either give this version only or contaminate 
this version with the other in which the neighborhood of Delos is 
involved. Bethe in his book on the Trojan epics I9 assumes that 
Euboea came into the story only with the legend of Nauplius, who 
avenges the death of his son Palamedes at the hands of the Achaeans 
by lighting the beacon which lured them onto the jagged cliffs of the 
coast near Caphereus; he suppose~ that Proclus wrongly stated that 
the Nostoi mentioned Euboea through an accidental memory of the 
other version. But now that we know that Alcaeus mentioned Aegae, 
it becomes virtually certain that Proclus is correct. In the Odyssey the 
storm overtakes the Greek near Mykonos; but what is true of the 
Odyssey is not necessarily true of the Nostoi. If in later writers the 
location in Euboea is found together with the Nauplius story, that 
does not prove that the two went together from the start; the Nostoi 
might have made the storm strike near the Euboean coast without 
bringing in Nauplius. In fact Bethe himself (p.132) observes that 
Nauplius was mentioned in the Nostoi; Pausanias (1.22.6) mentions 
that his sons helped Aegisthus against Orestes, which Bethe (p.132) 
thinks he may have found in that epic. Although Athene and Poseidon 
caused the storm, so that Nauplius' wrecking activity is superfluous, 
the two stories are by no means inconsistent. For all we know, the 
story that the Achaeans, buffeted by the storm, saw what seemed to 

be a welcoming light and were lured straight onto the most dangerous 
rocks of the Mediterranean may be as old as the Iliou Persis. 

CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD 

March,1968 

18 See F. H. Sandbach, CR 56 (1942) 63f. 
19 op.cit. (supra n.16) 1I.l31 (= Homer, Dichtung und Sage 11.279). The reprinting of this 

work, invaluable for its edition of the fragments of the epics in question, makes it necessary 
to remind the reader that Bethe's thesis that 'The Little Iliad' was simply a name for the 
Aethiopis. Iliou Persis and Nostoi together was refuted by Severyns, RevPhil49 (1925) 162f.