A Boar in Stesichorus Huxley, George Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1966; 7, 4; ProQuest pg. 319

A Boar in Stesichorus 
George Huxley 

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CORDING TO Athenaeus (3.95D), Stesichorus described in his 
Syotherai a boar hiding the front of his snout beneath the 
ground: 

'P , ".I.. • 'P ()' .L.IT7JO'LXOpoS TE ..,.,'T}O'LV EV .L.IVO 'T}paLS' 
'.1. ... \ " Kpv..,.,aL OE pvYXos 

aKpov yas vTTlvEp(}Ev. [fro 44 Page]. 

Here Dindorf, with the approval of Snell in his discussion l of POxy. 
2359, conjectured Kp6!fE. "Offenbar ist," wrote Snell, "wie E. Kapp 
gesehen hat, der Infinitiv dadurch eingedrungen, dail ein Abschreiber 
Abhangigkeit von CP7}O'LV annahm." 

It is the context of the fragment which interests us here. Sir Maurice 
Bowra has remarked: 2 "We do not know why the boar does this, 
and we might conjecture equally that it is preparing for the fight 
or that it has been wounded and gives it up." In either circumstance 
the gesture would be rather odd. Nor can the creature be uprooting 
trees as the Calydonian boar is said to have done (Iliad 9.540-542): 

" "'" ., ... >t(} O' ~ " , os KaKa TTOI\/\ EPOEO'KEV E WV LV'TJOS al\w'T}v' 
TToX\a 8' 0 yE TTpO(}€Avp.va xap.al {3aAE 8lv8pEa p.aKpa 
airrfjO'LV pt~TlO'L Kat aUTO'S aV(}EO'L P.~AWV, 

for uprooting would require a thrust by shoulder or flank above 
ground. There is another, and more likely, explanation. 

Wild boars are specially fond of underground foods, and unearth 
them with their snouts, just as the domesticated pigs of Perigord sniff 
out and unearth truffles. In ancient Greece there were many foods 
suited to boars and pigs which, according to the season, may have 
foraged for grubs, worms or acorns, for example. 3 

We may suggest therefore that Stesichorus is here describing a boar 
nosing a root out of the ground. The fondness of pigs for underground 

1 "Stesichoros' EY08HPAI," Hermes 85 (1957) 250 n.3=Gesammelte Schriften 80 n.3. 
I Greek Lyric Poetry2 (Oxford 1961) 97. 
a Orth, in RE 2A, I (1921) 807.19ff S.V. SCHWEIN. 

319 



320 A BOAR IN STESICHORUS 

food is noted by Aristotle in Historia Animalium 8.6.2: pL~ocpa'Yov OE 
'\ • '" , , ~ Y' "" , '" ..1..' '" " JLCX/UUTCX 7} VS EU'" TWV '=CfJwv aLCX TO EV 7TE't'VKEVCXL TO PVYXOS 7TpOS T7}V 

, , , 
E pycxutav TtXVT7}V. 

Meineke's change to EV Evo(JrlP~ is to be rejected as needless. Stesi­
chorus, Athenaeus is saying, wrote about Pigs tickers, not just about 
a boar hunt. Their quarry was almost certainly the Calydonian boar, 
and POxy. 2359 col. 1 (Stesichorus fr.45 Page) may well be a list of 
the heroes who took part in the hunt. Perhaps they caught the boar 
unawares, while his attention was engaged in unearthing a root. 

THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST 

September, 1966