O'SULLIVAN, JAMES N., Asius and the Samians' Hairstyle , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:4 (1981:Winter) p.329 Asius and the Samians' Hairstyle James N. O'Sullivan A THENAEUS, discussing the usages of the various lonians, has occasion to cite some verses of the poet Asius (525 E-F): nepi of. rijt; E ajliwv rpV(pijt; LJOVPlt; laropwv napariOeral :4aiov nOltljlara, OU erpopovv XAloWVat; nepi roit; {Jpaxioalv Kai rl1v eop­ r~v dyovre~ rrov 'Hpaiwv e{Jdl51(oV KareKTeVulJ1.ivOl ra~ KOJ1.a~ eni ro jleulrppevov Kai rout; WjlOVt;. ro os VOJ1.1J1.0V rovro J1.ap­ rvpeia8al Kai uno napoljliat; T11aOe "{Jaoi(elv (de;) 'Hpaiov ejl­ nenAeYJ1.ivov." eari os ra r06 J4 aiov en,., ovrwt; exovra· of b' aiJrwe; rpoireaKov onwe; nAoKG.flOVe; Kreviaazvro de; "H pae; riflevoe;, nen VKaa flivOl ei'p,aal KaAoi~, XlOviolal Xlrwal nibov x(}ovoe; evpioe; eixov· xpuaelal be KopuflPal br' avrwv rirrlyec; we;· xairal b' ywpevvr' dviflqJ xpvaiOle; tvi beaflOie;, bazbG.AeOi be x Albwvee; ap' dflrpi ppaxioalv qaav, .......... ree; vnaaniblOV nOAefllanjv. In this article I shall support a change in the verses of Asius quoted above which was first proposed by A. F. Naeke in 1817 and occurred independently to me as I read the transmitted text. Naeke said little in favour of his conjecture 1 and, though adopted by Kinkel,2 it has in general been ignored by later scholars.3 The change seems to me to be entirely necessary and it is time that the case for it was put. C. M. Bowra, in his full discussion4 of the Asius fragment, translates it as follows: 1 Choeri/i Samii quae supersunt collegit et illustravit ... A. F. Naekius (Leipzig 1817) 75: "Mox quo referaturavrwv, vel quod aliquanto melius iudico, avrtwv, non dubium est, instaurato, ut a me factum est, versuum ordine. Qui quod perturbatus fuerit, non mirum in fragmento poetae antiquissimi, et ipsa antiquitate obscurati. Tov na..l.a!ov 6Keivov appelat Asium Athenaeus III. p. 125. C. Thucydidis testimonio, quod Casaubonus attulit, illud addiderim Suidae enotatum in v. KOPVJ.lPOI: K0J.l"V rpef{Jw XpvurP urp0f{JQJ KeKOpVJ.lpwjliv"v. Quae ex Nicolao Damasc. desumpta esse docuit me Schneiderus in v. KopVJ.lP6w." 2 G. Kinkel, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta I (Leipzig 1877) 206 fro 13. 3 E.g. M. Bieber, RE 11(1922) 1455 s.v. "Korymbe"; F. Jacoby, FGrHist 76F60; Gomme (infra n.6); Bowra (infra n.4); Huxley (infra n.9); the most recent editors of Athenaeus, Kaibel (Teubner, 1890) and Gulick (LCL, 1933). 4 Hermes 85 (1957) 391-401, reprinted in On Greek Margins (Oxford 1970) 122-33. 329 O'SULLIVAN, JAMES N., Asius and the Samians' Hairstyle , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:4 (1981:Winter) p.329 330 AS IUS AND THE SAMIANS' HAIRSTYLE In the same way, when they had combed their hair, they used to march to the precinct of Hera, wrapped closely in fine cloth­ ing, and filled the floor of the wide earth with their snowy garments. On them were golden fastenings like cicadas; their hair, in golden bands, was tossed by the wind, and about their arms were bracelets finely wrought ... a warrior under his shield. Apart from the half-obliterated last verse, the chief problem is in verse 4. rirrle of 'ornament', 'fastening' vel sim., is elsewhere used only in connection with hair;s and KOpVJ.Lpm seems definitely to be related to KOpVJ.LPOC; and KPWPVAOC;, words that denote a kind of hairstyle.6 But since br' avrwv, 'on them', could not refer to the Samians' hair, mentioned in the following verse, 7 and golden KOpVJ.LPm can hardly refer to a hairstyle, and a hairstyle could hardly be compared with cicadas, Bowra takes avrwv as referring to Xlrwul and KOpVJ.Lpm as denoting ornaments or fastenings on the Samians' garments. As the text stands, Bowra is certainly right that avrwv would have to refer to the garments, and he is also right that golden KopVJ.LPal 'like cicadas' can hardly denote hairstyles. But his attachment of KOPVJ.LPaz to dress, which ignores the con­ stant association of riTTl~ with hair and with KPWPVAOC; and KO­ PVJ.LPOC; in contexts in which hairstyle is in question,8 is far from secure. His citations from Etym.Magn. 311 (eYKOJ.LPWJ.La· (} beUJ.LOC; rwv Xelpfbwv, 0 AiYeral nap' :4. ()"vaiou; IJX()OIPOC;. uno be aAAWV KOUVJ.LP,,) and Hesychius (KopVJ.Lpaur 7tepI6poJ.LOIC; 61' wv uvumiral yvpya()oc; Kai KeKpvqJaAoc; Kai 6eUJ.Loi) cannot be regarded either as connecting KOPVJ.LP" -a cognate of KOUVJ.LP" and KOpVJ.Lpac;, both fastenings of sorts-specially with XlrwVeC; or as excluding a pos­ sible association of it with hair. But the Hesychius entry is, as we shall see, probably of significance for the interpretation of the Asius fragment. Before presenting the solution I favour to the problem in Asius' verses, it is necessary to consider G. L. Huxley's recent attempt to interpret them.9 He translates them as follows: 5 LS] S.v. Te-rTIC; 1.2; E. Schuppe, R£2 5 (1934) 1111-13 s.v. "Tettix." 6 See A. W. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides I (Oxford 1945) 101ff (on Thuc. 1.6.3). 7 1t).OKa!LOV~ in v. 1 is of course too remote to be referred to here. a See Gomme (supra n.6) 102f. 9 Greek Epic Poetry from Eumelos to Panyassis (London 1969) 96. Cf. Gulick's transla­ tion (LeL): "And they, even so, whene'er they had combed their locks, would hie them to the precinct of Hera, swathed in beautiful vestments, with snowy tunics that swept the floor of wide earth; and golden head-pieces surmounted them, like cicadas; their tresses waved in O'SULLIVAN, JAMES N., Asius and the Samians' Hairstyle , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:4 (1981:Winter) p.329 JAMES N. O'SULLIVAN Even so they used to walk, whene'er they had combed their locks, to the precinct of Hera, swathed in fair garments; with snowy tunics they swept the floor of the broad earth; and golden brooches like cicadas surmounted their topknots as their hair in its golden bands waved in the breeze; and deli­ cately wrought bracelets encircled their arms ... a warrior sheltered beneath his shield. 331 'Swept' is hardly right for eixov (lit. 'occupied', 'covered') as against Bowra's 'filled'. The inclusion of both 'brooches' and 'top­ knots' seems to be an impossible attempt to combine Bowra's interpretation of KopvliPaz with the older view; a word denot­ ing hair for avrwv is, as the text stands, impossible, and in any case 'topknots' cannot be right: it is clear from verse 5 and from the words that introduce the Asius fragment in Athenaeus/Duris (KareKreVU7/1evOl rae; KO/1ae; erri ro /1er(uppeVOV Kai roue; Wf.1 0 ve; ) that the Samians' hair was not done up in topknots. Huxley's sugges­ tion that "the writer [Asius] is perhaps not so much looking far back in time as looking at an event in Samos from elsewhere and describing his countrymen ... for foreigners" is hard to reconcile with the imperfects qJOireaKov, eixov, tjwpd5vr', ,;aav, and the tem­ poralonwe; ... Kreviaalvro, all clearly referring to a repeated event in the past. Now the proposal I support. We should, as we have seen, expect ornaments or fastenings called, or compared with, rerrlyee; to be for the hair and this expectation is strongly reinforced when we find that word in association with a close linguistic relative of KOpVf.1POe; IKpWPVAOe;, even when that relative cannot have quite the same sense as those words (see infra n.13); and in this context, where hair is so prominently mentioned, there seems to me to be no likelihood that KOPV/1Paz and rerrlyee; are not to be connected somehow with hair. As the text stands, however, this connection is disrupted. The solution is to change the text, by transposing verses 4 and 5: of <5' avrwe; qJOireaKov onwe; nAOKa/10Ve; Kreviaalvro de; 'Hpae; ref.1eVOe;, nenVKaaf.1eVOI ei'/1aaz KaAOie;' xlOveOial XITwal ne<5ov x(}ovoe; eVpeoe; eixov· the breeze mid their golden bands, and bracelets wrought with cunning circled their arms ... a warrior sheltered beneath his shield." The original appearance of 'swept' here may have had little enough to do with eixov (which both Gulick and Huxley print): cf. the information in Schweighauser's Animadversiones VI (Strasbourg 1804) 404: "Tertium versum latine sic reddiderat Dalecampius: terraeque late niveis tunicis solum radebant: quasi legisset evpv eaulpov, ut monuit Jacobs, Exerc. Crit. T. I pag. 121." O'SULLIVAN, JAMES N., Asius and the Samians' Hairstyle , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:4 (1981:Winter) p.329 332 ASIUS AND THE SAMIANS' HAIRSTYLE xaiTal <>' 1jOJpevvT' dvel1qJ xpvaeou; evi <>eal1oir;" xpvaewl ~e KOpVI1Pal be' aVTwv TiTTlyer;, wr;,· ~al~uAeol ~e XAl~wver;, ap' dl1ffJi ppaxioazv ,;aav, ........ , .. Ter;, vnaani~lOv no Ael11anjv . In the same way, when they had combed their locks, they would go into Hera's precinct, wrapped closely in beautiful garments: with snow-white tunics they filled the floor of the broad earth; their manes of hair waved in the wind in golden bands, and on them were golden clasps (?) like cicadas; and around their arms were finely wrought bracelets ... a warrior under his shield. Verses 3, 4, and 5 all begin with the letter x; a scribe omitted either verse 4 or 5, thinking he had already written this verse beginning with x, and then added it in the margin; a later scribe wrote it back into the text in the wrong place. It is not clear exactly what kind of hairstyle is described. The hair was long (see the words that introduce the verses, quoted above) and it waved in the wind (v. 4 of my text),10 but at the same time it was evi ~eal1oir;" and Athenaeus tells us that the Samian practice described in the verses was also attested by the byword pa~i'elv (eir;,) 'Hpaiov 8l1nenAeYl1evov. It seems very probable that the Samians had some of their hair flowing down free at the back (KaTaKTevlal1eVOI Tar;, KOllar;, eni TO l1eTuffJpevov Kai TOUr;, wl1ovr;,) and the rest bound, perhaps in plaits (el1nenAeyp,ivov). Compare the statuettes (one of them of ca 600 B.C. from the Heraeum) men­ tioned by Bowra,l1 and the description in Xenophon of Ephesus (1.2.6) of Antheia's hair as she leads a procession of maidens at the Ionian festival of another goddess, Artemis: KOI1'1 eav81j, ~ nOAA1/ Ka8ell1ev'l, oAfy'l nenAeyp,iV'l, npor;, T1/V TWV dvel10Jv ffJOpav KIVOVl1ev'l. In the Gallus relief referred to by Gow and Page in their discussion of Anth.Pal. 6.219.3-4, the four thin plaits one can see, two on either side of the face, hardly contain all of the Gallus' hair; the rest should perhaps be thought of as flowing free at the back. 12 The bound hair in Asius was in golden ~eal1of. The KOPVI1- 10 We should expect loose-flowing hair in connection with trailing garments at a religious festival: see N.]. Richardson, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Oxford 1974) 203 (on lines 176-81). 11 Bowra (supra n.4) 395-96 (127 of reprint): "A bronze statuette of c. 600 B.C. from the Heraeum shows a young man whose hair falls on his shoulders at the back and is dressed in front in two sausage-like ringlets IA. Buschor, Altsamische Standbilder I (Berlin 1934) Taf. 5, 7. 8], while another statuette has two such ringlets on each side in front [Taf. 29, 31, 32]." 12 Hellenistic Epigrams II (Cambridge 1965) 85; ]HS 80 (1960) pi. 8. O'SULLIVAN, JAMES N., Asius and the Samians' Hairstyle , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 22:4 (1981:Winter) p.329 JAMES N. O'SULLIVAN 333 paz will have been ornamental fastenings 13 on the ~eaf1.oi, and err.' aVTcOV will probably refer not generally to the hair but specifically to the ~eaf1.oi. This is supported by the words Bowra cites from Hesychius: Kopvf1.Pdar nepl~p6f1.01r; ~,' WV avamlTal yvpya8or; Kai KeKpvrpaAOr; Kai ~eaf1.oi. Not only is Kopvf1.Pdr;-perhaps even a synonym of KOPVpP'1-a kind of fastening, but it is used somehow to fasten <>eap.,oi, and is moreover associated with KeKpurpaA.Or;, which often means 'hair-net' and occurs (in pI. of a single hair­ style) together with KOpVf1.POlr; in Anth.Pal. 6.219.3-4. Though the evidence does not allow quite confident statements about the exact nature of the hairstyle, or the ~eaf1.oi, or the KOPVf1.­ pal, it seems certain that verse 4 of the transmitted text has to do with hair and that the transposition I favour is necessary. It is worth making the stylistic observation that in the new text the repetition xpvaeolr; ... / xpvaezaz ~e ... gives a pleasing rhetorical effect, whereas the repetition of 'golden' in the transmitted text is somewhat awkward. LEXIKON DES FRUHGRIECHISCHEN Epos, HAMBURG July, 1981 13 With the difference in meaning that this involves between the closely related KOpVj.lPOr; (hairstyle) and KOPVj.lP" (ornamental fastening on hairstyle) compare e.g. the two related meanings of the one form ej.l1t).oKIOV, 'a fashion of plaiting womens' hair' (LSJ S.v. 1) and 'hair-clasp' (2). On the use of gold to ornament the hair see Bowra (supra n.4) 396-97 (127-28 of reprint).