Phot. Lex. ε 100 Theodoridis: ἔγχουσαν οἱ Ἀττικοὶ λέγουσι τὴν ῥίζαν, οὐ δὴ ἄγχουσαν, ἣν ἀπείρως Ἐρατοσθένης φυκίον. Ἀμειψίας Ἀποκοτταβίζουσι· ‘δυοῖν ὀβολοῖν ἔγχουσα καὶ ψιμύθιον’ (fr. 3 K.–A.).
Phot. Lex. ε 100 Theodoridis: The Attic writers call the root enchusa (alkanet), not anchusa, which Eratosthenes out of ignorance (thinks is) a seaweed. Ameipsias in the Cottabus-Players (writes): ‘alkanet and white lead at the price of two obols’ (fr. 3 K.–A.).Footnote 1
The entry on ἔγχουσα, ‘alkanet’, from the Lexicon of Photius belongs to a section preserved only in the codex Zavordensis (z); it was published in 1998 by Christos Theodoridis, the first editor of Photius who was able to use this manuscript.Footnote 2 The authority Photius mentions is certainly Eratosthenes of Cyrene, one of the greatest Hellenistic scholars, who was head of the library at Alexandria in the second half of the third century b.c. Eratosthenes holds an important place in the history of mathematics, geography and chronological theory, but was also a prominent philosopher, poet and grammarian: in the latter field his most influential work was a treatise On Old Comedy. The width and the variety of Eratosthenes’ interests inevitably make editing the fragments of his works a daunting task: the only complete collection dates back to the early nineteenth century, prepared by a young and already extremely learned Gottfried Bernhardy (Eratosthenica [Berlin, 1822]). The fragments of the work On Old Comedy have been edited by Karl Strecker in 1884; more recently, in 1998, Andreas Bagordo published a selection of the most important material from this writing, adding some recently discovered papyri.Footnote 3 For obvious reasons our fragment has not been included in any of the existing editions.
The roots of this plant, alkanet (ἔγχουσα/ἄγχουσα), yield a red dye Greek women used as a rouge.Footnote 4 It is one of the everyday items that are mentioned in Attic comedy, sometimes together with ψιμύθιον, ‘white lead’, used to whiten the skin, another common Greek beauty product.Footnote 5 The entry in Photius contrasts the Attic and the common Greek spelling of the word, and explains that ἔγχουσα was the root of a herb, finding fault with Eratosthenes, who thought it was a seaweed. A red pigment used as cosmetic was obtained from a type of water plant as well, a detail which might explain Eratosthenes’ confusion.Footnote 6 Photius offers a fragment of the comic poet Ameipsias, one of the rivals of Aristophanes (fr. 3 K.–A.), as an example of the usage of the word, a quotation that could possibly go back to Eratosthenes himself.
All other ancient definitions of the word ἔγχουσα connect the term to a herb's root, not to a seeaweed, so that the explanation offered by Eratosthenes remains isolated.Footnote 7 Another important source of information on the term is MS B of the Etymologicum Genuinum, which contains a detailed note on the word; it overlaps on some points with Photius and mentions further examples of the usage of the term, but does not include Eratosthenes’ explanation.Footnote 8
The fragment probably belonged to Eratosthenes’ lost work On Old Comedy, which comprised at least twelve books. This work remained a milestone in studies on comedy throughout antiquity: it dealt with a wide range of problems regarding comedy, from issues of authenticity to second stagings, antiquarian questions, Attic realia and rare words.Footnote 9 The discussion of a comic gloss such as the one we find in our fragment would certainly be appropriate to the content of this work.
The contrast between the Attic and the common Greek spelling of the word (ἔγχουσα / ἄγχουσα) is common in later sources.Footnote 10 It is possible that Eratosthenes commented on it as well, as we know that he had an interest in the Attic dialect. In other surviving fragments of On Old Comedy he analyzed Attic usage with the aim of identifying spurious plays; he questioned the authenticity of the Miners (Μεταλλῆς) of Pherecrates on the basis of linguistic usage and mentioned some mysterious ‘false Atticists’ (ψευδαττικοί) in connection with the identification of forged plays.Footnote 11 Of course, we are still very far from the prescriptive interests of rhetorical Atticism in the following centuries; Eratosthenes appears to be concerned rather with the observation of Attic diction, with the aim of detecting spurious works and corrupt passages in classical texts.Footnote 12
The entry in Photius preserves traces of a polemic against Eratosthenes, who is accused of ignorance in respect of his explanation of ἔγχουσα as an aquatic plant. A name we could possibly connect to this context is that of Polemon of Ilium, an antiquarian of the first half of the second century b.c., who was probably linked with the court of the Attalids at Pergamum. Polemon, who had an interest in Doric and Attic comedy, wrote a work entitled On Eratosthenes’ Sojourn at Athens (Περὶ τῆς Ἀθήνησιν Ἐρατοσθένους ἐπιδημίας), where he sharply criticized Eratosthenes and his defective knowledge of Attic customs and realia, even trying to demonstrate ironically that Eratosthenes had not ever been to Athens;Footnote 13 some of the surviving fragments of Polemon appear to target passages from Eratosthenes’ work on comedy, showing that Polemon was familiar with this writing.Footnote 14 The content of our fragment, which deals with a detail of material culture, fits in well with the argumentations we find in Polemon's work. We are certainly entering into the realm of speculation here, but we might think that the polemical statement about Eratosthenes’ ignorance originally derived from Polemon, who could not resist making fun of Eratosthenes’ mistake regarding a common Athenian item of toiletry.
