Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (4.1885-1886)

THE ATHENIAN PNYX.

213

VI. In the Knights of Aristophanes (v. 313) the chorus says that
Cleon looked down from the rocks, a-n-6 tCiv TrerpSiv avosOtv, as a tunny-
fisher from the rocks on the seashore. The word irerpSiv in this
passage is understood to refer to the Pnyx. In the passage quoted
above, Plato also refers to the Pnyx as a hill or height opposite
Lycabettus. Demosthenes (de cor. § 169) uses the words iras 6 &rjp.o<;
ai'M KaOrjTo; and Plutarch (Nicias 7) has the words <r/c/<:A?7o-ias ttotI
0U0-77S rov Srjpov Ka.8rjiJ.tvov avu>. In the Scholia to Aeschines in Tim.
§81, the Pnyx is called a height or hill, 7rayos ii/^Aos, \o$o% koXov-
/Atvos Hvv£. When the people met it was common to speak of going
up into the place of assembly, avafiawav ek rrtv kKKk-qo-lav.1 In the
Acharnians of Aristophanes (v. 20) Dicaeopolis is represented as
looking into the Agora.

The Pnyx must, therefore, have been situated on one of the promi-
nent hills of the city, and from it it must have been possible to look
into the Agora.

VII. In the Knights of Aristophanes, v. 754, Demos is spoken of
as sitting on a rock or Stone seat, orav 8' im Tavrrjcrl KaOrjraL rijs
■n-erpa^. In v. 783 of the same play he is told that Cleon does not
■care for his sitting uncomfortably on the rocks, eirl touo-l 7re'rpuis.
In the Ecclesiazusae, v. 21, Praxagora speaks of the women as
about to take seats in the Pnyx; and in v. 92 ff., of the danger that
they might expose themselves by stepping over the seats unless they
should be seated before the assembly became full. In the Wasps,
v. 33, the Athenians are derided for their sheepishness, and Sosias
is made to say that he saw in a dream the sheep sitting together,

7rp6/3aTa o-vyKa.Orjp.eva. in the Pnyx. The words Ka0<f'£o/xai and KaOrjpai

are often used in speaking of the people in the Pnyx. The scholiast
on v. 7S4 of the Knights uses the word fidOpa in speaking of the
stone seats in the Pnyx, and explains the word tovtC, which is used
by the Sausage-seller to designate something which he had brought
to Demos, to mean a cushion. The connection leaves no doubt
about this. In the Wasps, v. 42, Sosias says he thought he saw
Theorus sitting on the ground, x0-^'- but this is the only passage in
which this word is used, and Sosias here speaks of a single per-

1 Welcker, Fehaltar dts H'dchsten Zeus, p. 329 (65); Ross, Die Pnyx und
das Pelasgikon in A then, p. I.