DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0405
THE TROJAN HORSE. 383
Olympiads before the archonship of Eucleides, since it still retains the
E for H, the A for T, and V for A.1 As it is of the nature of comic
poetry to allude to the freshest novelties, the line quoted from the
' Birds' of Aristophanes doubtless alludes to this horse, then recently
erected; or a little before Olympiad 91.2 = B.C. 414, when that play
was brought out (Clinton under the date). And this epoch agrees with
the palaeography of the inscription.
We know from another passage in Pausanias, that Strongylion was
famed for making oxen and horses.2 Professor Eoss thinks that, as
Pausanias uses the word firjxdvrjfui (c. 23, 10), the horse in question
must have been an imitation of the original rude wooden machine. But
firf)(av7]na there applies only to the Trojan horse; and Strongylion in his
bronze one was not obliged to follow the original model, which indeed
existed only in imagination. And when Pausanias goes on to say that
the bronze horse was made in the same manner (jcal 8rj tov ya^Kov to
0"%%ia ecru Kara ratiTa), axv/J-a there refers to the words that imme-
diately precede; viz. that the leaders of the Greeks were in its belly
(Xeyerat 8e e? re eiceivov tov lttttov, co? tSiv 'YLXK-qvaiv evSov eyoi toiis
apio-rowi); and he means that the bronze horse was made in the same
fashion, in that respect. For Strongylion would hardly have disfigured
the Acropolis with so clumsy an animal as the wooden horse must
have been, or have lost such a capital opportunity to display his art
conspicuously.
We will only further observe, that in these days, when it is so much
the fashion to depreciate the accuracy of the ancient writers, it is grati-
fying to find so striking and ocular a proof of the correctness of
Aristophanes, of his scholiast, and of Pausanias.
Next to the horse was a statue of Epicharinus practising running in
armour, the work of Critias. The common text has eirl Xaptvov (though
some MSS. have 'Emxaplvov), and was thought to mean in the archon-
ship of Charinus, b.c. 308. This senseless reading was discarded by
Meursius, who adopted that of 'Eirt.xupp.ov, found in one or two MSS.3
1 There is a fac-siruile of the inscription Koss, Arch. Aufs. i. I'll sqq.
in Rangabe, Ant. Hell. t. i. No. 41 ; cf. * ix. 30, 1. * Cecropia, c 11.
Olympiads before the archonship of Eucleides, since it still retains the
E for H, the A for T, and V for A.1 As it is of the nature of comic
poetry to allude to the freshest novelties, the line quoted from the
' Birds' of Aristophanes doubtless alludes to this horse, then recently
erected; or a little before Olympiad 91.2 = B.C. 414, when that play
was brought out (Clinton under the date). And this epoch agrees with
the palaeography of the inscription.
We know from another passage in Pausanias, that Strongylion was
famed for making oxen and horses.2 Professor Eoss thinks that, as
Pausanias uses the word firjxdvrjfui (c. 23, 10), the horse in question
must have been an imitation of the original rude wooden machine. But
firf)(av7]na there applies only to the Trojan horse; and Strongylion in his
bronze one was not obliged to follow the original model, which indeed
existed only in imagination. And when Pausanias goes on to say that
the bronze horse was made in the same manner (jcal 8rj tov ya^Kov to
0"%%ia ecru Kara ratiTa), axv/J-a there refers to the words that imme-
diately precede; viz. that the leaders of the Greeks were in its belly
(Xeyerat 8e e? re eiceivov tov lttttov, co? tSiv 'YLXK-qvaiv evSov eyoi toiis
apio-rowi); and he means that the bronze horse was made in the same
fashion, in that respect. For Strongylion would hardly have disfigured
the Acropolis with so clumsy an animal as the wooden horse must
have been, or have lost such a capital opportunity to display his art
conspicuously.
We will only further observe, that in these days, when it is so much
the fashion to depreciate the accuracy of the ancient writers, it is grati-
fying to find so striking and ocular a proof of the correctness of
Aristophanes, of his scholiast, and of Pausanias.
Next to the horse was a statue of Epicharinus practising running in
armour, the work of Critias. The common text has eirl Xaptvov (though
some MSS. have 'Emxaplvov), and was thought to mean in the archon-
ship of Charinus, b.c. 308. This senseless reading was discarded by
Meursius, who adopted that of 'Eirt.xupp.ov, found in one or two MSS.3
1 There is a fac-siruile of the inscription Koss, Arch. Aufs. i. I'll sqq.
in Rangabe, Ant. Hell. t. i. No. 41 ; cf. * ix. 30, 1. * Cecropia, c 11.