An Arcadian Toast (Harmod. FGrH 319 F1)

Alcorac Alonso Déniz (1)

1 HiSoMA - Histoire et Sources des Mondes antiques

This paper deals with the transmitted text εδειπνιαις and εδειπνειας in a fragment of Harmodius of Lepreum (FGrH 319 F1 = Athenaeus 149b and 479c). Modern editors believe both εδειπνιαις and εδειπνειας to be a corruption of the genitive εδειπνας, which is accordingly interpreted as a toast meaning ‘a good appetite’. The author claims that this view must be rejected on several grounds. Other conjectures (ε δειπνεας, ε δεπνειας) are further analyzed and also discarded. Finally, it is shown that the only satisfactory reading is ε δειπνας = Att. ε δειπνσαις, ‘may you have a nice dinner’.

Mots clés: Harmodius; toast; genitive; optative; Elean; Arcadian

Domaines: Etudes classiques; Linguistique

Alcorac Alonso Déniz. An Arcadian Toast (Harmod. FGrH 319 F1) . Mnemosyne, 2011, ⟨10.1163/156852511X505042⟩. ⟨halshs-01444609⟩