The Y6(po£ of the House-Door in Greek New Comedy

If in New Comedy someone opens the door of a stage-house from within

to come out, a person already on the stage often describes this occurrence
by a phrase including the verb tjic^eiv, such as aXXoc TYJV 6iipav <\io<psl T I ?
e^itov (Perik. 126), or i<\)6<pr}xs\> ^ 6upa, 7tpoep}(STai 11c, (Pap. Hibeh 6.1).
Owing to an odd ancient explanation, the derivation a n d exact signification
of these expressions have long been doubtful, in spite of their frequency
and stereotyped form. T o d a y most scholars agree on their meaning, b u t
the case has not been p u t as cogently a n d extensively as it could have been,
so that some uncertainty still remains. 1 Therefore it seems reasonable to
undertake a fresh consideration, which is to set out the whole material
(considerably augmented since 1958), point out the problems, a n d show
what evidence is available to tackle them.

We begin with a complete list of the <J;o<psiv phrases known as yet in New
Comedy. T h e speaker and the supervening person are shown in parentheses.
T h e verse number refers to the verse containing the verb <];o<peTv.
Epitr. 555 (Habrotonon/Onesimos)
TTJV 6upav
TWV ysiTOVcov T I ? s^ocpyjxev e^iwv.
Perik. 126 (Moschion/Daos)
aXXdc TTjv Oupav <\io<psZ TI? e^icov.
Dysk. 204 (daughter/Daos)
TaXaiv' eyw,
•vie, ktybyr\x.sv;
Dysk. 586 (Simiche/Knemon)
x a l <J;ocpeI y s TYJV 66pav.
1
Professor E. G. Turner in his translation of the Misoumenos (P. Oxy. xxxiii [1968], 2656)
renders 206-7 'Someone is rapping on the door', 282 'The door is creaking', and 442-3
'One of them is making a noise on the door' (for the Greek text, see below).
Bibliography: W. Beare, The Roman Stage, 3rd ed. (London, 1964), pp. 182 and 285-94;
W. A. Becker, Charikles (Berlin, 1877), Vol. i, pp. 88-93 a n Q l Vol. ii, pp. 145-7; A. M.
Dale, 'An Interpretation of Ar. Vesp. 136-210 and its Consequences for the Stage of
Aristophanes', JHS lxxvii (1957), 205-11; Chr. Dedoussi, 'The Interpretation of
T H N © T P A N r X E n A H X E N ' , Hellenika xviii (1964), 6-10; Chr. Dedoussi on Men.
Samia 85-6 (1965); H . Diels, Parmenides (Berlin, 1897), pp. 117-23; H. Diels, Antike
Technik, 3rd ed. (1924), pp. 44-52; H. Klenk, Die antike Tiir (Diss. Giessen, 1924),
pp. 15-18; W. W. Mooney, The House-Door on the Ancient Stage (Diss. Baltimore, 1914);
David M. Robinson, Excavations at Olynthus, Vol. viii (Baltimore, 1938) and Vol. x
(Baltimore, 1941).
The following editions will be quoted: Men. Misoumenos, Karchedonios ed. E. G. Turner
(P. Oxy. xxxiii [1968]); Samia, ed. C. Austin (Berlin, 1969); Dyskolos, ed. E. W. Handley
(London, 1965); Plautus, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1903).
I should like to express my gratitude to Professor W. G. Arnott, who read a typescript
of this paper and improved it in several places.

35

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 36 B. Bader

Dysk. 690 (Sostratos/Knemon with family)

TYjv 66pav
^ocpoucriv.
Mis. 206 (Demeas/Krateia)
e[7r]ava^w ^[0951]
auTwv 7rpota)v 11c, zlc, TO 7rp[6o-6]e[v TYJV OiSpav.]
Mis. 282 (Kleinias/Getas)
^ 0 9 e t 8[£, 7rpo]twv <patv[e]Tai
aUTWV T l ? .
Afw. 443 (Thrasonides ?/Demeas a n d Krateia)
[TYJV Oiipav]
i\io(psX TIQ a u i w v ,
Samia 567 (Demeas/Chrysis with b a b y a n d Nikeratos)
aXX', "ATCOXXOV, Y) 6iipa 7taXiv tyoyzi.
Samia 669 (Moschion/Parmenon)
eyo97]xe 7tpota)v TYJV Giipav.
Karchedonios 4 (?/slave)
] . . sij;6<p7]xev. £7i;avaYw
M e n . f r . 766 (?/?)
aXX' sij;697)xsv TYJV 6tipav T I ? e^iciv.
Pap. H i b e h 6.1, (master ?/slave?)
e]tj;6<pvjxev 7) 6upa -
e^ep^STai T I ? .
Pap. M i l a n o 8 . 5 (?/?)
aXX' s^iwv ft? eij;[6(p7)xe TYJV 0iSpav].
K y r e n e wall painting 2 (youth ?/father)
aXX' s^otpyjxev r] Gupa - TCpospxsTou
6 7taT7)p.

2
This large wall painting in a necropolis at Kyrene, to be dated probably 2nd cent, A.D., shows
a number of various theatrical performers. For a long time it was lost and known only
through a drawing published in 1827 by the French architect Pacho (reproduced, e.g.,
in Pickard-Cambridge, The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens [1946], fig. 120; M. Bieber,
The History of the Greek and Roman Theater [1961], fig. 787), but it was rediscovered two
years ago. The inscription we are concerned with accompanies a section of the painting
which figures a youth speaking to a boy before a closed door. The reading I have given
above is the result of a discussion with Miss Joyce M. Reynolds, who has examined the
original carefully and to whom I am indebted for kind permission to publish the following
preliminary details.
The inscription reads: (1) aXXs4|09''lxevo7TaTY)p | (2) Y|6upa7tpoEpxETai | (3)
Ixpoucrr [.
In line 2, oe or o9 or 00 or oa; possibly <pj(. In line 3, possibly [8; ua or ue or u0 or
uo; possibly ji.[; perhaps xpou£Ta[i or xpouo(ia[i. The letters that Pacho read after
.[ in line 3 (apparently auxocr) have completely vanished.
Line 3 is placed a little apart from lines 1 and 2 and seems to belong to a different
context. The conjectural transposition of 07taTTjp from the end of line 1 to the end of line
2 can be justified by the observation that lines 1 and 2 are immediately followed by
another inscription (omitted by Pacho), which is virtually illegible but obviously written
by a different hand: conceivably the scribe of our inscription found that he was running
out of space in line 2 and therefore put the end of his text into the space available in
line 1 just above. There is also a possibility that in our inscription different hands operated
at different times: the two alphas in AAA and O T P A have a shape remarkably different

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 The T6(poi; of the House-Door in Greek New Comedy 37
T h e list immediately allows a few observations:
1. T h e present a n d the perfect tenses are about equally frequent.
2. T h e verb is used more often transitively than intransitively.
3. T h e transitive verb is mostly accompanied by the subject TI<; a n d the
object TY)V GiSpav.
4. T h e verb is frequently accompanied byTCpotcovor ££i<ov.
5. Slaves scarcely occur as speakers, b u t often as superveners.
6. There is n o limitation as to sex or as to metre. 3
It is noticeable that in N e w Comedy this kind of expression is by far
more frequent than in a n y other author or period of Greek literature, even
if we include passages where the noun ^ 6 9 0 ? (not the verb) is applied to a n
opening door. Aristophanes offers two instances only:
Equ. 1326 (anap.) avoiyvuuivcov tyoyoc, $)8y] TWV 7tpo7ruXaicov.
Ran. 604 (troch.) axoiico TYJ<; 6iipa<; x a l ST) tybyov.
Further passages will be considered later. T h e transitive usage tpoqjsiv TY)v
66pav, which dominates the above list, occurs twice only outside N e w
Comedy:
Lucian, Soloec. 9 (as a n example of a soloikismos): et TIC, ye vuv 4*0901?)
TY)V Oupav SITIWV Y) e^tojv X6TCTOI, T£ <p7)ao[Aev ae 7t£7tov0evai;
Heliodorus, Aeth. i 17 (Thisbe pretends that a lover is slipping away
through the house-door): yj Qiafiy] irapa^p9j(i.a TauTa XsyovTO? TOLQ TS
Oupa? ax; OTI 7rXet<TTOV styocprios x a l "w TTJ? aT07t(a<;, SieSpaxev v)fia?
6 poiypc," ave(36Y)cre.
Already ancient commentators were struck by these observations. T h e y
give us the following explanation: as the house-door opened outwards, it
was a practice to r a p on it before opening from within, thus warning people
standing or passing near by in the street, w h o otherwise might be hit by a
suddenly opening door. Plutarch, Public. 2 0 : Tot? 8' 'EXXvjvixai; (sc. 0upa<;)
irpoTepov OUTCOI; l x e t v Arcaaas Xlyoocuv, a.izb TWV xwfitpSiwv Xau.(3avovTe<;,
6x1 XOTCTOIKJI x a l vpoqjoucrt TOC? auT<ov Qbpccq gv8o0ev 01 7tpoi'evai
(AEXXOVTSI;, 67100? ataOyjai? i\<x> yivoixo TOI? 7rapep^o(xevot<; 75 ?cpoc>ec?TG)C7i,
x a l (17) xaTaXau.(3avoivTO Ttpo'CoiSaaK; TOLZC, xXieriacriv ei? TOV CJTSVCOTEOV.
Similar comments on i|;ocpsZv can be found in several later sources. 4 I t
from those in I I A T H P and E P X E T A I . The transmitted word order neither scans nor
yields a reasonable sense, while our conjectural reading does both very neatly (for the
sentence structure cf. Pap. Hibeh 6.1; for the apparent 'split anapaest' cf. W. G. Arnott,
CQ.vii [1957], 189).
Clearly the various inscriptions scrawled on the painting are not part of the original
composition but were added later. I imagine that the conspicuous door suggested to
somebody the idea of illustrating it by adding a current 'door quotation' from some
comedy. This means that we should not expect a strict connexion between the picture
and the text; in fact, if the young man were supposed to be speaking the words, we
should expect the door to be open, as we shall see later.
3
Perik. 126 and Samia 567 are in troch. tetr.
4
Particularly Helladios in Phot. Bibl. 279, p. 535 b 26 Bekker. Less explicit are Moiris
p. 200, 11 Bekker; Ammonios 277; Philetairos 112 Dain; Schol. Ar. Nub. 132 (see Men.
fr. 766) and Plut. 1097; Schol. Lucian Soloec. 9; Suda s.v. X6TCTSIV; Thomas Magister
194, 14. Cf. Donatus on Ter. Ad. 788 cum pulsandae fores exituro foras, Demea sic eas pulsavit,
ut et his ipsis irasci videretur.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 38 B. Bader
can be noticed that their explanation is based on the supposition that in
earlier times house-doors opened outwards, unlike in their own time. But
the archaeological evidence by no means confirms the supposition. Excava-
tions at Olynthus, Priene, Delos and Selinus agree in the result that the
street-doors opened inwards, as has been concluded from the rebates and
stops on the thresholds. 5 T h e same observation has been made at the skene
door in the theatre of Priene, on which A. v. Gerkan comments: ' I m ganzen
Altertum schlugen Turfliigel in offentlichen u n d privaten Gebauden . . .
nach innen, dasselbe beweisen die Schwellen u n d Anschlage fur alle
hellenistischen Theatergebaude, und wenn zuweilen auch Ausnahmen
vorgekommen sein mogen, so braucht deshalb diese Seltenheit nicht gerade
von Skenengebauden ubernommen worden zu sein. Das ware so
unwahrscheinlich, dass ich nur an eine irrtumliche Textinterpretation
glauben kann.' 6 H . Klenk, in his dissertation on the ancient door, finds
that '. . . haben sich die meisten Tiiren nach innen geoffnet.' H e compiles
a list of ancient monuments which offer doors exceptionally opening
outwards; after deducting doors which did not open immediately upon a
street, Hades doors on grave altars and sarcophagi, and doors which in his
view were m a d e to swing outwards for artistic reasons, he concludes: 'Die
wenigen unanfechtbaren Ausnahmen scheinen demnach die Regel zu
bestatigen, dass es nicht erlaubt gewesen ist, Tiiren sich nach aussen
offnen zu lassen.' 7
Nowadays, plenty of richly illustrated books on Greek vases and Greek
theatre are available. Take any of them and watch for open doors in the
plates 8 : you will find very few instances of doors swung outwards, the
position of the door-leaves being evident from the perspective shortening
of their interior edges.
T h e archaeological evidence, therefore, seems bound to upset the view
we find in Plutarch and others, quoted above. W h a t about the literary
evidence ?
For R o m e we have an unmistakable statement that except for Publicola's
house-door no front-door in the whole city opened outwards: Dion. Hal.
Ant. Rom. v 39. 4 TOCUT7)<; -rij<; oixia? . . . a i xXiaiaSei; 6iSpai fxovai TUV ev
Tyj 'Pwfxyi S-qjxoaicov TS x a l ISIWTIXWV otxwv ziq T 6 2^W fiipo? dvoiyovTai
(cf. Plut. Publ. 20).
As to Athens, Aristotle (Oecon. ii 4, 1347 a 4-8) tells that the tyrant
Hippias put a tax on those parts of houses which projected into streets:
5
Robinson, Olynthus, Vol. viii, pp. 255-6 ('From the position of these stops and rebates
it is clear that these doors, both single and double, opened inward; there is no reason
to suppose that this was not the general rule at Olynthus . . . . Archaeological evidence
that house doors opened inward is consistent.'); T. Wiegand/H. Schrader, Priene.
Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen. . . (Berlin, 1904), p. 305; J. Chamonard, Exploration arche'ologique
de Dilos, Vol. viii (Paris, 1922-24), p. 264; J . Hulot/G. Fougeres, Selinonte (Paris, 1910),
p. 207.
6
A. v. Gerkan, Das Theater von Priene (Munchen, 1921), p. 123 n. 3.
? He goes on: 'Doch werden wir durch die literarischen Zeugnisse zu einer anderen Ansicht
gebracht.' The literary evidence will be discussed below. The quotations from Klenk on
pp. 15 and 18, the list on pp. 16-17.
8
E.g. Gisela M. A. Richter, Perspective in Greek and Roman Art (1970), plates 156, 158,
187, 196, 197, 198, 218; M. Bieber (quoted above, n. 2), figs. 105, 115, 116, 266, 479,
492, 509.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 The foipo*; of the House-Door in Greek New Comedy 39
v
'\IZ-K'\.CL<; 'A0Y)vatoi; x a ii7rep£x° 'c« TWV i>7repo!>a>v eiq xa<; 8t][ioaix<; 68ouc;
xal xoi!><; avaPa6[i,ot!)<; x a l x a 7tpc>9pay[i.axa x a l xac; 6>ipa? xa?
a v o i y o ^ v a i ; ££,a> eTTwXYjasv wvouvxo o5v &v ^v x a xxv]fj.axa, x a l
auveXeyy) )cpY)fxaxa o i l i u o-u^va.9 So in the late sixth century B.C. there
were some (obviously not many) front-doors which swung outwards.
Drawing nearer to New Comedy, we go on to a difficult section in
Aristophanes, the beginning of the Wasps.10 Bdelykleon has shut u p his
father Philokleon within the house a n d , together with two slaves, keeps
watch not to let the old m a n escape. O n e slave explains (112-13):
xouxov o5v (pi>Xaxxo[i.sv
[XO^XOICTIV eyxXsocravxei;, w? av [xyj '£17).
Clearly this house-door is supposed to be firmly locked by a device (\ioy\ol,
'cross-bars') which can be managed from outside only, not from within.
This is consistent with later passages. At v. 178, Bdelykleon goes in to fetch
a donkey for sale in the market. T h e n Philokleon tries to escape by clinging
to the beast (like Odysseus escaping from Polyphemus' cave); he is detected
and pushed back into the house, a n d Bdelykleon commands the slave to
refasten the door (200): XYJV ^aXavov eu.(3aXXe rnxXiv elc, xov y.oy\6v. At
152-5, Philokleon makes a n attempt to force a way through the house-door,
but his son quickly frustrates it by having one of the slaves take counter-
measures :
* xv)v Oiipav w6ei. B A . nizZ,i vuv acpoSpa,
e5 xavSpixw?" xayo) y a p evxauO' ep^ofxai.
x a l x?j<; xaxaxXeiSo? £7UU,eXoiS x a l xou [xo^Xou,
cpiSXaxx£ 6' STCWI; (JLV) xyjv (iaXavov exxpw^exat.
Since the door is firmly locked from outside, xrjv 6iipav d)6sii must mean
'to (try to) force the door open' (by banging a heavy object against it),
not just ' t o push the door valves outwards', which would indeed commit
us to the conclusion that this door swung outwards. T h e slave counters
Philokleon's efforts by leaning against the other side of the door a n d by
watching the lock a n d b a r that they d o not loosen as a result of the jolts
from within. T h e main purpose of v. 155, a n d perhaps also of 154, probably
is the p u n on PaXavoi; ('gets out the peg', or 'eats u p the a c o r n ' ) ; this should
rid us of the problem how Philokleon can get at the paXavo? which elsewhere
is handled from outside only. Later, after Philokleon a n d the donkey have
been pushed back into the house, Bdelykleon rattles off to the slave a set of
orders:
9
A prohibition of such public obstacles is recorded in Aristotle Ath. Pol. 50. 2, but doors
are not mentioned, unless we take OoplSai; exceptionally to mean 'doors'. For similar
measures in Rome under Cato's censorship cf. Liv. xxxix 44. 4 and Plut. Cato mai. 19
(doors not mentioned either).
10
For discussion see A. M. Dale, JHS lxxvii (1957), 205 ff., esp. 205-6; Beare, pp. 290-2;
D. M. MacDowell, Aristophanes Wasps (Oxford, 1971), adloca. While Beare, in an effort
to keep strictly to the rule of the door opening inwards, is led to artificial solutions, Miss
Dale stresses too much the point that the poet allowed a great deal of inconsistency and
nonsense for the sake of fun and laughter. It is true that in such a vivid sequence of
clowneries and jokes we should not examine the logical consistency too exactly, but on
the other hand we should beware of allowing too odd absurdities and improbabilities,
which would have puzzled the spectators instead of making them laugh; as Professor
Handley has put it, 'a puzzled or distracted spectator is, for the moment of being puzzled
or distracted, a lost one' (in Menandre, Entretiens Hardt xvi [1970], p. 10).

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 40 B. Bader
&0ei au 7toXXou<; TCOV XI0<DV 7tp6? TYJV 06pav,
200 x a l TT)V PaXavov e(i,(3aXXe 7taXiv et? TOV (AO^XOV,
x a l ryj 8oxco 7tpoo-0el<; TOV 8XU.OV T6V [zsyav
avuerai; T I rcpoo-xuXiaov.
O n 200 see above. I n addition, to forestall further attempts of forcing, the
door is to be barricaded by a heap of stones a n d by a 'mortar', presumably
the heaviest object a t hand, which is to be 'rolled' against the door. Probably
the ramming is not actually carried out, as in the middle of v. 202 the slave
is diverted by a n unforeseen slapstick a n d no mention of the barricade is
m a d e anywhere later (e.g. 529).
According to our interpretation, the course of the scene does not depend
on whether the door opened inwards or outwards, 1 1 a n d the Wasps yields
no clue at all on this issue. Better evidence is offered by some passages
which take us on to the fourth century B.C.
W. A. Becker a n d J e b b draw attention to the occasional use of certain
verbs in connection with a n opening or closing of a door. 1 2 Thus in Plut.
Dion 57, we find 01 ji.ev &S,u> -zone, 6upa? e7U(JTcao-<xfji.evot, xaTei^ov about the
conspirators shutting Dion u p in his house; as they are 'outside' (££co) a n d
'draw the doors after themselves' (after letting in the assassins), it follows
that these doors swung inwards. X e n . Hell, vi 4. 36 is similar: itc, 8'
sl<T7)X0ov, imand.aot.aa. TYJV 0upav ztyzio TOU porcrpou. T h e woman lets
the m e n in to kill h e r husband, then she 'draws' the door a n d keeps it shut
by holding the knocker. However, this is a door within the house, not a
front-door, as also is the door in Horn. Od. i 441 0up7jv 8' inipuaaz xopcovjr)|
apyupsy), which is likewise shut by 'pulling a t the knocker'. I n Soph. Ant.
1186, Tuy^avco TS xXyj0p' ava<nra(JTOuTCuXy)?| ya.'k&aa., said by Eurydike
coming out, implies that she h a d to 'draw' the gate 'back' when she opened
it from within. 1 3 Plut. Pelop. 11 is again about conspirators raiding their
victim in his house: TOO 0spa-rcovTO<; a!<?06|j.evoi -rcpo't'ovTO? £v8o0ev x a l
T6V fio)(X6v acpaipouvTO?, ajxa T U upwTOV evSoGvai x a l ^aXaaai. TOC?
0iipa? efi/rcsaovTSi; a0pooi . . . STCI T6V 0aXa(i,ov wpjATjaav. 'As soon as the
door-valves gave way, they burst in all together.' evSouvai (cf. LSJ s.v. V 3)
implies that the valves moved inwards, the men impatiently pushing them. 1 4
So we can say that the literary evidence, in accordance with the archae-
ological, seems to discredit the affirmation of the house-door opening out-
wards a n d thus to prove the 'knocking from inside' a hoax. T o approach
the issue from another side, we turn to instances of?) 0iipa ^ 0 9 et outside
New Comedy.
T h e prologue of Eur. HF describes Herakles' children in the palace; they
anxiously wait for their father to return home a n d start at every noise
from the door (78): 0au[i.a£wv 8' OTav | TrriXat ij/ocpaiaiv, 7ta<; av[o-T7]o-iv
11
Philokleon, it is true, could force the door more easily if it opened outwards, but that is
not essential.
12
Becker, Vol. ii, pp. 145-7; Jebb o n Soph. Ant. 1186 (1891).
13
Cf. Jebb (1891) and Gerhard Miiller (1967) ad locum.
14
But it cannot be completely excluded that IvSouvai here is used transitively {LSJ i 1),
just as in the parallel account Plut. Mor. 597 d (De genio Socr. 32) (6 OIX£T»](;) 6>? . . .
xeXeuaOst? dvoT^at TOV JXOXX6V dtpeTXe x a l |xixp6v !v£8«xe T7)v 6upav, £(j.7tecr6vTS(;
d0p6oi. . . I'SVTO . . . irtl T6V 6dXa(iov, where ev^Stoxe must mean 'he yielded them
the door' (so that they could push it fully open).

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 The ^o^oi; of the House-Door in Greek New Comedy 41
•rcoSa. As Herakles is expected to come, of course, from outside, ij/oqpetv
cannot refer to a knocking from within.
In Lysias' first speech, the husband hears the front-door when his wife's
lover sneaks out of the house at night, and in the morning he asks the
maidservant (14) TI aX 0<ipou viixrwp (Jjcxpoiev; later, when he has learnt the
truth, this event springs to his mind, and he remembers (17) 6TI ev exeiv/)
xfj VUXTI e<J;69ei yj u-STaoXoi; 6iipa xal Y) auXeio<;. It is absurd to assume
that die lover stealing out at night made superfluous noise by knocking;
moreover it would have been pointless to knock at the uiTauXo? 6<Spa, the
door which opened to the courtyard and not the street. Compare Heliodorus
i 17, quoted above p. 37: again it is night, and again it would be queer if
die lover had been supposed to perform a polite knocking before SiaSpavai.
This passage is particularly valuable for us because it offers the Menandrean
transitive use of <J/oip£iv.
We must admit that (poqjoi; can mean all kinds of noise; Aristotle applies
it to 'sound' in its general physical sense (cf. mainly De anima 419 b—420 b),
and indeed it is attested for the noise of knocking at a door: Plat. Symp.
212 c xal e£ai<pv7)(; TT)V aoXeiov 0iSpav xpouojjievyjv 7toXi!>v 9690V 7rapacr^siv
to? xco[xaaT(ov. Cf. Ar. Aves 53; Heliod. iii 16.1 (s(];6<p£i r) [xexauXo? knocked
at from outside). But in view of all the evidence we have been considering,
die opinion that it was customary to give a warning by knocking at the
front-door from inside cannot be upheld. After all, this opinion never was
based on strong arguments, if we look back at the passage in Plutarch's
Publicola. Plutarch tells us that the authors (Xeyouai) he relies upon took
their evidence from comedy (amb TWV xwfwoSitov Xafipdcvovxei;), OTI
x67TTOU<n xal tyoyovai T<X? auTtov 6iipa<; £v8o6ev ot 7rpo'ievai uiXXovTEi;
XTX. In other words: the ultimate source of the 'knocking from within' was
merely a wrong interpretation of the t];o<p£iv phrases in New Comedy, not
real knowledge of the everyday habits in fourth-century Greece.
Once this fallacy is cleared away, common sense should not find it very
difficult to establish the true nature of the ^690?. The most obvious sound
which arises when a door (ancient, not twentieth-century) is swinging, we
should suppose, is a creaking or squeaking of the device on which the door
swings and by which it is fastened to the wall. There is a high degree of
probability that exactly this is the meaning of the phrases in question.
A number of passages show us that doors normally were noisy and that
this noise came from the axpoyeic,. We should remember that ancient doors
did not turn on hinges, but on two pivots (<TTp09ei<;), one at the top of the
door, one at the bottom, which were fitted into two sockets, one in the lintel,
one in the threshold.15 The earliest passage is probably Horn. Od. xxi
46-50 (Penelope going to the thalamos):
aortx' #p' •?) y' ifxavra Bow? aTCeXuas xopwvvjc;,
ev Se XXYJ"S' -Jjxe, Oupecov 8' avexoTCTSV byrjccc,
civzoL TiTuaxofiEVT)- T<X 8' ave(3paxsv TJ(JTS Taupo?
Poaxou-svo^ Xei[i.tovi" TOCT' SfJpa^e xaXa Guperpa
uXYjYevTa xXv)?8i, 7iETa<76Y)aav 8s 01 Sxa.
I 5 Compare e.g. Diels, Parmenides, pp. 117-23; Robinson, Olynthus, Vol. viii, pp. 352-5 and
plates 70-2, and Vol. x, pp. 295-8 and plate 85.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 4 2 B. Bader
Leaving aside the exact construction of the lock 16 we can state that the door
(fa 6<ipeTpa) on opening yielded a noise similar to the roaring of a bull. 1 7
Aristotle in De audibilibus deals with harsh, unpleasant sounds: axXirjpal
8' eial TMV 9WVWV 6 a a i (3iai«<; 7tpo<; TT]V <XXOT)V upoa7tiUTOuai' St6 x a l
(AaXtCTTa 7rap£x o u c r t T & v TCOVOV (802 b 30). Later he goes on to examples:
TCOCVTSI; yap ot (iiaioi (sc. ^ocpoi) yiyvovxai axXyjpoi, xaOobtep x a l TWV
xi(3co"rla>v x a l TCOV <7Tpo<pscov, oTav avotycovTai {Jiatax;, x a l xou 5(aXxou
x a l TOO aiSY]pou (39-42). T u r n i n g pivots and lifting the lid of a box
violently produce a 'hard sound', he says. It should be remarked that the
bottom pivot of a Greek door as well as the bottom socket wherein it turned
were sheathed with metal, 1 8 so that metal grated on metal when the door
swung.
Plaut. Cure. 94-5 (spoken by the lover before the house of his mistress)
viden ut aperiuntur aedes festivissumae?
num. muttit cardo? est lepidus.
T h e lover's delight that the cardo (the Latin equivalent ofCTTpocpeui;)does
not 'mutter' shows that normally it does. W e shall soon see why it kept
quiet this time. See also 158-9, quoted below. Caecilius 20-1 Rib. mmquidnam
(namquidnam codd.) fores fecere soniti? belongs to a similar context.
Comedy leads us on to love elegy, where of course lovers are equally
anxious to avoid creaking. T i b . i 2. 9-10
ianua, iam pateas uni mihi, victa querellis,
neufurtim verso cardine aperta sones.
Id. i 6. 12 (sc. arnica didicit)
cardine tunc tacito vertere posse fores.
W e may observe that (1) Tibullus explicitly attributes the (prevented) noise
to the cardo, (2) by a certain artifice the noise could be avoided. Id. i 8. 60
(sc. possum)
strepitu nullo clam reserare fores.
Here perhaps the sound of the lock or bar, not of the pivots, is meant.
T h e r e are numerous other passages in Latin literature which mention a
noise of the cardo.19
T h e trick to avoid creaking, hinted a t in the Tibullus passages, was to
pour water into the bottom socket, i.e. the socket which was sheathed with
metal and which supported the bulk of the door's weight. Ar. Thesm. 487-8
(a woman tells how she stole out to meet her lover):
syw Se x a r a ^ a a a TOO axpocpsax; oScop
e£9jX6ov &>c, T6V \to\.yf>v.
T o make the point quite clear, the Scholia explain tva 6Xic>6Y)po<; yev6(xevo?
(j.7) tpoep^. Plaut. Cure. 158-61 (first the ianitrix speaks to the girl, then the
slave addresses the lover):
16
For discussion see Diels, Parmenides, pp. 128 ff., and Antike Technik, pp. 45-52; H. Jacobi,
Festschrift K. Schumacher (Mainz, 1930), pp. 220-30.
17
The text does not exactly say which part of the door caused the noise. Diels insists that
it must be the bars (bx^Xc,) when pushed back (4v£xo7tTSv); but I find it difficult to
imagine that this could result in such a tremendous noise.
18
Cf. Diels, Parmenides, p. 121, and Antike Technik, p. 44 (with sketches); Robinson, quoted
n. 15 above.
19
N. 26 below; Ciris 222; Verg. Aen. i 449 and Serv. ad loc, vi 573; Prop, iv 8, 49; Ov.
Am. i 6, 49; etc. (Mooney, pp. 31 and 35; TLL s.v. cardo, col. 443, 1. 24).

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 The Y6<po<; of the House-Door in Greek New Comedy 43
pldcide egredere et sdnitum prohibe forium et crepitum cdrdinum,
ni quod hie agimus irus percipiat fieri, mea Planisium.
mdne, suffundam aquoldm.—viden ut anus tremula medicindm facit?
edpse merum condidicit bibere, foribus dat aquam qudm bibant.
Again we may observe the clear connection between the crepitus and the
cardo.
It seems that this trick could be applied from inside only, because from
outside the sockets were not accessible; this would confirm our view that
the doors opened inwards. A noiseless entrance from outside could be
managed by gently lifting the door, thus relieving the friction in the sockets:
Luc. Dial. Mer. 12.3 oux Ixo^oc 8' o5v, aXX' s^apa? Y]p£fi,a TYJV 0upav . . .
7tapayaycl>v T ° v atpoytot. 7tapYJX0ov ayocpYjTi.
Three things should now be sufficiently evident: (1) ancient doors normally
made a noise on opening; (2) the noise was due to the pivots and sockets
(mainly, or perhaps only, to the lower ones); (3) this noise could be described
as <\i6(foc, (crepitus, sonitus). So nothing prevents us from explaining Y) 6upa
4*o<pei and similar phrases as 'the door creaks'. For the rest, this explanation
is perhaps offered already by a scholiast on Ar. Plut. 1097, who writes:
xo7CTetv [xev yap X£yeTai, 8TIXV siaievai TIC, fieXXY) xal TYJV OiSpav ££<i)0ev
7CXY)TT7I . . . <\io(f>elw 8s, 8T<XV e^epxojxevo? TI? aorqv imavoiyoi xal 7)x6v
Ttva dmoTeXfl" 6 TOIOUTO? yap YJ/CX; <\i6foq xaXenrai.
*
The signification of 7) 06pa tyotpsl having been established, we must now
account for the peculiar transitive usage ^092! TI? TY)V 8iipav. Elsewhere,
if <jj09etv occurs transitively, the object denotes the sound, e.g. Arist. HA
535 b J 9 (•*) Xa^x^s) 4 I0 ? S ^ °^ ov oupiy(i6v. The right explanation probably
lies not in a contraction of <\io<pelv dcvoiyovxa TYJV 0iipav, as Wilamowitz
thought, 20 but in the development of a transitive meaning of an intransitive
verb. Compare Theocr. 2.36 TO ^aXxeov <!><; T<X)£O<; a/ei, where likewise a
verb originally signifying 'to resound', 'to yield a sound' has taken on the
transitive meaning 'to make resound'. 21
The transitive ipocpeiv occurs as an equivalent of (xacrTtyouv 'to flog' in
Delphic emancipation documents of the first century B.C. :
Fouilles de Delphes iii 2 (1909-13), no. 131: If the released slave does not
keep to the stipulations, e^ouaiav s^Tto Elpava e7UTi[Aeoo<ja xal (J'ocpeuaaaa
xal 8[i8e]ooa[a Tp67tw]t &i xa 0EXYJ.
SEG ii (1925), no. 307: s7UTeifiicov -cp6iz[ui &>i xa 0SXYJ xal ^o]9£a>v
xal 8i8e[a>v] xal uoXewv.
Compare GDI ii (1899), no. 2324 (140-90 B.C.): ei;[oo<j[av] E ^ T W 5 « V
eTcmuiouaai '0va(Ticp6pwi TpoTCcn &i xa 0E[XCOVTI] xal [Aacmyouafa] 1
xal SiSeouaai 7rXav U.Y] 7t6)Xeouaa[i. Similarly 2156 and 2216.22
*
20
Menander, Das Schiedsgericht (Berlin, 1925), p. 96. Cf. L. Radermacher on Ar. Ran. 604
(Wien, 1921), p. 228 ' " die Tiir zum Knarren bringen", indem man sie offnet' (quotation
marks sic).
21
Cf. E. Schwyzer / A. Debrunner, Griechische Grammatik, Vol. ii (Munchen, Handb. d.
Altertumswiss., 1950), p. 72.
22
But Herondas 7. 11 is wrongly filed under 'II c. a c e ' in LSJ; the sense there is 'Do you
want admonitions (viz. thrashing, or chains) louder (y.i'Qov (j;09euvra) than these oral

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 44 B. Bader
Next we examine how far our interpretation makes sense if confronted with
Menandrean stage practice. The Hellenistic stage was very broad, but of
small depth. Accordingly a person on the stage, unless he stands very near
the door concerned, cannot see someone coming out through a house-door
until the newcomer has actually stepped forth; since the door opened
inwards, the emerging man can step forth only after he has fully swung it
open; thus he is invisible to the person on the stage during the creaking
(4>o<pei) and the moment immediately after the creaking (sij/ocp'yjxe). In
view of this consideration, it is perfectly plausible that the announcing
person first mentions the creaking and on doing this mostly does not yet
know who the new person is (e.g. TI? e^ocpyjxev; Dysk. 204), even if he is
presumed to turn to the door on making the announcement. So the ^c^stv
phrase is justifiable even without the usual excuse that stage conventions
must be put up with even if they are absurd in terms of real life.
Following up this line, we are committed to the argument that the
emerging person must be visible to the announcer as soon as the door is
open, i.e. as soon as the creaking is over, if the. announcer stands very close
to the door. In this case, the perfect etpocpirjxe would be less opportune.
Indeed this might be a possibility to account for the apparently indiscriminate
use of the present and perfect tenses. Let us first look at the instances with
present tense.

Dysk. 586: Simiche emerged at 574 from Knemon's house; the ^090?
she refers to comes from the same door, i.e. the one close to her, since nothing
suggests that she has moved about since 574.
Dysk. 690: Sostratos hears a noise from Knemon's door, from which he
himself emerged at 666.
Mis. 206: The opening door is the same one on which Demeas, the
speaker, has just rapped.
Samia 567: Through the door mentioned Nikeratos dashed in and out
again twice shortly before; it is therefore likely that Demeas, the speaker,
stands not far away from it.
Perik. 126: Daos, the supervening person, went in and out again through
the creaking door at 108 and 115: same case as Samia 567.
Uncertain: Mis. 282 (Kleinias may be still near his own door or already
near the other one), 443.

Now the perfect tense passages.

Dysk. 204: The daughter left Knemon's house at 189 and refers to
Gorgias' door.
Epitr. 555: Habrotonon is on the point of entering Charisios' house when
she hears the other door creak.

ones?' Cf. Plaut. Trin. 1011 cave sis tibi ne bubuli in te cottabi crebri crepent (or: 'Do you
want something sounding louder than these admonitions?'). I would suggest that in
Soph. Ichn. 161 gl | i j ) . . . £$ixve6<jere, xXalovre? auTfj SetXta <J/o<p7)asT£ the verb likewise
denotes the noise of thrashing: 'You will for your very cowardice cry and resound with
the cracking of lashes'; cf. Plaut. Mil. 445 iam crepabunt mihi manus, malae tibi, nisi me
omittis.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 The *F6cpo<; of the House-Door in Greek New Comedy 45
Uncertain: Satnia 669, fr. 766, Karchedonios 4, Pap. Hibeh 6, Pap. Milano 8,
Kyrene wall painting.

T o establish a reliable rule, the available evidence is too flimsy; but our
observation may be acceptable as a hypothesis, to be checked in the light
of future finds.23
*

A final question remains to be dealt with: Could not the ipocpo? we are
discussing be the noise of unlocking the door, removing bars etc. ? Three
Euripidean passages could suggest such a n interpretation:
Hel. 858-60
exfiaivei S6(JL<J)V
rj 6ecr7uq>86!; ©sovorj* XTU7ret S6JJLO<;
xXf)6p«v XuOevxwv.
Ion 515-16
cot; 8' in' e^oSoicriv gyro?, TCOVS' axoiSofiev -rcuXcov
SoCuov, e£t6vTa 8' -JjSy] 8S<T7I:6T7)V opav rcapa.
Or. 1366-7 (spurious?)
aXXa XTU7ret yap xXyj6pa (3acnXeiG>v Sofitov,
ffiyrjaaT'- l^w yap T I ? ex(3a£vei Opuywv . . ,
I n fact Miss A. M . Dale o n Hel. 858-61 (1967) notes ' T h e same kind of
formula for an emerging actor . . . later became stereotyped in New Comedy
round the words Jv6cpoc;,24 tyorpio) for the noise of unfastening bolts.' 2 5 Yet
the three tragic passages are of little relevance for us, for firstly xXfjOpa
(Or., Hel.) can denote the entire door as well as the bolts, 2 6 and secondly
the same thing need not necessarily apply to tragic palace-gates a n d comic
house-doors. But above all, the basic presupposition of Miss Dale's view,
that the front door was normally barred a n d had to be unlocked for
everybody passing through it, is probably wrong. Compare the following
passages, most of which were quoted already by Becker: 2 7 Plaut. Amph.
1018 (AM.) sed aedis occluserunt. eugepae, pariter hoc fit atque ut alia facta sunt;
Most. 444 (THE.) sed quid hoc? occlusa ianua est interdius; St. 308 (PIN.) quid
hoc? occlusam ianuam video. T h e astonishment would be unintelligible, if the
door were usually locked. At night front doors obviously used to be locked:
Plut. Pelop. n x a i xexXei(j[i£v7)v TYJV oixiav eijpov ^87) xa6ei58ovTO<;.
Plutarch also informs us that it was regarded as unseemly to enter another
28 As far as we can see, the perfect tense is applied to supervening slaves only (twice slaves
are announced in present tense), but this may be accident; I should not know how to
account for such a principle of distinction.
2
* i|(6<po? in this context is not found in New Comedy as yet.
25
The same view has already been advanced by A. Korte, DLZ xlv (1924), 693; 'Der
(J/690S TV]? 96p<x£ . . . bezeichnet wohl . . . das Gerausch, welches das Zuriickstossen des
schweren Turriegels im Hausinnern vor dem Offnen verursacht.'
26
W. S. Barrett on Eur. Hipp. 577-81 (1964). There are many passages in Roman Tragedy
where not the lock, but either the whole door or the cardines are said to make a noise:
Ennius 82 saeptum altisono cardine templum; Pacuvius 133 stridunt foris, 214 valvae somait;
Accius 29 valvae resonunt regiae, 470 valvas sonere sensi regias; Gracchus 1 cardo regium egressvm
indicans, 2 sonat impulsu regia cardo; Seneca Med. 177 cuius ictu regius cardo strepit?, Oed.
911 postes sonant, ggs sonuere fores, HO 254 sonuere postes. (Mooney, pp. 31, 35 and 39.)
27
i pp. 88-9 and ii p. 147; cf. also Beare, pp. 292-3.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 46 B. Bader
man's house unasked; this would be pointless if the doors were barred
anyhow: Kimon 17.1 x a l y a p Giipav x64'avxa<; aXXoxptav oux eiffiivai
•rcpoTEpov 7) TOV xtipiov xeXsuerai. Mor. 516 e (De curios. 3) x a t r o i JAY)
x6(];avT(i ye 6upav si? olxiav aXXorpiav ou vo(x££eTai TcapeXOeiv. T h e
three speakers in Plautus, w h o are going to enter without knocking, are
dealing with their own houses.
If we are right, the fierce pounding a t doors, which Plautus is so fond of,28
implies that the doors offered some resistance to pushing. This presents no
difficulty; we m a y assume that such pounding was applied to the part of
the door nearest the pivots, which did not give way so easily. But this little
problem is perhaps irrelevant for Greek New Comedy: n o example of such
elaborate pounding has turned u p so far in New Comedy papyri, 2 9 so it
is probably a Plautinisches.
*
O u r interpretation of the door ^690? could still be endangered by the
phrases including the word niTtkrjyzv, which occur in Menander, a n d in
Menander only, as a n alternative to announce someone coming out of a
stage-house:
Dysk. 188 (Sostratos/daughter)
aXXoc T7]v 0upav v:in'X-t]-/_£ TI?.
Samia 301 (Demeas/Parmenon)
aXXa TYjv 6upav | 7tpo'iwv 7CSTCXT]}(S.
Samia 367 (cook/Demeas, Chrysis, baby, nurse)
TT]V 6upav I izk.Tzkt\yzv.
(Samia 532 [Moschion/Nikeratos]
aXXoc TT)V Oiipav T I ? — )
Samia 555 (Demeas/Nikeratos)
TOXXIV Tzkiiktiyz TY)V Oiipav.
Epitr. 586 (Onesimos/Charisios)
T7)v Oiipav Tzi-Kkr\jpi s^iwv.
Ter. Ad. 788 (Micio/Demea)
quisnam a me pepulit tarn graviter fores ?
This type of formula has led W . W . Mooney to the opinion that stage-
doors, unlike doors of real life, swung outwards: ' T h e actor shoves the
door open with his hand stretched out before him. Hence it seems unquestion-
able that the noise implied in •Kiizktiyie, • • • w a s d u e . . . to the actor's violent
impact against the door as h e rushed from the house upon the scene of
action. This interpretation depends on the assumption that the doors in
question swing outwards.' 3 0 However, t h e evidence both literary a n d
28
E.g. St. 311 experiar fores an cubiti an pedes plus valeant.
29
However cf. Ar. Ran. 38-9
T[<; rJ)V Oiipav InaTa^ev ; co? xevrauptxcoi;
IvrjXaO' 8CTI<;.
Mb. 135-7
<4fia0if]c; Y S v ^ AC 8<ru<; ourtoal a968pa
a7tspt[JiEp£(AVC3(; TT)V Oiipav XcXaxTixa?
xal 9povr(S' ££7)[x(3Xtoxa<; £!;7)upT)ti£v7]v.
30
Pp. 38-39. The other evidence on which Mooney bases his opinion, particularly his
list of vase pictures pp. 47-8, is doubtful or downright wrong.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 The Y6<po<; of the House-Door in Greek New Comedy 47
archaeological we have examined does not point to any difference between
theatre doors and real ones. T h e doors excavated at Olynthus and other
ancient sites, belonging to theatres as well as to other buildings, agree with
scenic doors shown on vases; the expression 'to draw the door' is found in
Sophokles as well as in prose writers; the trick of pouring water on the pivots
is attested for doors in the theatre (Curculio) as well as elsewhere (Thesm.).
Thus Mooney's interpretation involves considerable difficulties, a n d we
had better look for another explanation of the TTSTCXTJXSV phrases.
We begin with some presuppositions to narrow the range of possibilities.
1. Interpretations which suppose a knocking from within are to be
excluded.
2. Interpretations which connect the phrases with an unlocking of the
door are to be excluded.
3. T h e perfect 7rs7rX7))(a does not occur before Menander, 3 1 TzsTzkriyix
being used instead. This could suggest that the verb has some peculiar
meaning here. Yet the meaning must have a clear connection with the
usual signification of nX-^aau; that is, the coming out must involve an
action in which the door is hit by something or someone or clashes with
something.
4. T h e hit or clash must result in a distinct noise. For, as we have seen,
the announcing actor is supposed to hear, not to see, the newcomer, and if
there were nothing but the usual creaking, we would wonder how Menander's
characters came to use the special TTSTCXTJ^SV besides the usual ^09stv phrase.
In the light of these presuppositions, we look at some previous views.
1. 'If Homer can say "doors struck by the key" [Od. xxi 49], Menander
can say "someone has struck the door", when he means " I hear someone
shooting back the bolt" ' (T. B. L. Webster 3 2 ). W e have ruled out any
connection with an unlocking.
2. ' H e "slammed the door", i.e. a violent opening and closing of the
door.' ' "ppovTYjCTS -C7)V 7t6pTa", Sv)X. TYJV avoiy6xXst(js y.h 6p[r/)' (Chr.
Dedoussi 33 ). Here two different actions are mixed. First, the Tzi-Kkfiysv is
referred to a (violent) shutting of the door, which is open to several objections.
(a) At Samia 301, Parmenon speaks back through the front-door after Demeas'
7c£TcX7)xev comment; we should be committed to the assumption that he
slams and instantly reopens the door, (b) At the moment of the 7tXy)TT£iv,
i.e. before the 7C^7TXY)^SV phrase, the emerging actor would be before the
house and visible to the announcer; therefore a reference to the noise (and
not to the sight) would be less suitable now. (c) It is questionable whether
a shutting of the door by drawing it behind oneself could be described as
7iXy)TT£iv T7)v 6iipocv. But Miss Dedoussi goes on to substitute a vaguer
conception, 'a violent opening and closing of the door'; this will hardly
account for the precise a n d specific TY]V 6tSpav 7ie7rX7)xev.
3. T h e shaking which normally accompanies the opening of a door
(C. O. Dalman 3 4 ). Compare above §2 (c). Again a mere shaking fails to
comply with the meaning of 7IXY]TTSI.V.

311 am relying on LSJ.

32 Bull. Ryl. Libr. xlv (1962/63), 258.
33
Hellenika xviii, 8, and The Samia of Menander, p. 36.
3
* De aedibus scaenicis comoediae novae (Leipzig, 1929), p. 22 n. 1.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093
 48 B. Bader
4. 'Perhaps the reference is to some manner of pushing it [the door]
aside to go through, probably to unfastening it.' (Handley35) There can
hardly be room for a pushing aside, if the door swung inwards and actors
had to draw it back to go through. As to unfastening, cf. §1 above.
None of the earlier explanations proves to be satisfactory. But consideration
of some further points may help us to get on.
Miss Dedoussi, after others, has pointed out that the 7CSTCXY)^SV 'is used
either when someone in temper or in a hurry comes out'; '8xav auTO? 7rou
Pyaivsi slvai Tapayfiivo?, exveupiauivo?, 7) -rcoXi!) piaaTixo?.' 36 The
distinction is not as neat as Miss Dedoussi indicates, for tyoyzbt phrases
can likewise refer to excited persons (cf. particularly Dysk. 586 Knemon,
Samia 567 Chrysis and Nikeratos); and Samia 367, 555, Dysk. 188, and
Epitr. 586 are, it is true, about persons fairly worked up, but Parmenon at
Samia 301 is in no way excited. Yet Professor F. H. Sandbach, in a brief
interpretation of Parmenon's behaviour at Samia 283 sqq.,37 thinks that the
'banging' at 301 might be 'another sign of insolent self-confidence'. This
will suit our interpretation, to be proposed below.
The front-door was not locked, but closed. Presumably it leaned loosely
from inside against the door-frame, or was somehow made to stay in such
a position. Probably it did not close quite tightly, but there was a little gap
between the valve(s) and the frame. We may further assume that someone
leaving the house could 'draw' the door 'back' (Soph. Ant. 1186, etc.) by
means of a handle, perhaps a ring, attached inside the door.38
Now what is likely to happen if an excited person is going to leave a
house by the front-door? He will reach to grab the handle; on grabbing it
his hand will 'hit' the door and push it a little forward, thus 'hitting' it
against the door-frame or door-post,39 and this will result in an audible
bang, however narrow the gap between the door and the frame was.
It seems that this explanation satisfies the presuppositions set out above,
thus agreeing both with the results of philological text-interpretation and
the conditions of the Menandrean stage.
Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, Munich B. BADER

S5 On Men. Dysk. 188 (1965).

36
See n. 33.
37
Entretiens Hardt xvi (1970), pp. 32-3.
38
Cf. the vase pictures in Diels, Parmenides, pp. 147-50.
39
For this second kind of hitting cf. Pindar JVem. x 71 Zeu? 8' ITI' "18C* 7tup<p6pov 7rX5!;e
<J>oX6evTa xepauv6v 'hurled it on Mount Ida'; Kallim. Ait. fr. 75, 37 Pf. 0a(xeivol
reXTjaaovrat Xiv£au; op-roye? £v ve<p£Xau; (sc. by the wind) 'are pushed into the net'
{LSJ izkijcca I 2).

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Melbourne Library, on 09 Nov 2019 at 18:51:20, subject to the Cambridge
Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066477400004093