Theocritus, Idyllia 18.22–25 with the scholion: female athletics in Sparta
Title
Theocritus, Idyllia 18.22–25 with the scholion: female athletics in Sparta
Date
4th/3rd century BCE
Type
poetry / scholion
Source Type
Literary source
Commentary
The so-called "old scholia" on Theocritus, from which the present scholion is taken seem to go back to the late Hellenistic and early Imperial periods (1st cent. BCE - 2nd cent. CE), but they are preserved only in a much later and strongly abbreviated form: see Dickey 2007, 62-63.
Translation
18.22-25:
For sure all we which her fellows be, that ran with her the race,
Anointed lasses like the lads, Eurótas’ pools beside –
O’the four-times threescore maidens that were Sparta’s flower and pride
There was none so fair as might compare with Menelaüs’ bride.
Scholion: ‘we the whole’: ‘instead of we are all beautiful, if we are not compared to Helen’. The neolaia is surely a group of young (neos) people (laos). It is clear that the Lakonian and Spartiate women had the custom of training in male exercises and races.
For sure all we which her fellows be, that ran with her the race,
Anointed lasses like the lads, Eurótas’ pools beside –
O’the four-times threescore maidens that were Sparta’s flower and pride
There was none so fair as might compare with Menelaüs’ bride.
Scholion: ‘we the whole’: ‘instead of we are all beautiful, if we are not compared to Helen’. The neolaia is surely a group of young (neos) people (laos). It is clear that the Lakonian and Spartiate women had the custom of training in male exercises and races.
Translation used
John M. Edmonds, The Greek Bucolic Poets (= Loeb Classical Library; 28), Cambridge, MA 1912.
Scholion: translation by Alexander Meeus for the Cynisca project.
Scholion: translation by Alexander Meeus for the Cynisca project.
Text
18.22-25:
ἄμμες δ᾽ αἱ πᾶσαι συνομάλικες, αἷς δρόμος ωὑτός
χρισαμέναις ἀνδριστὶ παρ᾽ Εὐρώταο λοετροῖς,
τετράκις ἑξήκοντα κόραι, θῆλυς νεολαία,
τᾶν οὐδέν τις ἄμωμος, ἐπεί χ᾽ ῾Ελένᾳ παρισωθῇ.
Scholion: ἄμμες γὰρ πᾶσαι: ἀντὶ τοῦ· ἡμεῖς πᾶσαι καλαί ἐσμεν, εἰ μὴ παραβληθείημεν τῇ Ἑλένῃ. ἥ γε μὴν νεολαία ἐστὶ κυρίως ὁ ἐκ νέων λαός. ὅτι δὲ ἔθος εἶχον αἱ Λάκαιναι καὶ αἱ Σπαρτιάτιδες ἀνδρείοις γυμνασίοις καὶ δρόμοις ἀσκεῖσθαι δῆλον.
ἄμμες δ᾽ αἱ πᾶσαι συνομάλικες, αἷς δρόμος ωὑτός
χρισαμέναις ἀνδριστὶ παρ᾽ Εὐρώταο λοετροῖς,
τετράκις ἑξήκοντα κόραι, θῆλυς νεολαία,
τᾶν οὐδέν τις ἄμωμος, ἐπεί χ᾽ ῾Ελένᾳ παρισωθῇ.
Scholion: ἄμμες γὰρ πᾶσαι: ἀντὶ τοῦ· ἡμεῖς πᾶσαι καλαί ἐσμεν, εἰ μὴ παραβληθείημεν τῇ Ἑλένῃ. ἥ γε μὴν νεολαία ἐστὶ κυρίως ὁ ἐκ νέων λαός. ὅτι δὲ ἔθος εἶχον αἱ Λάκαιναι καὶ αἱ Σπαρτιάτιδες ἀνδρείοις γυμνασίοις καὶ δρόμοις ἀσκεῖσθαι δῆλον.
Edition used
John M. Edmonds (ed.), The Greek Bucolic Poets (= Loeb Classical Library; 28), Cambridge, MA 1912.
Scholion: K. Wendel, Scholia in Theocritum vetera (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Latinorum Teubneriana), Leipzig 1914.
Scholion: K. Wendel, Scholia in Theocritum vetera (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Latinorum Teubneriana), Leipzig 1914.
Bibliography
E. Dickey, Ancient Greek Scholarship, Oxford 2007.
Collection
Citation
Theocritus, “Theocritus, Idyllia 18.22–25 with the scholion: female athletics in Sparta,” Cynisca: Documenting Women and Girls in Ancient Greek Sports, accessed December 22, 2024, https://fdz.bib.uni-mannheim.de/cynisca/items/show/78.