[Aristophanes:] “You’ve torn my eiresione to pieces!”
[Commentator:] An olive branch bound up with enwinding wool. And they hung on it all the seasonal first fruits, and stood it before the doors, as still even now.
They do this according to a certain ancient oracle. For they say that famine – and others say plague – spread over the whole inhabited world. And to those asking if somehow he might stop the calamity, the Pythian prophesied this deliverance: if the Athenians would make proerosia sacrifice on everyone’s behalf.
As the Athenians sacrificed, indeed the calamity stopped. And so as thanksgiving they began to send forth from all directions to the Athenians the first to ripen of all kinds of fruits. And they say it was then when Abaris the Hyperborean came as an envoy to Hellas, in service to Apollo. And he then wrote the oracles that are now introduced as the oracles of Abaris.
And that’s why still even today, whenever they raise up the branch, they sing these lines:
Eiresione brings figs, plump bread too,
and honey in a jar, and olive oil to wipe,
and a pure little cup, so she falls asleep drunk.
Author: Anonymous commentator on Aristophanes’ Knights.
Title of Work: Unknown
Location in Work: 729 (Jones and Wilson)
Original Language: Greek (Attic)
Original Text:
“τὴν εἰρεσιώνην μου κατεσπαράξατε” :
Κλάδος ἐλαίας ἐρίοις περιπεπλεγμένοις ἀναδεδεμένος. ἐξήρτηντο δὲ αὐτοῦ ὡραῖα πάντα ἀκρόδρυα. πρὸ δὲ τῶν θυρῶν ἱστᾶσιν αὐτὴν, εἰσέτι καὶ νῦν.
ποιοῦσι δὲ τοῦτο κατὰ παλαιόν τι χρηστήριον. οἱ μὲν γάρ φασιν ὅτι λιμοῦ, οἱ δὲ, ὅτι καὶ λοιμοῦ τὴν πᾶσαν κατασχόντος οἰκουμένην. χρωμένων τίνα ἂν τρόπον παύσαιτο τὸ δεινὸν, τὴν λύσιν ταύτην ὁ Πύθιος ἐμαντεύσατο· εἰ προηρόσιον ὑπὲρ ἁπάντων Ἀθηναῖοι θύσειαν.
θυσάντων οὖν τῶν Ἀθηναίων τὸ δεινὸν ἐπαύσατο. καὶ οὕτως ὥσπερ χαριστήριον οἱ πανταχόθεν τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις ἐξέπεμπον τῶν καρπῶν ἁπάντων τὰς ἀπαρχάς. ὅτε δὴ καὶ Ἀβαρίν φασι τὸν Ὑπερβόρειον ἐλθόντα θεωρὸν εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα, Ἀπόλλωνι θητεῦσαι, καὶ οὕτως συγγράψαι τοὺς χρησμοὺς τοὺς νῦν προσαγορευομένους Ἀβάριδος.
ὅθεν εἰσέτι καὶ νῦν, ἐπειδὰν ἀνιστῶσι τὸν κλάδον, λέγουσι ταῦτα
εἰρεσιώνη σῦκα φέρει καὶ πίονας ἄρτους
καὶ μέλι ἐν κοτύλῃ καὶ ἔλαιον ἀναψήσασθαι,
καὶ κύλικ᾽ εὔζωρον, ὡς ἂν μεθύουσα καθεύδῃ.
Reference Edition: Jones and Wilson, Scholia in Equites
Source of Date of Work: Dickey, Ancient Scholarship, 29
Commentary:
This text is preserved in the so-called old scholia to the Aristophanes comic play Knights (often called by its Latin name, Equites). The old scholia, written in the margins of Byzantine manuscripts of Aristophanes’ collected plays, derived from Hellenistic commentaries that were compiled by the early Roman-era commentator Didymos and revised in the 2nd century CE by another commentator Symmachos (Dickey, Ancient Scholarship, 29). There is also a later revision of this text in the scholia by Demetrios Triklinios (also in Jones and Wilson, Scholia in Equites, 729), which adds nothing related to Abaris or relevant to the Arimaspeia.
It’s likely that Lykourgos’ prosecution speech Against Menesaichmos was, directly or indirectly, an important source for this text, along with at least one other later source. The three lines of song were also quoted by Plutarch (Lives: Theseus, 22), but since nothing else of Plutarch’s material on the eiresione appears in these scholia, probably Plutarch and the scholia both drew the lines of song from a common source.
The novel elements of this text, relative to Lykourgos, include:
1) There is greater detail on the wool wrapping of the eiresione, and there was clearly confusion among this text’s sources over whether the calamity was a famine (λιμός) or plague (λοιμός) – which is easily explained by the similarity of the words in Greek.
2) The extent of the calamity is specified as the entire inhabited world, though a very great extent was already implied by Lykourgos’ statement that Abaris visited Hyperborea during the famine.
3) The source of the oracle is identified as Pythian (i.e. Delphic). The fragments of Lykourgos do not specify the source of the oracle, but can be understood to imply that Abaris relayed the oracle from Hyperborea. Alternately, the legend of Erysichthon dying while returning from an oracular mission to Delos (to come in this collection) can be taken to imply that the oracle was Delian (see the commentary on Lykourgos). It’s likely that this text specifies Pythian due to the influence of the Delphic oracle or oracles that Athens obtained in the Classical period to reinforce its claim for tithes of first fruits from the Delian league for the Eleusinian festival of Proerosia (Fontenrose, Delphic Oracle, H9, 247; IG I2 76; Isokrates 4.31).
4) The first-fruit sacrifice prescribed by the oracle is called proerosia, the oracle is said to have directed Athenians to sacrifice on everyone’s behalf (implying the whole world), and after the sacrifice there is said to have been a mass offering of thanksgiving first-fruits to Athens from elsewhere for stopping the calamity. The Athenian first-fruit sacrifice involving eiresione was almost certainly not described as a proerosia sacrifice in early legends, given that proerosia means ‘pre-ploughing’, the Proerosia festival was a sacrifice to Demeter held in Eleusis, and the eiresione were offered to Apollo during the Athenian festival Pyanopsia (see the commentary on Lykourgos). Rather, this text reflects how Athens’ tithing of contributions to the Proerosia from the Delian league was justified by modifying the legend of the ancient eiresione oracle to tie it to Proerosia. It’s also likely that the story elements of Athens sacrificing on the world’s behalf and afterwards receiving voluntary thanksgiving donations from around the world were added during the Classical period to further justify the Delian league tithe.
6) It is implied by the order of the text’s sentences that Abaris came to Hellas during the thanksgiving offering, and not during the famine. If so, it could not have been Abaris who relayed the oracle prescribing a first-fruits sacrifice and eiresione. That same conclusion can also be drawn from the text’s use of the name Pythian in connection with the oracle, which implies the oracle was delivered in Delphi, not Hyperborea.
7) Abaris is said to have written a book of oracles that was still in circulation when this commentary was written. This book was also mentioned in the Souda and by Apollonios the paradoxographer.
The lexicon of Harpokration (s.v. Ἄβαρις) and the later Souda have very similar texts on the plague, oracle and Abaris’ arrival that closely follow this text’s story.