κνισοκόλαξ
(Phryn. PS 81.6)

D. General commentary

This is one of the many lemmas in the PS that concern gluttons and flatterers: for others, see PS 39.1Phryn. PS 39.1 Αἴτνη ἄνθρωπος (‘a man who is an Etna’); PS 59.13Phryn. PS 59.13 γαστροχάρυβδις (‘with a Charybdis of a belly’); PS 61.22Phryn. PS 61.22 δειπνοπίθηκος (‘a dinner monkey’); PS 76.3Phryn. PS 76.3 ἰχθυολύμης ἄνθρωπος (‘a man who is a fish plague’); PS 78.23Phryn. PS 78.23 κενὰ τῆς γνάθου πολλὰ χωρία (‘many areas of the jaw are empty’); PS 79.16Phryn. PS 79.16 κατὰ κοιλίαν νοσεῖ (‘one whose belly has a morbid craving [for food]’); PS 84.20Phryn. PS 84.20 κνισοτηρητής (‘fat hunter’); PS 86.3Phryn. PS 86.3 λιμοκόλακες (‘starving flatterers’); PS 91.3Phryn. PS 91.3 νῆστις ὀσμή (‘smell of fasting’, see entry νῆστις ὀσμή); PS 94.15Phryn. PS 94.15 ὀνογάστρις ἄνθρωπος (‘a man who has a donkey stomach’); PS 101.13Phryn. PS 101.13 ποντοφάρυξ (‘seagulf’).

Considering that κνῖσος/κνῖσακνῖσα means ‘steam and odour of fat’, ‘odour of savoury meat’, ‘fat caul’ (LSJ s.v. κνῖσα), a κνισοκόλαξ is probably ‘one who fawns or flatters so as to be fed fat meat, a parasite’ (Gerber 1999, 427 n. 3). Alternatively, κνισοκόλαξ may denote a flatterer who behaves in the same way as the one portrayed in a comic fragment probably referable to Diphilus (fr. *61.4–8)Diph. fr. *61.4–8: ἀτενὲς δὲ τηρῶ τοῦ μαγείρου τὸν καπνόν. / κἂν μὲν σφοδρὸς φερόμενος εἰς ὀρθὸν τρέχῃ, / γέγηθα καὶ χαίρω τε καὶ πτερύττομαι· / ἂν δὲ πλάγιος καὶ λεπτός, εὐθέως νοῶ / ὅτι τοῦτό μοι τὸ δεῖπνον ἀλλ᾽ οὐδ᾽ αἷμ᾽ ἔχει: ‘I keep a close eye on the smoke the cook produces. If there’s a lot and it rises straight up, I’m delighted, overjoyed, and all a-flutter. But if there’s just a bit and it drifts sideways, I immediately think that this is my dinner – and it’s anemic’ (Transl. Olson 2008, 73).

Given that the interpretamentum of A.1 apparently deals with someone who is ‘the worst of all’ (although the text must have suffered epitomisation: see F.1), Kaibel (1899, 27 n. 73) wondered whether κνισοκόλαξ might not have originally been treated in conjunction with the otherwise-unknown compound κυσοκόλαξκυσοκόλαξ. Misinterpreting Kaibel’s tentative explanation, de Borries replaced κνισοκόλαξ with κυσοκόλαξ in the transmitted text so that the lemma would align with what followed. However, κνισοκόλαξ should be retained: aside from its numerous parallels (see Ribbeck 1883, 98–9, Tylawsky 2002, 13, and F.1), it is first attested in an elegy (C.1, possibly a Homeric parodyParody: see Iannucci 2004) ascribed to a poet named Asius (6th cent. BCE?) and cited by Athenaeus, who may have had direct access to the text, as Bowie (2000, 134) proposes. It is unclear whether the same applies to Phrynichus or whether both he and Athenaeus share the same source (Eust. in Od. 2.141.22–5 admittedly cites Asius’ words from Athenaeus and there is no need to postulate that he also used a different source, as Iannucci 2004, 376 cautiously does).

Meanwhile, we should not discount the possibility that Phrynichus found κνισοκόλαξ in a comic source (itself perhaps influenced by Asius?). Already, Kaibel (1899, 24) drew attention to the fact that several entries in the PS may contain iambic expressions that Attic playwrights borrowed or reshaped: see PS 54.5–6Phryn. PS 54.5–6 βατταρίζειν ‘to stammer’ (Hippon. fr. 155 Degani) and PS 54.7–8Phryn. PS 54.7–8 βαμβαλύζειν ‘to chatter with the teeth, to chatter with cold’ (Hippon. fr. 42a.3 Degani). Moreover, several mocking expressions that may be traced back to comic poets in the PS appear to have archaic antecedents: see, e.g., PS 59.13Phryn. PS 59.13 (= Cratin. fr. 428) γαστροχάρυβδις (‘with a gulf of a belly’), PS 88.14Phryn. PS 88.14 (= Com. adesp. fr. 629) μεθυσοχάρυβδις (‘wine-charybdis’) and PS 101.13Phryn. PS 101.13 (= Com. adesp. fr. *645) ποντοφάρυξ (‘seagulf’), which share an Hipponactean flavour (see Hippon. fr. 126.1–2 Degani […] τὴν ποντοχάρυβδιν, | τὴν ἐγγαστριμάχαιραν ‘The sea Charybdis, the knife-in-the stomach’ and cf. Degani 1984, 192–8). On the issue of connections between iambos and comedy, see Rosen (1988) and Degani (1993). Bowie (2002) expresses scepticism regarding the notion that comedy’s language was strongly influenced by that of iambic poetry, but see Rosen’s reply in Rosen (2003).

Irrespective of the state of the text of the interpretamentum, A.1 treats κνισοκόλαξ as a strong term of abuse, as is the case with PS 2.7–8Phryn. PS 2.7–8 ἀμφαρίστερος (‘with two left hands’, see entry ἀμφαρίστερος), PS 17.13–4Phryn. PS 17.13–4 ἀνδρόγυνον ἄθυρμα (‘womanish plaything’), PS 22.14–6Phryn. PS 22.14–6 ἀνθρωπίσκος φαῦλος (‘ordinary little man’), PS 39.1Phryn. PS 39.1 Αἴτνη ἄνθρωπος (‘a man who is an Etna’). However, some mocking expressions found in the PS are likely suited to a learned conversation and must be inoffensive (as we are explicitly told in PS 4.1–2Phryn. PS 4.1–2 ἄπλυτον πώγωνα ‘unwashed beard’, see entry ἄπλυτος πώγων; cf. PS 21.12Phryn. PS 21.12 ἄνεμος καὶ ὄλεθρος ἄνθρωπος ‘a man who is wind and ruin’, see entry ἄνεμος καὶ ὄλεθρος ἄνθρωπος; on the subject, cf. further PS 91.3Phryn. PS 91.3 νῆστις ὀσμή, see entry νῆστις ὀσμή): the same may apply to κνισοκόλαξ. The use of learned and inoffensive wordplay is portrayed by Ath. 3.125b–eAth. 3.125b–e, when Cynulcus and Ulpian mock one another in an erudite manner: ‘οὐ γὰρ μέλει σοι,’ ἔφη ὁ Μυρτίλος, ‘ἱστορίας, ὦ γάστρων. κνισολοιχὸς γάρ τις εἶ <καὶ> (Casaubon : <καὶ κνισοκόλαξ> West) κατὰ τὸν Σάμιον ποιητὴν Ἄσιον τὸν παλαιὸν ἐκεῖνον [καὶ] κνισοκόλαξ (Casaubon : [καὶ κνισοκόλαξ] West) ‘‘Yes’, said Myrtilus, ‘because you do not care about history, you glutton. For you are a fat-licker and, to quote the well-known ancient Samian poet Asius, a ‘fat-flatterer’’ (Transl. Olson 2007, 97). We may also compare Ael. fr. 112 Domingo-ForastéAel. fr. 112 Domingo-Forasté (attributed to Aelian by Meineke FCG vol. 2,1, 487), in which a knight named Junius is referred to as a κοιλιοδαίμων (‘one who makes his belly his god’; Eup. fr. 187) and a ταγηνοκνισοθήρας (‘frying-pan-sniffer’; Eup. fr. *190): the author says that he wishes to use ‘comedy’s terms for people like this’ – avoiding any coarseness (οὐδεμιᾷ … ἀπειροκαλίᾳ) and by way of a joke (ἵνα τι καὶ παίσω). These parallels suggest that mockery may have found a place in the context of high-society conversations, as a form of erudite and inoffensive role play. To the best of our knowledge, κνισοκόλαξ may have been used as a learned expression of abuse in similar circumstances.

E. Byzantine and Modern Greek commentary

N/A

F. Commentary on individual texts and occurrences

(1)    Phryn. PS 81.6 (A.1)

It is unnecessary to replace κνισοκόλαξ with κυσοκόλαξ since the first element κνισο- occurs in other offensive compounds, as Kassel and Austin in PCG vol. 5, 398 point out: see Eup. fr. *190 ταγηνοκνισοθήρας (‘frying-pan-sniffer’); Amphis fr. 10.1 κνισολοιχέ (‘fat-licker’; also in Antiph. fr. 65 and Sophil. fr. 8, see Papachrysostomou, 2016, 77–8); PS 84.20 (= Com. adesp. fr. *622) κνισοτηρητής (‘one who keeps an eye out for the steam and odour of fat’); cf. also [Hom.] Batr. 232 κνισσοδιώκτην (‘fat-hunter’; v.l.), and note that the addressee of one of Alciphron’s letters (3.3) is called Κνισόζωμος. See further Com. adesp. fr. 214 καπνοσφράντης (‘smoke-sniffer’; on which, see Lorenzoni 1990) and Ritschl’s emendation nidoricupi (‘aroma greedling’) in Plaut. Most. 5    (codd. BCFZ have nidore cupinam, while B² has culinę; see Fontaine 2010, 171–2).

The interpretamentum may have suffered epitomisationEpitome: a verb such as σημαίνει that governed κόλακα was perhaps omitted, while only late parallels are known for οὐδενὸς ἀγαθοῦ as a predicative indicating ‘one who is no good’ (see e.g. Greg.Naz. MPG 35.628.9). Furthermore, the genitive τοῦ αἰσχίστου δὲ πάντων is at odds with that which precedes it, assuming that it was intended to refer to the accusative κόλακα (see de Borries 1911, 81: ‘pessimum omnium adulatorum’, i.e. ‘the worst of all flatterers’) – unless we imagine an original τὸν αἴσχιστον being corrupted. Alternatively, one should conclude that both οὐδενὸς ἀγαθοῦ and τοῦ αἰσχίστου refer to κνῖσος/κνῖσα as the object of a flatterer’s desire (‘a flatterer who aims at nothing that is good, [a flatterer who aims] at the worst things of all’– i.e., the steam and odour of fat).