τυμβογέρων
(Phryn. PS 114.3–9)

D. General commentary

Phrynichus (A.1) explains the meaning of the Aristophanic word τυμβογέρων (C.1) and then presents a list of nouns pertaining to an otherwise unknown four-stage theory of old age (see below and F.1). Such a list partially overlaps with other similar lists in erudite works (cf. B.1, B.2, B.3, B.4, B.9): one should perhaps account for the possibility that some date back to Aristophanes of Byzantium’s ὀνόματα ἡλικιῶν (on which, see below). Be that as it may, Phrynichus’ entry per se raises a series of questions.

To begin, three out of four lemmas in Phrynichus’ list are not common words, and it may seem strange to find them in what we might expect to be a descriptive catalogue of classifying terms. τυμβογέρων perhaps represents an ad hoc compoundCompounds (see Bagordo 2018, 98) based on the well-attested – and possibly colloquial (cf. Collard 2018, 44–5) – equation γέρων = τύμβοςτύμβος, as Kassel, Austin (PCG vol. 8, 410) and Bagordo (2018, 98) point out. For parallels of this equation, see, for example, C.2, C.3, Ar. Lys. 372 τί δαὶ σὺ πῦρ, ὦ τύμβ’, ἔχων; ὡς σαυτὸν ἐμπυρεύσων; ‘And why are you here with fire, you tomb? To burn yourself up?’ (Transl. Henderson 2000, 317); V. 1364–5 ὦ οὗτος οὗτος, τυφεδανὲ καὶ χοιρόθλιψ, | ποθεῖν ἐρᾶν τ’ ἔοικας ὡραίας σοροῦ ‘You there! Yes you, you psychotic pussy squeezer! You seem to be fondly infatuated with a fresh – coffin!’ (Transl. Henderson 1998, 393); fr. 205.1–2 (A.) ἀλλ’ εἶ σορέλλη καὶ μύρον καὶ ταινίαι. | (B.) ἰδού, σορέλλη· τοῦτο παρὰ Λυσιστράτου ‘(A.) But you’re just a wee coffin, and unguent, and wreaths. (B.) What do you mean, coffin? You got this from Lysistratus’ (Transl. Henderson 2008, 209. Cf. Cassio 1977, 44–5 and see further F.4).

ὠμογέρων is a Homeric hapax (Il. 23.791) that was already the subject of discussion in antiquity (see schol. [ex. | Ariston.] Hom. Il. 23.791 [AbT]): its first member can mean either ‘early’ (see Call. fr. 24.5 Pfeiffer, Philostr. Im. 2.24, AP 7.363.9 [adesp.], Gal. 6.379, and perhaps Nonn. D. 18.149; cf. Massimilla 1996, 296; Harder 2012 vol. 2, 242–3) or ‘unripe, premature’ (as is the case with Hom. Od. 15.357 ἐν ὠμῷ γήραϊ θῆκεν ‘[the death of his wife] brought him to untimely old age’; cf. Hes. Op. 705, where ὠμός could even mean ‘cruel’, see West 1978, 329). ὠμογέρων, originally poetic, is later attested in such authors as Arrian (Ind. 9.7), Lucian (Merc.Cond. 20.14), Aelius Aristides (28.26 Behr = 49.499.6 Dindorf, 28.30 Behr = 49.500.28 Dindorf, 28.33 Behr = 49.501.29 Dindorf) and Eusebius (Historia Ecclesiastica 7.21.9), among others.

According to extant sources, σῦφαρ likely denotes a wrinkled surface, such as skin (see Call. Hec. fr. 74.11 Hollis, where it is applied to a crow’s skin. In A.1, Luc. Herm. 79.20 and Hsch. σ 2820 it means a snake’s slough), a fig (Hsch. σ 2820, but see further Hordern 2004, 175 for a possible obscene double entendre), or a milk skin (Hsch. σ 2820; schol. Nic. Alex. 91). The meaning ‘old person’ appears to be metonymic and is probably first attested in Sophr. fr. 55 (see also Lyc. 793, where it is said of the old Odysseus; cf. Hollis 1990, 248; Schade 1999, 193; Hordern 2004, 175). Phrynichus apparently considers σῦφαρ to be a ‘gloss’: this last term probably means ‘dialectal word’, see schol. Nic. Alex. 91, according to which, the Sikeloi call the milk skin σῦφαρ.

Kaibel (1899, 11) thought that in this entry in the PS, Phrynichus was not interested in nouns referring to age but in those that Pollux in B.4 calls κωμικὰ σκώμματα, referring to old men. However, not all expressions referring to old age in Phrynichus’ entry are scoptic (and the same holds true for other lemmas of the PS referring to age, see e.g. entry ἀφῆλιξ, ἀφηλικέστερος). Nonetheless, Pollux’ list in B.4 separates denotative nouns from comic terms (among which we find τυμβογέρων), while in Phrynichus (A.1), denotative and connotative terms apparently go together without any further distinction. However, this is partially contradicted by the fact that σῦφαρ is signalled as a gloss, which suggests that our lemma was differently structured in a previous version of the PS, with ‘neutral’ expressions distinguished from comic and poetic examples. This last hypothesis would be consistent with Phrynichus’ organisation criteria, as reported by Phot. Bibl. 158.101b (who says that Phrynichus subdivides the expressions he has collected into several categories, among which we find ‘scoptic speeches’). We may conjecture that at least sometimes scoptic terms in the PS were grouped together as a special subcategory pertaining to a certain subject – old age, in the present case (on this point, see also PS 76.10Phryn. PS 76.10: Ἰαπετός· ἀντὶ τοῦ γέρων. <λέγεται δὲ> καὶ Τιθωνὸς καὶ Κρόνος ἐπὶ τῶν γερόντων ‘Iapetus: it stands for ‘old man’. Tithonus and Kronos are also used in relation to old men’. This lemma reveals several comic approaches used to address old men by means of mythical antonomasia. Note that the name Kronos also appears in Pollux’ list).

Another possibility presents itself, however: Phrynichus’ entry (A.1) may be the epitomised version of a single list comprised of both common words and rarer expressions referring to the various stages of old age. In this regard, the four terms in Phrynichus recall the list of nouns that Aristophanes of Byzantium (B.1) uses to refer to old age. In particular, note that:

• in B.1, ὑποπόλιοςὑποπόλιος and ὠμογέρων likely refer to the first stage of old age (cf. B.2 and B.9);

• both Aristophanes of Byzantium and Phrynichus include ὠμογέρων, an originally poetic compound, together with common words;

• both πρεσβύτηςπρεσβύτης in B.1 and Phrynichus’ σῦφαρ likely represent the penultimate stage of old age – the first being a denotative term, the latter a dialectal gloss that may have originally occurred in Aristophanes of Byzantium (see, however, F.2);

• ἐσχατόγηρωςἐσχατόγηρως in B.1 appears to be equivalent to Phrynichus’ τυμβογέρων, with both compounds referring to the final stage of old age (on the use of ἐσχατόγηρως in such a manner, see also the sources cited in Parkin 2003, 300).

In light of the above, it is tempting to assume that Aristophanes of ByzantiumAristophanes of Byzantium already presented a four-stage theory of old age and that Phrynichus’ list ultimately depends on this theory (see also F.1). Palmieri (1988, 150–2) proposed the existence of two main excerpta referring to old age in antiquity: one by Aristophanes of Byzantium, the other preserved in the Hippocratic treatise De hebdomadibus, a text dominated by the idea ‘that everything in nature is arranged in groups of seven’ (West 1971, 365): this last treatise, however, simply distinguishes between πρεσβύτης and γέρων. Yet it remains possible that Phrynichus as well as other authors going back to Aristophanes of Byzantium enriched the original material by adding scoptic terms such as σῦφαρ, as Gnilka (1983, 998) postulates, and that the four-stage theory is later than Aristophanes’ work (see F.2).

Phrynichus’ entry has no apparent prescriptive intent. However, τυμβογέρων was likely intended as a useful word for a potential sophist insofar as it was adequate to scoptic speeches (something that Phrynichus dealt with in his work: cf. the aforementioned Phot. Bibl. 158.101b). To be sure, τυμβογέρων finds parallels in other scoptic lemmas referring to old people: see PS 21.11Phryn. PS 21.11 ἀρχαῖος (‘old’), PS 38.9Phryn. PS 38.9 ἀρχαιϊκὰ φρονεῖν (‘to be old-fashioned’), PS 57.4Phryn. PS 57.4 γέρων ῥυσός (‘wrinkled old man’), PS 59.7Phryn. PS 59.7 γέρων στύππινος (‘old man made of tow’), PS 59.15Phryn. PS 59.15 γραῦς ἀναθυᾶ (‘the old woman is again at heat’), PS 69.6Phryn. PS 69.6 ἐνσεσεισμένη (‘broken [by age]’, fem.), PS 76.10Phryn. PS 76.10 Ἰαπετός (‘Iapetus’), PS 79.13Phryn. PS 79.13 Κρονοθήκη (‘Kronos’ coffin’), PS 80.16Phryn. PS 80.16 Κρονοδαίμων (‘a ghost as old as Kronos’), PS 88.12Phryn. PS 88.12 μονογέρων (‘misanthropic old man’), PS 92.3Phryn. PS 92.3 ὄζειν ἐτῶν (‘to smell like years’, see entry ὄζειν ἐτῶν), PS 100.1Phryn. PS 100.1 πολύζωον κακόν (‘long-lived plague’),PS 102.19Phryn. PS 102.19 πρότηθυς (‘born before Tethys’), PS 109.6Phryn. PS 109.6 σοροδαίμων (‘ghost on the brink of the grave’), PS 114.1Phryn. PS 114.1 τυφογέρων (‘silly old man’), PS 118.13Phryn. PS 118.13 ὑπερφυὴς Κρόνος (‘an extraordinary Kronos’). Many of these words and expressions were probably intended for use as witty forms of abuse in various contexts (see entry ὄζειν ἐτῶν).

E. Byzantine and Modern Greek commentary

τυμβογέρων has only a few attestations in Byzantine Greek. Nevertheless, it retains its scoptic capacity, as attested by Procopius (C.4, C.5), who appears to use τυμβογέρων as a stylistic marker: indeed, he ‘handles the traditional Hochsprache easily and flexibly’ (Browning 1978, 109), and his language includes numerous synonyms as well as rare words (cf. Rubin 1957, 310–1; Trisoglio 1978, 120–32; Cameron 1985, 43–6). τυμβογέρων occurs later in Constantinus Manasses Breviarium Chronicum 6277–80 ἤκουσε ταῦτα Μιχαήλ, ὁ τρομερὸς ὁ γέρων, | καὶ κρίνας μᾶλλον ἑαυτὸν ἄξιον ἀφανείας | ὡς ἤδη τυμβογέροντα καὶ κατασεσηπότα, | ἕτοιμος ἦν ἐξίστασθαι τῷ Κομνηνῷ τοῦ κράτους: ‘This is what Michael (i.e., Michael VI Bringas) heard, the trembling old man – and deciding that he was rather worthy of disappearing himself, being already an old man near the grave and in disarray, he was ready to refrain from power in favour of the Comnenes’. In this regard, note that Constantinus Manasses’ style blends learned and vernacular language: cf. Paul, Rhoby (2019, 48–9), with further bibliography.

F. Commentary on individual texts and occurrences

(1)    Phryn. PS 114.3–9 (A.1)

Phrynichus’ words testify to a four-stage theory of old age. In this regard, see above, on B.1 and cf. Par.Lyc.1 793Par.Lyc.1 793: πέμπελος γέρων· γέρων ἀποθανεῖται· τέσσαρες γὰρ ἡλικίαι γερόντων (‘πέμπελος [‘aged’] old man: dies old: for old people’s ages are four’). These are the only explicit attestations of such a theory. As Parkin (2003, 299–301) points out, other sources reveal a different classification:

• three stages: Gal. 6.379–80 (ὠμογέροντες, σύμφορον, πέμπελος. Schöne 1924, 100 read σῦφαρ instead of σύμφορον); Marcellin. Puls. 25 (466.358–9 Schöne; γέρων, πρεσβύτης, γηραιός); App.Anth. 3.254 Cougny (seven ages, the final three being ὠμός γέρων, γέρων and πέμπελος);

• five stages: Thphr. fr. 464 Fortenbaugh (see B.6) apparently divided old age into five steps, the final one being that of the τυμβογέροντες.

We cannot determine with any certainty whether these theories were connected. To be sure, the famous (and often mentioned in antiquity) Sol. fr. 27 West²Sol. fr. 27 West² as well as Hp. Hebd. 5 divide human life into ten hebdomads, of which the final two pertain to old age (see e.g. Mansfeld 1971, 161–203; West 1971, 376–7; Preisshofen 1977, 81–5; Finch 2010, 362–4; Noussia-Fantuzzi 2010, 369–90). Such a subdivision need not be inconsistent with those already mentioned, since the ‘Solonian’ seven-age schema may have been adapted in several ways (see e.g. Gnilka 1983, 996–1001; Musti 1990); further than this, however, we cannot say.

(2)    Ar.Byz. fr. 60–6 (B.1)

MS Par. suppl. gr. 1164 presents εἶτα γέρων, καὶ πρεσβύτης ὁ αὐτός ‘then γέρων and πρεσβύτης, which is the same’ (cf. also Eust. in Il. 2.630.14–5), while B.2 (Alexion’s epitome of Aristophanes’ work) has εἶτα γέρων, εἶτα πρεσβύτης ‘then γέρων, then πρεσβύτης’, and so it is impossible to determine whether Aristophanes of Byzantium considered γέρων and πρεσβύτης to be nouns referring to two different stages of old age or synonyms indicating only one stage. The first hypothesis, however, is corroborated by the fact that other sources clearly distinguish between γέρων and πρεσβύτης: see Hp. Hebd. 5; Marcellin. Puls. 25 (466.358–9 Schöne).

(3)    Poll. 2.16 (B.4)

Codd. FS have πρεσβύτερος Κρόνου, while MA have πρεσβύτερος Κόδρου, reported by Bethe as Bekker’s conjecture (I owe this piece of information to Jacopo Cavarzeran, whom I thank). The reading of codd. MA is probably correct: the proverbial πρεσβύτερος Κόδρου is also found in Phot. π 1156 (= Su. π 2258, Paus.Gr. π 28), Diog. 7.45, Hsch. π 3252, Macar. 7.41, Apostol. 14.73 (see Bühler 1982, 84–5). Furthermore, the equation that Κόδρος = ‘very old man’ is attested in Phryn. PS 38.11Phryn. PS 38.11 (where Κρόνος is also said to have the same meaning), Hsch. κ 3208, Phot. κ 854.

(4)    Eur. Med. 1208–10 (C.2), Eur. Heracl. 165–8 (C.3)

On the equation γέρων = τύμβοςτύμβος, see also com. adesp. fr. *932 σορόπληκτος καὶ σοροπλήξ and Phryn. PS 109.6Phryn. PS 109.6 (= com. adesp. fr. 660) σοροδαίμων: all these compoundsCompounds denote ‘one on the brink of the grave, an old ghost’ (LSJ s.v. σοροδαίμων). A similar usage is found in Plaut. Mil. 628 capularis ‘fit for the coffin’, Pseud. 412–3 ex hoc sepulcro vetere viginti minas | effodiam: ‘I’ll dig twenty minas out of this old tomb’ (Transl. de Melo 2012, 289). Note, moreover, that νεκρόςνεκρός (‘corpse’) can also refer to a very old person: this is likely ‘a similar instance of colloquial exaggeration’, according to Collard (2018, 45).