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[sc. A proverbial phrase] in reference to those who do not obey a summons but rather decline it; for Philoxenus of Cythera, after escaping from the Syracusan stone-quarries into which he had been thrown because he had not praised the tragedies of the tyrant Dionysius, was living at Taras in Sicily when Dionysius sent after him and in a letter asked him to return.[1] Philoxenus did not know [how] to reply, but taking a sheet of papyrus he wrote on it repeatedly the single letter o.[2] In this way he showed unequivocally that he rejected the summons.
See on this subject under "Take me away to the stone-quarries".[3]

*filoce/nou gramma/tion: e)pi\ tw=n mh\ peiqome/nwn, e)f' oi(=s parakalou=ntai, a)ll' a)pagoreuo/ntwn ma=llon: *filo/cenos ga\r o( *kuqh/rios diafugw\n ta\s ei)s *surakou/sas liqotomi/as, ei)s a(\s e)ne/pesen, o(/ti ta\s tou= *dionusi/ou tou= tura/nnou tragw|di/as ou)k e)ph/|nei, die/triben e)n *ta/ranti th=s *sikeli/as. metapempome/nou de\ *dionusi/ou au)to\n kai\ a)ciou=ntos dia\ gramma/twn e)lqei=n, *filo/cenos a)ntigra/yai me\n ou)k e)/gnw, labw\n de\ bibli/on to\ o stoixei=on e)/graye mo/non polla/kis e)n au)tw=|, dia\ tou/tou dhlw/sas, o(/ti th\n para/klhsin diwqei=tai. zh/tei peri\ tou/tou e)n tw=| a)/page/ me ei)s ta\s latomi/as.

For grammation see under gamma 419. For slightly different proverbial phrases generated by the same story see Appendix Proverbiorum 5.16, Apostolius 17.5.
[1] Philoxenus of Cythera (c.435-380 BCE), dithyrambic poet (phi 393, delta 1029); see generally OCD4 1137-8, under Philoxenus(1). While he was resident at the court of Dionysius I, he slighted the bad verses of the tyrant and for this reason was sent to the quarries. The story is told by Diodorus Siculus 15.6.2-5. Taras (the Roman Tarentum, cf. tau 112 and tau 113) is actually in southern Italy. (In the scholia to Aelius Aristides -- see next note -- the equivalent phrase reads "at Kroton in Italy".)
[2] The letter o stood for the negative ou). According to the scholia to Aristides 46.309 b/ Philoxenus wrote a series of concentric os, filling the whole page. See J.M. Edmonds, Lyra Graeca (LCL, 1967) v.3 p.373 for a translation of the scholia.
[3] alpha 2862; see also delta 1178, epsiloniota 291.

David Whitehead (cosmetics) on 20 November 2001@06:24:39.
Robert Dyer (cosmetics and slight improvements to cross references. Raised status.) on 3 March 2002@10:25:12.
David Whitehead (tweaked headword and tr; augmented note and keywords) on 14 October 2005@10:17:08.
David Whitehead (tweaking) on 11 December 2013@05:46:38.
David Whitehead (another note) on 6 April 2014@07:04:43.
David Whitehead (withdrew this) on 6 April 2014@08:53:17.
David Whitehead (updated a ref) on 7 August 2014@03:17:29.
David Whitehead (coding) on 31 May 2016@04:26:45.
Ronald Allen (added cross-references in n.1) on 8 July 2018@13:50:39.

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