Thus Attic writers [sc. treat the word].[1]
"Of
Sophocles' songs, of thrushes."[2] Of sparrows. When it comes to luxury, they seem out of all the other winged creatures to be more sought-after.
Aristophanes always speaks of
Sophocles in hallowed tones. For immediately after mentioning him he adduces the finest of comestibles, suggesting that his poetry is more compelling than all other poetry, comparing it to the consumption of thrushes.
Interpretation of a dream: [if you are] holding a fleeing
strouthos, expect harm.[3]
*strouqo/s: ou(/tws *)attikoi/. *sofokle/ous melw=n, kixlw=n. strouqw=n. dokou=si pro\s trufh\n e)k tw=n a)/llwn peteinw=n perispou/dasta ei)=nai ma=llon. a)ei\ de\ to\n *sofokle/a *)aristofa/nhs semnologei=. to\ ga\r ka/lliston tw=n e)desma/twn meta\ th\n au)tou= mnh/mhn eu)qu\s e)ph/gagen, e)ndeiknu/menos w(s pa/ntwn tw=n poihma/twn a)nagkaio/tera/ e)sti ta\ au)tou= poih/mata, th=| xrh/sei tw=n kixlw=n paraballo/mena. lu/sis o)nei/rou: strouqo\n kratw=n feu/gonta prosdo/ka bla/bhn.
cf.
sigma 1214.
[1] It is uncertain what the lexicographer is ascribing to Attic writers here: use of the word as a whole? its spelling? its accentuation? its meaning? In none of these ways is the word actually confined to Attic dialect. Adler compares '
Hesychius', apparently in reference to
Hesychius sigma2032, where it is said that Attic writers use the present headword also to mean
strouqoka/mhloi (ostriches). See further below, n. 3.
[2]
Aristophanes,
Peace 531. What follows is derived from the
scholia thereto, where the
ki/xlh (thrush) is defined as 'a kind of
strouthoi' (= sparrows). While Adler punctuates the quotation in a way that does suggest the exclusion of 'of sparrows' (i.e. with a full stop after 'of thrushes'), the application of the quotation to the present entry suggests that the lexicographer mistakenly took the word 'of sparrows' (genitive plural of the headword) as part of the quotation. (The comments that follow originally applied to the thrush rather than to the thrush and the sparrow.)
[3] Adler cites
Astrampsychus (
alpha 4251); cf. Nicephorus I
Oneirocriticus 1.110. This particular dream-interpretation has already appeared under
pi 2164. Its interpretation
by us would be a simpler matter if the ancients had consistently used
strouthos to mean sparrow, reserving
strouthokamelos for ostrich. But in fact the term
strouthos itself is ambiguous. While it would be too much (so Nan Dunbar, in her note on
Aristophanes,
Birds 578) to hold that it can denote 'bird' in general, LSJ s.v. does illustrate several specifics, among them the two already mentioned here: sparrow and ostrich. The latter, if not a
strouthokamelos (above), is often differentiated by a qualifying adjective such as 'large', 'terrestrial' or 'Libyan'; nevertheless, unqualified
strouthos means ostrich, not sparrow, twice in
Aristophanes (
Acharnians 1105,
Birds 876). As regards this dream-interpretation, then, the
strouthos involved cannot be identified with certainty.
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