[Meaning] things that are circular and round.[1]
Also [sc. attested is]
sfairopaiktei=n ['to play ball'],[2] the [verb that means] to play with balls.
"And darts and an ever-thrown ball."[3] [Meaning] one that is always being thrown.
Also [sc. attested is the adverb] "ball-wise," [meaning] in the manner of balls.[4]
"Aristonikos of
Karystos, the ball-mate of King Alexander, played ball-gymnastics."[5]
*sfai=ra: ta\ periferh= kai\ stroggu/la. kai\ *sfairopaiktei=n, to\ dia\ sfai/ras pai/zein. kai\ sxi/zas kai\ sfai=ran a)ei/bolon. th\n a)ei\ ballome/nhn. kai\ *sfairhdo/n, dia\ sfai/ras. th\n de\ sfairistikh\n e)/paicen *)aristo/nikos o( *karu/stios, o( *)aleca/ndrou tou= basile/ws susfairisth/s.
[1] The glosses here are neuter plurals, nominative or accusative, which may indicate that the lexicographer has mistaken the headword for being the same, when in fact it is a nominative singular feminine noun. Possibly the reading of the headword should be a neuter plural noun or adjective like
sfairi/a ('little balls') or
sfairika/ ('ball-like'), or was perhaps misread for such. Compare
Hesychius sigma2835, where forms of the same adjective are used to gloss the related adverb
sfairhdo/n (which is glossed differently in the present entry below -- see n. 4).
[2] This verb (here in the present active infinitive) is unattested elsewhere prior to the Suda, but the same form does appear later in the poetry of Manuel Philes 2.1.898.
[3]
Greek Anthology 6.282.5 (
Theodorus), quoted also
pi 1361,
pi 1385,
pi 1596.
[4] Possibly from commentary to
Homer,
Iliad 13.204, where the lemma occurs; cf.
scholia ad loc. and
Hesychius sigma2835.
[5] Basically the same statement is made about this gentleman in
omicron 670 and
chi 398, except in those entries he is called a
sfairisth/s ('ball-player') rather than a
susfairisth/s ('ball-mate'); cf.
Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists 1.18A [1.34 Kaibel]. To judge by the content of the other Suda entries, the statement may originate from commentary to the display of ball-gymnastics in
Homer,
Odyssey Books 6 and 8.
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