Let us start with this fragment from an unknown comedy by Epicharmus. It can be imagined as a school dialogue (in the manner of the one between Strepsiades and Socrates in Aristophanes’Clouds) where semantic approaches are discussed:
Epich. fr. 147 PCG:
A. τί δὲ τόδ’ ἐστί; B. δηλαδὴ τρίπους. A. τί μὰν ἔχει πόδας
τέτορας; οὔκ ἐστιν τρίπους, ἀλλ’<ἐστὶν> οἶμαι τετράπους.
B. ἔστιν ὄνομ’ αὐτῶι τρίπους, τέτοράς γα μὰν ἔχει πόδας.
A. εἰ δίπους τοίνυν ποκ’ ἦς αἴνίγματ’ Οἰ〈δίπου〉 νοεῖς
(А) What is this here? (B) a tripod, plainly. (А) But why does it have
four feet? It is not a tripod, but seems like a tetrapod to me.
(B) It bears the name tripod, but it has really got four feet.
(А) Well, if it once had two feet, you can think of the riddle of Oe<dipus>
Such a name-giving scene where an object is scrutinised on a (real or imagined) stage, its feet are counted (τρίπους, τετράπους, δίπους) and the nature of its designation is questioned, was very familiar to Epicharmus' audience.1 The co-occurrence of intensifying particles and deictics, such as τί δὲ τόδ’ ἐστί, τί μὰν ἔχει, δηλαδή, γα μὰν (Attic γε μήν), and τοίνυν, and the opposition of the deictic elements in the first and second person singular forms οἶμαι (“I think”) and νοεῖς (“you think”) provide detailed spatial information, including appropriate movements of the hands, head and body of (at least) two characters of the play, as well as the spectators. The context for the discussion of the meaning of 'tripod' (ἔστιν ὄνομ’ αὐτῶι τρίπους) is thus materially and spatially determined from the outset of the dialogue, the sympotic or sacral scenic space being specified by the object of a tripod.
The only cover-text for this fragment comes from Athenaeus, who provides such information about it as we have.2 Athenaeus quotes six passages from earlier source(s), starting the section with an episode of puristic Atticistic discussions.3 A C
