Ὑπὲρ τὰ ἐσκαμμένα
beyond the dug-up pit
Translated by Wm. Blake Tyrrell19 Sep 2005Vetting: high6 revisions
Translation
[Meaning] beyond measure. The metaphor [comes] from the pentathletes. The expression is said to have been coined from Phayllos, the pentathlete from Croton.1 The dug-up pits were previously fifty feet in length and Phayllos was the first to go beyond this in his jump, as the epigram on his statue says: "Phayllos jumped five and fifty feet and threw the discus one hundred less five feet." Plato too refers to the expression in the [dialogue] entitled Cratylus, concerning the correctness of names.2
[There is] also a proverb:3 'Leaping beyond the dug-up pit'; Phayllos was a pentathlete, from Pontus.4 He seems to have thrown a discus and jumped very far. When he leaped beyond the fifty dug-up feet onto the hard ground, this event turned into a proverb.
[There is] also a proverb:3 'Leaping beyond the dug-up pit'; Phayllos was a pentathlete, from Pontus.4 He seems to have thrown a discus and jumped very far. When he leaped beyond the fifty dug-up feet onto the hard ground, this event turned into a proverb.
Greek original · Adler’s text
Ὑπὲρ τὰ ἐσκαμμένα· ὑπὲρ τὰ μέτρα. ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν πεντάθλων ἡ μεταφορά. λέγεται δὲ ἀπὸ Φαΰλλου τοῦ πεντάθλου τοῦ Κροτωνιάτου εἰρῆσθαι· ὃς πεντήκοντα ποδῶν ὄντων πρότερον τῶν σκαμμάτων, πρότερος αὐτὸς ὑπερέβαλε τοῖς πηδήμασι ταῦτα, ὡς τὸ ἐπίγραμμα λέγει τῆς εἰκόνος αὐτοῦ· πέντ' ἐπὶ πεντήκοντα πόδας πήδησε Φάϋλλος· δίσκευσε δ' ἑκατόν, πέντ' ἀπολειπομένων. καὶ Πλάτων ἐν ᾧ ἡ ἐπιγραφὴ Κρατύλος, περὶ ὀνομάτων ὀρθότητος. καὶ παροιμία· Ὑπὲρ τὰ ἐσκαμμένα πηδῶν· Φάϋλλος ἐγένετο πένταθλος, ὁ Πόντιος· ὃς ἐδόκει μέγιστα δισκεῦσαι καὶ ἅλλεσθαι. ἐπεὶ οὖν ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἐσκαμμένους νʹ πόδας εἰς τὸ στερεὸν ἥλατο, τὸ συμβὰν εἰς παροιμίαν ἐξέβη.
Betacode
*(upe\r ta\ e)skamme/na: u(pe\r ta\ me/tra. a)po\ de\ tw=n penta/qlwn h( metafora/. le/getai de\ a)po\ *fau/+llou tou= penta/qlou tou= *krotwnia/tou ei)rh=sqai: o(\s penth/konta podw=n o)/ntwn pro/teron tw=n skamma/twn, pro/teros au)to\s u(pere/bale toi=s phdh/masi tau=ta, w(s to\ e)pi/gramma le/gei th=s ei)ko/nos au)tou=: pe/nt' e)pi\ penth/konta po/das ph/dhse *fa/u+llos: di/skeuse d' e(kato/n, pe/nt' a)poleipome/nwn. kai\ *pla/twn e)n w(=| h( e)pigrafh\ *kratu/los, peri\ o)noma/twn o)rqo/thtos. kai\ paroimi/a: *(upe\r ta\ e)skamme/na phdw=n: *fa/u+llos e)ge/neto pe/ntaqlos, o( *po/ntios: o(\s e)do/kei me/gista diskeu=sai kai\ a(/llesqai. e)pei\ ou)=n u(pe\r tou\s e)skamme/nous n# po/das ei)s to\ stereo\n h(/lato, to\ sumba\n ei)s paroimi/an e)ce/bh.
Notes (4)
- See also upsilon 364.
- 1For Phayllos the athlete and naval captain (phi 144), see Herodotus 8.47.5; Pausanias 10.9.2. For his leap, see also Aristophanes, Acharnians 208-214 and Wasps 1206; Zenobius 6.23; scholiast to Aristophanes, Acharnians 214; Golden 60-61; Miller 68; Tyrrell 212-213. For his significance concerning the social status of ancient Greek athletes, see Young 12-14, 160-161. ↩
- 2Plato, Cratylus 413A: "I [Socrates] seem to ask more questions than is fitting and leap beyond the dug-up pit." ↩
- 3Scholiast to Plato, Cratylus 413A (Greene): "This is a proverb regarding those who do something beyond what is proper as if one leaped beyond the dug-up pit. It came about from the following circumstance. A certain Phayllos, lightest of all in bearing himself through the air, leaped fifty-five feet, a distance contrary to anyone's opinion. For this reason those who were competing against him, admiring him for this leap, bequeathed to distant time their admiration in song by composing a line of verse: "five and fifty feet jumped Phayllos." Those who dig the trench of the pits point out that fifty feet is the farthest distance for the contest. Phayllos, having exceeded this by five feet, leaped beyond the [dug-up pit]." ↩
- 4'Pontios' (i.e. from the Black Sea) is the ethnikon transmitted here. Suggested alternatives, noted by Adler, are Opountios (so Aemilius Portus) and Metapontios (so F.W. Schneidewin). Whatever the correct reading, it seems necessary to suppose that Phayllos was not a citizen of Croton (kappa 2481) by birth, but recruited by that city to compete on its behalf. ↩
References
William Chase Greene. Scholia Platonica. Philological Monographs 8. Haverford, PA: Haverford College, 1938. Reprint, American Philological Association, 1981
Mark Golden. Sport and Society in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998
Stephen G. Miller. Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004
Wm. Blake Tyrrell. The Smell of Sweat: Greek Athletics, Olympics, and Culture. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004
David C. Young. The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1985
Mark Golden. Sport and Society in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998
Stephen G. Miller. Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004
Wm. Blake Tyrrell. The Smell of Sweat: Greek Athletics, Olympics, and Culture. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2004
David C. Young. The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1985
Linked from2 entries
- υ364Ὑπὲρ τὰ ἐσκαμμένα πηδᾶνto jump beyond the pits[sc. A proverbial phrase] in reference to those doing something to excess. [Said] because Phayllos jumped beyond the fifty feet [mark] and injured his leg.
- φ144ΦάϋλλοςPhayllos, PhayllusName of a fine runner who won an Olympic victory. Aristophanes [writes]: "when, as still a youth, I prosecuted Phayllos the runner for abusive language and got him convicted by two votes". He was a pentathlete, and the…
Neighbouring entries
Revision history6 revisions · last 24 Nov 2013
- cosmetics — David Whitehead
- expanded n.4 — David Whitehead
- another keyword — David Whitehead
- x-refs; more keywords; cosmetics — David Whitehead
- added italics — Catharine Roth
- cosmetics, status — Catharine Roth
- Translated — Wm. Blake Tyrrell