Un'ipotesi di sfida nella silloge teognidea: a proposito di Thgn. 993-1002

While in the past it has been argued that in Thgn. 993-1002 should be recognized two different poems (vv. 993-996, 997-1002), it can be shown on both linguistic grounds and content analysis that we are dealing with one single elegy. The persona loquens is challenging Academus and claiming that he can outdo him as a poet in the same way that mules outdo asses. This comparison, always regarded as obscure, actually contains a reference to the Aesopic fable of the ass and the mule (Aesop. 204 Hausrath-Hunger), here used as an exemplary paradigm to prove the truth of what has been previously said. The persona loquens of Thgn. 993-1002 is thus resorting to the type of pattern that I have indicated as "hypothesis of challenge" and that can be found in several other texts (Od. 18.365-386; Anan. fr. 3 W.). Last but not least, I make a case for Academus being an Athenian, which might also justify the hostility of the persona loquens (a Megarian poet?).