The History of Corpora Scholiastica: a Series of Unfortunate Events

It would be misleading to treat the scholiastic corpora as fixed and unchangeable commentaries. A few examples are produced, drawn from the scholia to Aristophanes’ comedies and constituting a source of information on the plots of now lost Euripidean plays. In the scholiastic tradition concerning the plot of Euripides’ Stheneboea, the context of the commented passage may have insinuated an element of ambiguity. However, this cannot be considered as a general rule: another scholium, mentioning the plot of Euripides’ Palamedes, has suffered a corruption that causes ambiguity, but whose origin is independent of the connection between the commented and the quoted passage.