Gli ‘oggetti misteriosi‘ dei Θεωροὶ ἢ Ἰσθμιασταί

Aeschylus' F 78a Radt, from the satyr-play Theoroi, displays the satyrs dedicating likenesses of themselves in the temple of Poseidon at the Isthmus. While some scholars believe that these likenesses are pinakes painted whith the whole figure of a satyr, the paper reassesses the communis opinio, that they are terracotta satyr masks. Furthermore, the ‘toys’ mentioned at F 78c.50 are not javelins, as supposed by Snell, but more probably fetters, shackles or pillories; Dionysus' words introducing them suggest that they are not related to the threat at v. 42, so that a reference to them is not very likely in the lacuna at the end of the verse. If Dionysus threatens the satyrs to cudgel them, something like πλήγματα, τύμματα or even τύμπανα (lit. ‘drums’, i.e. beats, with a joke on the verb τύπτω and, perhaps, on a punishment and torture instrument with the same name) seems more probable.