Note 15 — Second Part.
Reading edition
The word στόμαργος is found in Sophocles, in a passage where Electra says to Clytaemnestra (581):
Κήρυσσέ μ’εἰς ἅπαντας, εἴτε χρὴ, κακὴν, εἴτε στόμαργον, εἴτ’ἀναιδείας πλέαν. Εἰ γὰρ πέφυκα τῶνδε τῶν ἔργων ἴδρις σχεδόν τι τὴν σὴν οὐ καταισχύνω φύσιν.
(Proclaim me to all, if need be, an evil woman, foul-mouthed and full of shamelessness. For if I am cunning in these tasks, it is but that I am not far from sharing your own character). Suidas under the word interprets στόμαργος here by φλύαρος (prating). Philo, De Monarchia bk. I. edit. Mangey, vol. II. p. 219., says: στομαργίᾳ χρήσασθαι καὶ ἀχαλίνῳ γλώσσῃ, βλασφημοῦντας οὓς ἕτεροι νομίζουσι θεούς. (to indulge in loose talking and an unbridled tongue, blaspheming such as other men hold to be gods). The Etymologicum Magnum s. v. γλώσσαργον, στόμαργον ἠ ταχύγλωσσον, (under the word idle-tongued,—foul-mouthed or loose-tongued). Whereas Aristophanes has the word στοματουργός, “Frogs” 848.,
ἔνθεν δὴ στοματουργὸς ἐπῶν βασινίστρια λίσπη γλῶσσ’....
(So thence a phrase-making word-sifting, smooth tongue ...)