The Eleven Comedies Vol 2 Part 33

[292] No doubt another Athenian diviner, and possibly the same person whom Aristophanes names in 'The Knights' and 'The Wasps' as being a thief.

[293] A celebrated geometrician and astronomer.

[294] A deme contiguous to Athens. It is as though he said, "Well known throughout all England and at Croydon."

[295] Thales was no less famous as a geometrician than he was as a sage.

[296] Officers of Athens, whose duty was to protect strangers who came on political or other business, and see to their interests generally.

[297] He addresses the inspector thus because of the royal and magnificent manners he a.s.sumes.

[298] Magistrates appointed to inspect the tributary towns.

[299] A much-despised citizen, already mentioned. He ironically supposes him invested with the powers of an Archon, which ordinarily were entrusted only to men of good repute.

[300] A Persian satrap.--An allusion to certain orators, who, bribed with Asiatic gold, had often defended the interests of the foe in the Public a.s.sembly.

[301] A Macedonian people in the peninsula of Chalcidice. This name is chosen because of its similarity to the Greek word [Greek: olophuresthai], _to groan_. It is from another verb, [Greek: ototuzein], meaning the same thing, that Pisthetaerus coins the name of Ototyxians, i.e. groaners, because he is about to beat the dealer.--The mother-country had the right to impose any law it chose upon its colonies.

[302] Corresponding to our month of April.

[303] Which the inspector had brought with him for the purpose of inaugurating the a.s.semblies of the people or some tribunal.

[304] So that the sacrifices might no longer be interrupted.

[305] A disciple of Democrites; he pa.s.sed over from superst.i.tion to atheism. The injustice and perversity of mankind led him to deny the existence of the G.o.ds, to lay bare the mysteries and to break the idols.

The Athenians had put a price on his head, so he left Greece and perished soon afterwards in a storm at sea.

[306] By this jest Aristophanes means to imply that tyranny is dead, and that no one aspires to despotic power, though this silly accusation was constantly being raised by the demagogues and always favourably received by the populace.

[307] A poulterer.--Strouthian, used in joke to designate him, as if from the name of his 'deme,' is derived from [Greek: strouthos], _a sparrow_.

The birds' foe is thus grotesquely furnished with an ornithological surname.

[308] From Aphrodite (Venus), to whom he had awarded the apple, prize of beauty, in the contest of the "G.o.ddesses three."

[309] Laurium was an Athenian deme at the extremity of the Attic peninsula containing valuable silver mines, the revenues of which were largely employed in the maintenance of the fleet and payment of the crews. The "owls of Laurium," of course, mean pieces of money; the Athenian coinage was stamped with a representation of an owl, the bird of Athene.

[310] A pun impossible to keep in English, on the two meanings of the word [Greek: aetos], which signifies both an eagle and the gable of a house or pediment of a temple.

[311] That is, birds' crops, into which they could stow away plenty of good things.

[312] The Ancients appear to have placed metal discs over statues standing in the open air, to save them from injury from the weather, etc.

[313] So as not to be carried away by the wind when crossing the sea, cranes are popularly supposed to ballast themselves with stones, which they carry in their beaks.

[314] Pisthetaerus modifies the Greek proverbial saying, "To what use cannot hands be put?"

[315] A corps of Athenian cavalry was so named.

[316] Chaos, Night, Tartarus, and Erebus alone existed in the beginning; Eros was born from Night and Erebus, and he wedded Chaos and begot Earth, Air, and Heaven; so runs the fable.

[317] Iris appears from the top of the stage and arrests her flight in mid-career.

[318] s.h.i.+p, because of her wings, which resemble oars; cap, because she no doubt wore the head-dress (as a messenger of the G.o.ds) with which Hermes is generally depicted.

[319] The names of the two sacred galleys which carried Athenian officials on State business.

[320] A buzzard is named in order to raise a laugh, the Greek name [Greek: triorchos] also meaning, etymologically, provided with three t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, vigorous in love.

[321] Iris' reply is a parody of the tragic style.--'Lycimnius' is, according to the Scholiast, the t.i.tle of a tragedy by Euripides, which is about a s.h.i.+p that is struck by lightning.

[322] i.e. for a poltroon, like the slaves, most of whom came to Athens from these countries.

[323] A parody of a pa.s.sage in the lost tragedy of 'Niobe' of Aeschylus.

[324] Because this bird has a spotted plumage.--Porphyrion is also the name of one of the t.i.tans who tried to storm heaven.

[325] All these surnames bore some relation to the character or the build of the individual to whom the poet applies them.--Chaerephon, Socrates'

disciple, was of white and ashen hue.--Opontius was one-eyed.--Syracosius was a braggart.--Midias had a pa.s.sion for quail-fights, and, besides, resembled that bird physically.

[326] Pisthetaerus' servant, already mentioned.

[327] From the inspection of which auguries were taken, e.g. the eagles, the vultures, the crows.

[328] Or rather, a young man who contemplated parricide.

[329] A parody of verses in Sophocles' 'Oenomaus.'

[330] The Athenians were then besieging Amphipolis in the Thracian Chalcidice.

[331] There was a real Cinesias--a dithyrambic poet, born at Thebes.

[332] The Scholiast thinks that Cinesias, who was tall and slight of build, wore a kind of corset of lime-wood to support his waist--surely rather a far-fetched interpretation!

[333] The Greek word used here was the word of command employed to stop the rowers.

[334] Cinesias makes a bound each time that Pisthetaerus struck him.

[335] The tribes of Athens, or rather the rich citizens belonging to them, were wont on feast-days to give representations of dithyrambic choruses as well as of tragedies and comedies.

[336] Another dithyrambic poet, a man of extreme leanness.

[337] A parody of a hemistich from 'Alcaeus.'--The informer is dissatisfied at only seeing birds of sombre plumage and poor appearance.

He would have preferred to denounce the rich.

[338] The informer, says the Scholiast, was clothed with a ragged cloak, the tatters of which hung down like wings, in fact, a cloak that could not protect him from the cold and must have made him long for the swallows' return, i.e. the spring.

[339] A town in Achaia, where woollen cloaks were made.