The Eleven Comedies Vol 2 Part 52

[466] An allusion to a long monologue of Icarus in the tragedy called 'The Cretans.'

[467] In 'Aeolus,' Macareus violates his own sister; in 'The Clouds,'

this incest, which Euripides introduced upon the stage, is also mentioned.

[468] The t.i.tle of one of Euripides' pieces.

[469] The t.i.tles of three lost Tragedies of Euripides.

[470] A verse from one of the lost Tragedies of Euripides; the poet was born at Eleusis.

[471] Aristophanes often makes this accusation of religious heterodoxy against Euripides.

[472] A dramatic poet, who lived about the end of the sixth century B.C., and a disciple of Thespis; the scenic art was then comparatively in its infancy.

[473] The Scholiast tells us that Achilles remained mute in the tragedy ent.i.tled 'The Phrygians' or 'The Ransom of Hector,' and that his face was veiled; he only spoke a few words at the beginning of the drama during a dialogue with Hermes.--We have no information about the Niobe mentioned here.

[474] The Scholiast tells us that this expression ([Greek: hippalektru_on]) was used in 'The Myrmidons' of Aeschylus; Aristophanes ridicules it again both in the 'Peace' and in 'The Birds.'

[475] An individual apparently noted for his uncouth ugliness.

[476] The beet and the decoctions are intended to indicate the insipidity of Euripides' style.

[477] An intimate friend of Euripides, who is said to have worked with him on his Tragedies, to have been 'ghost' to him in fact.

[478] An allusion to Euripides' obscure birth; his mother had been, so it was said, a vegetable-seller in the public market.

[479] Euripides had introduced every variety of character into his pieces, whereas Aeschylus only staged divinities or heroes.

[480] There are two Cycni, one, the son of Ares, was killed by Heracles according to the testimony of Hesiod in his description of the "s.h.i.+eld of Heracles"; the other, the son of Posidon, who, according to Pindar, perished under the blows of Achilles. It is not known in which Tragedy of Aeschylus this character was introduced.

[481] Memnon, the son of Aurora, was killed by Achilles; in the list of the Tragedies of Aeschylus there is one ent.i.tled 'Memnon.'

[482] These two were not poets, but Euripides supposes them disciples of Aeschylus, because of their rude and antiquated manners.

[483] c.l.i.tophon and Theramenes were elegants of effeminate habits and adept talkers.

[484] A proverb which was applied to versatile people; the two Greek names [Greek: Chios] and [Greek: Keios] might easily be mistaken for one another. Both, of course, are islands of the Cyclades.

[485] A verse from the 'Myrmidons' of Aeschylus; here Achilles is Aeschylus himself.

[486] The 'Persae' of Aeschylus (produced 472 B.C.) was received with transports of enthusiasm, reviving as it did memories of the glorious defeat of Xerxes at Salamis, where the poet had fought, only a few years before, 480 B.C.

[487] Nothing is known of this Pantacles, whom Eupolis, in his 'Golden Age,' also describes as awkward ([Greek: skaios]).

[488] Aristophanes had by this time modified his opinion of this general, whom he had so flouted in 'The Acharnians.'

[489] Son of Telamon, the King of Salamis and brother of Ajax.

[490] The wife of Proetus, King of Argos. Bellerophon, who had sought refuge at the court of this king after the accidental murder of his brother Bellerus, had disdained her amorous overtures. Therefore she denounced him to her husband as having wanted to attempt her virtue and urged him to cause his death. She killed herself immediately after the departure of the young hero.

[491] Cephisophon, Euripides' friend, is said to have seduced his wife.

[492] Meaning, they have imitated Sthen.o.boea in everything; like her, they have conceived adulterous pa.s.sions and, again like her, they have poisoned themselves.

[493] Lycabettus, a mountain of Attica, just outside the walls of Athens, the "Arthur's Seat" of the city. Parna.s.sus, the famous mountain of Phocis, the seat of the temple and oracle of Delphi and the home of the Muses. The whole pa.s.sage is, of course, in parody of the grandiloquent style of Aeschylus.

[494] An allusion to Oeneus, King of Aetolia, and to Telephus, King of Mysia; characters put upon the stage by Euripides.

[495] It was only the rich Athenians who could afford fresh fish, because of their high price; we know how highly the gourmands prized the eels from the Copaic lake.

[496] If Aristophanes is to be believed, the orators were of depraved habits, and exacted infamous complaisances as payment for their lessons in rhetoric.

[497] Aristophanes attributes the general dissoluteness to the influence of Euripides; he suggests that the subtlety of his poetry, by sharpening the wits of the vulgar and even of the coa.r.s.est, has instigated them to insubordination.

[498] Auge, who was seduced by Heracles, was delivered in the temple of Athene (Scholiast); it is unknown in what piece this fact is mentioned.--Macareus violates his sister Canace in the 'Aeolus.'

[499] i.e. they busy themselves with philosophic subtleties. This line is taken from 'The Phryxus,' of which some fragments have come down to us.

[500] In the torch-race the victor was the runner who attained the goal first without having allowed his torch to go out. This race was a very ancient inst.i.tution. Aristophanes means to say that the old habits had fallen into disuse.

[501] A tetralogy composed of three tragedies, the 'Agamemnon,' the 'Choephorae,' the 'Eumenides,' together with a satirical drama, the 'Proteus.'

[502] This is the opening of the 'Choephorae.' Aeschylus puts the words in the mouth of Orestes, who is returning to his native land and visiting his father's tomb.

[503] i.e. your jokes are very coa.r.s.e.

[504] He was one of the Athenian generals in command at Arginusae; he and his colleagues were condemned to death for not having given burial to the men who fell in that naval fight.

[505] As Euripides had done to those of Aeschylus; that sort of criticism was too low for him.

[506] [Greek: D_ekuthion ap_olesa], _oleum perdidi,_ I have lost my labour, was a proverbial expression, which was also possibly the refrain of some song. Aeschylus means to say that all Euripides' phrases are cast in the same mould, and that his style is so poor and insipid that one can adapt to it any foolery one wishes; as for the phrase he adds to every one of the phrases his rival recites, he chooses it to insinuate that the work of Euripides is _labour lost_, and that he would have done just as well not to meddle with tragedy. The joke is mediocre at its best and is kept up far too long.

[507] Prologue of the 'Archelaus' of Euripides, a tragedy now lost.

[508] From prologue of the 'Hypsipile' of Euripides, a play now lost.

[509] From prologue of the 'Sthen.o.boea' of Euripides, a play now lost.

[510] From prologue of the 'Phryxus' of Euripides, a play now lost.

[511] From prologue of the 'Iphigeneia in Tauris' of Euripides.

[512] Prologue of 'The Meleager' by Euripides, lost.

[513] Prologue of 'The Menalippe Sapiens,' by Euripides, lost.

[514] The whole of these fragments are quoted at random and have no meaning. Euripides, no doubt, wants to show that the choruses of Aeschylus are void of interest or coherence. As to the refrain, "haste to sustain the a.s.sault," Euripides possibly wants to insinuate that Aeschylus incessantly repeats himself and that a wearying monotony pervades his choruses. However, all these criticisms are in the main devoid of foundation.