The Eleven Comedies, Volume 2. Аристофан

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28

The sacred instrument of the Corybantes.

29

Friend of Cleon, who had raised the daily salary of the Heliasts to three obols.

30

Enemy of Cleon.

31

The smoke of fig-wood is very acrid, like the character of the Heliasts.

32

Used for closing the chimney, when needed.

33

Which had been stretched all round the courtyard to prevent his escape.

34

Market-day.

35

He enters the courtyard, returning with the ass, under whose belly Philocleon is clinging.

36

In the Odyssey (Bk. IX) Homer makes his hero, 'the wily' Odysseus, escape from the Cyclops' cave by clinging on under a ram's belly, which slips past its blinded master without noticing the trick played on him. Odysseus, when asked his name by the Cyclops, replies, Outis, Nobody.

37

A name formed out of two Greek words, meaning, running away on a horse.

38

The story goes that a traveller who had hired an ass, having placed himself in its shadow to escape the heat of the sun, was sued by the driver, who had pretended that he had let the ass, not but its shadow; hence the Greek proverb, to quarrel about the shade of an ass, i.e. about nothing at all.

39

When you inherit from me.

40

There is a similar incident in the 'Plaideurs.'

41

A Macedonian town in the peninsula of Pallené; it had shaken off the Athenian yoke and was not retaken for two years.

42

A disciple of Thespis, who even in his infancy devoted himself to the dramatic art. He was the first to introduce female characters on the stage. He flourished about 500 B.C., having won his first prize for Tragedy in 511 B.C., twelve years before Aeschylus.

43

Originally subjected to Sparta by Pausanias in 478 B.C., it was retaken by Cimon in 471, or forty-eight years previous to the production of 'The Wasps.' The old Heliasts refer to this latter event.

44

An Athenian general, who had been defeated when sent to Sicily with a fleet to the succour of Leontini; no doubt Cleon had charged him with treachery.

45

The Samians were in league with the Persians, but a certain Carystion betrayed the plot, and thanks to this the Athenians were able to retake Samos before the island had obtained help from Asia.

46

The towns of Thrace, up to that time the faithful allies of Athens, were beginning to throw off her yoke.

47

Who fulfilled the office of president.

48

Meaning, "Will it only remain for us to throw ourselves into the water?" Hellé, taken by a ram across the narrow strait, called the Hellespont after her name, fell into the waves and was drowned.

49

He is a prisoner inside, and speaks through the closed doors.

50

This boiling, acid pickle reminds him of the fiery, acrid temper of the heliasts.

51

A name invented for the occasion; it really means, Cleon who holds the people in his snares.

52

When he entered Troy as a spy.

53

The island of Naxos was taken by Cimon, in consequence of sedition in the town of Naxos, about fifty years before the production of 'The Wasps.'

54

One of the titles under which Artemis, the goddess of the chase, was worshipped.

55

Demeter and Persephone. This was an accusation frequently brought against people in Athens.

56

An orator of great violence of speech and gesture.

57

For Philocleon, the titulary god was Lycus, the son of Pandion, the King of Athens, because a statue stood erected to him close to the spot where the tribunals sat, and because he recognized no other fatherland but the tribunals.

58

A debauchee and an embezzler of public funds, already mentioned a little above.

59

Aristophanes speaks of him in 'The Birds' as a traitor and as an alien who usurped the rights of the city.

60

A Greek proverb signifying "Much ado about nothing."

61

A Spartan general, who perished in the same battle as Cleon, before Amphipolis, in 422 B.C.

62

Meaning, the mere beginnings of any matter.

63

This 'figure of love'—woman atop of the man—is known in Greek as [Greek: hippos] (Latin equus, 'the horse'); note the play upon words with the name Hippias.

64

A tragic poet, who was a great lover of good cheer, it appears.

65

Old men, who carried olive branches in the processions of the Panathenaea. Those whose great age or infirmity forbade their being used for any other purpose were thus employed.

66

An obscene pun. [Greek: Choiros] means both a sow and the female organ.

67

A celebrated actor.

68

There were two tragedies named 'Niobé,' one by Aeschylus and the other by Sophocles, both now lost.

69

A double strap, which flute-players applied to their lips and was said to give softness to the tones.

70

The shell was fixed over the seal to protect it.

71

A calumniator and a traitor (see 'The Acharnians').

72

Cleonymus, whose name the poet modifies, so as to introduce the idea of a flatterer ([Greek: kolax]).

73

Another flatterer, a creature of Cleon's.

74

Athenian poor, having no purse, would put small coins into mouth for safety. We know that the triobolus was the daily of the judges. Its value was about 4-1/2 d.

75

A jar of wine, which he had bought with his pay.

76

A jar with two long ears or handles, in this way resembling an ass.

77

A well-known flute-player.

78

We have already seen that when accepting his son's challenge he swore to fall upon his sword if defeated in the debate.

79

Pericles had first introduced the custom of sending poor citizens, among whom the land was divided, into the conquered countries. The island of Aegina had been mainly divided in this way among Athenian colonists.

80

The choenix was a measure corresponding to our quart.

81

A verse borrowed from Euripides' 'Bellerophon.'

82

i.e. a legislator. The name given in Athens to the last six of the nine Archons, because it was their special duty to see the laws respected.

83

Mentioned both in 'The Acharnians' and 'The Knights.'

84

The drachma was worth six obols, or twice the pay of a heliast.

85

We have already seen that the Athenians sometimes kept their small money in their mouth.

86

Which were placed in the courts; dogs were sacrificed on them.

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