The Eleven Comedies, Volume 2

271

He was a boaster nicknamed [Greek: Kapnos], smoke, because he promised a great deal and never kept his word.

272

Also mentioned in 'The Wasps.'

273

Because the war of the Titans against the gods was only a fiction of the poets.

274

A sacred cloth, with which the statue of Athené in the Acropolis was draped.

275

Meaning, to be patron-goddess of the city. Athené had a temple of this name.

276

An Athenian effeminate, frequently ridiculed by Aristophanes.

277

This was the name of the wall surrounding the Acropolis.

278

i.e. the fighting-cock.

279

To waken the sentinels, who might else have fallen asleep.—There are several merry contradictions in the various parts of this list of injunctions.

280

In allusion to the leather strap which flute-players wore to constrict the cheeks and add to the power of the breath. The performer here no doubt wore a raven's mask.

281

Hellanicus, the Mitylenian historian, tells that this surname of Artemis is derived from Colaenus, King of Athens before Cecrops and a descendant of Hermes. In obedience to an oracle he erected a temple to the goddess, invoking her as Artemis Colaenis (the Artemis of Colaenus).

282

This Cleocritus, says the Scholiast, was long-necked and strutted like an ostrich.

283

The Chians were the most faithful allies of Athens, and hence their name was always mentioned in prayers, decrees, etc.

284

Verses sung by maidens.

285

This ceremony took place on the tenth day after birth, and may be styled the pagan baptism.

286

Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse.—This passage is borrowed from Pindar.

287

[Greek: Hierón] in Greek means sacrifice.

288

A parody of poetic pathos, not to say bathos.

289

Which the priest was preparing to sacrifice.

290

Orneae, a city in Argolis ([Greek: ornis] in Greek means a bird). It was because of this similarity in sound that the prophet alludes to Orneae.

291

Noted Athenian diviner, who, when the power was still shared between Thucydides and Pericles, predicted that it would soon be centred in the hands of the latter; his ground for this prophecy was the sight of a ram with a single horn.

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 assumes.

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 Assembly.

301

A Macedonian people in the peninsula of Chalcidicé. 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 assemblies of the people or some tribunal.

304

So that the sacrifices might no longer be interrupted.

305

A disciple of Democrites; he passed over from superstition to atheism. The injustice and perversity of mankind led him to deny the existence of the gods, 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 Aphrodité (Venus), to whom he had awarded the apple, prize of beauty, in the contest of the "goddesses 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 Athené.

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

Ship, because of her wings, which resemble oars; cap, because she no doubt wore the head-dress (as a messenger of the gods) 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 testicles, vigorous in love.

321

Iris' reply is a parody of the tragic style.—'Lycimnius' is, according to the Scholiast, the title of a tragedy by Euripides, which is about a ship 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 passage 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 Titans 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 passion 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 Chalcidicé.

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.

340

His trade was to accuse the rich citizens of the subject islands, and drag them before the Athenian courts; he explains later the special advantages of this branch of the informer's business.

341

That is, whips—Corcyra being famous for these articles.

342

Cleonymus is a standing butt of Aristophanes' wit, both as an informer and a notorious poltroon.

343

In allusion to the cave of the bandit Orestes; the poet terms him a hero only because of his heroic name Orestes.

344

Prometheus wants night to come and so reduce the risk of being seen from Olympus.

345

The clouds would prevent Zeus seeing what was happening below him.

346

The third day of the festival of Demeter was a fast.

347

A semi-savage people, addicted to violence and brigandage.

348

Who, being reputed a stranger despite his pretension to the title of a citizen, could only have a strange god for his patron or tutelary deity.

349

The Triballi were a Thracian people; it was a term commonly used in Athens to describe coarse men, obscene debauchees and greedy parasites.

350

There is a similar pun in the Greek.

351

i.e. the supremacy of Greece, the real object of the war.

352

Prometheus had stolen the fire from the gods to gratify mankind.

353

A celebrated misanthrope, contemporary to Aristophanes. Hating the society of men, he had only a single friend, Apimantus, to whom he was attached, because of their similarity of character; he also liked Alcibiades, because he foresaw that this young man would be the ruin of his country.

354

The Canephori were young maidens, chosen from the first families of the city, who carried baskets wreathed with myrtle at the feast of Athené, while at those of Bacchus and Demeter they appeared with gilded baskets.—The daughters of 'Metics,' or resident aliens, walked behind them, carrying an umbrella and a stool.

355

According to Ctesias, the Sciapodes were a people who dwelt on the borders of the Atlantic. Their feet were larger than the rest of their bodies, and to shield themselves from the sun's rays they held up one of their feet as an umbrella.—By giving the Socratic philosophers the name of Sciapodes here ([Greek: podes], feet, and [Greek: skia], shadow) Aristophanes wishes to convey that they are walking in the dark and busying themselves with the greatest nonsense.

356

This Pisander was a notorious coward; for this reason the poet jestingly supposes that he had lost his soul, the seat of courage.

357

A [Greek: para prosdokian], considering the shape and height of the camel, which can certainly not be included in the list of small victims, e.g. the sheep and the goat.

358

In the evocation of the dead, Book XI of the Odyssey.

359

Chaerephon was given this same title by the Herald earlier in this comedy.—Aristophanes supposes him to have come from hell because he is lean and pallid.

360

Posidon appears on the stage accompanied by Heracles and a Triballian god.

361

An Athenian general.—Neptune is trying to give Triballus some notions of elegance and good behaviour.

362

Aristophanes supposes that democracy is in the ascendant in Olympus as it is in Athens.

363

He is addressing his servant, Manes.

364

Heracles softens at sight of the food.—Heracles is the glutton of the comic poets.

365

He pretends not to have seen them at first, being so much engaged with his cookery.

366

He pretends to forget the presence of the ambassadors.

367

Posidon jestingly swears by himself.

368

The barbarian god utters some gibberish which Pisthetaerus interprets into consent.

369

The barbarian god utters some gibberish which Pisthetaerus interprets into consent.

370

Heracles, the god of strength, was far from being remarkable in the way of cleverness.

371

This was Athenian law.

372

The poet attributes to the gods the same customs as those which governed Athens, and according to which no child was looked upon as legitimate unless his father had entered him on the registers of his phratria. The phratria was a division of the tribe and consisted of thirty families.

373

The chorus continues to tell what it has seen on its flights.

374

The harbour of the island of Chios; but this name is here used in the sense of being the land of informers ([Greek: phainein], to denounce).

375

i.e. near the orators' platform, or [Greek: B_ema], in the Public Assembly, or [Greek: Ekkl_esia], because there stood the [Greek: klepsudra], or water-clock, by which speeches were limited.

376

A coined name, made up of [Greek: gl_otta], the tongue, and [Greek: gast_er], the stomach, and meaning those who fill their stomach with what they gain with their tongues, to wit, the orators.

377

[Greek: Sukon] a fig, forms part of the word, [Greek: sukophant_es], which in Greek means an informer.

378

Both rhetoricians.

379

Because they consecrated it specially to the god of eloquence.

380

Basileia, whom he brings back from heaven.

381

Terms used in regulating a dance.

382

Where Pisthetaerus is henceforth to reign.

383

These were comic poets contemporary with Aristophanes. Phrynichus, the best known, gained the second prize with his 'Muses' when the present comedy was put upon the stage. Amipsias had gained the first prize over our author's first edition of 'The Clouds' and again over his 'Birds.' Aristophanes is ridiculing vulgar and coarse jests, which, however, he does not always avoid himself.

384

Instead of the expected "son of Zeus," he calls himself the "son of a wine-jar."

385

At the sea-fight at Arginusae the slaves who had distinguished themselves by their bravery were presented with their freedom. This battle had taken place only a few months before the production of 'The Frogs.' Had Xanthias been one of these slaves he could then have treated his master as he says, for he would have been his equal.

386

The door of the Temple of Heracles, situated in the deme of Melité, close to Athens. This temple contained a very remarkable statue of the god, the work of Eleas, the master of Phidias.

387

A fabulous monster, half man and half horse.

388

So also, in 'The Thesmophoriazusae,' Agathon is described as wearing a saffron robe, which was a mark of effeminacy.

389

A woman's foot-gear.

390

He speaks of him as though he were a vessel. Clisthenes, who was scoffed at for his ugliness, was completely beardless, which fact gave him the look of a eunuch. He was accused of prostituting himself.

391

Heracles cannot believe it. Dionysus had no repute for bravery. His cowardice is one of the subjects for jesting which we shall most often come upon in 'The Frogs.'

392

A tragedy by Euripides, produced some years earlier, some fragments of which are quoted by Aristophanes in his 'Thesmophoriazusae.'

393

An actor of immense stature.

394

The gluttony of Heracles was a byword. See 'The Birds.'

395

Euripides, weary, it is said, of the ridicule and envy with which he was assailed in Athens, had retired in his old age to the court of Archelaus, King of Macedonia, where he had met with the utmost hospitality. We are assured that he perished through being torn to pieces by dogs, which set upon him in a lonely spot. His death occurred in 407 B.C., the year before the production of 'The Frogs.'

396

This is a hemistich, the Scholiast says, from Euripides.

397

The son of Sophocles. Once, during his father's lifetime, he gained the prize for tragedy, but it was suspected that the piece itself was largely the work of Sophocles himself. It is for this reason that Dionysus wishes to try him when he is dependent on his own resources, now that his father is dead. The death of the latter was quite recent at the time of the production of 'The Frogs,' and the fact lent all the greater interest to this piece.

398

Agathon was a contemporary of Euripides, and is mentioned in terms of praise by Aristotle for his delineation of the character of Achilles, presumably in his tragedy of 'Telephus.' From the fragments which remain of this author it appears that his style was replete with ornament, particularly antithesis.

399

Son of Caminus, an inferior poet, often made the butt of Aristophanes' jeers.

400

A poet apparently, unknown.

401

Expressions used by Euripides in different tragedies.

402

Parody of a verse in Euripides' 'Andromeda,' a lost play.

403

Heracles, being such a glutton, must be a past master in matters of cookery, but this does not justify him in posing as a dramatic critic.

404

Xanthias, bent double beneath his load, gets more and more out of patience with his master's endless talk with Heracles.

405

The mortar in which hemlock was pounded.

406

An allusion to the effect of hemlock.

407

A quarter of Athens where the Lampadephoria was held in honour of Athené, Hephaestus, and Prometheus, because the first had given the mortals oil, the second had invented the lamp, and the third had stolen fire from heaven. The principal part of this festival consisted in the lampadedromia, or torch-race. This name was given to a race in which the competitors for the prize ran with a torch in their hand; it was essential that the goal should be reached with the torch still alight. The signal for starting was given by throwing a torch from the top of the tower mentioned a few verses later on.

408

Theseus had descended into Hades with Pirithous to fetch away Persephoné. Aristophanes doubtless wishes to say that in consequence of this descent Pluto established a toll across Acheron, in order to render access to his kingdom less easy, and so that the poor and the greedy, who could not or would not pay, might be kept out.

409

Morsimus was a minor poet, who is also mentioned with disdain in 'The Knights,' and is there called the son of Philocles. Aristophanes jestingly likens anyone who helps to disseminate his verses to the worst of criminals.

410

The Pyrrhic dance was a lively and quick-step dance. Cinesias was not a dancer, but a dithyrambic poet, who declaimed with much gesticulation and movement that one might almost think he was performing this dance.

411

Those initiated into the Mysteries of Demeter, who, according to the belief of the ancients, enjoyed a kind of beatitude after death.

412

Xanthias, his strength exhausted and his patience gone, prepares to lay down his load. Asses were used for the conveyance from Athens to Eleusis of everything that was necessary for the celebration of the Mysteries. They were often overladen, and from this fact arose the proverb here used by Xanthias, as indicating any heavy burden.

413

The Ancients believed that meeting this or that person or thing at the outset of a journey was of good or bad omen. The superstition is not entirely dead even to-day.

414

Dionysus had seated himself on instead of at the oar.

415

One of the titles given to Dionysus, because of the worship accorded him at Nysa, a town in Ethiopia, where he was brought up by the nymphs.

416

This was the third day of the Anthesteria or feasts of Dionysus. All kinds of vegetables were cooked in pots and offered to Dionysus and Athené. It was also the day of the dramatic contests.

417

Dionysus' temple, the Lenaeum, was situated in the district of Athens known as the Linnae, or Marshes, on the south side of the Acropolis.

418

He points to the audience.

419

A spectre, which Hecaté sent to frighten men. It took all kinds of hideous shapes. It was exorcised by abuse.

420

This was one of the monstrosities which credulity attributed to the Empusa.

421

He is addressing a priest of Bacchus, who occupied a seat reserved for him in the first row of the audience.

422

A verse from the Orestes of Euripides.—Hegelochus was an actor who, in a recent representation, had spoken the line in such a manner as to lend it an absurd meaning; instead of saying, [Greek: gal_en_en], which means calm, he had pronounced it [Greek: gal_en], which means a cat.