The Eleven Comedies, Volume 2

685

A coined word, derived from [Greek: achras], a wild pear.

686

Amynon was not a physician, according to the Scholiast, but one of those orators called [Greek: europr_oktoi] (laticuli) 'wide-arsed,' because addicted to habits of pathic vice, and was invoked by Blepyrus for that reason.

687

A doctor notorious for his dissolute life.

688

The Grecian goddess who presided over child-birth.

689

He is afraid lest some comic poet should surprise him in his ridiculous position and might cause a laugh at his expense upon the stage.

690

In accordance with a quaint Athenian custom a rope daubed with vermilion was drawn across from end to end of the Agora (market-place) by officials of the city at the last moment before the Ecclesia, or Public Assembly, was to meet. Any citizen trying to evade his duty to be present was liable to have his white robe streaked red, and so be exposed to general ridicule on finally putting in an appearance on the Pnyx.

691

A parody on a verse in 'The Myrmidons' of Aeschylus.—Antilochus was the son of Nestor; he was killed by Memnon, when defending his father.

692

See above.

693

He was very poor, and his cloak was such a mass of holes that one might doubt his having one at all. This surname, Evaeon ([Greek: eu ai_on], delicious life) had doubtless been given him on the 'lucus a non' principle because of his wretchedness.

694

Apparently a wealthy corn-factor.

695

Presumably this refers to the grandson of Nicias, the leader of the expedition to Sicily; he must have been sixteen or seventeen years old about that time, since, according to Lysias, Niceratus, the son of the great Nicias, was killed in 405 B.C. and had left a son of tender age behind him, who bore the name of his grandfather.

696

That is, the pale-faced folk in the Assembly already referred to—really the women there present surreptitiously.

697

To eat cuttle-fish was synonymous with enjoying the highest felicity.

698

A common vulgar saying, used among the Athenians, as much as to say, To the devil with interruptions!

699

This stood in the centre of the market-place.

700

It was the custom at Athens to draw lots to decide in which Court each dicast should serve; Praxagora proposes to apply the same system to decide the dining station for each citizen.

701

In Greek [Greek: h_e basileius]([Greek: stoa], understood), the first letter a [Greek: b_eta.]

702

Commencing with a [Greek: Th_eta].

703

[Greek: Ha alphitop_olis stoa]; why [Greek: kappa], it is hard to say; from some popular nickname probably, which is unknown to us.

704

The pun cannot be kept in English; it is between [Greek: kaptein], to gobble, to cram oneself, and [Greek: kappa], the designating letter.

705

That is, one of the beautiful maidens selected to bear the baskets containing the sacred implements in procession at the Festival of Demeter, Bacchus and Athené.

706

The slave-girl who attended each Canephoros, and sheltered her from the sun's rays.

707

Mentioned a little above for his ugliness; the Scholiast says he was a general.

708

Hydriaphoros; the wives of resident aliens ([Greek: metoikoi]) were allowed to take part in these processions, but in a subordinate position; they carried vessels full of water for the service of the sacrifice.

709

Scaphephoros, bearer of the vases containing the honey required for the sacrifices. The office was assigned to the [Greek: metoikoi] as a recognition of their semi-citizenship.

710

A miser, who, moreover, was obstinately constipated.

711

Presumably a man in extreme poverty.

712

The ancients carried small coins in their mouth; this custom still obtains to-day in the East.

713

This Euripides was the son of the tragic poet.

714

This Smaeus was a notorious debauchee; the phrase contains obscene allusions, implying that he was ready both to ride a woman or to lick her privates—[Greek: kel_etizein] or [Greek: lesbiazein].

715

Geres, an old fop, who wanted to pass as a young man.

716

According to Greek custom, these were left at the entrance of the banqueting-hall.

717

The names of his slaves.

718

A specimen of the serenades ([Greek: paraklausithura]) of the Greeks.

719

An Attic deme. There is an obscene jest here; the word [Greek: anaphlan] means to masturbate.

720

[Greek: Ton Sebinon], a coined name, representing [Greek: ton se binounta], 'the man who is to tread you.'

721

The passage is written in the language of the Bar. It is an allusion to the slowness of justice at Athens.

722

i.e. the new law must be conformed to all round.

723

It was customary to paint phials or little bottles on the coffins of the poor; these emblems took the place of the perfumes that were sprinkled on the bodies of the rich.

724

i.e. unless I am your slave; no doubt this tax of five hundredths was paid by the master on the assumed value of his slave.—We have, however, no historical data to confirm this.

725

Nickname of the notorious brigand. The word means 'one who stretches and tortures,' from [Greek: prokrouein], and refers to his habit of fitting all his captives to the same bedstead—the 'bed of Procrustes'—stretching them if too short to the required length, lopping their limbs as required if they were too long. Here a further pun is involved, [Greek: prokrouein] meaning also 'to go with a woman first.'

726

Athenian law declared it illegal for a woman to contract any debt exceeding the price of a medimnus of corn; this law is now supposed to affect the men.

727

Merchants were exempt from military service; in this case, it is another kind of service that the old woman wants to exact from the young man.

728

A Thracian brigand, who forced strangers to share his daughters' bed, or be devoured by his horses.

729

Dead bodies were laid out on a layer of origanum, which is an aromatic plant.

730

The young man is here describing the formalities connected with the laying out of the dead.

731

Who had married his mother Jocasta without knowing it.

732

A hideous spectre that Hecaté was supposed to send to frighten men.

733

Which provided that where a number of criminals were charged with the same offence, each must be tried separately.

734

As an aphrodisiac.

735

We have already seen similar waggish endings to phrases in the 'Lysistrata'; the figure is called [Greek: para prosdokian]—'contrary to expectation.'

736

Nothing is known as to these Cretan rhythms. According to the Scholiast, this is a jest, because the Cretans, who were great eaters, sat down to table early in the morning. This is what the Chorus supposes it is going to do, since 'The Ecclesiazusae' was played first, i.e. during the forenoon.

737

Transcriber's note: In the original, all following words until 'wings' are connected with hyphens, i.e. they form one word.

738

This wonderful word consists, in the original Greek, of seventy-seven syllables. For similar burlesque compounds see the 'Lysistrata,' 457, 458; 'Wasps,' 505 and 520. Compare Shakespeare, 'Love's Labour's Lost,' Act V. sc. 1: "I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus." This is outdone by Rabelais' Antipericatametaanaparbeugedamphicribrationibus.

739

This caption is missing in the original.

740

The poet jestingly makes Chremylus attribute two utterly opposed characteristics to his servant.

741

Literally sycophants i.e. denouncers of figs. The Senate, says Plutarch, in very early times had made a law forbidding the export of figs from Attica; those who were found breaking the edict were fined to the advantage of the sycophant ([Greek: phainein], to denounce, and [Greek: sukon], fig). Since the law was abused in order to accuse the innocent, the name sycophant was given to calumniators and to the too numerous class of informers at Athens who subsisted on the money their denunciations brought them.

742

A parody of the tragic style.

743

Plutus, the god of riches, was included amongst the infernal deities, because riches are extracted from the earth's bosom, which is their dwelling-place. According to Hesiod, he was the son of Demeter; agriculture is in truth the most solid foundation of wealth. He was generally represented as an old blind man, halting in gait and winged, coming with slow steps but going away on a rapid flight and carrying a purse in his hand. At Athens the statue of Peace bore Plutus represented as still a child on her bosom as a symbol of the wealth that peace brings.

744

A rich man, who affected the sordid habits of Lacedaemon, because of his greed. "More sordid than Patrocles" had become a byword at Athens. Even the public baths were too dear for Patrocles, because, in addition to the modest fee that was given to the bath-man, it was necessary to use a little oil for the customary friction after the bath.

745

This catechizing is completely in the manner of the sophistical teaching of the times, and has its parallel in other comedies. It reminds us in many ways of the Socratic 'Elenchus' as displayed in the Platonic dialogues.

746

Corinth was the most corrupt as well as the most commercial of Greek cities, and held a number of great courtesans, indeed some of the most celebrated, e.g. Laďs, Cyrené, Sinopé, practised their profession there; they, however, set a very high value on their favours, and hence the saying, "Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum"—"it is not for every man to go to Corinth."

747

This was the mild punishment inflicted upon the adulterer by Athenian custom. The laws of Solon were very indulgent to this kind of crime; they only provided that the guilty woman might be repudiated by her husband, but were completely silent concerning her accomplice.

748

Cario means to convey that women often paid their lovers, or at all events made it their business to open up the road to fortune for them.

749

In order to receive the triobolus, the fee for attendance.

750

The richest citizens were saddled with this expense and were called trierarchs.

751

Athens had formed an alliance with Corinth and Thebes against Sparta in 393 B.C., a little before the production of the 'Plutus.' Corinth, not feeling itself strong enough to resist the attacks of the Spartans unaided, had demanded the help of an Athenian garrison, and hence Athens maintained some few thousand mercenaries there.

752

A civil servant, who had been exiled for embezzling State funds.

753

No doubt an accomplice of Pamphilus in his misdeeds; the Scholiast says he was one of his parasites.

754

An upstart and, through the favour of the people, an admiral in the year 389 B.C., after Thrasybulus; he had enriched himself through some rather equivocal state employments and was insolent, because of his wealth, 'as a well-fed ass.'

755

A buffoon, so the Scholiasts inform us, who was in the habit of visiting the public places of the city in order to make a little money by amusing the crowd with ridiculous stories. Others say he was a statesman of the period, who was condemned for embezzlement of public money; in his defence he may well have invented some fabulous tales to account for the disappearance of the money out of the Treasury.

756

The precise historical reference here is obscure.

757

Laďs, a celebrated courtesan.—Of Philonides little is known, except that he was a native of Melita and a rich and profligate character.

758

The reference is no doubt to a pretentious construction that had been built for the rich and over-proud Timotheus, the son of Conon. He was a clever general of great integrity; when the 'Plutus' was produced, he was still very young.

759

Chremylus rises in a regular climax from love to military glory; the slave in as direct an anti-climax comes from bread, sweetmeats, etc., down to lentils.

760

The son of Aphareus, the King of Messenia; according to the legends, he had such piercing sight that he could see through walls, and could even discover what was going on in heaven and in the nether world. He took part in the expedition of the Argonauts.

761

A part of the victim which Cario was bringing back from the Temple; it was customary to present the remains of a sacrifice to friends and relations.

762

As soon as Chremylus sees himself assured of wealth he adopts less honest principles.

763

The citizens appointed to act as dicasts, or jurymen, drew lots each year to decide in which Court they should sit. There were ten Courts, each of which was indicated by one of the first ten letters of the alphabet, and the urn contained as many tickets marked with these letters as there were dicasts. Cario means to say here that the old men of the Chorus should remember that they have soon to die themselves instead of bothering about punishing him.

764

A word invented to imitate the sound of a lyre.

765

The Cyclops let his flocks graze while he played the lyre; it was thus that Philoxenus had represented him in a piece to which Aristophanes is here alluding.—Cario assumes the part of the Cyclops and leaves that of the flock to the Chorus.

766

In allusion to Ulysses' adventures in the cave of Polyphemus.

767

Laďs.

768

i.e. Cario, who is assuming the rôle of Circé of Corinth.

769

This was the torture which Odysseus inflicted on Melanthius, one of the goatherds.

770

A poet of debauched and degraded life, one of those who, like Ariphrades mentioned in 'The Knights,' "defiled his tongue with abominable sensualities," that is to say, was a fellator and a cunnilingue.

771

It is uncertain whether Pamphilus, a tragedian, is meant here, who, like Euripides and Aeschylus, made the Heraclidae the subject of a tragedy, or the painter of that name, so celebrated in later times, who painted that subject in the Poecilé Stoa.

772

Physicians at Athens were paid very indifferently, and hence the most skilled sought their practice in other cities.

773

The Temple of Aesculapius stood on the way from the theatre to the citadel and near the tomb of Talos. A large number of invalids were taken there to pass a night; it was believed that the god visited them without being seen himself, because of the darkness, and arranged for their restoration to health.

774

Like the Furies who composed the Chorus in Aeschylus' 'Eumenides.'

775

A ravine into which criminals were hurled at Athens.

776

During the winter the poor went into the public baths for shelter against the cold; they could even stop there all night; sometimes they burnt themselves by getting too near the furnace which heated the water.

777

i.e. the most opposite things; the tyranny of Dionysius of Syracuse and the liberty which Thrasybulus restored to Athens.

778

Crimes to which men are driven through poverty.

779

The ancients placed statues of Hecaté at the cross-roads ([Greek: triodoi], places where three roads meet), because of the three names, Artemis, Phoebé and Hecaté, under which the same goddess was worshipped. On the first day of the month the rich had meals served before these statues and invited the poor to them.

780

A verse from Euripides' lost play of 'Telephus.' The same line occurs in 'The Knights.'

781

And not the citizens of Argos, whom agriculture and trade rendered wealthy.—Pauson was an Athenian painter, whose poverty had become a proverb. "Poorer than Pauson" was a common saying.

782

There is here a long interval of time, during which Plutus is taken to the Temple of Aesculapius and cured of his blindness. In the first edition probably the Parabasis came in here; at all events a long choral ode must have intervened.

783

The Athenians had erected a temple to Theseus and instituted feasts in his honour, which were still kept up in the days of Plutarch and Pausanias. Barley broth and other coarse foods were distributed among the poor.

784

He was an orator, who was accused of theft and extortion, and who, moreover, was said not to be a genuine Athenian citizen.

785

The serpent was sacred to Aesculapius; several of these reptiles lived in the temple of the god.

786

Iaso (from [Greek: iasthai], to heal) and Panacea (from [Greek: pan], everything, and [Greek: akeisthai], to cure) were daughters of Aesculapius.

787

He has to see, examine, and taste pill, potion, urine … and worse.

788

An apothecary's outfit.

789

Tenos is one of the Cyclades, near Andros.

790

A deme of Attica, where the strongest vinegar came from.

791

The Scholiast says that this was an individual as poor as he was greedy, and on the watch for every opportunity to satisfy his voracity.—The comic poets often had nuts, figs and other petty dainties thrown to the audience. It was a fairly good way to secure the favour of a certain section of the public.

792

The ancients used oil in large quantities, whether for rubbing themselves down after bathing or before their exercises in the palaestra, or for the different uses of domestic life. It was kept in a kind of tank, hollowed in the ground and covered with tiles or stones. The wine-sellers had similar tanks, but of larger size, for keeping their wine.

793

This was what was styled the triple or complete sacrifice.

794

As evidence of the sorry condition from which he had been raised.

795

The clothes a man wore on the day that he was initiated into the Mysteries of Eleusis had, according to custom, to be dedicated to the gods, but only after they had been worn. Most people only decided to do this when they were full of holes and torn; it is because his visitor's cloak is in such a sorry condition that Chremylus takes it to be the cloak of an Initiate.

796

This Eudemus was a kind of sorcerer, who sold magic rings, to which, among other virtues, he ascribed that of curing, or rather of securing him who wore them, from snake-bites.

797

The merchants engaged in maritime commerce were absolved from military service; the Scholiast even declares, though it seems highly unlikely, that all merchants were exempt from imposts on their possessions. When it was a question of escaping taxes and military service the informer passed as a merchant.

798

At Athens 'twas only the injured person who could prosecute in private disputes; everyone, however, had this right where wrongs against the State were involved; but if the prosecutor only obtained one-fifth of the votes, he was condemned to a fine of 1000 drachmae or banished the country.

799

A proverbial saying, meaning, the most precious thing.—Battus, a Lacedaemonian, led out a colony from Thera, an island in the Aegean sea, and, about 630 B.C., founded the city of Cyrené in Africa. He was its first king, and after death was honoured as a god. The inhabitants of that country gathered great quantities of silphium or 'laserpitium,' the sap of which plant was the basis of medicaments and sauces that commanded a high price. The coins of Cyrené bore the representation of a stalk of silphium.

800

The old woman had entered dressed as a young girl. Or is it merely said ironically?

801

A proverb, meaning, "All things change with time." Addressed to the old woman, it meant that she had perhaps been beautiful once, but that the days for love were over for her.—Miletus, the most powerful of the Ionic cities, had a very numerous fleet and founded more than eighty colonies; falling beneath the Persian yoke, the city never succeeded in regaining its independence.

802

Eleusis was some distance from Athens, about seven and a half miles, and the wealthy women drove there. It was an occasion when they vied with each other in the display of luxury.

803

You are so old.

804

The goddess of death and old age.

805

Wineshop-keepers were often punished for serving false measure. Hermes, who allowed them to be punished although he was the god of cheating and was worshipped as such by the wineshop-keepers, deserved to be neglected by them.

806

The greater gods had a day in each month specially dedicated to them; thus Hermes had the fourth, Artemis the sixth, Apollo the seventh, etc.

807

This game, which was customary during the feasts of Bacchus' consisted in hopping on one leg upon a wine-skin that was blown out and well greased with oil; the competitor who kept his footing longest on one leg, gained the prize.