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The Eleven Comedies, Volume 2
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.
87
As already stated, the statue of Lycus stood close to the place where the tribunals sat.
88
The barrier in the Heliaea, which separated the heliasts from the public.
89
The whole of this comic trial of the dog Labes is an allusion to the general Laches, already mentioned, who had failed in Sicily. He was accused of taking bribes of money from the Sicilians.
90
To serve for a bar.
91
This was a customary formula, [Greek: aph' Estias archou], "begin from Hestia," first adore Vesta, the god of the family hearth. In similar fashion, the Romans said, ab Jove principium.
92
For conviction and acquittal.
93
On which the sentence was entered.
94
No doubt the stew-pot and the wine-jar.
95
The article Bdelycleon had brought.—The clepsydra was a kind of water-clock; the other vessel is compared to it, because of the liquid in it.
96
A title of Apollo, worshipped as the god of healing.
97
A title of Apollo, because of the sacrifices, which the Athenians offered him in the streets, from [Greek: aguia], a street.
98
Bdelycleon.
99
The formula used by the president before declaring the sitting of the Court opened.
100
That is, by way of fine.
101
A reference to the peculations Laches was supposed to have practised in keeping back part of the pay of the Athenian sailors engaged in the Sicilian Expedition.
102
The [Greek: Thesmothetai] at Athens were the six junior Archons, who judged cases assigned to no special Court, presided at the allotment of magistrates, etc.
103
Thucydides, son of Milesias, when accused by Pericles, could not say a word in his own defence. One would have said his tongue was paralysed. He was banished.—He must not be confounded with Thucydides the historian, whose exile took place after the production of 'The Wasps.'
104
When the judges were touched by the pleading of the orator and were decided on acquittal, they said to the defending advocate, "Cease speaking, descend from the rostrum."
105
There were two urns, one called that of Conviction, the other of Acquittal.
106
Meaning, that he had at first produced pieces under the name of other poets, such as Callistrates and Phidonides.
107
Eurycles, an Athenian diviner, surnamed the Engastromythes ([Greek: muthos], speech, [Greek: en gastri], in the belly), because he was believed to be inspired by a genius within him.—The same name was also given to the priestesses of Apollo, who spoke their oracles without moving their lips.
108
Some poets misused their renown as a means of seduction among young men.
109
Cleon, whom he attacked in 'The Knights,' the first Comedy that Aristophanes had produced in his own name.
110
Cynna, like Salabaccha, was a shameless courtesan of the day.
111
The lamiae were mysterious monsters, to whom the ancients ascribed the most varied forms. They were depicted most frequently with the face and bosom of a woman and the body of a serpent. Here Aristophanes endows them with organs of virility. It was said that the blood of young men had a special attraction for them. These lines, abusive of Cleon, occur again in the 'Peace,' II. 738-42.
112
Socrates and the sophists, with whom the poet confounds him in his attacks.
113
He likens them to vampires.
114
The third Archon, whose duty was the protection of strangers. All cases involving the rights of citizenship were tried before him. These were a frequent cause of lawsuit at Athens.
115
'The Clouds' had not been well received.
116
Aristophanes lets it be understood that the refusal to crown him arose from the fact that he had been too bold in his attack.
117
To perfume their caskets, etc., the Ancients placed scented fruit, especially oranges, in them.
118
The pastimes of love.
119
At Marathon, where the Athenians defeated the Persian invaders, 490 B.C. The battle-field is a plain on the north-east coast of Attica, about twenty-seven miles from Athens.
120
A favourable omen, of course. The owl was the bird of Athené.
121
An allusion to Cimon's naval victories.
122
The Cyclades islands and many towns on the coast of Asia Minor.
123
The tribunals.
124
The six last Archons presided over the civil courts and were styled Thesmothetae (see above).
125
Magistrates, who had charge of criminal cases.
126
Built by Pericles. Musical contests were held there. Here also took place distributions of flour, and the presence of the magistrates was no doubt necessary to decide on the spot any disputes that might arise regarding this.
127
This, says the Scholiast, refers to magistrates appointed for the upkeep of the walls. They were selected by ballot from amongst the general body of Heliasts.
128
The demagogues and their flatterers.
129
The battle of Artemisium on the Euboean coast; a terrible storm arose and almost destroyed the barbarian fleet, while sparing that of the Athenians.
130
A mantle trimmed with fur.
131
A rural deme of Attica. Rough coats were made there, formed of skins sewn together.
132
An effeminate poet.
133
He compares the thick, shaggy stuff of the pelisse to the intestines of a bullock, which have a sort of crimped and curled look.
134
An Attic talent was equal to about fifty-seven pounds avoirdupois.
135
He grumbles over his own good fortune, as old men will.
136
Lamia, the daughter of Belus and Libya, was loved by Zeus. Heré deprived her of her beauty and instilled her with a passion for blood; she is said to have plucked babes from their mothers' breast to devour them. Weary of her crimes, the gods turned her into a beast of prey.
137
Theagenes, of the Acharnian deme, was afflicted with a weakness which caused him to be constantly letting off loud, stinking farts, even in public—the cause of many gibes on the part of the Comic poets and his contemporaries.
138
He had been sent on a mission as an armed ambassador, i.e. as a common soldier, whose pay was two obols.
139
The [Greek: pankration] was a combined exercise, including both wrestling and boxing.
140
All these names have been already mentioned.
141
Each time Philocleon takes up the song with words that are a satire on the guest who begins the strain.
142
King Admetus (Euripides' 'Alcestis') had suffered his devoted wife Alcestis to die to save his life when ill to death. Heracles, however, to repay former benefits received, descended into Hades and rescued Alcestis from Pluto's clutches.
143
A famous epicure, the Lucullus of Athens (see 'The Acharnians').
144
A parasite renowned for his gluttony.
145
A town in Thessaly.
146
Because of his poverty.
147
Four lines in 'The Knights' describe the infamous habits of Ariphrades in detail.
148
That is, it ceases to support it; Aristophanes does the same to Cleon.
149
Referring to Lysistratus' leanness.
150
A tragic actor, whose wardrobe had been sold up, so the story went, by his creditors.
151
He enters, followed closely by the persons he has ill-used, and leading a flute-girl by the hand.
152
Meaning his penis.
153
Dardanus, a district of Asia Minor, north of the Troad, supplied many flute-girls to the cities of Greece.
154
Pointing to the flute-girl's motte.
155
He tells his son the very story the latter had taught him.
156
The name of the baker's wife.
157
Or Agoranomi, who numbered ten at Athens.
158
The disciple of Socrates.
159
Lasus, a musician and dithyrambic poet, born about 500 B.C. in Argolis, was the rival of Simonides and thought himself his superior.
160
Ino, the daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. Being pursued by her husband, Athamas, whom the Fury Tisiphoné had driven mad, she threw herself into the sea with Melicerta, whereupon they were both changed into sea-goddesses.—This is the subject of one of Euripides' tragedies.
161
A famous town in Magna Graecia, south coast of Italy.
162
A celebrated physician.—Philocleon means, "Instead of starting an action, go and have yourself cared for; that is better worth your while."
163
The dances that Thespis, the originator of Tragedy, interspersed with the speaking parts of his plays.
164
A verse borrowed from an unknown Tragedy.
165
As was done in the stadia when the races were to be started.
166
The ancients considered it a specific against madness.
167
Phrynichus, like all the ancient tragic writers, mingled many dances with his pieces.
168
Tragic poet. His three sons had also written tragedies and were dancers into the bargain.
169
Carcinus, by a mere transposition of the accent ([Greek: karkívos]), means crab in Greek; hence the pun.
170
Carcinus' sons were small and thin.
171
The third son of Carcinus.
172
Meaning, the three sons of Carcinus, the dancers, because, as mentioned before, Phrynichus often introduced a chorus of dancers into his Tragedies.
173
Carcinus himself.
174
The Greek word is [Greek: triorchoi]—possessed of three testicles, of three-testicle power, inordinately lecherous; with the change of a letter ([Greek: triarchoi]) it means 'three rulers,' 'three kinglets.'
175
Euelpides is holding a jay and Pisthetaerus a crow; they are the guides who are to lead them to the kingdom of the birds.
176
A stranger, who wanted to pass as an Athenian, although coming originally from a far-away barbarian country.
177
A king of Thrace, a son of Ares, who married Procné, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens, whom he had assisted against the Megarians. He violated his sister-in-law, Philomela, and then cut out her tongue; she nevertheless managed to convey to her sister how she had been treated. They both agreed to kill Itys, whom Procné had born to Tereus, and dished up the limbs of his own son to the father; at the end of the meal Philomela appeared and threw the child's head upon the table. Tereus rushed with drawn sword upon the princesses, but all the actors in this terrible scene were metamorphised. Tereus became an Epops (hoopoe), Procné a swallow, Philomela a nightingale, and Itys a goldfinch. According to Anacreon and Apollodorus it was Procné who became the nightingale and Philomela the swallow, and this is the version of the tradition followed by Aristophanes.
178
An Athenian who had some resemblance to a jay—so says the Scholiast, at any rate.
179
Literally, to go to the crows, a proverbial expression equivalent to our going to the devil.
180
They leave Athens because of their hatred of lawsuits and informers; this is the especial failing of the Athenians satirized in 'The Wasps.'
181
Myrtle boughs were used in sacrifices, and the founding of every colony was started by a sacrifice.
182
The actors wore masks made to resemble the birds they were supposed to represent.
183
Fear had had disastrous effects upon Euelpides' internal economy, this his feet evidenced.
184
The same mishap had occurred to Pisthetaerus.
185
The Greek word for a wren, [Greek: trochilos], is derived from the same root as [Greek: trechein], to run.
186
No doubt there was some scenery to represent a forest. Besides, there is a pun intended. The words answering for forest and door ([Greek: hul_e and thura]) in Greek only differ slightly in sound.
187
Sophocles had written a tragedy about Tereus, in which, no doubt, the king finally appears as a hoopoe.
188
A [Greek: para prosdokian]; one would expect the question to be "bird or man."—Are you a peacock? The hoopoe resembles the peacock inasmuch as both have crests.
189
Athens.
190
The Athenians were madly addicted to lawsuits. (Vide 'The Wasps.')
191
As much as to say, Then you have such things as anti-dicasts? And Euelpides practically replies, Very few.
192
His name was Aristocrates; he was a general and commanded a fleet sent in aid of Corcyra.
193
The State galley, which carried the officials of the Athenian republic to their several departments and brought back those whose time had expired; it was this galley that was sent to Sicily to fetch back Alcibiades, who was accused of sacrilege.
194
A tragic poet, who was a leper; there is a play, of course, on the Lepreum.
195
An allusion to Opuntius, who was one-eyed.
196
The newly-married ate a sesame cake, decorated with garlands of myrtle, poppies, and mint.
197
From [Greek: polein], to turn.
198
The Greek words for pole and city ([Greek: polos] and [Greek: polis]) only differ by a single letter.
199
Boeotia separated Attica from Phocis.
200
He swears by the powers that are to him dreadful.
201
As already stated, according to the legend, accepted by Aristophanes, it was Procné who was turned into the nightingale.
202
The son of Tereus and Procné.
203
An African bird, that comes to the southern countries of Europe, to Greece, Italy, and Spain; it is even seen in Provence.
204
Aristophanes amusingly mixes up real birds with people and individuals, whom he represents in the form of birds; he is personifying the Medians here.
205
Philocles, a tragic poet, had written a tragedy on Tereus, which was simply a plagiarism of the play of the same name by Sophocles. Philocles is the son of Epops, because he got his inspiration from Sophocles' Tereus, and at the same time is father to Epops, since he himself produced another Tereus.
206
This Hipponicus is probably the orator whose ears Alcibiades boxed to gain a bet; he was a descendant of Callias, who was famous for his hatred of Pisistratus.
207
This Callias, who must not be confounded with the foe of Pisistratus, had ruined himself.
208
Cleonymus had cast away his shield; he was as great a glutton as he was a coward.
209
A race in which the track had to be circled twice.
