The Eleven Comedies, Volume 2. Аристофан
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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,
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
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
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,
92
For conviction and acquittal.
93
On which the sentence was entered.
94
No doubt the stew-pot and the wine-jar.
95
The
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, "
105
There were two urns, one called that