The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1

Автор

Аристофан

Год написания книги

2018

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58

It was customary in Athens for the plaintiff himself to fix the fine to be paid by the defendant.

59

Athené, the tutelary divinity of Athens.

60

And wife of Pisistratus. Anything belonging to the ancient tyrants was hateful to the Athenians.

61

An allusion to the language used by the democratic orators, who, to be better understood by the people, constantly affected the use of terms belonging to the different trades.

62

He accuses Cleon of collusion with the enemy.

63

Cleon retorts upon his adversary the charge brought against himself. The Boeotians were the allies of Sparta.

64

Allusion to cock-fighting.

65

The tripping metre usually employed in the parabasis.

66

Hitherto Aristophanes had presented his pieces under an assumed name.

67

A comic poet, who had carried off the prize eleven times; not a fragment of his works remains to us.

68

An allusion to the titles of some of his pieces, viz. "the Flute Players, the Birds, the Lydians, the Gnats, the Frogs."

69

The Comic Poet, rival of Aristophanes, several times referred to above.

70

These were the opening lines of poems by Cratinus, often sung at festivities.

71

A poet, successful at the Olympic games, and in old age reduced to extreme misery.

72

The place of honour in the Dionysiac Theatre, reserved for distinguished citizens.

73

A Comic Poet, who was elegant but cold; he had at first played as an actor in the pieces of Cratinus.

74

Besides the oarsmen and the pilot, there was on the Grecian vessels a sailor, who stood at the prow to look out for rocks, and another, who observed the direction of the wind.

75

Two promontories, one in Attica, the other in Euboea, on which temples to Posidon were erected.

76

An Athenian general, who had gained several naval victories. He had contributed to the success of the expedition to Samos (Thucydides, Book I), and had recently beaten a Peloponnesian fleet (Thucydides, Book II).

77

At the Panathenaea, a festival held every fourth year, a peplus, or sail, was carried with pomp to the Acropolis. On this various mythological scenes, having reference to Athené, were embroidered—her exploits against the giants, her fight with Posidon concerning the name to be given to Athens, etc. It had also become customary to add the names and the deeds of such citizens as had deserved well of their country.

78

Cleaenetus had passed a law to limit the number of citizens to be fed at the Prytaneum; it may be supposed, that those, who aspired to this distinction, sought to conciliate Cleaenetus in their favour.

79

The Chorus of Knights, not being able to sing their own praises, feign to divert these to their chargers.

80

A horse branded with the obsolete letter [Greek: sán]—[Symbol: Letter 'san'], as a mark of breed or high quality.

81

Crab was no doubt a nickname given to the Corinthians on account of the position of their city on an isthmus between two seas. In the 'Acharnians' Theorus is mentioned as an ambassador, who had returned from the King of Persia.

82

The Senate was a body composed of five hundred members, elected annually like the magistrates from the three first classes to the exclusion of the fourth, the Thetes, which was composed of the poorest citizens.