Endnotes
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Euelpides is holding a jay and Pisthetaerus a crow; they are the guides who are to lead them to the kingdom of the birds. ↩
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A stranger who wanted to pass as an Athenian, although coming originally for a faraway barbarian country. ↩
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A king of Thrace, a son of Ares, who married Procne, 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 Procne had borne 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 metamorphosed. Tereus became an Epops (hoopoe), Procne a swallow, Philomela a nightingale, and Itys a goldfinch. According to Anacreon and Apollodorus it was Procne who became the nightingale and Philomela the swallow, and this is the version of the tradition followed by Aristophanes. ↩
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An Athenian who had some resemblance to a jay—so says the scholiast, at any rate. ↩
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Literally, “to go to the crows,” a proverbial expression equivalent to our “going to the devil.” ↩
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They leave Athens because of their hatred of lawsuits and informers; this is the especial failing of the Athenians satirized in The Wasps. ↩
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Myrtle boughs were used in sacrifices, and the founding of every colony was started by a sacrifice. ↩
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The actors wore masks made to resemble the birds they were supposed to represent. ↩
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Fear had had disastrous effects upon Euelpides’ internal economy, and this his feet evidenced. ↩
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The same mishap had occurred to Pisthetaerus. ↩
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The Greek word for a wren, τροχίλος is derived from the same root as τρέχειν, to run. ↩
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No doubt there was some scenery to represent a forest. Besides, there is a pun intended. The words answering for “forests” and “door” (ὕλη and θύρα) in Greek only differ slightly in sound. ↩
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Sophocles had written a tragedy about Tereus, in which, no doubt, the king finally appears as a hoopoe. ↩
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A παρά προσδοκίαν; one would expect the question to be “bird or man.”—Are you a peacock? The hoopoe resembles the peacock inasmuch as both have crests. ↩
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Athens. ↩
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The Athenians were madly addicted to lawsuits. (See The Wasps.) ↩
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As much as to say, “Then you have such things as anti-dicasts?” And Euelpides practically replaces, “Very few.” ↩
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His name was Aristocrates; he was a general and commanded a fleet sent in aid of Corcyra. ↩
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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. ↩
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A tragic poet, who was a leper; there is a play, of course, on the word Lepreum. ↩
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An allusion to Opuntius, who was one-eyed. ↩
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The newly-married ate a sesame-cake, decorated with garlands of myrtle, poppies and mint. ↩
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From πολεῖν, to turn. ↩
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The Greek words for “pole” and “city” (πόλος and πόλις) only differ by a single letter. ↩
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Boeotia separated Attica from Phocis. ↩
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He swears by the powers that are to him dreadful. ↩
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As already stated, according to the legend accepted by Aristophanes, it was Procne who was turned into the nightingale. ↩
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The son of Tereus and Procne. ↩
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An African bird, that comes to the southern countries of Europe, to Greece, Italy, and Spain; it is even seen in Provence. ↩
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Aristophanes amusingly mixes up real birds with people and individuals, whom he represents in the form of birds; he is personifying the Medians here. ↩
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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. ↩
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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. ↩
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This Callias, who must not be confounded with the foe of Pisistratus, had ruined himself. ↩
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Cleonymus had cast away his shield; he was as great a glutton as he was a coward. ↩
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A race
