The informer, says the scholiast, was clothed with a ragged cloak, the tatters of which hung down like wings, in fact, a cloak that could not protect him from the cold and must have made him long for the swallows’ return, i.e. the spring. ↩
A town in Achaia, where woollen cloaks were made. ↩
His trade was to accuse the rich citizens of the subject islands, and drag them before the Athenian court; he explains later the special advantages of this branch of the informer’s business. ↩
That is, whips—Corcyra being famous for these articles. ↩
Cleonymous is a standing butt of Aristophanes’ wit, both as an informer and a notorious poltroon. ↩
In allusion to the cave of the bandit Orestes; the poet terms him a hero only because of his heroic name Orestes. ↩
Prometheus wants night to come and so reduce the risk of being seen from Olympus. ↩
The clouds would prevent Zeus seeing what was happening below him. ↩
The third day of the festival of Demeter was a fast. ↩
A semi-savage people, addicted to violence and brigandage. ↩
Who, being reputed a stranger despite his pretension to the title of a citizen, could only have a strange god for his patron or tutelary deity. ↩
The Triballi were a Thracian people; it was a term commonly used in Athens to describe coarse men, obscene debauchees and greedy parasites. ↩
There is a similar pun in the Greek. ↩
I.e. the “supremacy” of Greece, the real object of the war. ↩
Prometheus had stolen the fire from the gods to gratify mankind. ↩
A celebrated misanthrope, contemporary to Aristophanes. Hating the society of men, he had only a single friend, Apimantus, to whom he was attached, because of their similarity of character; he also liked Alcibiades, because he foresaw that this young man would be the ruin of his country. ↩
The Canephori were young maidens, chosen from the first families of the city, who carried baskets wreathed with myrtle at the feast of Athene, while at those of Bacchus and Demeter they appeared with gilded baskets.—The daughters of “Metics,” or resident aliens, walked behind them, carrying an umbrella and a stool. ↩
According to Ctesias, the Sciapodes were a people who dwelt on the borders of the Atlantic. Their feet were larger than the rest of their bodies, and to shield themselves from the sun’s rays they held up one of their feet as an umbrella.—By giving the Socratic philosophers the name of Sciapodes here (ποδές, feet, and σκιά, shadow) Aristophanes wishes to convey that they are walking in the dark and busying themselves with the greatest nonsense. ↩
This Pisander was a notorious coward; for this reason the poet jestingly supposes that he had lost his soul, the seat of courage. ↩
A παρά προσδοκίαν, considering the shape and height of the camel, which can certainly not be included in the list of small victims, e.g. the sheep and the goat. ↩
In the evocation of the dead, Book XI of the Odyssey. ↩
Chaerephon was given this same title by the Herald earlier in this comedy.—Aristophanes supposes him to have come from hell because he is lean and pallid. ↩
Posidon appears on the stage accompanied by Heracles and a Triballian god. ↩
An Athenian general.—Neptune is trying to give Triballus some notions of elegance and good behaviour. ↩
Aristophanes supposes that democracy is in the ascendant in Olympus as it is in Athens. ↩
He is addressing his servant, Manes. ↩
Heracles softens at sight of the food.—Heracles is the glutton of the comic poets. ↩
He pretends not to have seen them at first, being so much engaged with his cookery. ↩
He pretends to forget the presence of the ambassadors. ↩
Posidon jestingly swears by himself. ↩
The barbarian god utters some gibberish which Pisthetaerus interprets into consent. ↩
Heracles, the god of strength, was far from being remarkable in the way of cleverness. ↩
This was Athenian law. ↩
The poet attributes to the gods the same customs as those which governed Athens, and according to which no child was looked upon as legitimate unless his father had entered him on the registers of his phratria. The phratria was a division of the tribe and consisted of thirty families. ↩
The chorus continues to tell what it has seen on its flights. ↩
The harbour of the island of Chios; but this name is here used in the sense of being the land of informers (φαίνειν, “to denounce”). ↩
I.e. near the orators’ platform, or Βῇμα, in the Public Assembly, or Ἐκκλησία, because there stood the κλεψύδρα, or water-clock, by which speeches were limited. ↩
A coined name, made up of γλῶττα, the tongue, and γαστήρ, the stomach, and meaning those who fill their stomach with what they gain with their tongues, to wit, the orators. ↩
Σῦκον, the Greek word for a fig forms part of the word συκοφάντης, which in Greek means an informer. ↩
Both rhetoricians. ↩
Because they consecrated it specially to the god of eloquence. ↩
Basileia, whom he brings back from heaven. ↩
Terms used in regulating a dance. ↩
