The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1. Аристофан

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119

Cleon was reproached by his enemies with paying small attention to the regular payment of the sailors.

120

Another poetical term to signify Athenian; Aegeus, an ancient mythical King of Athens, father of Theseus.

121

Impudent as a dog and cunning as a fox.

122

An orator and statesman of the day; practically nothing is known about him.

123

Another orator and statesman, accused apparently of taking bribes.

124

As pointed out before, the orators were fond of dragging Athené continually into their speeches.

125

One of Cleon's protégés and flatterers. The scholiasts say he was his secretary.

126

Terms borrowed from the circus races.

127

Terms borrowed from the circus races.

128

That is, at the expense of other folk.

129

Pieces of bread, hollowed out, which were filled with mincemeat or soup.

130

Both Greeks and Romans drank their wine mixed with water.

131

After his success in the Sphacteria affair Cleon induced the people to vote him a chaplet of gold.

132

That is, by means of the mechanical device of the Greek stage known as the [Greek: ekkukl_ema].

133

Parody of a well-known verse from Euripides' 'Alcestis.'

134

The name Agoracritus is compounded: cf. [Greek: agora], a market-place, and [Greek: krinein], to judge.

135

This grandiloquent opening is borrowed from Pindar.

136

Mentioned in the 'Acharnians.'

137

A soothsayer.

138

A flute-player.

139

An allusion to the vice of the 'cunnilingue,' apparently a novel form of naughtiness at Athens in Aristophanes' day.

140

As well known for his gluttony as for his cowardice.

141

One of the most noisy demagogues of Cleon's party; he succeeded him, but was later condemned to ostracism.

142

A town in Bithynia, situated at the entrance of the Bosphorus and nearly opposite Byzantium. It was one of the most important towns in Asia Minor. Doubtless Hyperbolus only demanded so large a fleet to terrorize the towns and oppress them at will.

143

These temples were inviolable places of refuge, where even slaves were secure.

144

A rocky cleft at the back of the Acropolis into which criminals were hurled.

145

Young and effeminate orators of licentious habits.

146

By adroit special pleading he had contrived to get his acquittal, when charged with a capital offence.

147

They were personified on the stage as pretty little filles de joie.

148

A name invented by Aristophanes and signifying 'a just citizen.'

149

Cleon had received five talents from the islanders subject to Athens, on condition that he should get the tribute payable by them reduced; when informed of this transaction, the Knights compelled him to return the money.

150

A hemistich borrowed from Euripides' 'Telephus.'

151

The tragedies of Aeschylus continued to be played even after the poet's death, which occurred in 436 B.C., ten years before the production of the Acharnians.

152

A tragic poet, whose pieces were so devoid of warmth and life that he was nicknamed [Greek: chi_on], i.e. snow.

153

A bad musician, frequently ridiculed by Aristophanes; he played both the lyre and the flute.

154

A lively and elevated method.

155

A hill near the Acropolis, where the Assemblies were held.

156

Several means were used to force citizens to attend the assemblies; the shops were closed; circulation was only permitted in those streets which led to the Pnyx; finally, a rope covered with vermilion was drawn round those who dallied in the Agora (the marketplace), and the late-comers, ear-marked by the imprint of the rope, were fined.

157

Magistrates who, with the Archons and the Epistatae, shared the care of holding and directing the assemblies of the people; they were fifty in number.

158

The Peloponnesian War had already, at the date of the representation of the 'Acharnians,' lasted five years, 431-426 B.C.; driven from their lands by the successive Lacedaemonian invasions, the people throughout the country had been compelled to seek shelter behind the walls of Athens.

159

Shortly before the meeting of the Assembly, a number of young pigs were immolated and a few drops of their blood were sprinkled on the seats of the Prytanes; this sacrifice was in honour of Ceres.

160

The name, Amphitheus, contains the word, [Greek: Theos], god.

161

Amongst other duties, it was the office of the Prytanes to look after the wants of the poor.

162

The summer residence of the Great King.

163

Referring to the hardships he had endured garrisoning the walls of Athens during the Lacedaemonian invasions early in the War.

164

Cranaus, the second king of Athens, the successor of Cecrops.

165

Lucian, in his 'Hermotimus,' speaks of these golden mountains as an apocryphal land of wonders and prodigies.

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