[442] Whose statues were placed to make the
boundaries
of land.
Aristophanes
[434] At funerals women tore their hair, rent their garments, and beat
their bosoms. Aristophanes parodies these demonstrations of grief and
attributes them to the effeminate Clisthenes. Sebinus the Anaphlystian is
a coined name containing an obscene allusion, implying he was in the
habit of allowing connexion with himself a posteriori, and being
masturbated by the other in turn.
[435] Callias, the son of Hipponicus, which the poet turns into
Hippobinus, i. e. one who treads a mare, was an Athenian general, who had
distinguished himself at the battle of Arginusae; he was notorious for
his debauched habits, which he doubtless practised even on board his
galleys. He is called a new Heracles, because of the legend that Heracles
triumphed over fifty virgins in a single night; no doubt the poet alludes
to some exploit of the kind here.
[436] A proverb applied to silly boasters. The Corinthians had sent an
envoy to Megara, who, in order to enhance the importance of his city,
incessantly repeated the phrase, "_The Corinth of Zeus_. "
[437] Demeter.
[438] Tartessus was an Iberian town, near the Avernian marshes, which
were said to be tenanted by reptiles, the progeny of vipers and muraenae,
a kind of fish.
[439] Tithrasios was a part of Libya, fabled to be peopled by Gorgons.
[440] "Invoke the god" was the usual formula which immediately followed
the offering of the libation in the festival of Dionysus. Here he uses
the words after a libation of a new kind and induced by fear.
[441] That is, Heracles, whose temple was at Melite, a suburban deme of
Athens.
[442] Whose statues were placed to make the boundaries of land.
[443] One of the Thirty Tyrants, noted for his versatility.
[444] Celon and Hyperbolus were both dead, and are therefore supposed to
have become the leaders and patrons of the populace in Hades, the same as
they had been on earth.
[445] Already mentioned; one of the chiefs of the popular party in 406
B. C.
[446] Heracles had carried of Cerberus.
[447] Names of Thracian slaves.
[448] As was done to unruly children; he allows every kind of torture
with the exception of the mildest.
[449] A deme of Attica, where there was a temple to Heracles. No doubt
those present uttered the cry "Oh! oh! " in honour of the god.
[450] He pretends it was not a cry of pain at all, but of astonishment
and admiration.
[451] Pretending that it was the thorn causing him pain, and not the lash
of the whip.
[452] According to the Scholiast this is a quotation from the 'Laocoon,'
a lost play of Sophocles.
[453] A general known for his cowardice; he was accused of not being a
citizen, but of Thracian origin; in 406 B.
