[496] If Aristophanes is to be believed, the orators were of depraved
habits, and exacted infamous complaisances as payment for their lessons
in rhetoric.
habits, and exacted infamous complaisances as payment for their lessons
in rhetoric.
Aristophanes
C.
[487] Nothing is known of this Pantacles, whom Eupolis, in his 'Golden
Age,' also describes as awkward ([Greek: skaios]).
[488] Aristophanes had by this time modified his opinion of this general,
whom he had so flouted in 'The Acharnians. '
[489] Son of Telamon, the King of Salamis and brother of Ajax.
[490] The wife of Proetus, King of Argos. Bellerophon, who had sought
refuge at the court of this king after the accidental murder of his
brother Bellerus, had disdained her amorous overtures. Therefore she
denounced him to her husband as having wanted to attempt her virtue and
urged him to cause his death. She killed herself immediately after the
departure of the young hero.
[491] Cephisophon, Euripides' friend, is said to have seduced his wife.
[492] Meaning, they have imitated Sthenoboea in everything; like her,
they have conceived adulterous passions and, again like her, they have
poisoned themselves.
[493] Lycabettus, a mountain of Attica, just outside the walls of Athens,
the "Arthur's Seat" of the city. Parnassus, the famous mountain of
Phocis, the seat of the temple and oracle of Delphi and the home of the
Muses. The whole passage is, of course, in parody of the grandiloquent
style of Aeschylus.
[494] An allusion to Oeneus, King of Aetolia, and to Telephus, King of
Mysia; characters put upon the stage by Euripides.
[495] It was only the rich Athenians who could afford fresh fish, because
of their high price; we know how highly the gourmands prized the eels
from the Copaic lake.
[496] If Aristophanes is to be believed, the orators were of depraved
habits, and exacted infamous complaisances as payment for their lessons
in rhetoric.
[497] Aristophanes attributes the general dissoluteness to the influence
of Euripides; he suggests that the subtlety of his poetry, by sharpening
the wits of the vulgar and even of the coarsest, has instigated them to
insubordination.
[498] Auge, who was seduced by Heracles, was delivered in the temple of
Athene (Scholiast); it is unknown in what piece this fact is
mentioned. --Macareus violates his sister Canace in the 'Aeolus. '
[499] i. e. they busy themselves with philosophic subtleties. This line is
taken from 'The Phryxus,' of which some fragments have come down to us.
[500] In the torch-race the victor was the runner who attained the goal
first without having allowed his torch to go out. This race was a very
ancient institution. Aristophanes means to say that the old habits had
fallen into disuse.
[501] A tetralogy composed of three tragedies, the 'Agamemnon,' the
'Choephorae,' the 'Eumenides,' together with a satirical drama, the
'Proteus. '
[502] This is the opening of the 'Choephorae. ' Aeschylus puts the words
in the mouth of Orestes, who is returning to his native land and visiting
his father's tomb.
[503] i. e.
[487] Nothing is known of this Pantacles, whom Eupolis, in his 'Golden
Age,' also describes as awkward ([Greek: skaios]).
[488] Aristophanes had by this time modified his opinion of this general,
whom he had so flouted in 'The Acharnians. '
[489] Son of Telamon, the King of Salamis and brother of Ajax.
[490] The wife of Proetus, King of Argos. Bellerophon, who had sought
refuge at the court of this king after the accidental murder of his
brother Bellerus, had disdained her amorous overtures. Therefore she
denounced him to her husband as having wanted to attempt her virtue and
urged him to cause his death. She killed herself immediately after the
departure of the young hero.
[491] Cephisophon, Euripides' friend, is said to have seduced his wife.
[492] Meaning, they have imitated Sthenoboea in everything; like her,
they have conceived adulterous passions and, again like her, they have
poisoned themselves.
[493] Lycabettus, a mountain of Attica, just outside the walls of Athens,
the "Arthur's Seat" of the city. Parnassus, the famous mountain of
Phocis, the seat of the temple and oracle of Delphi and the home of the
Muses. The whole passage is, of course, in parody of the grandiloquent
style of Aeschylus.
[494] An allusion to Oeneus, King of Aetolia, and to Telephus, King of
Mysia; characters put upon the stage by Euripides.
[495] It was only the rich Athenians who could afford fresh fish, because
of their high price; we know how highly the gourmands prized the eels
from the Copaic lake.
[496] If Aristophanes is to be believed, the orators were of depraved
habits, and exacted infamous complaisances as payment for their lessons
in rhetoric.
[497] Aristophanes attributes the general dissoluteness to the influence
of Euripides; he suggests that the subtlety of his poetry, by sharpening
the wits of the vulgar and even of the coarsest, has instigated them to
insubordination.
[498] Auge, who was seduced by Heracles, was delivered in the temple of
Athene (Scholiast); it is unknown in what piece this fact is
mentioned. --Macareus violates his sister Canace in the 'Aeolus. '
[499] i. e. they busy themselves with philosophic subtleties. This line is
taken from 'The Phryxus,' of which some fragments have come down to us.
[500] In the torch-race the victor was the runner who attained the goal
first without having allowed his torch to go out. This race was a very
ancient institution. Aristophanes means to say that the old habits had
fallen into disuse.
[501] A tetralogy composed of three tragedies, the 'Agamemnon,' the
'Choephorae,' the 'Eumenides,' together with a satirical drama, the
'Proteus. '
[502] This is the opening of the 'Choephorae. ' Aeschylus puts the words
in the mouth of Orestes, who is returning to his native land and visiting
his father's tomb.
[503] i. e.
