[267]
Pisthetaerus
and Euelpides now both return with wings.
Aristophanes
[255] The Greek word for _omen_ is the same as that for _bird_--[Greek:
ornis].
[256] A satire on the passion of the Greeks for seeing an omen in
everything.
[257] An imitation of the nightingale's song.
[258] God of the groves and wilds.
[259] The 'Mother of the Gods'; roaming the mountains, she held dances,
always attended by Pan and his accompanying rout of Fauns and Satyrs.
[260] An allusion to cock-fighting; the birds are armed with brazen
spurs.
[261] An allusion to the spots on this bird, which resemble the scars
left by a branding iron.
[262] He was of Asiatic origin, but wished to pass for an Athenian.
[263] Or Philamnon, King of Thrace; the Scholiast remarks that the
Phrygians and the Thracians had a common origin.
[264] The Greek word here, [Greek: pappos], is also the name of a little
bird.
[265] A basket-maker who had become rich. --The Phylarchs were the headmen
of the tribes, [Greek: Phulai]. They presided at the private assemblies
and were charged with the management of the treasury. --The Hipparchs, as
the name implies, were the leaders of the cavalry; there were only two of
these in the Athenian army.
[266] He had now become a senator, member of the [Greek: Boul_e].
[267] Pisthetaerus and Euelpides now both return with wings.
[268] Meaning, 'tis we who wanted to have these wings. --The verse from
Aeschylus, quoted here, is taken from 'The Myrmidons,' a tragedy of which
only a few fragments remain.
[269] The Greek word signified the city of Sparta, and also a kind of
broom used for weaving rough matting, which served for the beds of the
very poor.
[270] A fanciful name constructed from [Greek: nephel_e], a
cloud, and [Greek: kokkux], a cuckoo; thus a city of clouds and
cuckoos. --_Wolkenkukelheim_[*] is a clever approximation in German.
Cloud-cuckoo-town, perhaps, is the best English equivalent.
[* Transcriber's note: So in original. The correct German word is
_Wolkenkuckucksheim_. ]
[271] He was a boaster nicknamed [Greek: Kapnos], _smoke_, because he
promised a great deal and never kept his word.
[272] Also mentioned in 'The Wasps. '
[273] Because the war of the Titans against the gods was only a fiction
of the poets.
[274] A sacred cloth, with which the statue of Athene in the Acropolis
was draped.
[275] Meaning, to be patron-goddess of the city. Athene had a temple of
this name.
[276] An Athenian effeminate, frequently ridiculed by Aristophanes.
