[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.
broom used for weaving rough matting, which served for the beds of the
very poor.
Aristophanes
[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.
[277] This was the name of the wall surrounding the Acropolis.
[278] i. e.
