[165] Cleonymus was an Athenian general of
exceptionally
tall stature;
Aristophanes incessantly rallies him for his cowardice; he had cast away
his buckler in a fight.
Aristophanes incessantly rallies him for his cowardice; he had cast away
his buckler in a fight.
Aristophanes
[152] A bad musician, frequently ridiculed by Aristophanes; he played
both the lyre and the flute.
[153] A lively and elevated method.
[154] A hill near the Acropolis, where the Assemblies were held.
[155] 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.
[156] 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.
[157] 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.
[158] 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.
[159] The name, Amphitheus, contains the word, [Greek: Theos], _god_.
[160] Amongst other duties, it was the office of the Prytanes to look
after the wants of the poor.
[161] The summer residence of the Great King.
[162] Referring to the hardships he had endured garrisoning the walls of
Athens during the Lacedaemonian invasions early in the War.
[163] Cranaus, the second king of Athens, the successor of Cecrops.
[164] Lucian, in his 'Hermotimus,' speaks of these golden mountains as an
apocryphal land of wonders and prodigies.
[165] Cleonymus was an Athenian general of exceptionally tall stature;
Aristophanes incessantly rallies him for his cowardice; he had cast away
his buckler in a fight.
[166] A name borne by certain officials of the King of Persia. The actor
of this part wore a mask, fitted with a single eye of great size.
[167] Jargon, no doubt meaningless in all languages.
[168] The Persians styled all Greeks 'Ionians' without distinction; here
the Athenians are intended.
[169] A Greek measure, containing about six modii.
[170] Noted for his extreme ugliness and his obscenity. Aristophanes
frequently holds him to scorn in his comedies.
[171] Ambassadors were entertained there at the public expense.
[172] King of Thrace.
[173] The tragic poet.
[174] A feast lasting three days and celebrated during the month
Pyanepsion (November). The Greek word contains the suggestion of fraud
([Greek: apat_e]).
[175] A Thracian tribe from the right bank of the Strymon.
[176] The Boeotians were the allies of Sparta.
[177] Dicaeopolis had brought a clove of garlic with him to eat during
the Assembly.
