Strepsiades presents his middle finger, with
the other fingers and thumb bent under in an indecent gesture meant to
suggest the penis and testicles.
the other fingers and thumb bent under in an indecent gesture meant to
suggest the penis and testicles.
Aristophanes
This is how this system arrived at
an agreement between the solar and the lunar periods: 8 solar years
containing 2922 days, while 8 lunar years only contain 2832 days, there
was a difference of 90 days, for which Cleostratus compensated by
intercalating 3 months of 30 days each, which were placed after the
third, fifth and eighth year of the cycle. Hence these years had an extra
month each. But in this system, the lunar months had been reckoned as 354
days, whereas they are really 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes. To rectify
this minor error Meton invented a cycle of 19 years, which bears his
name. This new system which he tried to introduce naturally caused some
disturbance in the order of the festivals, and for this or some other
reason his system was not adopted. The octaeteris continued to be used
for all public purposes, the only correction being, that three extra days
were added to every second octaeteris.
[528] Both sons of Zeus.
[529] Hyperbolus had supported Meton in his desire for reform. Having
been sent as the Athenian deputy to the council of the Amphictyons, he
should, like his colleagues, have returned to Athens with his head
wreathed with laurel. It is said the wind took this from him; the Clouds
boast of the achievement.
[530] These are poetical measures; Strepsiades thinks measures of
capacity are meant.
[531] Containing four _choenixes_.
[532] So called from its stirring, warlike character; it was composed of
two dactyls and a spondee, followed again by two dactyls and a spondee.
[533] Composed of dactyls and anapaests.
[534] [Greek: Daktylos] means, of course, both _dactyl_, name of a
metrical foot, and finger.
Strepsiades presents his middle finger, with
the other fingers and thumb bent under in an indecent gesture meant to
suggest the penis and testicles. The Romans for this reason called the
middle finger 'digitus infamis,' the _unseemly finger_. The Emperor Nero
is said to have offered his hand to courtiers to kiss sometimes in this
indecent way.
[535] Meaning he was too poor, Aristophanes represents him as a glutton
and a parasite.
[536] A woman's name.
[537] He is classed as a woman because of his cowardice and effeminacy.
[538] In Greek, the vocative of Amynias is Amynia; thus it has a feminine
termination.
[539] The Corinthians, the allies of Sparta, ravaged Attica. [Greek:
Kor], the first portion of the Greek word, is the root of the word which
means a bug in the same language.
[540] Mirrors, or burning glasses, are meant, such as those used by
Archimedes two centuries later at the siege of Syracuse, when he set the
Roman fleet on fire from the walls of the city.
[541] That is, the family of the Alcmaeonidae; Coesyra was wife of
Alcmaeon.
[542] Socrates was an Athenian; but the atheist Diagoras, known as 'the
enemy of the gods' hailed from the island of Melos. Strepsiades,
crediting Socrates with the same incredulity, assigns him the same
birthplace.
[543] i. e. the enemies of the gods.
an agreement between the solar and the lunar periods: 8 solar years
containing 2922 days, while 8 lunar years only contain 2832 days, there
was a difference of 90 days, for which Cleostratus compensated by
intercalating 3 months of 30 days each, which were placed after the
third, fifth and eighth year of the cycle. Hence these years had an extra
month each. But in this system, the lunar months had been reckoned as 354
days, whereas they are really 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes. To rectify
this minor error Meton invented a cycle of 19 years, which bears his
name. This new system which he tried to introduce naturally caused some
disturbance in the order of the festivals, and for this or some other
reason his system was not adopted. The octaeteris continued to be used
for all public purposes, the only correction being, that three extra days
were added to every second octaeteris.
[528] Both sons of Zeus.
[529] Hyperbolus had supported Meton in his desire for reform. Having
been sent as the Athenian deputy to the council of the Amphictyons, he
should, like his colleagues, have returned to Athens with his head
wreathed with laurel. It is said the wind took this from him; the Clouds
boast of the achievement.
[530] These are poetical measures; Strepsiades thinks measures of
capacity are meant.
[531] Containing four _choenixes_.
[532] So called from its stirring, warlike character; it was composed of
two dactyls and a spondee, followed again by two dactyls and a spondee.
[533] Composed of dactyls and anapaests.
[534] [Greek: Daktylos] means, of course, both _dactyl_, name of a
metrical foot, and finger.
Strepsiades presents his middle finger, with
the other fingers and thumb bent under in an indecent gesture meant to
suggest the penis and testicles. The Romans for this reason called the
middle finger 'digitus infamis,' the _unseemly finger_. The Emperor Nero
is said to have offered his hand to courtiers to kiss sometimes in this
indecent way.
[535] Meaning he was too poor, Aristophanes represents him as a glutton
and a parasite.
[536] A woman's name.
[537] He is classed as a woman because of his cowardice and effeminacy.
[538] In Greek, the vocative of Amynias is Amynia; thus it has a feminine
termination.
[539] The Corinthians, the allies of Sparta, ravaged Attica. [Greek:
Kor], the first portion of the Greek word, is the root of the word which
means a bug in the same language.
[540] Mirrors, or burning glasses, are meant, such as those used by
Archimedes two centuries later at the siege of Syracuse, when he set the
Roman fleet on fire from the walls of the city.
[541] That is, the family of the Alcmaeonidae; Coesyra was wife of
Alcmaeon.
[542] Socrates was an Athenian; but the atheist Diagoras, known as 'the
enemy of the gods' hailed from the island of Melos. Strepsiades,
crediting Socrates with the same incredulity, assigns him the same
birthplace.
[543] i. e. the enemies of the gods.
