No More Learning

[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 allusion to the giants, the sons
of Earth, who had endeavoured to scale heaven.

[544] Pericles had squandered all the wealth accumulated in the Acropolis
upon the War. When he handed in his accounts, he refused to explain the
use of a certain twenty talents and simply said, "_I spent them on what
was necessary_. " Upon hearing of this reply, the Lacedaemonians, who were
already discontented with their kings, Cleandrides and Plistoanax, whom
they accused of carrying on the war in Attica with laxness, exiled the
first-named and condemned the second to payment of a fine of fifteen
talents for treachery. In fact, the Spartans were convinced that Pericles
had kept silent as to what he had done with the twenty talents, because
he did not want to say openly, "_I gave this sum to the Kings of
Lacedaemon_.
"

[545] The basket in which Aristophanes shows us Socrates suspended to
bring his mind nearer to the subtle regions of air.

[546] The scholiast tells us that Just Discourse and Unjust Discourse
were brought upon the stage in cages, like cocks that are going to fight.
Perhaps they were even dressed up as cocks, or at all events wore cocks'
heads as their masks.

[547] In the language of the schools of philosophy just reasoning was
called 'the stronger'--[Greek: ho kreitt_on logos], unjust reasoning,
'the weaker'--[Greek: ho h_ett_on logos].

[548] A character in one of the tragedies of Aeschylus, a beggar and a
clever, plausible speaker.

[549] A sycophant and a quibbler, renowned for his unparalleled bad faith
in the law-suits he was perpetually bringing forward.

[550] The opening words of two hymns, attributed to Lamprocles, an
ancient lyric poet, the son or the pupil of Medon.

[551] A poet and musician of Mitylene, who gained the prize of the lyre
at the Panathenaea in 457 B. C. He lived at the Court of Hiero, where,
Suidas says, he was at first a slave and the cook. He added two strings
to the lyre, which hitherto had had only seven. He composed effeminate
airs of a style unknown before his day.

[552] Zeus had a temple in the citadel of Athens under the name of
Polieus or protector of the city; bullocks were sacrificed to him
(Buphonia). In the days of Aristophanes, these feasts had become
neglected.

[553] One of the oldest of the dithyrambic poets.

[554] Used by the ancient Athenians to keep their hair in place.