, that
Lysander
took the city.
Aristophanes
No doubt
those present uttered the cry "Oh! oh! " in honour of the god.
[450] He pretends it was not a cry of pain at all, but of astonishment
and admiration.
[451] Pretending that it was the thorn causing him pain, and not the lash
of the whip.
[452] According to the Scholiast this is a quotation from the 'Laocoon,'
a lost play of Sophocles.
[453] A general known for his cowardice; he was accused of not being a
citizen, but of Thracian origin; in 406 B. C. he was in disfavour, and he
perished shortly after in a popular tumult.
[454] According to Athenian law, the accused was acquitted when the
voting was equal.
[455] He had helped to establish the oligarchical government of the Four
Hundred, who had just been overthrown.
[456] The fight of Arginusae; the slaves who had fought there had been
accorded their freedom. --The Plataeans had had the title of citizens
since the battle of Marathon.
[457] Things were not going well for Athens at the time; it was only two
years later, 404 B. C.
, that Lysander took the city.
[458] A demagogue; because he deceived the people, Aristophanes compares
him with the washermen who cheated their clients by using some mixture
that was cheaper than potash.
[459] Callistrates says that Clidemides was one of Sophocles' sons;
Apollonius states him to have been an actor.
[460] Dionysus was, of course, the patron god of the drama and dramatic
contests.
[461] The majestic grandeur of Aeschylus' periods, coupled with a touch
of parody, is to be recognized in this piece.
[462] It is said that Euripides was the son of a fruit-seller.
[463] Euripides is constantly twitted by Aristophanes with his
predilection for ragged beggars and vagabonds as characters in his plays.
[464] Bellerophon, Philoctetes, and Telephus, were all characters in
different Tragedies of Euripides.
[465] Sailors, when in danger, sacrificed a black lamb to Typhon, the god
of storms.
[466] An allusion to a long monologue of Icarus in the tragedy called
'The Cretans. '
[467] In 'Aeolus,' Macareus violates his own sister; in 'The Clouds,'
this incest, which Euripides introduced upon the stage, is also
mentioned.
[468] The title of one of Euripides' pieces.
[469] The titles of three lost Tragedies of Euripides.
[470] A verse from one of the lost Tragedies of Euripides; the poet was
born at Eleusis.
[471] Aristophanes often makes this accusation of religious heterodoxy
against Euripides.
[472] A dramatic poet, who lived about the end of the sixth century B.
those present uttered the cry "Oh! oh! " in honour of the god.
[450] He pretends it was not a cry of pain at all, but of astonishment
and admiration.
[451] Pretending that it was the thorn causing him pain, and not the lash
of the whip.
[452] According to the Scholiast this is a quotation from the 'Laocoon,'
a lost play of Sophocles.
[453] A general known for his cowardice; he was accused of not being a
citizen, but of Thracian origin; in 406 B. C. he was in disfavour, and he
perished shortly after in a popular tumult.
[454] According to Athenian law, the accused was acquitted when the
voting was equal.
[455] He had helped to establish the oligarchical government of the Four
Hundred, who had just been overthrown.
[456] The fight of Arginusae; the slaves who had fought there had been
accorded their freedom. --The Plataeans had had the title of citizens
since the battle of Marathon.
[457] Things were not going well for Athens at the time; it was only two
years later, 404 B. C.
, that Lysander took the city.
[458] A demagogue; because he deceived the people, Aristophanes compares
him with the washermen who cheated their clients by using some mixture
that was cheaper than potash.
[459] Callistrates says that Clidemides was one of Sophocles' sons;
Apollonius states him to have been an actor.
[460] Dionysus was, of course, the patron god of the drama and dramatic
contests.
[461] The majestic grandeur of Aeschylus' periods, coupled with a touch
of parody, is to be recognized in this piece.
[462] It is said that Euripides was the son of a fruit-seller.
[463] Euripides is constantly twitted by Aristophanes with his
predilection for ragged beggars and vagabonds as characters in his plays.
[464] Bellerophon, Philoctetes, and Telephus, were all characters in
different Tragedies of Euripides.
[465] Sailors, when in danger, sacrificed a black lamb to Typhon, the god
of storms.
[466] An allusion to a long monologue of Icarus in the tragedy called
'The Cretans. '
[467] In 'Aeolus,' Macareus violates his own sister; in 'The Clouds,'
this incest, which Euripides introduced upon the stage, is also
mentioned.
[468] The title of one of Euripides' pieces.
[469] The titles of three lost Tragedies of Euripides.
[470] A verse from one of the lost Tragedies of Euripides; the poet was
born at Eleusis.
[471] Aristophanes often makes this accusation of religious heterodoxy
against Euripides.
[472] A dramatic poet, who lived about the end of the sixth century B.
