* * * * *
Footnotes:
[736] The poet jestingly makes Chremylus attribute two utterly opposed
characteristics to his servant.
[737] Literally _sycophants_ i.e. denouncers of figs. The Senate, says
Plutarch, in very early times had made a law forbidding the export of
figs from Attica; those who were found breaking the edict were fined to
the advantage of the sycophant ([Greek: phainein], to denounce, and
[Greek: sukon], fig). Since the law was abused in order to accuse the
innocent, the name sycophant was given to calumniators and to the too
numerous class of informers at Athens who subsisted on the money their
denunciations brought them.
[738] A parody of the tragic style.
[739] Plutus, the god of riches, was included amongst the infernal
deities, because riches are extracted from the earth's bosom, which is
their dwelling-place. According to Hesiod, he was the son of Demeter;
agriculture is in truth the most solid foundation of wealth. He was
generally represented as an old blind man, halting in gait and winged,
coming with slow steps but going away on a rapid flight and carrying a
purse in his hand. At Athens the statue of Peace bore Plutus represented
as still a child on her bosom as a symbol of the wealth that peace
brings.
[740] A rich man, who affected the sordid habits of Lacedaemon, because
of his greed. "More sordid than Patrocles" had become a byword at Athens.
Even the public baths were too dear for Patrocles, because, in addition
to the modest fee that was given to the bath-man, it was necessary to use
a little oil for the customary friction after the bath.
[741] This catechizing is completely in the manner of the sophistical
teaching of the times, and has its parallel in other comedies. It reminds
us in many ways of the Socratic 'Elenchus' as displayed in the Platonic
dialogues.
[742] Corinth was the most corrupt as well as the most commercial of
Greek cities, and held a number of great courtesans, indeed some of the
most celebrated, e.g. Laïs, Cyrené, Sinopé, practised their profession
there; they, however, set a very high value on their favours, and hence
the saying, "_Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum_"--"it is not
for every man to go to Corinth."
[743] This was the mild punishment inflicted upon the adulterer by
Athenian custom. The laws of Solon were very indulgent to this kind of
crime; they only provided that the guilty woman might be repudiated by
her husband, but were completely silent concerning her accomplice.
[744] Cario means to convey that women often paid their lovers, or at all
events made it their business to open up the road to fortune for them.
[745] In order to receive the _triobolus,_ the fee for attendance.
[746] The richest citizens were saddled with this expense and were called
trierarchs.
[747] Athens had formed an alliance with Corinth and Thebes against
Sparta in 393 B.C., a little before the production of the 'Plutus.'
Corinth, not feeling itself strong enough to resist the attacks of the
Spartans unaided, had demanded the help of an Athenian garrison, and
hence Athens maintained some few thousand mercenaries there.
[748] A civil servant, who had been exiled for embezzling State funds.
[749] No doubt an accomplice of Pamphilus in his misdeeds; the Scholiast
says he was one of his parasites.
[750] An upstart and, through the favour of the people, an admiral in the
year 389 B.C., after Thrasybulus; he had enriched himself through some
rather equivocal state employments and was insolent, because of his
wealth, 'as a well-fed ass.'
[751] A buffoon, so the Scholiasts inform us, who was in the habit of
visiting the public places of the city in order to make a little money by
amusing the crowd with ridiculous stories. Others say he was a statesman
of the period, who was condemned for embezzlement of public money; in his
defence he may well have invented some fabulous tales to account for the
disappearance of the money out of the Treasury.
[752] The precise historical reference here is obscure.
[753] Laïs, a celebrated courtesan.--Of Philonides little is known,
except that he was a native of Melita and a rich and profligate
character.
[754] The reference is no doubt to a pretentious construction that had
been built for the rich and over-proud Timotheus, the son of Conon. He
was a clever general of great integrity; when the 'Plutus' was produced,
he was still very young.
[755] Chremylus rises in a regular climax from love to military glory;
the slave in as direct an anti-climax comes from bread, sweetmeats, etc.,
down to lentils.
[756] The son of Aphareus, the King of Messenia; according to the
legends, he had such piercing sight that he could see through walls, and
could even discover what was going on in heaven and in the nether world.
He took part in the expedition of the Argonauts.
[757] A part of the victim which Cario was bringing back from the Temple;
it was customary to present the remains of a sacrifice to friends and
relations.
[758] As soon as Chremylus sees himself assured of wealth he adopts less
honest principles.
[759] The citizens appointed to act as dicasts, or jurymen, drew lots
each year to decide in which Court they should sit. There were ten
Courts, each of which was indicated by one of the first ten letters of
the alphabet, and the urn contained as many tickets marked with these
letters as there were dicasts. Cario means to say here that the old men
of the Chorus should remember that they have soon to die themselves
instead of bothering about punishing him.
[760] A word invented to imitate the sound of a lyre.
[761] The Cyclops let his flocks graze while he played the lyre; it was
thus that Philoxenus had represented him in a piece to which Aristophanes
is here alluding.--Cario assumes the part of the Cyclops and leaves that
of the flock to the Chorus.
[762] In allusion to Ulysses' adventures in the cave of Polyphemus.
[763] Laïs.
[764] i.e. Cario, who is assuming the rôle of Circé of Corinth.
[765] This was the torture which Odysseus inflicted on Melanthius, one of
the goatherds.
[766] A poet of debauched and degraded life, one of those who, like
Ariphrades mentioned in 'The Knights,' "defiled his tongue with
abominable sensualities," that is to say, was a _fellator_ and a
_cunnilingue._
[767] It is uncertain whether Pamphilus, a tragedian, is meant here, who,
like Euripides and Aeschylus, made the Heraclidae the subject of a
tragedy, or the painter of that name, so celebrated in later times, who
painted that subject in the Poecilé Stoa.
[768] Physicians at Athens were paid very indifferently, and hence the
most skilled sought their practice in other cities.
[769] The Temple of Aesculapius stood on the way from the theatre to the
citadel and near the tomb of Talos. A large number of invalids were taken
there to pass a night; it was believed that the god visited them without
being seen himself, because of the darkness, and arranged for their
restoration to health.
[770] Like the Furies who composed the Chorus in Aeschylus' 'Eumenides.'
[771] A ravine into which criminals were hurled at Athens.
[772] During the winter the poor went into the public baths for shelter
against the cold; they could even stop there all night; sometimes they
burnt themselves by getting too near the furnace which heated the water.
[773] i.e. the most opposite things; the tyranny of Dionysius of Syracuse
and the liberty which Thrasybulus restored to Athens.
[774] Crimes to which men are driven through poverty.
[775] The ancients placed statues of Hecaté at the cross-roads ([Greek:
triodoi], places where three roads meet), because of the three names,
Artemis, Phoebé and Hecaté, under which the same goddess was worshipped.
On the first day of the month the rich had meals served before these
statues and invited the poor to them.
[776] A verse from Euripides' lost play of 'Telephus.' The same line
occurs in 'The Knights.'
[777] And not the citizens of Argos, whom agriculture and trade rendered
wealthy.--Pauson was an Athenian painter, whose poverty had become a
proverb. "Poorer than Pauson" was a common saying.
[778] There is here a long interval of time, during which Plutus is taken
to the Temple of Aesculapius and cured of his blindness. In the first
edition probably the Parabasis came in here; at all events a long choral
ode must have intervened.
[779] The Athenians had erected a temple to Theseus and instituted feasts
in his honour, which were still kept up in the days of Plutarch and
Pausanias. Barley broth and other coarse foods were distributed among the
poor.
[780] He was an orator, who was accused of theft and extortion, and who,
moreover, was said not to be a genuine Athenian citizen.
[781] The serpent was sacred to Aesculapius; several of these reptiles
lived in the temple of the god.
[782] Iaso (from [Greek: iasthai], to heal) and Panacea (from [Greek:
pan], everything, and [Greek: akeisthai], to cure) were daughters of
Aesculapius.
[783] He has to see, examine, and taste pill, potion, urine ... and
worse.
[784] An apothecary's outfit.
[785] Tenos is one of the Cyclades, near Andros.
[786] A deme of Attica, where the strongest vinegar came from.
[787] The Scholiast says that this was an individual as poor as he was
greedy, and on the watch for every opportunity to satisfy his
voracity.--The comic poets often had nuts, figs and other petty dainties
thrown to the audience. It was a fairly good way to secure the favour of
a certain section of the public.
[788] The ancients used oil in large quantities, whether for rubbing
themselves down after bathing or before their exercises in the palaestra,
or for the different uses of domestic life. It was kept in a kind of
tank, hollowed in the ground and covered with tiles or stones. The
wine-sellers had similar tanks, but of larger size, for keeping their
wine.
[789] This was what was styled the triple or complete sacrifice.
[790] As evidence of the sorry condition from which he had been raised.
[791] The clothes a man wore on the day that he was initiated into the
Mysteries of Eleusis had, according to custom, to be dedicated to the
gods, but only after they had been worn. Most people only decided to do
this when they were full of holes and torn; it is because his visitor's
cloak is in such a sorry condition that Chremylus takes it to be the
cloak of an Initiate.
[792] This Eudemus was a kind of sorcerer, who sold magic rings, to
which, among other virtues, he ascribed that of curing, or rather of
securing him who wore them, from snake-bites.
[793] The merchants engaged in maritime commerce were absolved from
military service; the Scholiast even declares, though it seems highly
unlikely, that all merchants were exempt from imposts on their
possessions. When it was a question of escaping taxes and military
service the informer passed as a merchant.
[794] At Athens 'twas only the injured person who could prosecute in
private disputes; everyone, however, had this right where wrongs against
the State were involved; but if the prosecutor only obtained one-fifth of
the votes, he was condemned to a fine of 1000 drachmae or banished the
country.
[795] A proverbial saying, meaning, _the most precious thing_.--Battus, a
Lacedaemonian, led out a colony from Thera, an island in the Aegean sea,
and, about 630 B.C., founded the city of Cyrené in Africa. He was its
first king, and after death was honoured as a god. The inhabitants of
that country gathered great quantities of _silphium_ or 'laserpitium,'
the sap of which plant was the basis of medicaments and sauces that
commanded a high price. The coins of Cyrené bore the representation of a
stalk of _silphium_.
[796] The old woman had entered dressed as a young girl. Or is it merely
said ironically?
[797] A proverb, meaning, "_All things change with time._" Addressed to
the old woman, it meant that she had perhaps been beautiful once, but
that the days for love were over for her.--Miletus, the most powerful of
the Ionic cities, had a very numerous fleet and founded more than eighty
colonies; falling beneath the Persian yoke, the city never succeeded in
regaining its independence.
[798] Eleusis was some distance from Athens, about seven and a half
miles, and the wealthy women drove there. It was an occasion when they
vied with each other in the display of luxury.
[799] You are so old.
[800] The goddess of death and old age.
[801] Wineshop-keepers were often punished for serving false measure.
Hermes, who allowed them to be punished although he was the god of
cheating and was worshipped as such by the wineshop-keepers, deserved to
be neglected by them.
[802] The greater gods had a day in each month specially dedicated to
them; thus Hermes had the fourth, Artemis the sixth, Apollo the seventh,
etc.
[803] This game, which was customary during the feasts of Bacchus'
consisted in hopping on one leg upon a wine-skin that was blown out and
well greased with oil; the competitor who kept his footing longest on one
leg, gained the prize.
[804] The cake was placed on the altar, but eaten afterwards by the
priest or by him who offered the sacrifice.
[805] An allusion to the occupation of Phylé, in Attica on the Boeotian
border, by Thrasybulus; this place was the meeting-place of the
discontented and the exiled, and it was there that the expulsion of the
thirty tyrants was planned. Once victorious, the conspirators proclaimed
a general amnesty and swore to forget everything, [Greek: m_e
mn_esikakein], 'to bear no grudge,' hence the proverb which Aristophanes
recalls here.
[806] A verse taken from a lost tragedy by Euripides.
[807] Hermes runs through the gamut of his different attributes.
[808] As the rich citizens were accustomed to do at Athens.
[809] This trick was very often practised, its object being to secure the
double fee.
[810] He is giving Plutus this title.
[811] Within the precincts of the Acropolis, and behind the Temple of
Zeus Polias, there stood a building enclosed with double walls and double
gates, where the public Treasury was kept. Plutus had ceased to dwell
there, i.e. the Peloponnesian war and its disastrous consequences had
emptied the Treasury; however, at the time of the production of the
'Plutus,' Athens had recovered her freedom and a part of her former
might, and money was again flowing into her coffers.
[812] In the Greek there is a pun on the different significations of
[Greek: graus],_ _an old woman,_ and the _scum_, or 'mother,' which forms
on the top of boiling milk.
[813] In the 'Lysistrata' the Chorus similarly makes its exit singing.