* * * * *
Footnotes:
[470] He is in one bed and his son is in another; slaves are sleeping
near them. It is night-time.
[471] The punishment most frequently inflicted upon slaves in the towns
was to send them into the country to work in the fields, but at the
period when the 'Clouds' was presented, 424 B.C., the invasions of the
Peloponnesians forbade the pursuit of agriculture. Moreover, there
existed the fear, that if the slaves were punished too harshly, they
might go over to the enemy.
[472] Among the Greeks, each month was divided into three decades. The
last of the month was called [Greek: en_e kai nea], the day of the old
and the new or the day of the new moon, and on that day interest, which
it was customary to pay monthly, became due.
[473] Literally, the horse marked with the [Greek: koppa] ([Symbol:
Letter 'koppa']), a letter of the older Greek alphabet, afterwards
disused, which distinguished the thoroughbreds.
[474] Phidippides dreams that he is driving in a chariot race, and that
an opponent is trying to cut into his track.
[475] There was a prize specially reserved for war-chariots in the games
of the Athenian hippodrome; being heavier than the chariots generally
used, they doubtless had to cover a lesser number of laps, which explains
Phidippides' question.
[476] The wife of Alcmaeon, a descendant of Nestor, who, driven from
Messenia by the Heraclidae, came to settle in Athens in the twelfth
century, and was the ancestor of the great family of the Alcmaeonidae,
Pericles and Alcibiades belonged to it.
[477] The Greek word for horse is [Greek: hippos].
[478] Derived from [Greek: pheidesthai], to save.
[479] The name Phidippides contains both words, [Greek: hippos], horse,
and [Greek: pheidesthai], to save, and was therefore a compromise arrived
at between the two parents.
[480] The heads of the family of the Alcmaeonidae bore the name of
Megacles from generation to generation.
[481] A mountain in Attica.
[482] Aristophanes represents everything belonging to Socrates as being
mean, even down to his dwelling.
[483] Crates ascribes the same doctrine in one of his plays to the
Pythagorean Hippo, of Samos.
[484] This is pure calumny. Socrates accepted no payment.
[485] Here the poet confounds Socrates' disciples with the Stoics.
Contrary to the text, Socrates held that a man should care for his bodily
health.
[486] One of Socrates' pupils.
[487] Female footwear. They were a sort of light slipper and white in
colour.
[488] He calls off their attention by pretending to show them a
geometrical problem and seizes the opportunity to steal something for
supper. The young men who gathered together in the palaestra, or
gymnastic school, were wont there to offer sacrifices to the gods before
beginning the exercises. The offerings consisted of smaller victims, such
as lambs, fowl, geese, etc., and the flesh afterwards was used for their
meal (_vide_ Plato in the 'Lysias'). It is known that Socrates taught
wherever he might happen to be, in the palaestra as well as elsewhere.
[489] The first of the seven sages, born at Miletus.
[490] Because of their wretched appearance. The Laconians, blockaded in
Sphacteria, had suffered sorely from famine.
[491] In fact, this was one of the chief accusations brought against
Socrates by Miletus and Anytus; he was reproached for probing into the
mysteries of nature.
[492] When the Athenians captured a town, they divided its lands by lot
among the poorer Athenian citizens.
[493] An allusion to the Athenian love of law-suits and litigation.
[494] When originally conquered by Pericles, the island of Euboea, off
the coasts of Boeotia and Attica, had been treated with extreme
harshness.
[495] Is about to add, "you believe in them at all," but checks himself.
[496] This was the doctrine of Anaximenes.
[497] The scholiast explains that water-cress robs all plants that grow
in its vicinity of their moisture and that they consequently soon wither
and die.
[498] In the other Greek towns, the smaller coins were of copper.
[499] Athamas, King of Thebes. An allusion to a tragedy by Sophocles, in
which Athamas is dragged before the altar of Zeus with his head circled
with a chaplet, to be there sacrificed; he is, however, saved by
Heracles.
[500] No doubt Socrates sprinkled flour over the head of Strepsiades in
the same manner as was done with the sacrificial victims.
[501] The mysteries of Eleusis celebrated in the Temple of Demeter.
[502] A mountain of Attica, north of Athens.
[503] Sybaris, a town of Magna Graecia (Lucania), destroyed by the
Crotoniates in 709 B.C., was rebuilt by the Athenians under the name of
Thurium in 444 B.C. Ten diviners had been sent with the Athenian
settlers.
[504] A parody of the dithyrambic style.
[505] Hieronymus, a dithyrambic poet and reputed an infamous pederast.
[506] When guests at the nuptials of Pirithous, King of the Lapithae, and
Hippodamia, they wanted to carry off and violate the bride. That,
according to legend, was the origin of their war against the Lapithae.
Hieronymus is likened to the Centaurs on account of his bestial passion.
[507] A general, incessantly scoffed at by Aristophanes because of his
cowardice.
[508] Aristophanes frequently mentions him as an effeminate and debauched
character.
[509] A celebrated sophist, born at Ceos, and a disciple of Protagoras.
When sent on an embassy by his compatriots to Athens, he there publicly
preached on eloquence, and had for his disciples Euripides, Isocrates and
even Socrates. His "fifty drachmae lecture" has been much spoken of; that
sum had to be paid to hear it.
[510] These three men have already been referred to.
[511] A promontory of Attica (the modern Cape Colonna) about fifty miles
from the Piraeus. Here stood a magnificent Temple, dedicated to Athené.
[512] The opening portion of the parabasis belongs to a second edition of
the 'Clouds.' Aristophanes had been defeated by Cratinus and Amipsias,
whose pieces, called the 'Bottle' and 'Connus,' had been crowned in
preference to the 'Clouds,' which, it is said, was not received any
better at its second representation.
[513] Two characters introduced into the 'Daedalians' by Aristophanes in
strong contrast to each other. Some fragments only of this piece remain
to us.
[514] It was only at the age of thirty, according to some, of forty,
according to others, that a man could present a piece in his own name.
The 'Daedalians' had appeared under the auspices of Cleonides and
Chalistrates, whom we find again later as actors in Aristophanes' pieces.
[515] Allusion to the recognition of Orestes by Electra at her brother's
tomb. (_See_ the 'Choëphorae' of Aeschylus.)
[516] An image of the penis, drooping in this case, instead of standing,
carried as a phallic emblem in the Dionysiac processions.
[517] A licentious dance.
[518] This coarse way of exciting laughter, says the scholiast, had been
used by Eupolis, the comic writer, a rival of Aristophanes.
[519] In the 'Knights.'
[520] Presented in 421 B.C. The 'Clouds' having been played a second time
in 419 B.C., one may conclude that this piece had appeared a third time
on the Athenian stage.
[521] Doubtless a parody of the legend of Andromeda.
[522] A poet of the older comedy, who had written forty plays. It is said
that he dared to accuse Aspasia, the mistress of Pericles, of impiety and
the practice of prostitution.
[523] Cleon.
[524] This part of the parabasis belongs to the first edition of the
'Clouds,' since Aristophanes here speaks of Cleon as alive.
[525] A mountain in Delos, dedicated to Apollo and Diana.
[526] Artemis.
[527] An allusion to the reform, which the astronomer Meton had wanted to
introduce into the calendar. Cleostratus of Tenedos, at the beginning of
the fifth century, had devised the _octaeteris_, or cycle of eight years,
and this had been generally adopted. 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 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 Mitylené, 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. The
custom was said to have a threefold significance; by it the Athenians
wanted to show that they were musicians, autochthons (i.e. indigenous to
the country) and worshippers of Apollo. Indeed, grasshoppers were
considered to sing with harmony; they swarmed on Attic soil and were
sacred to Phoebus, the god of music.
[555] Telesippus, Demophon and Pericles by name; they were a byword at
Athens for their stupidity. Hippocrates was a general.
[556] The famous gardens of the Academia, just outside the walls of
Athens; they included gymnasia, lecture halls, libraries and picture
galleries. Near by was a wood of sacred olives.
[557] Apparently the historian of that name is meant; in any case it
cannot refer to the celebrated epic poet, author of the 'Thebaïs.'
[558] Among the Greeks, hot springs bore the generic name of 'Baths of
Heracles.' A legend existed that these had gushed forth spontaneously
beneath the tread of the hero, who would plunge into them and there
regain fresh strength to continue his labours.
[559] King of Pylos, according to Homer, the wisest of all the Greeks.
[560] Peleus, son of Aeacus, having resisted the appeals of Astydamia,
the wife of Acastus, King of Iolchos, was denounced to her husband by her
as having wished to seduce her, so that she might be avenged for his
disdain. Acastus in his anger took Peleus to hunt with him on Mount
Pelion, there deprived him of his weapons and left him a prey to wild
animals. He was about to die, when Hermes brought him a sword forged by
Hephaestus.
[561] Thetis, to escape the solicitations of Peleus, assumed in turn the
form of a bird, of a tree, and finally of a tigress; but Peleus learnt of
Proteus the way of compelling Thetis to yield to his wishes. The gods
were present at his nuptials and made the pair rich presents.
[562] According to the scholiast, an adulterer was punished in the
following manner: a radish was forced up his rectum, then every hair was
torn out round that region, and the portion so treated was then covered
with burning embers.
[563] Having said this, Just Discourse threw his cloak into the
amphitheatre and took a seat with the spectators.
[564] Because it never rains there; for all other reasons residence in
Egypt was looked upon as undesirable.
[565] That is, the last day of the month.
[566] By Athenian law, if anyone summoned another to appear before the
Courts, he was obliged to deposit a sum sufficient to cover the costs of
procedure.
[567] He points to an earthenware sphere, placed at the entrance of
Socrates' dwelling, and which was intended to represent the Whirlwind,
the deity of the philosophers. This sphere took the place of the column
which the Athenians generally dedicated to Apollo, and which stood in the
vestibule of their houses.
[568] An Athenian poet, who is said to have left one hundred and sixty
tragedies behind him; he only once carried off the prize. Doubtless he
had introduced gods or demi-gods bewailing themselves into one of his
tragedies.
[569] This exclamation, "Oh! Pallas, thou hast undone me!" and the reply
of Strepsiades are borrowed, says the scholiast, from a tragedy by
Xenocles, the son of Carcinus. Alcmena is groaning over the death of her
brother, Licymnius, who had been killed by Tlepolemus.
[570] A proverb, applied to foolish people.
[571] The ram of Phryxus, the golden fleece of which was hung up on a
beech tree in a field dedicated to Ares in Colchis.
[572] The subject of Euripides' 'Aeolus.' Since among the Athenians it
was lawful to marry a half-sister, if not born of the same mother,
Strepsiades mentions here that it was his _uterine_ sister, whom Macareus
dishonoured, thus committing both rape and incest.
[573] A cleft in the rocks at the back of the Acropolis at Athens, into
which criminals were hurled.
[574] He repeats the words of Socrates at their first interview, in
mockery.