Аристофан - The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1

After his success in the Sphacteria affair Cleon induced the people to vote him a chaplet of gold.

That is, by means of the mechanical device of the Greek stage known as the [Greek: ekkukl_ema].

Parody of a well-known verse from Euripides' 'Alcestis.'

The name Agoracritus is compounded: cf. [Greek: agora], a market-place, and [Greek: krinein], to judge.

This grandiloquent opening is borrowed from Pindar.

Mentioned in the 'Acharnians.'

A soothsayer.

A flute-player.

An allusion to the vice of the 'cunnilingue,' apparently a novel form of naughtiness at Athens in Aristophanes' day.

As well known for his gluttony as for his cowardice.

One of the most noisy demagogues of Cleon's party; he succeeded him, but was later condemned to ostracism.

A town in Bithynia, situated at the entrance of the Bosphorus and nearly opposite Byzantium. It was one of the most important towns in Asia Minor. Doubtless Hyperbolus only demanded so large a fleet to terrorize the towns and oppress them at will.

These temples were inviolable places of refuge, where even slaves were secure.

A rocky cleft at the back of the Acropolis into which criminals were hurled.

Young and effeminate orators of licentious habits.

By adroit special pleading he had contrived to get his acquittal, when charged with a capital offence.

They were personified on the stage as pretty little filles de joie .

A name invented by Aristophanes and signifying 'a just citizen.'

Cleon had received five talents from the islanders subject to Athens, on condition that he should get the tribute payable by them reduced; when informed of this transaction, the Knights compelled him to return the money.

A hemistich borrowed from Euripides' 'Telephus.'

The tragedies of Aeschylus continued to be played even after the poet's death, which occurred in 436 B.C., ten years before the production of the Acharnians.

A tragic poet, whose pieces were so devoid of warmth and life that he was nicknamed [Greek: chi_on], i.e. snow .

A bad musician, frequently ridiculed by Aristophanes; he played both the lyre and the flute.

A lively and elevated method.

A hill near the Acropolis, where the Assemblies were held.

Several means were used to force citizens to attend the assemblies; the shops were closed; circulation was only permitted in those streets which led to the Pnyx; finally, a rope covered with vermilion was drawn round those who dallied in the Agora (the marketplace), and the late-comers, ear-marked by the imprint of the rope, were fined.

Magistrates who, with the Archons and the Epistatae, shared the care of holding and directing the assemblies of the people; they were fifty in number.

The Peloponnesian War had already, at the date of the representation of the 'Acharnians,' lasted five years, 431-426 B.C.; driven from their lands by the successive Lacedaemonian invasions, the people throughout the country had been compelled to seek shelter behind the walls of Athens.

Shortly before the meeting of the Assembly, a number of young pigs were immolated and a few drops of their blood were sprinkled on the seats of the Prytanes; this sacrifice was in honour of Ceres.

The name, Amphitheus, contains the word, [Greek: Theos], god .

Amongst other duties, it was the office of the Prytanes to look after the wants of the poor.

The summer residence of the Great King.

Referring to the hardships he had endured garrisoning the walls of Athens during the Lacedaemonian invasions early in the War.

Cranaus, the second king of Athens, the successor of Cecrops.

Lucian, in his 'Hermotimus,' speaks of these golden mountains as an apocryphal land of wonders and prodigies.