Clouds
8I can’t even beat the help: During the first few years of the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans annually invaded Attica, giving slaves the opportunity to desert to the enemy.
20the twentieth of the month: Interest on a debt accumulated monthly in ancient Athens, and the months were shorter (lunar).
25twelve minas: A large sum of money. The Attic mina was the equivalent of one hundred drachmas.
55–56the niece of Megacles / the son of Megacles: Strepsiades, it seems, has taken a wife from the large and affluent family of the Alcmaeonidae.
57Coesyra: Coesyra, a figure of Athenian folklore, is represented as a spoiled, wealthy woman.
62the Goddesses of Sex: See note on “the Goddesses of Sex / at Colias,” Lysistrata, lines 2–3.
73–74Xanthippus, / Charippus or Kallipides: The word hippos means “horse” in ancient Greek. Strepsiades’s aristocratic wife wants the word “horse” to be in their son’s name.
110Thinkery: The “Thinkery” is a fictional school in this play, though Socrates’s student Plato did go on to found the Academy circa 387 BCE.
123Chaerephon: Chaerephon and Socrates were close friends from youth (Plato, Apology 20e). In Aristophanes, Chaerephon is described as looking like a bat and Socrates as “wretched” for being shaggy-haired, barefoot, and poor.
129Leogoras’s pheasants: Leogoras was an aristocrat and friend of the leading statesman Pericles until the latter’s death in 429 BCE. It seems Leogoras bred pheasants for show.
139obol: In classical Athens, obols were coins made of silver, and six of them equaled a drachma.
142Horsemen: The Hippeis, or Horsemen, constituted the second highest of the four Athenian social classes. With an income of at least three hundred medimnoi, they were able to buy and care for a war horse during military duty.
143by Demeter: Demeter was the goddess of grain, and thus it is appropriate that Strepsiades swears “by Demeter” when he threatens to withhold food from Pheidippides and his horses.
158the deme Cicynna: The location of the deme (district) of Athens is unknown, though context suggests it was somewhere on the northern coast of Attica. We are to think of Strepsiades as living “way out in the country.”
179Persian slippers: Persian slippers were worn by Athenian women around the house.
208–209then went . . . somebody’s cloak: The humor in the apparent punch line here has eluded scholars. Socrates, it seems, starts out by sprinkling ash instead of grain because he intends to give the students a lesson by writing geometric figures in the ash. He then puts a hook on a “skewer” and, instead of writing in the ash, uses it to steal someone’s cloak at the wrestling school. Cloak-stealing was a common crime in ancient Athens.
210the famous Thales: Thales, an early scientist and astronomer, was celebrated in folklore as a sage.
216Pylos: The Spartans who were taken as prisoners of war on the island of Sphacteria, off Pylos, in the summer of 425 BCE remained imprisoned in Athens until the spring of 421 BCE. Apparently they were kept in an emaciated state.
244–245And here’s Euboea . . . beside it: In 446 BCE the cities of Euboea revolted from Athenian control, and Pericles led a campaign that forced them to submit. We are to believe that Strepsiades (or at least his generation) served in that campaign.
288Iron coins like in Byzantium: Byzantium used a system of iron coinage, unlike the other Greek states.
296I don’t want to play Athamas: Strepsiades is alluding to one of Sophocles’s (non-extant) two plays called Athamas, in which the namesake Boeotian king is portrayed as about to be offered as a human sacrifice.
316Lake Maeotis . . . Mimas: Lake Maeotis is the contemporary Sea of Azov in Eastern Europe. It is connected by the Straight of Kerch to the Black Sea. Mimas is a mountain on the peninsula of Erythrae in modern Turkey.
338–339the fruitful country . . . Cecrops: This country is Athens, of which the goddess Pallas Athena was patroness and Cecrops was an autochthonous early king.
346the Bacchic rites: This phrase refers to the City Dionysia, a festival in honor of Dionysus held in the spring (days 8–13 of the Athenian month Elaphebolium). Competitions for tragedy and comedy were part of the festival, so it is appropriate that it be mentioned here.
371Thurii prophets: The Athenian colony of Thurii was founded in Magna Graecia (southern Italy) in 446 BCE. The foundation of cities was, it seems, the occasion of much divination. See the Oracle Collector with whom Peisthetaerus has to deal in Birds, lines 970–1003.
375–379the poets sing . . . “thrush-bird cutlets”: Strepsiades cites examples from dithyramb, a wild and ecstatic form of hymn dedicated to Dionysus. None of these quotations can be attributed to a poet with any certainty.
390the son of Xenophantes: The “son of Xenophantes” is a certain Hieronymous, ridiculed elsewhere in Aristophanes for his hairiness. Hairiness may have been regarded as an indicator of pederastic tendencies.
391Simon: Nothing more is known about this Simon.
395Cleonymus: Cleonymus allegedly dropped his shield in battle and fled; see Birds, lines 310–311.
396Cleisthenes: Cleisthenes is often ridiculed as an effeminate by Aristophanes.
402Prodicus: The most famous intellectual of his day in Athens; see Birds, line 705.
429Panathenaea: An annual festival celebrating the glory of Athens, held in mid-August. Every fourth year it was celebrated on a larger scale and involved athletic competitions.
443Simon, Theorus and Cleonymus: For Simon and Cleonymus, see notes above, lines 391 and 395. Theorus is mocked as a parasite and flatterer in Aristophanic comedy.
445sacred Cape Sunium: Cape Sunium, modern Sounion, is a headland at the southeastern tip of the Attic peninsula. It was considered sacred as the location of the Temple of Poseidon.
452Diasia: An important festival in Athens held on the twenty-third of the month Anthesterion (during harvesttime for figs, grain, grapevines, and olives). In it offerings of placation and purification were given to Zeus Meilichios (“the Easily Entreated”).
494a wiener: “Wiener” here translates the word chorde, a sausage consisting of meat stuffed into intestine.
542Chaerephon: See note on “Chaerephon,” Clouds, line 123.
547Trophonius’s cave: After comparing Chaerephon to the living dead, Strepsiades goes on to compare the entrance to the Thinkery to a famous entrance to the underworld. Near Lebadeia in Boeotia was a cave where visitors would seek oracular responses from the hero Trophonius. These visitors would customarily placate the snakes in the cave with an offering of honey cake.
561Though I deserved . . . the contest: Aristophanes is referring to the first version of Clouds presented in 423 BCE. This parabasis (address to the audience) belongs to the later, second version.
565the Nice Boy and the Faggot: Characters in Aristophanes’s first play Banqueters. Produced in 427 BCE, most likely at the Lenaea, it won second prize.
571Electra: In Aeschylus’s tragedy Choephoroi (first produced in 458 BCE), Electra goes to her father Agamemnon’s tomb and finds corroboration that her brother Orestes has returned in a lock of hair like hers left at the tomb. In the same way, Aristophanes’s play Clouds (the second version) goes in search of audience approval and finds it in their favorable reaction.
576a sleazy cordax: A salacious dance associated with drunkenness and the comic chorus.
581–582I’d never try . . . or three times: Aristophanes accuses his rivals of presenting the same material under different titles. Though he has revised Clouds, Aristophanes prides himself on presenting new ideas in each play.
584Cleon’s paunch: Aristophanes leveled a sustained and vicious attack on Cleon in his play The Knights (424 BCE).
586Hyperbolus: Aristophanes attacks Hyperbolus, an influential speaker in the Assembly, frequently in his comedies. Hyperbolus was ostracized from Athens in 417 BCE and murdered at Samos in 411 BCE.
588Eupolis put his Maricas before you: A contemporary of Aristophanes and fellow writer of comedies, Eupolis died at sea sometime before the end of the Peloponnesian War. Debuted in 421 BCE, his play Maricas included Hyperbolus as a character.
591Phrynichus: An older contemporary of Aristophanes, Phrynichus apparently wrote a play in which he included a burlesque, from myth, of the sea beast coming to eat Andromeda.
592Hermippus: Another older contemporary of Aristophanes, Hermippus wrote a play called The Bread-Makers in which he included a character representing Hyperbolus’s mother.
595the similes I wrote about the eels: In the play The Knights (424 BCE), Aristophanes compares Cleon to an eel-fisherman stirring up the mud.
600The potent trident-wielder: Poseidon is the god meant here, identified by his attribute the trident.
606the charioteer: The sun god Helios was regarded as driving his chariot across the sky from east to west each day.
613–614that god-detested . . . Cleon as a general: In classical Athens, citizens tended to elect wealthy aristocrats to public offices. Aristophanes here is mocking Cleon’s pedigree (by claiming he is a foreigner from Paphlagonia) and his means of income (tanneries).
627–628blessed goddess of / Ephesus’s golden temple: There was a large temple to Artemis in Ephesus, and it was the center of both Greek and Lydian worship.
647to mourn the loss of Sarpedon or Memnon: The gods mourn the loss of Sarpedon, killed by Patroclus in the Trojan War, because he was Zeus’s son, and the loss of Memnon, also killed at Troy, because he was the son of Dawn.
649Sacred Signatory: The holder of this office represented Athens in the Amphictyonic Council at Delphi.
664Measures: Whereas Socrates intends ta metra (“measures”) to mean poetic meters, Strepsiades understands units of physical measurement.
714–715how would you call . . . met him: In the vocative case, this name is “Amynia,” which, with its letter a ending (alpha in Greek), resembles a feminine nominative ending.
780to buy a witch from Thessaly: The women of Thessaly had the reputation of being witches and were said to be able to remove the moon from the sky.
848–849your uncle / Megacles’s fancy portico: Strepsiades has mentioned that his wife is the niece of a Megacles the son of Megacles. Her brother, it seems, is named Megacles as well.
893–894I spent them on . . . like Pericles once said: After paying ten talents to the Spartan king to lead his army out of Attica in 445 BCE, Pericles repressed the Euboean revolt. This bribe was entered in his accounts as the cost of “necessities.”
901Diasia: See note on “Diasia,” Clouds, line 452.
950–951for chaining up / his father Cronus: Victorious in the Titanomachy (the battle between his father Cronus’s generation, the Titans, and his generation, the Olympians), Zeus chains Cronus and imprisons him in Tartarus in the underworld.
969–971Mysian Telephus . . . of Pandeletus: This is an allusion to Euripides’s play Telephus (produced in 438 BCE), in which the namesake Mysian king appeared in beggar’s rags at the court of Agamemnon. Right Argument implies that, in former times, Wrong Argument had to live off scraps handed out to him for uttering clever talk like that of the politician Pandeletus, about whom nothing certain is known.
976You Cronus!: The father of Zeus, Cronus here represents the superannuated.
1010their music teacher’s: Along with the gymnastics teacher (paidotribes) and reading and writing teacher (grammatistes), the “music teacher” (kitharistes) was entrusted with providing the traditional sort of education to Athenian youth.
1013–1014“Some Far-off Shout” / or “Queen Athena City-Leveler”: We do not know to which songs Right Argument is referring here.
1018Phrynis: Phrynis was a Mytilenean citharode (lyre player and songwriter) who won first prize at the Panathenaea circa 455 BCE. Right Argument accuses Phrynis of initiating innovations three decades before which have had a pernicious influence at the time of the first production of Clouds.
1032Dipolia: The Dipolia was an ancient annual festival held on the fourteenth of the summer month Skirophorion. During this festival, barley mixed with wheat was placed on the altar of Zeus Polieus, the Protector of the City, and the Buphonia (see subsequent note) was performed.
1033Buphonia festival: The Buphonia (“ox-slaying”) refers to a sacrifice performed during the Dipolia. Oxen were driven to an altar on the Acropolis where grain had been spread, and the ox who first ate the grain was offered to Zeus Polieus.
1034–1035the men / who fought at Marathon: Right Argument boasts that it was the traditional education that reared the soldiers who defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE.
1037–1039when I see some youth . . . he should be dancing: Right Argument is referring to one of the pyrrichistai who danced naked with large shields as part of the Panathenaea, an annual festival celebrating the city of Athens. This goddess is Athena, patroness of Athens. The title “Tritogeneia” refers to her supposed birth near the mythic Lake Tritonis, said to be in Libya.
1051a graybeard geezer Iapetus: Iapetus, along with his brother Cronus, belongs, in myth, to the generation of the Titans, which precedes that of the Olympians. Calling a person a “Iapetus” or “Cronus” means that he is archaic.
1054Hippocrates’s sons: It is likely that the Hippocrates named here was the son of Ariphron and the general killed in battle at Delion in 424 BCE. His sons, orphaned by his death, had a reputation for unintelligence.
1084Antimachus’s anal sex: This Antimachus, ridiculed elsewhere by Aristophanes (Acharnians 1150), preferred, it seems, anal sex.
1094ten thousand staters: Ten thousand staters equals forty thousand drachmas, an exorbitant sum.
1104“Baths of Heracles”: In myth, hot springs were Hephaestus’s gift to Heracles.
1110“market orators”: Wrong Argument is quibbling on a shift in the meaning of the word agora in the word agoretes. Whereas agora means “meeting place” in Homer, it means “city center” or “market” in later authors.
1116The hero Peleus acquired a knife because of it: In myth the hero Peleus resists the advances of his host Acastus’s wife Hippolyte. Spurned, she accuses him of attempting to rape her. In punishment, Acastus has Peleus left without a weapon in a region full of wild beasts. The god Hephaestus provides Peleus with a knife.
1118Hyperbolus who sells the lamps: Like Cleon the “tanner,” Hyperbolus is derisively associated with trade.
1120Peleus’s virtue got him Thetis as a bride: In myth Thetis is fated to give birth to a son who is mightier than his father. Both Zeus and Poseidon desired Thetis but, fearing the prophecy, abstain. Zeus hands Thetis over to the hero Peleus partly because of the latter’s “virtue” and partly to avoid a potential threat against his supremacy.
1137the hot-ash-on-the-pubes and radish-up-the-asshole treatment: This “treatment” refers to the punishment imposed on an adulterer who was caught in the act: his pubic hair was removed with hot ash and a radish was forced up his anus.
1162–1163We want to tell you . . . who deserve to win: The chorus again speaks directly to the judges, asking them to award first prize to Clouds.
1178the day called “Old and New”: The last day of the month, when interest came due, was referred to as the “Old and New Day” in Athens.
1235Solon: Solon the lawgiver (ca. 630–ca. 560 BC) came up with a code of laws for Athens in 594 BCE.
1320Carcinus: An Athenian tragedian of the fifth century BCE.
1326Tlepolemus: The preceding line by the Second Creditor contains, it seems, an allusion to a tragedy by a certain Xenocles, Tlepolemus or Licymnius. These words are spoken by Licymnius’s half sister Alcmene after he has been killed by Tlepolemus.
1418Simonides, “The Shearing of the Ram”: Simonides of Ceos (556–468 BCE) was a Greek lyric poet later included, by Alexandrian scholars, on the list of nine canonical lyric poets. This song likely contains a pun in which a ram is shorn and a man named Crios (“the Ram”) of Aegina is “fleeced,” so to speak.
1426–1427speak a speech / from Aeschylus: A veteran of the Battle of Marathon, Aeschylus was a prominent tragedian in the first half of the fifth century BCE.
1434–1435a brother who . . . his half sister: Pheidippides quotes from Euripides’s tragedy Aeolus. Aeolus has two children by different mothers, Macareus and Canace. Marriage between children of the same father but different mothers was legal in Athens at the time of Clouds.
1478–1479Children cry . . . cry as well?: Aristophanes here has Pheidippides mockingly adapt a quote from Euripides’s Alcestis, line 691, in which Pheres refuses to die for his son Admetus.
Birds
13Execestides: Execestides is taunted three times in Birds for being, allegedly, the foreign-born son of a slave.
15the mad Philocrates: Philocrates the bird seller apparently made exaggerated claims about the abilities of his birds.
21a son of Tharrelides: We do not know in what respect this “son of Tharrelides” is similar to a jay.
36–37the opposite of the disease / that Sacas has: “Sacas” (the Scythian) was the nickname of the foreign-born tragedian Acestor, who apparently sought to become an Athenian citizen.
63Boy! Boy!: An Athenian like Euelpides expects the door to be opened by a doorkeeper. This cry (pai, pai in ancient Greek) introduces a pun on the word “hoopoe” (epopoi).
72–73a scaredy-bird, / native to Libya: This fictional bird is given an origin in Africa, which was, for Greeks, the land of fantastical creatures.
76a shit-bird from the Land of Pheasants: The pheasant (phasianos in ancient Greek) was said to have originated at the river Phasis (now the Rioni in Georgia), another likely native land for an exotic bird. Part of the joke may turn on the pheasant’s golden-brown tail.
85–86sardines / from Phalerum: Fry like sardines were a favorite Athenian food, and Phalerum is the nearest coast to the city of Athens.
106The twelve great gods: Traditionally, the twelve major Olympian gods were Zeus, Hera, Athena, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, Poseidon, Hades, and Hestia.
111–112It’s Sophocles that makes me, / Tereus, shameful in his tragedies: The tragedian Sophocles, it seems, wrote more than one tragedy in which Tereus appeared as a character.
119the country of attractive warships: Athens had been renowned for its warships since the Second Persian War (480–479 BCE).
120are you jurors?: Athens was infamous for the number of its law courts, each of which sat a large number of jurors.
137an aristocracy: Since the wellborn and wealthy in Athens regarded themselves as the aristoi, the aristocracy mentioned here would suggest an oligarchy.
138–139the son of Skellias . . . Aristocrates: This son of Skellias (chosen here for his name “Aristocrates”) signed the Peace of Nicias in 421 BCE and served as a general in 413–412 BCE, after Birds was produced. He was eventually a member of the oligarchic coup of 411 BCE.
162the Red Sea: To the Greeks “the Red Sea” suggests not only the modern Red Sea but the Persian Gulf as well. Thus, the city described would be somewhere on the edge of the Persian Empire.
164the Salaminia: Mention of the sea evokes, in Euelpides’s mind, the Athenian official galley the Salaminia.
167Lepreus, in Elis: This city, a few miles inland in Elis in the western Peloponnese, may have seemed a city open to settlers, since it had recently been declared independent by the Spartans, who settled helots (serfs) there as a reward for their service in the Thracian campaign.
168–170the city of Lepreus . . . Melanthius is a leper: This line contains a pun on the name of the city and lepreos (“man with bad skin”). Melanthius was a tragedian attacked here and in Aristophanes’s Peace for the sound of his voice, eating habits, and allegedly unwatchable tragedies.
171in Locris, the Opuntians: Opuntians are inhabitants of the city Opus in Locris, on the eastern coast of central Greece. The mention of “Opuntians” sets up an insult against a man named Opuntius, said to be one-eyed and an informer.
178–180The gardens give us . . . mint to eat: These items were standard at Athenian festivals.
189Teleas: This Teleas is likely the one who was Secretary of the Treasurers of Athens in 415–414 BCE. He necessarily belonged to the wealthiest class of Athenian citizen and is mocked elsewhere in Aristophanes for gluttony and graft.
209Melian famine: Athens besieged the island of Melos in 416 BCE, and famine there was one of the consequences.
211–213when we want to go . . . Boeotia for a visa: An overland Athenian embassy to Delphi had to pass through Boeotian territory and needed, therefore, permission to do so.
227my darling Procne: The elder daughter of King Pandion of Athens and the wife of Tereus, Procne kills her son Itys upon learning that Tereus had raped her sister Philomela. When he discovers that the dead Itys has been served to him in a meal, he chases the sisters with an ax. The sisters ask the gods to save them by transforming them into birds.
244–245Phoebus, with his golden hair, / listening to your elegies: “Golden hair,” though a particularly common attribute of Apollo, is only used of gods. It may be an expression of gilding on the hair of cult statues. Elegies were originally sung laments for the dead, and that is the meaning here.
256–257Epopopoi . . . ee-to: This is the first example of Aristophanes’s bird-language, a striking feature of this play.
299His name is Persian: The “Persian bird” in ancient Greek is the cock, possibly represented here with an elaborate crest suggestive of the Persian king’s tiara.
300how did he fly in here without a camel?: Greeks associated Persians with camels.
303the son of Philocles: That this Philocles is mocked here and later in the play for looking like a bird, the hoopoe and lark, respectively, suggests there was something bird-like about his appearance.
305–306This bird / is Callias! He sure has lost a lot of feathers!: Dissolute and preyed on by parasites, Callias had reduced his fortune from two hundred talents to two.
309Cleonymus: A pro-Cleon politician, Cleonymus is frequently referred to in Aristophanes’s comedies as gluttonous, grotesquely large, effeminate, and cowardly.
313They are like Carians: The native inhabitants of Caria in southwest Asia Minor lived in hilltop fortresses.
318Sporgilus: Sporgilus (whose name means “sparrow”) was a barber in Athens.
319Who has brought an owl to Athens?: The owl was prevalent in Athens and featured on its coinage. Euelpides breaks dramatic illusion here by calling attention to the fact that the play was produced in Athens. “To bring an owl to Athens” is a saying that means to bring something of which there is enough already.
362The owl won’t get us then: Scholars have been unable to determine the significance of this line: Why would a kettle be a defense against an owl in particular?
366Nicias: Nicias the son of Niceratus was, at the time Birds was produced, in Sicily as one of the generals sent to lead the Athenian expedition. He was killed there in 413 BCE.
371the relatives and fellow tribesmen of my wife: Tereus’s wife Procne is, in myth, native to Athens.
399Finchburg: “Finchburg” is an attempt to translate a pun on Orneai, the name of a town in the Argolid, and ornea (birds). In the winter of 416–415 BCE the Athenians and their allies among the Argives laid siege to the town of Orneai, where the Spartans had settled a group of oligarchic exiles from Argos. The irony is that no lives were lost in that campaign, since the Argive exiles escaped from the siege during the night.
401hoplites: Citizen-soldiers of Athens, who marched on foot carrying a spear and a shield.
442–443the knife-maker / (who was an ape): Scholars have not been able to identify the story to which Aristophanes is alluding here.
447the judges: The Chorus Leader here breaks the fourth wall by referring to the ten judges, each chosen by lot from one of the ten tribes of Athens to rank the dramatic competitors in order of merit. The archon (an annually elected official), then, chose five of these rankings to decide the victor.
453–454keep an eye out / for future orders posted on the boards: Peisthetaerus here uses the mock-military language in telling his companions to demobilize. He also refers to the practice of posting mobilization notices in public.
474long, long before the Titans, Cronus, even Earth: Peisthetaerus here alludes to Hesiod’s Theogony, in which Earth belongs to the earliest generation, followed by her children the Titans, led by Cronus.
477Aesop: Aesop, the author of fables, is believed to have lived as a slave on Samos in the early sixth century BCE. This story of the Lark burying her father is not attested elsewhere.
483Headley Park: “Headley Park” is an attempt to translate a pun on the deme Kephale, where there was a cemetery, and the word for head (kephale).
490Dariuses and Megabazuses: Peisthetaerus has pluralized the names for King Darius of Persia and his cousin and general Megabazus, both active in the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE.
501name-day party: According to Greek custom, it was during this party, held on the tenth day after birth, that the father formally named the child and thereby acknowledged it as his own.
509–510the bird / they call the “kite”: This bird is the black kite (Milvus migrans). It seems it was a custom to roll on the ground before this bird upon its arrival in spring as an acknowledgment of the end of winter.
514an obol that was in my mouth: Greeks regularly stored spare change in their mouths.
515–516the cuckoo once / was king of Egypt and Phoenicia: Peisthetaerus claims that the cuckoo “held sway” in grain-rich Egypt and Phoenicia because his call was a sign of harvesttime. The reference to barleycorn, regarded as a phallic symbol, sets up the joke in the next line.
518Dicks up. Hit the field: The “fields” here are a double entendre for female pubic regions.
519–520some Agamemnon / or Menelaus: Apulian vases from the late fifth and early fourth centuries BCE depict kings in tragedy with bird-topped scepters. See Trendall and Webster’s Illustrations of Greek Drama (Phaedon, 1971). Apparently this practice was already in vogue at the time of the production of Birds.
523Priam: Euelpides may be alluding to a production of Euripides’s Alexandros in 415 BCE, in which Priam appeared as a character.
525the offerings Lysicrates embezzled: Lysicrates was a common name. Scholars have been unable to identify which Lysicrates is intended here. In Athens holders of public office were often accused of graft and embezzlement.
526–529Zeus, who is now in charge . . . Apollo, has a hawk: Peisthetaerus here cites as evidence of avian importance the birds associated with major deities: Zeus’s eagle, Athena’s owl, and Apollo’s hawk.
534Lampon: A prominent Athenian interpreter of oracles and religious authority.
537Manes: Peisthetaerus singles out his slave Manes as an example of idiocy.
546silphium: Also known as laserwort, silphium was used in antiquity as a seasoning, perfume, an aphrodisiac, and a medicine.
562Babylon: Aristophanes may here be recalling Herodotus’s account of the construction of the great walls of Babylon (Histories 1.178–79).
563O Cebriones! O Porphyrion!: Two mythic giants who waged an unsuccessful war on the Olympian gods on the plain of Phlegra. There is a pun on the bird porphyrion, which is the purple gallinule.
568to screw their Semeles, Alcmenas and Alopes: In myth Zeus has sex with the mortal princesses Semele and Alcmena, and Poseidon rapes Alope.
576nuts to the penis-bird: The “penis-bird” is very likely the coot (Fulica atra), which migrated to Greece in the winter and was caught for food.
581Zan: Euelpides uses the name for Zeus at his major cult center at Olympia in Elis.
594Dr. Phoebus: Phoebus Apollo, god of healing, is here portrayed as a medical doctor. The mention of a doctor immediately suggests a doctor’s fee.
597the Principle of Life Itself: Peisthetaerus imagines humankind accepting birds as bios (life).
630Delphi or Ammon: Two major seats of divination known in the Greek world. The temple at Delphi is located in central Greece and was sacred to Apollo; the temple at Ammon (a ram-headed Egyptian god associated with Zeus) is located at an oasis now named Siwa in the Libyan Desert. Travel to either of them would have involved the expenses of the travel itself as well as the cost of sacrifices to consult the god.
652while away the time like Nicias: Nicias the son of Niceratus at first had been reluctant to support sending an expedition to Sicily.
657Crioa: An actual Attic deme, the name Crioa suggests a ram (krios), associated with exaggerated male sexuality.
666eagle: In a fable by Aesop, the eagle breaks its treaty with the fox by feeding her cubs to its eaglets.
689I’ll take her mask off: Euelpides breaks dramatic illusion by pointing out that Procne’s “beak” is part of a mask.
704–705the famous / intellectual Prodicus: Prodicus was an intellectual authority in mid to late fifth-century BCE Athens. Though we do not have any of his work on the origin of the gods, it is clear here that the Chorus Leader is saying the birds know better than he.
718they have opened their thighs through the power of us birds: In Athenian pederasty, birds (swallows and doves) are often a love gift from the erastes (adult male lover) to the eromenos (pre-adult male love-object). The “opening of the thighs” refers to intercrural sex.
723time for Orestes to weave new clothing: “Orestes” appears as, likely, the nickname for an Athenian who engaged in cloak-robbing.
753bee-like Phrynichus: Phrynichus the son of Polyphradmon was a tragic poet active in the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE. The poet/bee comparison is common in ancient Greek literature.
764has his brow tattooed: The foreheads of runaway slaves were, in fact, tattooed, both as a punishment and as a deterrent to future escapes.
766as much a Phrygian as Spintharus: Most Phrygians in Athens were slaves; Phrygians in general had a reputation for being effeminate. We do not know who this Spintharus is.
767Philemon’s dovecote: This Philemon is unknown. Execestides: See note on “Execestides,” Birds, line 13.
773the Hebrus River’s banks: The Hebrus, now the Maritsa, Meriç and Evros, is a large river in central Thrace. In myth, after the Maenads tear apart Orpheus, his head flows down the Hebrus to the sea.
790Patrocleides: This Patrocleides is likely the politician who sponsored decrees concerning trade and citizen enfranchisement in the last quarter of the fifth century BCE. It seems he was known as “the Shitter” because of some embarrassing incident.
795Dieitrephes: Though portrayed as ambitious and newly rich, Dieitrephes, in fact, belonged to a distinguished family.
798cock-horse: The “cock-horse” (hippalektruon) is a mythical beast with the head and foreparts of a horse and the rear parts of a rooster. Aristophanes may have gotten this image from Aeschylus’s tragedy Myrmidons, in which a cock-horse is mentioned as the figurehead on a ship’s prow.
804–805the words / of Aeschylus: Peisthetaerus alludes to a passage in Aeschylus’s tragedy Myrmidons in which an eagle, shot by an arrow fletched with eagle feathers, claims to have caused his own undoing.
813–814esparto / twine: Peisthetaerus puns on Sparta, the capital city of Lacedaemonia, and on sparte (twine).
820–822the city where . . . his whole estate: Both these men, it seems, were infamous for bragging that they were wealthier than they actually were.
823–824the Plain of Phlegra . . . the Braggart War: Peisthetaerus proposes the Plain of Phlegra, the mythic location of the gods’ defeat of the giants in the Gigantomachy, as a more suitable depository for imaginary wealth.
827Sacred Robe: The Chorus Leader is referring to Athena Parthenos’s role as keeper of the Acropolis and to her sacred peplos (robe).
828Athena Polias: Athena Polias is the cult title for the Athena on the Athenian Acropolis.
831–832where Cleisthenes sits spinning / yarn from wool: Cleisthenes is often mocked for being effeminate in Aristophanes’s comedies.
859a Pythian cry: The Pythian cry most likely refers to the shout ie Paian for good luck.
860Chaeris: This Chaeris is most likely the bad flute player ridiculed elsewhere in Aristophanes.
867–868Pray to the avian . . . filches from altars: Hestia was traditionally honored first with offerings and named first in prayers. The kite is named second here, known to be rapacious enough to steal meat from the sacrificial altar.
877Cleocritus’s mom: In Frogs, Aristophanes claims that Cleocritus has a large, unwieldy body like that of an ostrich.
908–911“The Muses’ willing slave . . . a honey-tongue”: Likely a cliché, “the Muses’ slave” appears in the Homeric Hymn to Selene and the Margites, attributed to Homer in ancient times.
913A longhair slave: In Athens wealthy young men, like Pheidippides in Clouds, wore long hair, as did those, like the impoverished poet here, who did not concern themselves with their appearance.
922–923a hundred gorgeous . . . Simonidean ditties: Dithyrambs are songs sung usually in honor of Dionysus and danced in circular formations. Foreign to Athens, maiden-songs were a ritualized performance in Doric Greek–speaking communities. The most famous of them are by the poet Alcman (seventh century BCE). Simonides of Ceos (ca. 556–468 BCE) composed in a variety of poetic genres.
928ten days old: Athenians celebrated an official naming ceremony for an infant on the tenth day after its birth.
931–936Swift are the Muses’ . . . willing to bestow: These lines are apparently quoted from a hypochreme, a lively song accompanied by dancing, by Pindar.
946Pindar: Pindar of Thebes (517–438 BCE) primarily composed victory odes for victors at the various Panhellenic athletic competitions.
948–952Among the Scythian . . . an animal hide: The Poet here slightly alters for the occasion lines by Pindar himself (fragment 105b).
973Bacis: Bacis is a name associated with a collection of prophecies about internal conflicts during the fifth century BCE.
980twixt Sicyon and Corinth . . . : Animals of ambiguous significance cohabiting in an unlikely way with other animals is common in oracular style. Since Sicyon and Corinth are neighboring states, there is no space between them. The phrase means “nowhere.”
994–995the one / Apollo gave me: Peisthetaerus trumps the oracles by Bacis by claiming to have an oracle of Apollo from Delphi.
1001Lampon: See note on “Lampon,” Birds, line 534. the lordly Diopeithes: This Diopeithes was a politician who took an active interest in oracles and the divine.
1004Meton: Meton, an Athenian citizen of the deme Leuconoeum, was a famous astronomer and geometrician who used a sundial to observe the summer solstice on June 27, 432 BCE.
1013all Colonus too: Meton may well have set up a sundial in Colonus, a deme of Athens. This sundial may have been the one used to observe the solstice in 432 BCE.
1027a Thales: The early philosopher Thales of Miletus (first half of the sixth century BCE) came to represent scientific genius, much like Albert Einstein in America in the twentieth century.
1030–1031they’re driving out . . . throughout the city: In his speeches in Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War (1.144.2, 2.39.1), the Athenian statesman Pericles contrasts Sparta’s policy of the expulsion of foreigners with Athens’s openness.
1041Sardanapallus: Sardanapallus is the Greek form of the name of the king of Assyria (reigned 668–ca. 627 BCE) Ashurbanipal. In the Greek tradition this king was an effeminate pleasure-seeker who dressed and behaved like a woman and wore makeup.
1043Teleas: See note on “Teleas,” Birds, line 189.
1049Pharnaces: At the time of the production, this Pharnaces was the Persian satrap of Dascylium in northwest Asia Minor.
1064the Olophyxians: This seems to be a reference to the Coinage Decree (passed in the 420s BCE), which imposed the use of Athenian silver coinage on “allied” states like Olophyxus, a small, semi-civilized town on the Acte (Athos) peninsula.
1069hubris in the month Munychium: Hubris (aggravated arrogance) was a punishable and serious crime in ancient Athens. Since the month Munychium follows the month Elaphebolium (in which Birds was produced at the City Dionysia), it likely means “next month” here.
1076–1077to shit / on law codes in the evening: The Decree Seller threatens to accuse Peisthetaerus of desecrating stone decree-steles.
1094Diagoras of Melos: Diagoras of Melos was outlawed from Athens for impiety in 415–414 BCE. He allegedly divulged and mocked the Eleusinian mysteries.
1097Philocrates of Sparrowtown: See note on “the mad Philocrates,” Birds, line 15.
1119judges: The Chorus Leader breaks dramatic illusion by addressing the ten judges in the audience; see notes on “the judges,” Birds, line 447, and on “Let the wiser ones remember . . . vote for me,” Women of the Assembly, lines 1301–1303.
1120–1121more gifts by far upon them / than Paris took in: The Trojan prince Paris received lavish gifts upon visiting Menelaus in Sparta. Laurium: Athens stamped owls on its silver coinage. The silver came from mines from Laurium, located thirty-seven miles southeast of Athens on the coast of Attica.
1129fitted for copper coverings, like statues: Copper discs were attached to the heads of statues to protect them from bird droppings.
1141–1142Proxenides of Blusterburg / and Theogenes: Aristophanes uses these two notorious boasters to underscore the insubstantiality of this bird-wall built in the air.
1144the Trojan one: Toward the end of the Trojan War, the Greeks build a colossal horse out of wood and fill it with men so that, when brought inside the walls of Troy, they might emerge and let other Greek soldiers in.
1183a battle dancer: In the battle dance at the Panathenaea festival, citizens carrying, each, a large and heavy shield, danced in a lively manner.
1206Erebus’s son, the Air: Air is the son of Erebus in no known cosmology, though in Hesiod’s Theogony Night and Erebus mate to produce Aether.
1215–1216The Salaminia? / The Paralus?: These are the two official galleys of Athens, dispatched on government business.
1260Licymnian force: In myth, Licymnius, the uncle of Heracles, is killed when his great-nephew Tlepolemus, the son of Heracles, throws a staff at a servant, misses, and inadvertently hits him.
1264some Lydian or Phrygian: It was a Greek stereotype that the peoples of Asia Minor were cowardly.
1268Amphion’s, too: In this mock-tragic tirade, Peisthetaerus may be quoting from Aeschylus’s lost play Niobe, in which the house of Amphion and Niobe is left desolate when Apollo and Artemis kill their twelve children.
1272Porphyrion: See note on “O Cebriones! Oh Porphyrion!,” Birds, line 563.
1302mad for all things Spartan: Some Athenian aristocrats affected Spartan behaviors such as antidemocratic views and a comparative disregard for grooming and cleanliness.
1304–1305behaved like Socrates . . . with walking sticks: Socrates was notoriously barefoot and unkempt. It seems some Athenians also carried, as an affectation, something like the skutalon or Spartan ambassadorial staff.
1315Menippus: This Menippus is otherwise unknown.
1316Opuntius: See note on “in Locris, the Opuntians,” Birds, line 171.
1317Philocles: See note on “the son of Philocles,” Birds, line 301.
1318Theogenes: This may be the same boastful Theogenes mentioned above (line 1143). Lycurgus: Likely Lycurgus the son of Lycomedes, he belonged to a family that held the priesthood of Poseidon Erechteus (of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis). That he has the nickname “Ibis” suggests some Egyptian connection.
1319Chaerephon: The Greeks classified bats as birds. Chaerephon earned his nickname “the Bat” presumably because of his unhealthy complexion; see note on “Chaerephon,” Clouds, line 123, above.
1320Syracosius: The politician Syracosius probably earned the nickname “Magpie” because of his grating oratorical style.
1321Midias: Elsewhere in comedy, this Midias is called out for stealing public funds and for being fond of cock- and quail-fighting.
1322a quail hit on the noggin by a finger: The herald is referring to the popular game of “quail-tapping” (ortugokopia), in which a player set a quail on a game board, and his opponent, by “tapping” the quail on the head, tried to force it out of bounds.
1400Cinesias: Son of Meles the lyre player, Cinesias was a successful dithyrambic poet. Aristophanes here mocks him for being tall and slender and for his “new music” compositions.
1436Leotrophides: Teased elsewhere for being skinny.
1446a couple swallows: Peisthetaerus is referring to the proverb “one swallow does not make a summer.”
1451Pellene: Pellene, a city in Achaia, hosted chariot races for which the prize was a warm woolen cloak.
1499Corcyrean wings: Whips from Corcyra (contemporary Corfu) were well known in ancient Greece. Wings come in pairs and whips were often double-thonged. In Athens, one whips a slave, so Peisthetaerus is treating the Informer as such.
1509–1510near Cowardtown, / a strange tree called Cleonymus: See note on “Cleonymus,” Clouds, line 395.
1521Orestes: See note on “time for Orestes to weave new clothing,” Birds, line 723.
1548fasting at the Thesmophoria: An important festival held in honor of Demeter and Persephone in September–October in Athens, the Thesmophoria required fasting in the middle of its three-day celebration.
1550Illyrians: Indo-European-speaking Balkan tribes located in what is now Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the warlike Illyrians, by their famous shrieking, are here expressing hunger.
1556Execestides’s forebears: See note on “Execestides,” Birds, line 13.
1559–1560“Triballian” must be the word / that “tribbing” comes from: In the original, Peisthetaerus makes a ridiculous etymological connection between Triballians and epitribeies (“May you be smashed!”). To preserve the pun, I have imported tribadism.
1575–1576it’s because of you and you alone / that we get barbecues: In Hesiod’s Theogony, Prometheus tricks Zeus into choosing a pile of sacrificial meat consisting mostly of tripe and bone, so that humans are able to enjoy the meat and fat.
1578Timon: Timon of Athens, frequently mentioned in comedy, was a notorious misanthrope who withdrew into a hermit’s life. We do not know whether he is mythic or historical.
1581a butler for a basket-bearer: Aristocratic girls served as basket-bearers at the head of religious processions. Sometime an attendant would accompany them.
1585Pisander: This Pisander, the son of Glaucetes of Acharnae, was an army officer in 422–421 BCE and served on the board that investigated the mutilation of the Herms in 415 BCE.
1588Odysseus: The chorus here alludes to the beginning of the Nekuia, book 11 of Homer’s Odyssey, in which, as part of a necromantic rite, Odysseus digs a pit for liquid sacrifices and takes a step back from it.
1589Chaerephon: Rather than the expected risen ghost, the “living dead” Chaerephon emerges.
1596Laespodias: This Laespodias, a candidate for a generalship in 414 BCE, apparently draped his cloak in an irregular way to conceal something unbecoming about his calves.
1608silphium: An item for trade from the North African city of Cyrene, silphium was used as a seasoning, perfume, and aphrodisiac.
1683The law says you don’t get a single straw: Peisthetaerus is here applying the laws of Athens to the gods.
1689“Heiress”: Athena may have won this cult title either because she defeated Poseidon in the contest of patronage of Athens or because she was the patron goddess of heiresses.
1696this law of Solon’s: See note on Clouds, line 1235; Peisthetaerus may well be quoting his law on intestate succession.
1703inducted you into his phratry: In Athens, an infant was registered at his father’s “phratry” (district), and this registration could later be attested as evidence of his legitimacy.
1734like Gorgias and Philippus: Gorgias is the famous teacher of rhetoric from Leontini in Sicily. We do not know whether Philippus was Gorgias’s actual son or a disciple. He may well have been, unlike Gorgias, an Athenian citizen.
1768O Hymen! O Hymenaeus!: A version of the ritual cry uttered at ancient Greek weddings.
Lysistrata
2–3the Goddesses of Sex / at Colias: Lysistrata feels that if the women had been called to celebrate a raucous religious festival, they would already be present. The three festivals she lists as examples are in honor of Dionysus (Bacchus), Pan, and, lastly, the Genetyllides (Goddesses of Sex, including Aphrodite) at a temple on a cape “Colias,” the location of which is unknown.
39their precious eels: The eels of Lake Copais in Boeotia were regarded as a great delicacy in Athens.
54by Demeter and Persephone: Calonice swears a mild oath by the two goddesses Demeter and Kore (Persephone). This is a specifically woman’s oath.
61always later than they should be: Athenians were stereotypically tardy.
63over from Salamis and the Paralia: Salamis is a large island in the Saronic Gulf, and the Paralia is coastal Attica. These seafaring sections of greater Athens serve as a feed for the subsequent double entendre about females “riding” on a boat/having sex mounted on the male.
65the Acharnian women: The Acharnians (people of the deme Acharnae) were supposedly especially anti-Spartan. Their lands had suffered great destruction as a consequence of the Spartan incursions into Attica during the Peloponnesian War.
67–68Theogenes’s wife . . . high to get here: Mention of Acharnae prompts a joke about the wife of presumably Acharnian Theogenes. Theogenes was a fairly common name, and it is impossible to pin down a historical figure. The joke seems to be that Theogenes’s wife is a drunk, as there is a double entendre on akateion (sail/wine cup) in the original.
71Stinkydale: “Stinkydale” translates the geographical region of Anagyrous, a swampy region named for the malodorous plant anagyros.
107–108in Thrace fighting to save Eucrates / the general: Thrace (now split between Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey) was strategically important to the Athenians throughout the Peloponnesian War. Nothing more is known about this general Eucrates.
109Pylos: The Athenians had captured (in 425 BCE) and still held (in 411 BCE) the peninsula of Pylos at the southwestern end of the Peloponnesus.
115those five-inch dildos: The Ionian city of Miletus had defected to the Spartan side in 412 BCE. As Miletus was the major producer of dildos, the Athenians would have had difficulty importing them.
125Mount Tayeegety: Mount Taygetus (southwest of Sparta) is, at 7,887 feet, the tallest mountain in Laconia.
147hump and dump: The original reads, in translation, “Poseidon and a tub.” The tragedian Sophocles twice portrayed Poseidon’s seduction of Tyro and her subsequent exposure of their twin sons in a tub beside a river.
166lickety-split he threw his sword aside: In myth, Menelaus, though he intends to kill Helen of Troy, drops his sword when she exposes her breasts to him.
168–169Well, like a poet . . . dildo away: The “poet” referred to here is the comic playwright Pherecrates, an older contemporary of Aristophanes. The joke turns on the fact that dildos were often covered in dog skin.
187and tons a’ money in Athena’s temple: The treasuries of Athena on the Acropolis were Athens’s main financial reserve in 411 BCE.
189–190to occupy the hilltop fortress / of the Acropolis this very morning: Lysistrata reveals that she has sent another group of women to seize the Acropolis (and thus secure the treasury for the Delian League and the treasuries of Athena).
207they slit a victim’s throat above a shield: Lysistrata here mentions a scene in Aeschylus’s tragedy Seven Against Thebes, first produced in 469 BCE. In it seven allied leaders swear an oath with their hands dipped in the blood of a horse.
210–211What if we got / a pure-white steed somewhere and cut it up?: Horse sacrifice is highly exceptional in ancient Greek culture. Calonice’s proposal is ridiculous.
216never to add a drop of water: The ancient Greeks controlled the potency of wine by “cutting” it with a greater or lesser amount of water. The joke here is that the women will drink wine from the island of Thasos, a particularly dark and aromatic wine, uncut.
276Draces: Aristophanes includes names of members of both choruses. I have retained the names only of Draces for the men’s chorus leader and Stratyllis for the women’s chorus leader.
289Lycon’s drunken wife: Lycon’s wife had a reputation for promiscuous behavior. The old men here suspect that she has instigated the female uprising.
291Cleomenes: In 508 BCE, the Spartan general Cleomenes came to Athens with Spartan troops at the invitation of the Athenian Isagoras and seized the Acropolis. His intention was to help Isagoras establish in Athens an oligarchic government sympathetic to Sparta. After a two-day occupation of the Acropolis, he was allowed to depart with troops as part of a truce. These lines are humorous because of the hyperbole—they claim that they received the spear of Cleomenes (even though his surrender took place ninety-seven years prior to 411 BCE), in which case they would be well over a hundred years old. They also exaggerate the two-day occupation to “six years.”
300Euripides as well: In fifth-century comedy, Euripides is famous for misogyny.
301May Marathon no longer feature my memorial: The chorus members claim to have been Marathonomachoi (veterans of the Battle of Marathon). In 490 BCE a vastly outnumbered army consisting of Athenians and Plataeans defeated the Persian army camped at Marathon in southeast Attica. A monument at the battle site commemorated the victory.
312Great Lord Heracles!: An oath uttered by males to express shock. Heracles is appropriate in relation to fire in that he immolates himself on Mount Oeta.
315the Lemnian sort of fire: The island of Lemnos is associated with fire because of the volcano on it. Here there is an untranslatable pun on Lemnos and the word lēmē (“eyesore” or “mote in the eye”).
328–329generals at the naval base / in Samos, do you want to help us stack this lumber?: Samos was the Athenian naval headquarters for northern Greece, with seventy-three ships. The old men of the chorus, elsewhere self-identified as proud infantrymen, ask whether the members of the navy might want to help them drive the women off the Acropolis.
332Victory Goddess Nike: Nike, goddess of victory, is in the retinue of Athena, goddess of wisdom and warcraft. It is likely that the men are represented as praying to Nike in her temple on a bastion overlooking the Propylaea of the Acropolis.
361Golden-Crested Fortress Guardian: “Golden-Crested” refers to the tiara worn by the image of Athena Polias in the Parthenon. Among Athena’s prerogatives was the protection of hilltop fortresses in general and of the Acropolis in Athens in particular.
363Tritogeneia: This epithet for Athena first appears in Hesiod and is commonly interpreted as referring to her birthplace in Lake Tritonis in Libya.
377Bupe-Bupe-Bupalus: The sixth-century poet of invective Hipponax threatens to punch his enemy, Bupalus, in fragment 120 of Iambi et Elegi Graeci: Ante Alexandrum Cantati, Vol I: Archilochus, Hipponax Theognidea, ed. Martin L. West (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. 1989): “Take my cloak, I’ll hit Bupalus in the eye! For I have two right hands and I don’t miss with my punches” (translated by Douglas Gerber). According to one ancient source, Hipponax so viciously attacked Bupalus with invective verse that Bupalus hanged himself (Pseudo-Acron on Horace, Epodes, cited by Douglas Gerber in Greek Iambic Poetry, Loeb Classical Library No. 259 [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999], 351).
396You aren’t on a jury now!: Older men in Athens tended to make an income by serving on juries.
405that exotic god Sabezius: Sabezius was an ecstatic Phrygian deity who arrived in Athens in the 430s BCE. As his worship involved drinking to excess, he was associated with Dionysus.
406Adonis: The worship of Adonis in Greece, similar to that of Dumuzi (Tammuz) in Egypt, was exclusive to women and involved ritual lamentation over the annual death of Adonis and the cultivation of “Adonis gardens” on rooftops.
413Zacynthus: The Commissioner is recounting speeches given by the politician Demostratus in the months leading up to the disastrous Sicilian expedition, which began in 415 BCE. Demostratus pushed both for the expedition and for the recruitment of hoplites (foot soldiers) from the island of Zacynthus.
424By Poseidon: The Commissioner aptly swears a mild oath by Poseidon, god of the sea, in response to the chorus’s complaint of being drenched.
468a cup: The Second Old Woman refers to the practice of “cupping” a black eye. Cupping therapy, now classified as a pseudoscience, was and is believed to have positive effects such as pain relief and wrinkle reduction.
485Don’t wait to strip the corpses: In the Iliad, Homeric heroes customarily stripped the armor from the soldiers they had killed.
548War is an affair for men: The Trojan hero Hector utters these words in Homer’s Iliad (6.492).
564–565get some beans / to chew on: Both male and female Athenians chewed beans while doing repetitive tasks.
591a hoopoe: “Hoopoe” refers to the Thracian hero Tereus, who was transformed into a hoopoe after raping his wife Procne’s sister Philomel; see Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.671ff.
636–637the honey cake / for Cerberus: The dead presumably used honey cakes to placate wardens of the underworld, such as Cerberus, in much the same way that visitors to underground shrines used them to placate sacred snakes.
641Charon is calling out your name: Charon, the ferryman of the underworld, is here represented as summoning the “dead” Commissioner to embark and cross the river Styx.
650the third-day offerings at your grave: Counting from either the prosthesis (setting forth of the body for viewing) or burial, offerings were given to the dead on the third, ninth, and thirteenth days and annually thereafter.
656Hippias’s tyranny: Hippias, the last tyrant of Athens, was driven out in 510 BCE.
658Cleisthenes’s house: Frequently mocked as an effeminate in the plays of Aristophanes, Cleisthenes is here accused of being sympathetic to the Spartans as well.
670Aristogeiton’s statue in the market: In 514 BCE two Athenians, Harmodius and Aristogeiton, assassinated Hipparchus, the brother of the tyrant Hippias. They were subsequently regarded as heroes of the democracy, and statues of them were set up in the agora (marketplace) of Athens.
679Weaver of Athena’s Gown: The chorus members cite their service in various female religious roles as evidence of their patriotism. First, at the age of seven, they served as arrhephoroi, weavers of the sacred peplos for the statue of Athena Polias.
681Artemis the Foundress: Second, they served as grain-grinders for the sacred cakes of Artemis the Foundress.
682–683Bear / at Brauron: Third, they served as arktoi, she-bears, in the Brauronia, a festival held every five years, in which girls performed ritual dances dressed as bears.
684–685Basket-Carrier / and wore dried figs around my neck: Finally, when they were of marriageable age, females could serve as kanephoroi (basket-carriers) for the annual Panathenaea festival in Athens. Dried figs are associated with sexuality and fertility.
700“White Feet”: “White Feet” is most likely an honorific address to foot soldiers.
701Leipsydrium: In 514 BCE the family of the Alcmaeonidae and other exiles from Athens fortified the city of Leipsydrium on a slope of Mount Parnes near Athens in a failed attempt to procure their re-enfranchisement in the state; see Herodotus, Histories 5.62.
708Artemisia: Artemisia, queen of Caria, fought on the side of Xerxes and the Persians in the naval battle of Salamis, 480 BCE; see Herodotus, Histories 7.99, 8.87–88.
711–712Micon’s paintings of / the Amazons: Amazons, warrior women, were believed to have invaded the area around the Acropolis in mythic times. In the middle of the fifth century BCE Micon painted an “Amazonomachy” (a battle between Theseus and the Amazons) in the Stoa Poikile to accompany other paintings by his teacher Polygnotus.
723–724like/the beetle. . . “crack”: The Chorus of Old Women alludes here to Fable 3 of Aesop, in which a beetle, in retaliation for a wrong a done to it, breaks an eagle’s eggs. The women are threatening, figuratively, to injure the men’s testicles.
729–730when I was celebrating / Hecate with my friends: Hecate is a popular deity, especially for women. For the eel of Lake Copais as a delicacy, see note above, line 39.
749Pan’s Grotto: This cave is located on the north face of the Acropolis in Athens.
753Orsilochus: In addition to being associated with Aphrodite, the strouthos (sparrow) was a slang term for penis. Although this Orsilochus is unknown, the context suggests he was a gigolo or pimp.
764unscutched: “Scutching” is the process by which impurities are removed from raw material. The Second Woman is referring to separating the straw and stems from flax.
770Queen Eileithyia: Daughter of Zeus and Hera, Eileithyia is the goddess of childbirth, usually sent at Hera’s behest. Giving birth, a ritually impure activity, was not permitted on hallowed ground.
781Sacred Helmet: The cult image of Athena Parthenos wore a helmet that featured a sphinx flanked by two griffons.
879Harden, up from Dickersdale: I have opted to translate the name Cinesias here as “Harden” to distinguish this character from the dithyrambic poet Cinesias who appears in Birds. The scholar Jeffrey Henderson hears a pun on Cinesias (kinein, “to fuck”) and on the deme Paeonides (paiein, “to bang”).
948the Clepsydra: After sex, one could become ritually pure (so as to enter sacred space) by bathing in flowing water. The Clepsydra was a spring on the western side of the Acropolis.
965–967is my dick . . . his dinner now?: In comedy Heracles is often portrayed as a glutton who is being cheated out of a feast.
996Foxhound: “Foxhound” is the nickname of the pimp Philostratus; see Aristophanes’s Knights, 1089.
1033Pellene: The most easterly of the cities of mountainous Achaea, Pellene was on the coastal strip of Arcadia. The Spartan Messenger here talks about the city as if it were a female.
1072the swamps of Tricorysia: Tricorysia was a forested, swampy area on the eastern coast of Attica. One could imagine insects growing to an impressive size there.
1095Carystus: Carystus, an ally, had troops stationed in Athens.
1129mutilate your . . . Herms: Herms were boundary-marking statues featuring a head of Hermes and an erect phallus. In 415 BCE, before the Sicilian expedition departed, Herms were famously “mutilated” (disfigured), allegedly by the aristocrat Alcibiades and his friends.
1175–1176at Olympia / at Pytho, at Thermopylae: Lysistrata refers to several Panhellenic athletic sites in the Greek-speaking world: the Olympian and the Pythian games, and the Pylaea at Thermopylae. Competitors traveled to and participated in these games under the protection of a sacred truce, even during wartime.
1184Pericleidas: In 464 BCE there was a major earthquake in Laconia. The helots, or serf population, there revolted. Pericleidas, a king of the Spartans, came to Athens and asked for assistance in suppressing the uprising. In response to his request, Cimon, an Athenian general, led four thousand Athenian troops to assist the Spartans.
1200–1202Spartans showed up . . . Hippias as well: In 510 BCE Cleomenes the Spartan king led his troops against Hippias, the tyrant of Athens, his supporters, and his Thessalian cavalry and drove them out of the city.
1217Pylos: See notes on “Pylos,” Clouds, line 216, and Lysistrata, line 109.
1221–1223this, er, mound . . . out of Megara: Geography represents anatomy here through double entendre. Echinous refers, on a literal level, to a city in Phthiotis (northern Greece) held by the Spartans since 426 BCE, and the Malian Gulf is the coastline in Phthiotis, in the western Aegean Sea. The scholar Jeffrey Henderson argues that they refer, through double entendre, to pubic hair and the vulva, respectively. both these long legs refers to the long walls connecting the city of Megara to its port Nisaea.
1289–1291singing / the Telamon . . . been singing / Cleitagora: The Telamon and Cleitagora are both skolia, songs written to be sung at banquets. It was considered an important social grace to be able to sing skolia appropriately, but the guests at this banquet are so forgiving as to overlook an erroneous choice.
1306while Spartans under Leonidas fought on land: The Spartan Ambassador sings of the simultaneous battles of Artemisium and Thermopylae in 480 BCE during the Second Persian Invasion. In the naval battle of Artemisium, the Greek fleet, led by the Athenians, defeated the “Medes” (Persians), while Leonidas famously died fighting to defend the pass of Thermopylae along with three hundred other Spartans.
1346Athena a’ the Brazen House: “Athena of the Brazen House” is the citadel-goddess for the Spartans, as Athena Polias is for the Athenians.
1349the Eurotas: The Eurotas is the main river of Laconia. Starting near the border of Laconia and Arcadia, it flows south for fifty-one miles and empties into the Laconian Gulf.
1358Leda’s daughter: Leda’s daughter is Helen of Troy. We should think, here, not of the adulterous wife of Menelaus but rather of the maiden-goddess of Spartan cult who was the patron deity of adolescent females.
Women of the Assembly
5your nostrils: Praxagora compares the lamp, absurdly, to a fire-breathing monster.
20the Scira: The Scira marked the end of the Athenian year in the spring. This festival included a procession involving the priestess of Athena and priest of Poseidon to a place called Skiron near Eleusis. The social order was inverted, and married females were permitted to leave their homes, band together, and revel. The females are here portrayed as having plotted to overthrow the government during the Scira.
25Pyromachus: This Pyromachus apparently referred to the “men of the Assembly” (hetairoi) as hetairai (prostitutes).
71–72stand / all day out in the sun and get a tan: Because they anoint themselves with oil and go out into the sun, males were tan in contrast to cloistered females.
83their Spartan boots: An originally Spartan red and heavy sort of boot that contrasts with feminine “Persian slippers.”
84Lamius’s cane: Lamius is apparently the woman’s husband. His name suggests the Lamia, a mythic monster that Aristophanes in Wasps and Peace includes among examples of foul-smelling things.
87All-Eyes’ goatskin jacket: “All-Eyes” is Argus, the many-eyed shepherd of Io. He wears the goatskin jacket associated with rusticity.
106Phormisius: This Phormisius was famous for his hairiness.
111Pronomus’s beard: Pronomus is a rare name; we know nothing more about this particular Pronomus.
112Agyrrhius: Agyrrhius was a prominent politician at the time of the play. He had gotten a bill passed in the Assembly that raised the pay for serving in the Assembly from one obol to three.
118becalmed and rudderless: Praxagora claims, through this nautical metaphor, that the city of Athens is not moving forward.
139the sacrificial cat: The “purifier” who ritually cleansed the place of the Assembly before a meeting normally sacrificed a young pig, not a cat.
141Ariphrades: This Ariphrades had a reputation, it seems, for garrulousness.
169water kegs: The Second Woman proposes that wine in bars never be watered down. The humor here lies in Athenian women’s alleged preference for strong drink.
170by Demeter and Persephone: In Athens, Demeter and Persephone are “the two gods” invoked in oaths by women.
184Epigonus: The Second Woman here insults a member of the original audience. This is a common practice in the plays of Aristophanes.
204There was a time when we had no Assemblies: Praxagora seems to be referring to the rule of the Thirty (Tyrants), during which an oligarchy governed in Athens (404–403 BCE).
215our late alliance: Praxagora is referring to the first anti-Spartan league, consisting of Thebes, Locris, and Athens.
222a new armada: This is a hypothetical example, for the sake of argument.
224the Corinthians: R. G. Ussher argues that this line refers to Corinthian disenchantment with its membership in the anti-Spartan league (Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae [Bristol Classical Press, 1973]).
226–227Argives are dunces / and Hieronymus a mastermind: It is not known to what historical event Praxagora is referring here, though her purpose is to show the fickleness of Athenian policy-making. The implication is that the “Argives are dunces” because they opposed the peace.
229Thrasybulus: In 404–403 BCE Thrasybulus led a group of exiles against the Spartan garrison and the Thirty Tyrants in Athens and successfully restored democracy. In the fourth century BCE he worked to restore Athens to imperial power.
235Aesimus: Aristophanes wants to use this Aesimus, it seems, as an example of an unsteady character.
253the Thesmophoria: A fertility festival held in the spring in honor of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. It was exclusively celebrated by women, and men were forbidden to witness or hear about the rites involved.
278the Pnyx: The Pnyx is a hill in central Athens. It had been the site for Assemblies since 507 BCE. Praxagora and her husband were most likely displaced during the rule of the Thirty (404–403 BCE).
284Cephalus: This Cephalus was, as well as being a potter, a distinguished orator and advocate for democracy.
292Neocleides: This Neocleides, an orator and informer, is here mocked for a physical defect, a common practice in Aristophanes.
332garlic pickles for his morning meal: Dining on garlic is associated with rural Athenians in comedy.
333three obols: In classical Athens, obols were made of silver, and six of them equaled a drachma. All male citizens could attend the Assembly. Originally they were unpaid, then paid an obol. Agyrrhius had recently raised the payment to three obols, and since then a large crowd jostled for entry each morning.
334Smicythus, Draces, Charitimides: The chorus addresses three of its members with common men’s names.
377Cinesias the poet: See note on “Cinesias,” Birds, line 1400.
405–406the same pear . . . introduced to the Spartans: It is unclear to what this line refers. Thrasybulus may have claimed an indisposition brought about by pears to avoid speaking in the Assembly. He may also have referred to some “blockade” against Spartans.
421Goddess of Childbirth: The daughter of Zeus and Hera, Eileithyia is the goddess who presides over childbirth. Blepyrus prays to her to relieve him of his “burden.”
448–449Antilochus, sing . . . All I had is lost: Blepyrus here quotes from the tragedian Aeschylus’s play Myrmidons, though he substitutes “three obols” for the “dead Patroclus.”
465Euaeon: Euaeon, a son of the tragedian Aeschylus, allegedly a poor speaker at the Assembly.
470four staters’ worth: Four staters equals sixteen drachmas, a substantial sum.
485Nausicydes: This Nausicydes made his fortune as a dealer in grain and flour.
487the little Nicias: Likely the grandson of the general Nicias who led the Sicilian expedition (415–413 BCE).
664“mine new veins of silver”: This metaphor from mining means to “make innovations.” The Athenian silver mines in Laurium had reopened in the early fourth century BCE after having been seized by the Spartans and shut down during the Peloponnesian War.
666–667The guiding principles in Athens . . . all that is traditional: Blepyrus is voicing the conservative’s view of Athenian politics.
714Lysicrates’s nose: This Lysicrates apparently has a malformed nose. He dyes his hair as well; see note below, line 819.
729Leucolophas and Epicurus: We know nothing of these two men; the context suggests they are repulsive.
731Aristyllus: Aristophanes elsewhere mocks Aristyllus as a coprophile.
732You’d reek of mint if he came up and kissed you: This line contains a pun on mint and minthos (human feces) that is impossible to translate.
760I’ll make them into dining rooms . . . podiums: The word translated as “dining rooms” is andrones, which originally referred to dining halls exclusive to males. the podiums: Blepyrus is referring to the platforms in the law courts on which the litigants were seated.
819Lysicrates’s hair: The pot, made black from work in the kitchen, is compared to the dyed hair of a certain Lysicrates.
841Hieron the auctioneer: Nothing is known about this Hieron.
901Antisthenes: This Antisthenes apparently suffered from chronic constipation.
904–905Callimachus / the chorus master: The point here seems to be that this Callimachus was a poor man, in contrast to the affluent Callias.
906Callias: Dissolute and preyed on by parasites, Callias had reduced his fortune from two hundred talents to two.
910–911the mandate that they passed / regarding salt: Salt was imported to Athens from Megara. The decree mentioned here, it seems, was intended to bring the price down.
912we voted out those copper coins: There was a shortage of silver in Athens when the Spartans, on the advice of Alcibiades, captured the silver mines at Laurium. They were eventually reopened in the fourth century BCE.
921Heurippides: This Heurippides had apparently gotten a tax passed in the Assembly that took 2.5 percent to raise five hundred talents. Subsequently, it seems, this tax proved unpopular.
944Smoeus: This Smoeus, about whom nothing more is known, seems to have had a predilection for cunnilingus.
945Geron: Geron, about whom nothing specific is known, seems to have, in old age, acted like a young man.
986–987Muses, come / into my lips: The First Old Woman here parodies the invocation of a formal kletic hymn, or hymn to summon a deity.
988risqué Ionian tune: Greek-colonial Ionia in Asia Minor evoked luxury and wantonness.
1025the Ionian tool: Athens imported dildos from Miletus in Ionia; see note on “those five-inch dildos,” Lysistrata, line 115.
1029–1030the way that all / the Methymnan women do: The women of Lesbos had a reputation in antiquity not for lesbianism but for fellatio. To avoid confusion, I have translated “Lesbians” (people of Lesbos) with the adjective for the largest city on Lesbos: Methymnus.
1059Charixena’s hour: A musician and writer of erotica, Charixena is a legendary figure like Coesyra (see Clouds, line 57). The implication of this sentence seems to be “times have changed.”
1111Right now we’re trying cases under twenty: Epigenes uses the language of the (infamously slow) law courts to try to defer his sexual obligation. He means “sixty” and “twenty” as ages, but the joke is that legal cases were determined to be more or less serious based on the amount of money involved.
1149Procrustes: Procrustes, a sadistic highwayman of Eleusis, stretched his victims out to the full length of a bed.
1152–1153to transact / business of greater value than a bushel: This law had previously applied to women. Praxagora has turned the tables.
1155a businessman’s exemption: Epigenes hopes to be exempt from his sexual obligations in the same way that merchants were exempt from military service.
1158the strength of Diomedes: This is a proverbial phrase expressing ultimate compulsion.
1161–1163Drape the bed . . . a water jug: Epigenes compares the First Old Woman’s bed to a funeral bier. Marjoram was customarily spread out under the body, and the “four boughs” would eventually serve for its immolation. The ribbons would adorn the body, the flasks were for oil, and the water jug was for visitors to purify themselves upon leaving the house.
1175Oedipuses: Oedipus, in addition to killing his father Laius, engenders children on his mother Jocasta.
1190Empusa: An Empusa is a lustful female monster, an aspect of the goddess Hecate. Redness (from the blister) is associated with this sort of monster; see Aristophanes’s Frogs 293.
1205Great Heracles! Great Pan! O Corybantes!: On seeing the Third Old Woman, Epigenes invokes the hero Heracles, who fought monsters; Pan, who excites panic; and the Corybantes, who are ecstatic worshippers of Cybele.
1206O Dioscuri!: The Dioscuri are Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Leda and Zeus.
1227Cannonus’s decree: This decree insists that “all who harm the Athenian people be bound and face the charge in court” (Xenophon, Hellenica 1.7).
1232potent bulbs: These bulbs, identified as Muscari comosum, were regarded as an aphrodisiac.
1301–1303Let the wiser ones remember . . . vote for me: These lines are addressed to the judges of the dramatic competition. Five of their verdicts were chosen at random to decide the victorious production. Whether for humor or because the judges were actually susceptible to bias, Aristophanes here encourages them to favor his play.