P. 22 Chorus: this title is applied, throughout the plays, to lines which may be spoken either chorally or by a leader or other individual speakers.
P. 32 Aias is the Greek form of the name more familiar as Ajax, and is associated here with ‘Aiai’ as a cry of woe. What we should perhaps call a pun could have for the Greeks a more solemn or superstitious significance, implying that the name had some kind of necessary connexion with the fate of its owner. Something of the same kind occurs below with reference to the name of the child, Eurysaces (Broad-shield).
P. 41 Cyllene: a mountain in Arcadia, the birthplace of Hermes and of Pan, his son.
Nysian: the name Nysa was given to various places in Greece, Asia Minor, Africa, and Arabia, and is connected with the name and cult of Dionysus. An alternative reading ‘Mysian’ is also found.
Cnosian: of Cnosus (Knossos) in Crete.
P. 45 The death of Ajax is of course assumed to take place in a secluded spot at some distance from the camp. The Greek theatre may have had some means of indicating a change of scene; but the difficulty of dispensing with it is not as great as it used to appear to commentators whose imagination was limited to the convention of ‘realistic’ theatre. On the modern stage a short interval and slight change of setting would be possible but by no means essential.