Page:Frogs (Murray 1912).djvu/126

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118
ARISTOPHANES

P. 48, l. 621, No scourges made of leeks or young shalott.]—Why should any one imagine scourges made of such things? Because such things were used for certain ceremonial scourgings; for instance, Pan's statues were whipped with squills (Theoc. vii. 106), the scapegoats (pharmakoi) in Ionia with fig-twigs and squills (Hippônax, fr. 4-8), the disgraceful boor in Lucian (Against the Boor, 3; cf. Fugit, 33, and Vera Hist., ii. 26) with mallow.

P. 49, l. 628, An illegal act, being immortal.]—A parody of the law. It was illegal to torture a citizen.

P. 49, l. 634, He won't feel it.]—There appears to be some inconsistency about this very funny scene. Dionysus does seem to feel it as much as Xanthias.

P. 51, l. 651, Diomêan Feast.]—Held in honour of Heracles (whom Xanthias is personating) at the deme Diomeia every four years.

P. 52, l. 661, Hippônax.]—An earlier writer of satire. The next quotation is said to be from the Laocoon of Sophocles.

P. 53, l. 679, Cleophon.]—The well-known bellicose and incorruptible demagogue, who opposed peace in 410 (after the victory of Cyzicus), in 406 (after the victory of Arginusae), and in 405 (after the disaster of Aegospotami). Cleophon is said to have come drunk into the Agora and vowed that "he would cut off the head of any one who mentioned the word 'peace.'" He was shortly afterwards either assassinated or judicially murdered by the Moderates and Oligarchs. The point of these intentionally obscure and nonsensical lines seems to be: (1) that Cleophon talked bad Attic,