P. 68, l. 911, Sole veiled figures.]—In the extant plays the silent Prometheus and the silent Cassandra are wonderfully impressive. Achilles (in the Phrygians) and Niobe (in the Niobe) seem to have been 'discovered' sitting silent at the opening of the play. The Adrastus of Euripides' Suppliants (v. 104 ff.) is exactly similar; the silences of Heracles (Her. v. 1214) and Hecuba (Hec. v. 485), in the plays that bear their names, are different.
P. 70, l. 931, A question comes in night's long hours.]—From Hippolytus, v. 375. A hippalector (horse-cock, a kind of flying horse with a bird's tail) was mentioned in the Myrmidons of Aeschylus; both the adjective (translated "russet," but perhaps meaning "shrill") and the noun were obscure, and the phrase is often joked upon; e.g. Birds, 805, of the basket-seller Dieitrephes, who, from being nobody
"Rose on wicker wings to captain, colonel, cavalry inspector,
Till he holds the world in tow and ranks as russet hippalector,"
—where "scarlet" or "screaming" would suit better.
P. 70, l. 934, Eryxis.]—Unknown. The next line is considered spurious by some critics, as being inconsistent with Euripides' general argument.
P. 70, l. 937.—A "tragelaph," "goat-stag," was a name for the figures of antelopes, with large saw-like horns, found on Oriental tapestry.
P. 70, l. 941, Treatment for such distension . . . fed it up on solos.]—This account is generally true. Euripides, as an artist, first rationalised and clarified
