Page:Frogs (Murray 1912).djvu/140

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132
ARISTOPHANES

Meleager, but not (according to the Scholiast) the first words. It went on: "Left one due deed undone, Praising not Artemis."

P. 91, l. 1244, Great Zeus in heaven, &c.—Opening of Melanippe the Wise. It went on: "Was sire to Hellen," and therefore did not really admit the ληκύθιον tag.

P. 91, l. 1247, As bunged up as your eyes.]—There are various allusions to Euripides' bodily infirmities in his extreme old age.

Pp. 92 ff., ll. 1264 ff.—Aristophanes parodying Aeschylus is not nearly as brilliant and funny as when parodying Euripides. The lines here are all actual lines of Aeschylus: a refrain is made of a line which is good sense when first used, but easily relapses into gibberish. The plays quoted are, in order, the Myrmidons, Raisers of the Dead, Telephus (?), Priestesses, Agamemnon (v. 104); then, for the cithara songs, Agamemnon (v. 109), Sphinx, Agamemnon (v. 111), Sphinx (?), Thracian Women.

P. 94, l. 1294, War towards Aias.]—Obscure and perhaps corrupt.

P. 94, l. 1296, Was it from Marathon, &c.]—"Did you find that sort of stuff growing in the marsh of Marathon when you fought there?" Aeschylus answers: "Never you mind where I got it. It was from a decent place!" The metre of the song, and presumably the music, is Stesichorean.

P. 94, l. 1308, No Lesbian.]—I.e. she is very unlike the simple old Lesbian music of Sappho and Alcaeus; but there is a further allusion to the supposed improprieties of Lesbian women.

P. 94, l. 1309, Ye halcyons, &c.]—This brilliant