VESPE

Olymp. 89. 2. In Lenæis.

v. 139. Iπvos is not the kitchen (as the Scholiast would have it) but the stove for heating the bath. IIveλos is the labrum, or bathing-tub. Tpnua, the hole in it at the bottom to let out the water. Καπνη, the funnel, or vent for the smoke. Tηia, a cap or cover

to close the vent.

157. Read, Δικασοντα με.

158. 'O γαρ Θεος, &c. It seems to be the old man who says this, not his son; and Bdelycleon answers; Απολλον αποτροπαιε, &c.

240. Ως εσται Λαχητι νυνι (i.e. δικη.) &c. Laches, who had been recalled from his command in Sicily two years before this, Ol. 88. 3 (Thucyd. L. 3. c. 115.) seems to have been accused this year by Cleon and his party.

287. Ανηρ παχυς ἥκει των προδοντων Τἀπὶ Θρακης, &c. Without doubt this relates to Thucydides, who was Erparnyos in Thrace, and condemned to banishment this very year, for his treachery or neglect in the loss of Amphipolis.

322. AλX' w Zeû, &c. This is undoubtedly a parody of some tragick chorus, perhaps of Eschylus or of Euripides, though the Scholiast is silent.

388. N Avke, &c. The fane of Lycus adjoining to

all courts of justice, fenced in, and covered at the top with mats.

415. Tavra SηT' ov deiva, &c. This should be spoken by the chorus.

576. When boys underwent the Aokiμaσia, their puberty was publickly examined (as it seems) in the court of Helixa.

598. Τἀμβαδι ἡμων περικωνει. The manner of blacking shoes (as it seems) was with a sponge and tar.

606. The custom of washing and anointing their feet, as soon as they came home, which was in poorer families the office of the daughters.

655. The publick revenue of Athens comprehending the contributions of the allied cities (which may be set at six hundred talents yearly, as Thucydides observes, L. 2. c. 13.); the tolls and customs from the markets, and ports, and mines; the Prytanea, or sums deposited by such as had suits in any court (v. Nubes, v. 1134, and 1193, and Kuster ad v. 1182.); and the confiscations, &c., here computed at two thousand talents per annum (£387,500), out of which one hundred and fifty talents were expended on the six thousand AikaσTaɩ kept in pay (see Isocrates de Pace, 185.) at three oboli a-day, which in ten months (for the rest of the year consisted in holidays, during which the courts did not sit) amounted to that sum. Qu. what are the Εκατοσται, and Μισθοι mentioned as branches of the revenue here? (v. Xenoph. de Athen. Republ. 404.)

688. To onerov, the sign given to enter the court, and take their places (v. Thesmoph. v. 285.); mentioned

also by Andocides de Mysteriis; το σημειον καθελη, p. 6.-The Evvηyopoɩ, or orators, received a drachma in each cause (as it seems) from the publick.

700. Ωσπερ αλευρον. The metaphor seems to be taken from some weakly young animal brought up by the hand, by distilling milk or pap into its mouth, gradually through a lock of wool. The Scholiast on v. 700 comes nearer the true meaning, than on v. 699. 705. A thousand cities paid tribute to the Athenians at this time. Genuine citizens were now above twenty thousand.

716. In the Schol. on this verse for 'Inπapуov read Ioapɣov: but I do not find any revolt in Euboea till eleven years afterwards; nor can there be any allusion here to the distribution of corn under Lysimachides, which took place twenty-three years before.

787. The obolus, a silver coin. money in the mouth. (Aves, 503.)

Custom of putting

800. Ωσπερ Εκαταιον. A little chapel or tabernacle of Hecate was erected before every man's door. (Ranæ, 369.)

840. Χοιροκομειον Εστιας. Libations and prayers were always begun to Vesta. (v. Aves, v. 865, and Plato's Cratylus, p. 401.)

870. Apollo Ayvievs was represented by a small obelisk before the doors of houses. (v. Thesmoph. 485.)

909. It is Bdelycleon who sustains the part of the Thesmothetes. The servant speaks for the accuser. From Ὁ βδελυρος οὗτος ου μετεδωκ' αιτοῦντι μοι, are his words in the character of the Cydathenæan dog, who represents a sycophant informer, who prosecutes

Labes (the dog defendant) because he would not give him a share of the Sicilian cheese which he had stolen. Tw Koivш yeμoι, I suppose means, the dog of the publick; or this last line may be spoken by the judge himself, who represents the people, and is angry, that he had no part in the spoil. In the Scholia, for Xapητа read Λαχητα.

930. Αυτος καθελου—as far as ουδεπω, ν. 934, is said by Bdelycleon; and Philocleon adds, (as the Scholiast also reads) Tovrov de y' o' eyw, &c., meaning the defendant.

954. Eyw Seẞovλoμnv av, &c., seems obscure, nor do I perceive who says this. Akovσov w dayμovie, v. 956. belongs to Bdelycleon, who from Thesmothetes turns advocate for Labes.

981. Τηνδι λαβων, &c. The account in the Scholiast of the manner of voting, is to me unintelligible; and Florens Christianus (who does little more than translate the Scholia) is as much so. It seems that the calculi put into the ύστερος καδίσκος acquitted the prisoner. The matter is better explained in the Schol. on v. 985.

1014. Eurycles, an eyyaσтpiμvlos or ventriloquist, and prophet at Athens. Εις αλλότριας γαστερας, Ι imagine, means fetching his voice out of another person's belly; for persons, who have this faculty, often seem to do so.

:

1025. Aristophanes-how he demolished Cleon in his Equites his Nubes, written against the school of Socrates, exploded : he reckons it his best piece: ancient Scholia, sung after meals, on Harmodius: the beginning

of another by Alcæus: Adμητov Xoyos: the Paræria of Praxilla: Æsophic and Sybaritic tales.

1037. The office of the Polemarch. See the Schol.

on this verse.

1052. The custom of putting apples (qu. whether the citron fruit?) among chests of clothes.

1221. This is the beginning of the Scholion on Harmodius and Aristogēïton, to which Philocleon answers, as continuing the song, Ouк ouтw Tavoûрyos, &c., meaning Cleon, whom Bdelycleon personates. Observe the way of singing successively (see Nubes, v. 1367), and continuing the same Scholion, giving a myrtle branch from one to another.

1275. Euri Tives oi, &c. This obscure antistrophe relates to some transaction between Cleon and the poet, of which we know little.

1300. Didymus and others take these lines for

nonsense.

1408. I know not why this character is called Euripides it seems a mistake.

1418. Example of a Sybaritic tale.

1481. Besides Phrynichus, son of Melanthus the tragick poet, (who must have been dead fifty years at least before this) and Phrynichus, the comick son of Polyphradmon (or Eunomides, see Ranæ, v. 13.) and contemporary with Aristophanes, there was a third Phrynichus, a famed actor of tragedy mentioned here in the Scholion on v. 1293, and by Andocides de Mysteriis, p. 7, as a relation of his own. (See also Aves, Schol. on 750.)

1491. Carcinus, the son of Thorycias, had three