449. See also Kühner, § 324. 3. In this place it implies a sort of consequence of the preceding statement; as if he intended to say that the vicious tricks of the birds were nothing more than might have been expected from the character of the man who sold them. Translate the whole line, And they accordingly were nothing but biting.

20. κέχηνας, addressed to the jackdaw. — κατὰ τῶν πετρῶν, down the rocks.

22. árраñós, a track, or path; ódós is a road, way, or

street.

28. Ἐς κόρακας ἐλθεῖν. There is a pun upon the double meaning of the phrase, which is commonly used as a jocose imprecation, Go to the crows, but here alludes also to the intention of the two old men to visit the city of the birds.

29. "Enelта. For the use of this particle in questions of astonishment, see Kühner, § 344. 5 (e).

30. άνδρες . . . . λόγῳ. The expression is said to be borrowed from debates in the political assemblies; but it was as well applied to listeners to any discussion whatever, and is here familiarly transferred to the spectators of the comic representation.

31. Nóσov voσoûμev. The common Greek construction of intransitive verbs taking an accusative of nouns with similar signification. - Ɛaką. A common name for slaves and servants of barbarian origin, particularly Thracians; here applied to a tragic poet named Akestor, on account of his being a foreigner. In the Cyropædia it is the name of the cupbearer of King Astyages.

32. eioßiágerai, is forcing himself in; i. e. is constantly trying to thrust himself into the number of legal citizens. For an account of the care with which the rights and privileges of citizenship were guarded at Athens, see, besides other works, Smyth's Dict. Gr. and Rom. Antiq., art. Civitas.

33. puλ kai yével. For the political meaning of these φυλῇ terms, see Hermann's Political Antiquities.

34. σoßoÛVTOS. This participle applies particularly to the scaring away of birds, though used metaphorically to express the act of frightening off, in general. 'AvεTTóμeσða, in the following line, is also used in a similar way; and ảμpoîv Todo is a comic inconsistency with the previous expression. He could say, using language metaphorically, We flew away from the country, but instead of adding with both wings, he was obliged to substitute with both feet, they having not yet been accommodated with the wings.

36. ékeivηv, emphatically, "that great city."

37. nov. For the use of this double negative, "when où or another word which may be considered a negative occurs in a preceding clause, see K. § 318. 10; also Matthiæ, 543, who supplies, to complete the sense, some such word as voμišov, not hating that city, as considering it not to be great and happy.

38. Καὶ .... ἐναποτῖσαι, And common to all to pay away their money in; i. e. to waste money in lawsuits, which is the more specific meaning of drотíve. The poet ingeniously and wittily combines in the ridicule of this line one of the great boasts of the Athenians, namely, the liberality with which the city's resources for instruction and amusement were opened to all comers (for a particular detail of which see the oration of Pericles in Thucydides, Lib. II., and the Panegyricus of Isocrates, pp. 15, 16, and notes, pp. 78, 79, Felton's edition), and the notorious love of litigation for which the Athenians were so often reproached, and which Aristophanes exposed with infinite spirit and drollery in the "Wasps."

39. τέττιγες. The chirping of the cicadæ or τέττιγες is a subject of frequent allusion in the Greek poets, from Homer down. See Iliad, III. 151, and note upon the passage.

For a description of the insect, and the ancient, though erroneous, idea of its habits, see Aristotle, Hist. An., Lib. IV. 7. 7. Particularly, he speaks of it as living on dew, -r 8póδρόσ Tρépera, and in this is followed by Anacreon, Od. 43. σῳ τρέφεται, See also the note of Strack, pp. 182 and 183 of his German translation of Aristotle. The manner in which the sound called singing by Aristotle and the poets is produced, is explained Lib. IV. c. 9. Swammerdam has the following statement: "Cicada duobus gaudet exiguis tympanis peculiaribus, nostro auris tympano similibus, quæ duarum ope cartilaginum lunatarum percussa, aerem ita vibrant ut sonitus inde reddatur," Bibl. Nat., p. 504. Cited by Camus,

Vol. II. p. 230.

66

40. 'Enì Tâν крadov adovσt. Aristotle, Lib. V. 30, says of the cicadæ, “ οὐ γίνονται δὲ τέττιγες ὅπου μὴ δένδρα ἐστίν ” ; he adds, "There are none in the plain of Cyrene, but there are many round the city, and chiefly where there are olivetrees."

41.

τῶν δικῶν. See note to line 38.

44. ȧñрáyμova, free from trouble, particularly vexatious lawsuits.

45. καθιδρυθέντε διαγενοίμεθα. For the construction of the participle, see Kühner, $310. Here the participle and the verb are in the aorist, and both, in themselves, express the several acts as completed. See also Mtt. §§ 567, 568. Dawes proposed the present diayıvoiμela; but when we consider that the idea of the verb may be conceived either as continuous or as completed, there seems no necessity for any change, unless upon the authority of some good manuscript.

46, 47. TÒV. ... Tóv. The repetition of the article, before both the name and the further designation, emphasizes them, the Tereus; that ancient Tereus, well known to the Athenian people, who was changed into the Epops.

48., used adverbially, where he has flown; i. e. if he has ever seen such a city in all his travels.

49, 50. πάλαι . Ppáče. By a common idiom, the present is used with an adverb of the past to mean has been doing and is still doing; here, has been this long time talking up.

51. ȧσπepeì deikvús, as if he were showing.

52. Kouk.... ok. The combination of particles intensifies the expression, There is not how there are not ; i. e. It must be that there are.

53. Tonowμev. Observe the force of the aorist in the subjunctive to express a single act. The present here would imply a repetition.

54.

66

οἶσθ ̓ ὃ δρᾶσον. For a full and accurate explanation of this idiom, see Mt. § 511. 4. It occurs frequently in the Attic writers, especially the tragic poets. See Soph. Ed. Tyr., 543; Eurip. Med., 605, &c. "The phrase," says Matthiæ, seems to have arisen from a transposition." Here, for instance, Apâoov oloe' %; Do it, · dost know what? The third person of the imperative is also used in the same way. See the same expression, v. 80. — σkédel .... Térраv. The Scholiast, cited by Bothe, says there was a proverbial expression among the boys, Δὸς τὸ σκέλος τῇ πέτρᾳ καὶ πεσοῦνται τὰ ὄρνεα, Give your leg to the rock and the birds will fall; not unlike the modern notion of catching birds by sprinkling salt on their tails.

57. Tí OUTOS; What do you say, fellow? παῖ, the common form of addressing a servant, and therefore considered as disrespectful to Epops.

58. ἐχρῆν.... καλεῖν. The impersonal verb being in the past transfers the whole expression to the past, although the infinitive is present, therefore implying, perhaps, repeated calling.

61. Tоû xаoμýμaros, what a yawn! For genitive of exclamation, see K. § 274. c. Comp. also Clouds, v. 153, and note to the passage.

....

66

63. Οὕτως . . . . λέγειν ; Bothe punctuates the line without the interrogation, — Οὐδὲ κάλλιόν ἐστι λέγειν τι οὕτω δεινόν, Aliquid tam terribile ne nominare quidem decet; “”T were better not even to mention so terrible a thing." But the position of the words and the natural construction of dé in oudé conflicts with the interpretation. Several other explanations are given. The Scholiast says, « Ούτωσί τι δεινὸν οὐδὲ κάλλιον λέγειν, τουτέστιν, οὕτω δεινὸν ἔχομεν ἐκ τῆς ὄψεως, ὥστε ὀρνιθοθῆραι νομίζεσθαι. Οὐδὲ λέγειν σε τοῦτό ἐστι κάλλιον, Öτi éσμèv ỏρvonpai"; i. e. We have something so fearful in our look as to be thought bird-hunters; but it is not very handsome for you to say that we are bird-hunters. Taking the present punctuation, which is upon the whole more suitable to the connection, we must refer the words to the alarm manifested and expressed by the Trochilos, and we may translate, interrogatively, Is there any thing so dreadful (i. e. in our appearance) and not handsomer to say? i. e. Are we so frightful that you have nothing better to say to us than that?

65. 'YTоdediós. A fictitious name for a bird; further designated as a strange fowl by the following epithet, Aβυκόν.

....

66

66

quæ

66. Ovdèv λéyels, You say nothing to the purpose. You talk nonsense. For this sense of the phrase, see Clouds, v. 644. − ἐροῦ . . . . ποδῶν. Roga illa vides in cruribus meis, quæ testabuntur me esse avem timidam." Bergler. The Λέγει δὲ ὡς ὑπὸ τοῦ δέους ἐναφεικώς.” 68. 'ETTIKEɣodás. Another name, similarly formed. "Kai τοῦτο ὡς ὄρνιθος ἔπαιξε παρὰ τὸ φαίνεσθαι αὐτοῦ τὸ σκῶρ.” Sch. "Qui insuper etiam cacavit præ timore, ut prior ille." Bergler.

Scholiast says,

69. ú. Euelpides turns upon the bird. σú is emphatic, but you.

70, 71. Ηττήθης . . . . ̓Αλεκτρυόνος; It is stated by Voss,