This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
110
ARISTOPHANES

forced in self-defence to throw over the generals, and it happened that they had among them the famous orator and "Moderate" politician, Theramenes. He, naturally, led the case for his fellow-trierarchs, and succeeded in showing that the order to see to the shipwrecked men was sent out much too late, after the storm had arisen. A coincidence intensified the general emotion. The Feast of the Apaturia, devoted to family observances and the ties of kindred, chanced to occur at the time of the trial. Whole kindreds were seen in mourning. (It was rumoured afterwards that impostors were hired by the enemies of the generals to go about in black, wailing for imaginary relatives—like Sebînus below (p. 36)—"floating unburied on the waves!") The generals were condemned, and six of them, including Erasînides (p. 88), executed. Theramenes "came off scratchless" (p. 72), except in reputation.

P. 7, l. 48, Cleisthenes.]—Noted for his effeminate good looks. He may or may not have been in command of a ship.

P. 7, l. 53, The Andromeda.]—Molon was a very tall actor who performed in it.

P. 9, l. 64, Seest then the sudden truth.]—From Euripides' Hypsipylê. Acted 411–409.

P. 9, l. 72, For most be dead, &c.]—From Euripides' Oineus.

P. 9, l. 73, Iophon.]—Son of Sophocles. Fifty plays are attributed to him by Suidas, among others a Bacchae or Pentheus, from which we have the fragment: "This I understand, woman though I be; that the more man seeketh to know the Gods' mysteries, the more shall he miss knowledge." He won the