second prize in 428, when the Hippolytus obtained the first.
P. 10, l. 83, Agathon.]—The much-praised tragic poet, for whose first victory in B.C. 416 the "Symposium" of Plato's dialogue professes to be held. He left Athens "to feast with peaceful Kings," i.e. with Archelaus of Macedon, in B.C. 407, at the age of forty, immediately after Aristophanes' attack on him in the Gerytades, and before his influence had established itself on Athenian tragedy. He is a butt in the Thesmophoriazusae also.
P. 10, l. 86, Xenocles.]—Son of Carcinus. No critic has a good word for him, though he won the first prize in 415 over Euripides' Troades. He is nicknamed "The Dwarf," "Datis the Mede," and "Pack-o'-tricks" (δωδεκαμήχανος). One line of his seems to be preserved, from the Licymnius—
"O bitter fate, O fortune edged with gold."
P. 10, l. 87, Pythangelus.]—Nothing whatever is known of this man except the shrug of Dionysus' shoulders. And that has carried his name to 2500 years of "immortality"!
P. 11, l. 89, Other pretty fellows.]—Among them would be Plato. Other celebrated men of this time who in their youth tried writing tragedies were Antiphon, Melêtus the accuser of Socrates, Critias the Oligarch, and Theognis his colleague, Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse; later, Crates the philosopher, and perhaps the great Diogenes.
P. 11, l. 100, O holy Ether.]—"I swear by the holy Ether, home of God," from Euripides' Melanippe the Wise.
P. 11, l. 100, Foot of Time.]—The phrase occurs
