P. 31, l. 338, Roasting pig.]—Pigs were sacrificed before the Mysteries. Cf. Peace, 374—
"Lend me three drachmas for a sucking pig!
I must be purified before I die."
P. 32, l. 353, The Mere.]—Δίμναι, the district between the three hills—Acropolis, Areopagus, and Pnyx—where the 'Lenaion,' or 'Wine-Press,' and the shrine and precinct of Dionysus have been recently discovered.
P. 32, ll. 354 ff.—The Hierophant's address is apparently a parody of some similar warning off of the impure at the Mysteries before the addresses to Korê (the Maiden), Demêter, and Iacchus. As to the allusions: Cratînus is the celebrated comic poet, precursor and rival of Aristophanes. He was personally a burly and vigorous "Beef-eater," and the word is additionally suitable in this context because the ceremonial eating of an ox's flesh, being sacramentally the flesh of Dionysus, the Mystic Bull of Zeus, was an essential part of the Orphic Mysteries. There were contests with bulls at the Eleusinian also.—Lobeck. Agl. p. 206, note c.
P. 32, l. 363.—Thorycion is unknown except for the allusions in this play.
P. 33, l. 366, A teacher of Choirs.]—He alludes to a ribald anecdote about the poet Kenesias (p. 113).
P. 33, l. 367, Pitiful fines.]—Many laws were passed restricting the licence and the expensiveness of comedy, e.g. by Archînos, Agyrrhius, and Archedêmus.
P. 38, l. 464, Aeacus.]—This character and his speech seem to be parodied from the Peirithous, a tragedy attributed either to Euripides or to Critias
