[220]. Some mound dedicated to the Gods, with one or more altars and statues of the Gods on it, is on the stage, and the suppliants are told to take up their places there. The Gods of conflict who are named below, Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, presided generally over the three great games of Greece. Hermes is added to the list.
[221]. Comp. Libation-Pourers, 1024, Eumen. 44.
[222]. The Argives are supposed to share the love of brevity which we commonly connect with their neighbours the Laconians.
[223]. The “mighty bird of Zeus” seems here, from the answer of the Chorus, to mean not the “eagle” but the “sun,” which roused men from their sleep as the cock did, so that “cockcrow” and “sunrise” were synonymous. It is, in any case, striking that Zeus, rather than Apollo, appears as the Sun-God.
[224]. The words refer to the myth of Apollo's banishment from heaven and servitude under Admetos.
[225]. In the Acropolis at Athens the impress of a trident was seen on the rock, and was believed to commemorate the time when Poseidon had claimed it as his own by setting up his weapon there. Something of the same kind seems here to be supposed to exist at Argos, where a like legend prevailed.
[226]. The Hellenic Hermes is distinguished from his Egyptian counterpart, Thoth, as being different in form and accessories.
[227]. A possible reference to the Egyptian Osiris, as lord or judge of Hades. Comp. v. 145.
[228]. “Shall I,” the Chorus asks, “speak to you as a private citizen, or as a herald, or as a king?”
[229]. It would appear from this that the king himself bore the name Pelasgos. In some versions of the story he is so designated.