Footnotes:
[175] Euelpides is holding a jay and Pisthetaerus a crow; they are the guides who are to lead them to the kingdom of the birds.
[176] A stranger, who wanted to pass as an Athenian, although coming originally from a far-away barbarian country.
[177] A king of Thrace, a son of Ares, who married Procné, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens, whom he had assisted against the Megarians. He violated his sister-in-law, Philomela, and then cut out her tongue; she nevertheless managed to convey to her sister how she had been treated. They both agreed to kill Itys, whom Procné had born to Tereus, and dished up the limbs of his own son to the father; at the end of the meal Philomela appeared and threw the child's head upon the table. Tereus rushed with drawn sword upon the princesses, but all the actors in this terrible scene were metamorphised. Tereus became an Epops (hoopoe), Procné a swallow, Philomela a nightingale, and Itys a goldfinch. According to Anacreon and Apollodorus it was Procné who became the nightingale and Philomela the swallow, and this is the version of the tradition followed by Aristophanes.
[178] An Athenian who had some resemblance to a jay—so says the Scholiast, at any rate.
[179] Literally, to go to the crows, a proverbial expression equivalent to our going to the devil.
[180] They leave Athens because of their hatred of lawsuits and informers; this is the especial failing of the Athenians satirized in 'The Wasps.'
[181] Myrtle boughs were used in sacrifices, and the founding of every colony was started by a sacrifice.
[182] The actors wore masks made to resemble the birds they were supposed to represent.
[183] Fear had had disastrous effects upon Euelpides' internal economy, this his feet evidenced.