[254] Meaning, "We are your oracles."—Dodona was an oracle in Epirus.—The temple of Zeus there was surrounded by a dense forest, all the trees of which were endowed with the gift of prophecy; both the sacred oaks and the pigeons that lived in them answered the questions of those who came to consult the oracle in pure Greek.
[255] The Greek word for omen is the same as that for bird—[Greek: ornis].
[256] A satire on the passion of the Greeks for seeing an omen in everything.
[257] An imitation of the nightingale's song.
[258] God of the groves and wilds.
[259] The 'Mother of the Gods'; roaming the mountains, she held dances, always attended by Pan and his accompanying rout of Fauns and Satyrs.
[260] An allusion to cock-fighting; the birds are armed with brazen spurs.
[261] An allusion to the spots on this bird, which resemble the scars left by a branding iron.
[262] He was of Asiatic origin, but wished to pass for an Athenian.
[263] Or Philamnon, King of Thrace; the Scholiast remarks that the Phrygians and the Thracians had a common origin.