[313] So as not to be carried away by the wind when crossing the sea, cranes are popularly supposed to ballast themselves with stones, which they carry in their beaks.
[314] Pisthetaerus modifies the Greek proverbial saying, "To what use cannot hands be put?"
[315] A corps of Athenian cavalry was so named.
[316] Chaos, Night, Tartarus, and Erebus alone existed in the beginning; Eros was born from Night and Erebus, and he wedded Chaos and begot Earth, Air, and Heaven; so runs the fable.
[317] Iris appears from the top of the stage and arrests her flight in mid-career.
[318] Ship, because of her wings, which resemble oars; cap, because she no doubt wore the head-dress (as a messenger of the gods) with which Hermes is generally depicted.
[319] The names of the two sacred galleys which carried Athenian officials on State business.
[320] A buzzard is named in order to raise a laugh, the Greek name [Greek: triorchos] also meaning, etymologically, provided with three testicles, vigorous in love.
[321] Iris' reply is a parody of the tragic style.—'Lycimnius' is, according to the Scholiast, the title of a tragedy by Euripides, which is about a ship that is struck by lightning.
[322] i.e. for a poltroon, like the slaves, most of whom came to Athens from these countries.