[333] The Greek word used here was the word of command employed to stop the rowers.
[334] Cinesias makes a bound each time that Pisthetaerus struck him.
[335] The tribes of Athens, or rather the rich citizens belonging to them, were wont on feast-days to give representations of dithyrambic choruses as well as of tragedies and comedies.
[336] Another dithyrambic poet, a man of extreme leanness.
[337] A parody of a hemistich from 'Alcaeus.'—The informer is dissatisfied at only seeing birds of sombre plumage and poor appearance. He would have preferred to denounce the rich.
[338] The informer, says the Scholiast, was clothed with a ragged cloak, the tatters of which hung down like wings, in fact, a cloak that could not protect him from the cold and must have made him long for the swallows' return, i.e. the spring.
[339] A town in Achaia, where woollen cloaks were made.
[340] His trade was to accuse the rich citizens of the subject islands, and drag them before the Athenian courts; he explains later the special advantages of this branch of the informer's business.
[341] That is, whips—Corcyra being famous for these articles.
[342] Cleonymus is a standing butt of Aristophanes' wit, both as an informer and a notorious poltroon.