[475] An individual apparently noted for his uncouth ugliness.
[476] The beet and the decoctions are intended to indicate the insipidity of Euripides' style.
[477] An intimate friend of Euripides, who is said to have worked with him on his Tragedies, to have been 'ghost' to him in fact.
[478] An allusion to Euripides' obscure birth; his mother had been, so it was said, a vegetable-seller in the public market.
[479] Euripides had introduced every variety of character into his pieces, whereas Aeschylus only staged divinities or heroes.
[480] There are two Cycni, one, the son of Ares, was killed by Heracles according to the testimony of Hesiod in his description of the "Shield of Heracles"; the other, the son of Posidon, who, according to Pindar, perished under the blows of Achilles. It is not known in which Tragedy of Aeschylus this character was introduced.
[481] Memnon, the son of Aurora, was killed by Achilles; in the list of the Tragedies of Aeschylus there is one entitled 'Memnon.'
[482] These two were not poets, but Euripides supposes them disciples of Aeschylus, because of their rude and antiquated manners.
[483] Clitophon and Theramenes were elegants of effeminate habits and adept talkers.
[484] A proverb which was applied to versatile people; the two Greek names [Greek: Chios] and [Greek: Keios] might easily be mistaken for one another. Both, of course, are islands of the Cyclades.