[760] A word invented to imitate the sound of a lyre.
[761] The Cyclops let his flocks graze while he played the lyre; it was thus that Philoxenus had represented him in a piece to which Aristophanes is here alluding.—Cario assumes the part of the Cyclops and leaves that of the flock to the Chorus.
[762] In allusion to Ulysses' adventures in the cave of Polyphemus.
[763] Laïs.
[764] i.e. Cario, who is assuming the rôle of Circé of Corinth.
[765] This was the torture which Odysseus inflicted on Melanthius, one of the goatherds.
[766] A poet of debauched and degraded life, one of those who, like Ariphrades mentioned in 'The Knights,' "defiled his tongue with abominable sensualities," that is to say, was a fellator and a cunnilingue.
[767] It is uncertain whether Pamphilus, a tragedian, is meant here, who, like Euripides and Aeschylus, made the Heraclidae the subject of a tragedy, or the painter of that name, so celebrated in later times, who painted that subject in the Poecilé Stoa.
[768] Physicians at Athens were paid very indifferently, and hence the most skilled sought their practice in other cities.
[769] The Temple of Aesculapius stood on the way from the theatre to the citadel and near the tomb of Talos. A large number of invalids were taken there to pass a night; it was believed that the god visited them without being seen himself, because of the darkness, and arranged for their restoration to health.