[2] The Corybantes, priests of Cybelé, comported themselves like madmen in the celebration of their mysteries and made the air resound with the the noise of their drums.
[3] Cleonymus had shown himself equally cowardly on all occasions; he is frequently referred to by Aristophanes, both in this and other comedies.
[4] The cloak and the staff were the insignia of the dicasts; the poet describes them as sheep, because they were Cleon's servile tools.
[5] An allusion to Cleon, who was a tanner.
[6] In Greek, [Greek: d_emos] ([Greek: d_emós], fat; [Greek: d_êmos], people) means both fat and people.
[7] A tool of Cleon's; he had been sent on an embassy to Persia (vide 'The Acharnians'). The crow is a thief and rapacious, just as Theorus was.
[8] In his life of Alcibiades, Plutarch mentions this defect in his speech; or it may have been a 'fine gentleman' affectation.
[9] Among the Greeks, going to the crows was equivalent to our going to the devil.
[10] No doubt the fee generally given to the street diviners who were wont to interpret dreams.
[11] Coarse buffoonery was welcomed at Megara, where, by the by, it is said that Comedy had its birth.