The “definition” does not define but first completes a line of Aristophanes, Frogs 580, whose beginning is given as the “Headword,” and then cites line 585. There is discontinuity in the citation. The speaker of 580 is Xanthias the slave, who has figured out what is on the mind of the god Dionysus, whose cowardly character he knows; line 585 is part of a speech of Dionysus where the god makes ridiculous promises if only Xanthias will save him by assuming his disguise as Heracles. The modal particle ἂν , necessary here with the optative, is omitted in the entry after οὐκ .