The phrase ὁ ἔρανος ὁ λεγόμενος παππῷος (the so-called 'grandfather's fund') refers to a specific, historically attested levy. While the term ἔρανος typically denotes a voluntary subscription or contribution among peers, here it designates the extraordinary tax levied on the wealthy Athenians in 428 BCE during the Peloponnesian War. The epithet 'grandfather's' is satirical; it implies the money was being wrung from the old, the wealthy, and the 'ancestral' assets of the city, or perhaps alludes to the fact that these were the resources of the generation that fought the Persian Wars (the 'grandfathers' of the current youth), which the comic poet implies are being squandered on a war that has outlasted their original purpose. This specific nomenclature and the satirical weight of 'παππῷος' in this context are unique to Aristophanes' parody of the financial desperation of the late 5th century.