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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Birds, by Aristophanes
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Birds
+
+Author: Aristophanes
+
+Posting Date: January 17, 2009 [EBook #3013]
+Release Date: January, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIRDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Derek Davis
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRDS
+
+By Aristophanes
+
+
+(Translator uncredited. Footnotes have been retained because they
+provide the meanings of Greek names, terms and ceremonies and explain
+puns and references otherwise lost in translation. Occasional Greek
+words in the footnotes have not been included. Footnote numbers,
+in brackets, start anew at (1) for each piece of dialogue, and each
+footnote follows immediately the dialogue to which it refers, labeled
+thus: f(1).
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+
+'The Birds' differs markedly from all the other Comedies of Aristophanes
+which have come down to us in subject and general conception. It is
+just an extravaganza pure and simple--a graceful, whimsical theme chosen
+expressly for the sake of the opportunities it afforded of bright,
+amusing dialogue, pleasing lyrical interludes, and charming displays of
+brilliant stage effects and pretty dresses. Unlike other plays of
+the same Author, there is here apparently no serious political MOTIF
+underlying the surface burlesque and buffoonery.
+
+Some critics, it is true, profess to find in it a reference to the
+unfortunate Sicilian Expedition, then in progress, and a prophecy of
+its failure and the political downfall of Alcibiades. But as a matter of
+fact, the whole thing seems rather an attempt on the dramatist's part
+to relieve the overwrought minds of his fellow-citizens, anxious and
+discouraged at the unsatisfactory reports from before Syracuse, by a
+work conceived in a lighter vein than usual and mainly unconnected with
+contemporary realities. The play was produced in the year 414 B.C., just
+when success or failure in Sicily hung in the balance, though already
+the outlook was gloomy, and many circumstances pointed to impending
+disaster. Moreover, the public conscience was still shocked and
+perturbed over the mysterious affair of the mutilation of the Hermae,
+which had occurred immediately before the sailing of the fleet, and
+strongly suspicious of Alcibiades' participation in the outrage. In
+spite of the inherent charm of the subject, the splendid outbursts of
+lyrical poetry in some of the choruses and the beauty of the scenery and
+costumes, 'The Birds' failed to win the first prize. This was acclaimed
+to a play of Aristophanes' rival, Amipsias, the title of which, 'The
+Comastoe,' or 'Revellers,' "seems to imply that the chief interest was
+derived from direct allusions to the outrage above mentioned and to the
+individuals suspected to have been engaged in it."
+
+For this reason, which militated against its immediate success, viz.
+the absence of direct allusion to contemporary politics--there are, of
+course, incidental references here and there to topics and personages
+of the day--the play appeals perhaps more than any other of our Author's
+productions to the modern reader. Sparkling wit, whimsical fancy, poetic
+charm, are of all ages, and can be appreciated as readily by ourselves
+as by an Athenian audience of two thousand years ago, though, of course,
+much is inevitably lost "without the important adjuncts of music,
+scenery, dresses and what we may call 'spectacle' generally, which we
+know in this instance to have been on the most magnificent scale."
+
+The plot is this. Euelpides and Pisthetaerus, two old Athenians,
+disgusted with the litigiousness, wrangling and sycophancy of their
+countrymen, resolve upon quitting Attica. Having heard of the fame of
+Epops (the hoopoe), sometime called Tereus, and now King of the Birds,
+they determine, under the direction of a raven and a jackdaw, to seek
+from him and his subject birds a city free from all care and strife.
+Arrived at the Palace of Epops, they knock, and Trochilus (the wren),
+in a state of great flutter, as he mistakes them for fowlers, opens the
+door and informs them that his Majesty is asleep. When he awakes, the
+strangers appear before him, and after listening to a long and eloquent
+harangue on the superior attractions of a residence among the birds,
+they propose a notable scheme of their own to further enhance its
+advantages and definitely secure the sovereignty of the universe now
+exercised by the gods of Olympus.
+
+The birds are summoned to meet in general council. They come flying up
+from all quarters of the heavens, and after a brief mis-understanding,
+during which they come near tearing the two human envoys to pieces, they
+listen to the exposition of the latters' plan. This is nothing less
+than the building of a new city, to be called Nephelococcygia, or
+'Cloud-cuckoo-town,' between earth and heaven, to be garrisoned and
+guarded by the birds in such a way as to intercept all communication of
+the gods with their worshippers on earth. All steam of sacrifice will
+be prevented from rising to Olympus, and the Immortals will very soon be
+starved into an acceptance of any terms proposed. The new Utopia is duly
+constructed, and the daring plan to secure the sovereignty is in a fair
+way to succeed. Meantime various quacks and charlatans, each with a
+special scheme for improving things, arrive from earth, and are one
+after the other exposed and dismissed. Presently arrives Prometheus,
+who informs Epops of the desperate straits to which the gods are by this
+time reduced, and advises him to push his claims and demand the hand
+of Basileia (Dominion), the handmaid of Zeus. Next an embassy from the
+Olympians appears on the scene, consisting of Heracles, Posidon and a
+god from the savage regions of the Triballians. After some disputation,
+it is agreed that all reasonable demands of the birds are to be granted,
+while Pisthetaerus is to have Basileia as his bride. The comedy winds up
+with the epithalamium in honour of the nuptials.
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRDS
+
+
+DRAMATIS PERSONAE
+
+     EUELPIDES
+     PISTHETAERUS
+     EPOPS (the Hoopoe)
+     TROCHILUS, Servant to Epops
+     PHOENICOPTERUS
+     HERALDS
+     A PRIEST
+     A POET
+     A PROPHET
+     METON, a Geometrician
+     A COMMISSIONER
+     A DEALER IN DECREES
+     IRIS
+     A PARRICIDE
+     CINESIAS, a Dithyrambic Bard
+     AN INFORMER
+     PROMETHEUS
+     POSIDON
+     TRIBALLUS
+     HERACLES
+     SLAVES OF PISTHETAERUS
+     MESSENGERS
+     CHORUS OF BIRDS
+
+
+SCENE: A wild, desolate tract of open country; broken rocks and
+brushwood occupy the centre of the stage.
+
+
+
+EUELPIDES (TO HIS JAY)(1) Do you think I should walk straight for yon
+tree?
+
+f(1) Euelpides is holding a jay and Pisthetaerus a crow; they are the
+guides who are to lead them to the kingdom of the birds.
+
+PISTHETAERUS (TO HIS CROW) Cursed beast, what are you croaking to
+me?... to retrace my steps?
+
+EUELPIDES Why, you wretch, we are wandering at random, we are exerting
+ourselves only to return to the same spot; 'tis labour lost.
+
+PISTHETAERUS To think that I should trust to this crow, which has made
+me cover more than a thousand furlongs!
+
+EUELPIDES And that I to this jay, which has torn every nail from my
+fingers!
+
+PISTHETAERUS If only I knew where we were....
+
+EUELPIDES Could you find your country again from here?
+
+PISTHETAERUS No, I feel quite sure I could not, any more than could
+Execestides(1) find his.
+
+f(1) A stranger who wanted to pass as an Athenian, although coming
+originally for a far-away barbarian country.
+
+EUELPIDES Oh dear! oh dear!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Aye, aye, my friend, 'tis indeed the road of "oh dears" we
+are following.
+
+EUELPIDES That Philocrates, the bird-seller, played us a scurvy trick,
+when he pretended these two guides could help us to find Tereus,(1) the
+Epops, who is a bird, without being born of one. He has indeed sold us
+this jay, a true son of Tharelides,(2) for an obolus, and this crow
+for three, but what can they do? Why, nothing whatever but bite and
+scratch!--What's the matter with you then, that you keep opening your
+beak? Do you want us to fling ourselves headlong down these rocks? There
+is no road that way.
+
+f(1) A king of Thrace, a son of Ares, who married Procne, the daughter
+of Pandion, King of Athens, whom he had assisted against the Megarians.
+He violated his sister-in-law, Philomela, and then cut out her tongue;
+she nevertheless managed to convey to her sister how she had been
+treated. They both agreed to kill Itys, whom Procne had borne to Tereus,
+and dished up the limbs of his own son to the father; at the end of
+the meal Philomela appeared and threw the child's head upon the table.
+Tereus rushed with drawn sword upon the princesses, but all the actors
+in this terrible scene were metamorph(o)sed. Tereus became an Epops
+(hoopoe), Procne a swallow, Philomela a nightingale, and Itys a
+goldfinch. According to Anacreon and Apollodorus it was Procne who
+became the nightingale and Philomela the swallow, and this is the
+version of the tradition followed by Aristophanes.
+
+f(2) An Athenian who had some resemblance to a jay--so says the
+scholiast, at any rate.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Not even the vestige of a track in any direction.
+
+EUELPIDES And what does the crow say about the road to follow?
+
+PISTHETAERUS By Zeus, it no longer croaks the same thing it did.
+
+EUELPIDES And which way does it tell us to go now?
+
+PISTHETAERUS It says that, by dint of gnawing, it will devour my
+fingers.
+
+EUELPIDES What misfortune is ours! we strain every nerve to get to the
+birds,(1) do everything we can to that end, and we cannot find our way!
+Yes, spectators, our madness is quite different from that of Sacas.
+He is not a citizen, and would fain be one at any cost; we, on the
+contrary, born of an honourable tribe and family and living in the midst
+of our fellow-citizens, we have fled from our country as hard as ever
+we could go. 'Tis not that we hate it; we recognize it to be great and
+rich, likewise that everyone has the right to ruin himself; but the
+crickets only chirrup among the fig-trees for a month or two, whereas
+the Athenians spend their whole lives in chanting forth judgments
+from their law-courts.(2) That is why we started off with a basket, a
+stew-pot and some myrtle boughs(3) and have come to seek a quiet country
+in which to settle. We are going to Tereus, the Epops, to learn from
+him, whether, in his aerial flights, he has noticed some town of this
+kind.
+
+f(1) Literally, 'to go to the crows,' a proverbial expression equivalent
+to our 'going to the devil.'
+
+f(2) They leave Athens because of their hatred of lawsuits and
+informers; this is the especial failing of the Athenians satirized in
+'The Wasps.'
+
+f(3) Myrtle boughs were used in sacrifices, and the founding of every
+colony was started by a sacrifice.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Here! look!
+
+EUELPIDES What's the matter?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why, the crow has been pointing me to something up there
+for some time now.
+
+EUELPIDES And the jay is also opening its beak and craning its neck to
+show me I know not what. Clearly, there are some birds about here. We
+shall soon know, if we kick up a noise to start them.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Do you know what to do? Knock your leg against this rock.
+
+EUELPIDES And you your head to double the noise.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Well then use a stone instead; take one and hammer with it.
+
+EUELPIDES Good idea! Ho there, within! Slave! slave!
+
+PISTHETAERUS What's that, friend! You say, "slave," to summon Epops! It
+would be much better to shout, "Epops, Epops!"
+
+EUELPIDES Well then, Epops! Must I knock again? Epops!
+
+TROCHILUS Who's there? Who calls my master?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Apollo the Deliverer! what an enormous beak!(1)
+
+f(1) The actors wore masks made to resemble the birds they were supposed
+to represent.
+
+TROCHILUS Good god! they are bird-catchers.
+
+EUELPIDES The mere sight of him petrifies me with terror. What a
+horrible monster.
+
+TROCHILUS Woe to you!
+
+EUELPIDES But we are not men.
+
+TROCHILUS What are you, then?
+
+EUELPIDES I am the Fearling, an African bird.
+
+TROCHILUS You talk nonsense.
+
+EUELPIDES Well, then, just ask it of my feet.(1)
+
+f(1) Fear had had disastrous effects upon Euelpides' internal economy,
+and this his feet evidenced.
+
+TROCHILUS And this other one, what bird is it?
+
+PISTHETAERUS I? I am a Cackling,(1) from the land of the pheasants.
+
+f(1) The same mishap had occurred to Pisthetaerus.
+
+EUELPIDES But you yourself, in the name of the gods! what animal are
+you?
+
+TROCHILUS Why, I am a slave-bird.
+
+EUELPIDES Why, have you been conquered by a cock?
+
+TROCHILUS No, but when my master was turned into a peewit, he begged me
+to become a bird too, to follow and to serve him.
+
+EUELPIDES Does a bird need a servant, then?
+
+TROCHILUS 'Tis no doubt because he was a man. At times he wants to eat a
+dish of loach from Phalerum; I seize my dish and fly to fetch him some.
+Again he wants some pea-soup; I seize a ladle and a pot and run to get
+it.
+
+EUELPIDES This is, then, truly a running-bird.(1) Come, Trochilus, do us
+the kindness to call your master.
+
+f(1) The Greek word for a wren is derived from the same root as 'to
+run.'
+
+TROCHILUS Why, he has just fallen asleep after a feed of myrtle-berries
+and a few grubs.
+
+EUELPIDES Never mind; wake him up.
+
+TROCHILUS I an certain he will be angry. However, I will wake him to
+please you.
+
+PISTHETAERUS You cursed brute! why, I am almost dead with terror!
+
+EUELPIDES Oh! my god! 'twas sheer fear that made me lose my jay.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! you great coward! were you so frightened that you let
+go your jay?
+
+EUELPIDES And did you not lose your crow, when you fell sprawling on the
+ground? Pray tell me that.
+
+PISTHETAERUS No, no.
+
+EUELPIDES Where is it, then?
+
+PISTHETAERUS It has flown away.
+
+EUELPIDES Then you did not let it go? Oh! you brave fellow!
+
+EPOPS Open the forest,(1) that I may go out!
+
+f(1) No doubt there was some scenery to represent a forest. Besides,
+there is a pun intended. The words answering for 'forests' and 'door' in
+Greek only differ slightly in sound.
+
+EUELPIDES By Heracles! what a creature! what plumage! What means this
+triple crest?
+
+EPOPS Who wants me?
+
+EUELPIDES The twelve great gods have used you ill, meseems.
+
+EPOPS Are you chaffing me about my feathers? I have been a man,
+strangers.
+
+EUELPIDES 'Tis not you we are jeering at.
+
+EPOPS At what, then?
+
+EUELPIDES Why, 'tis your beak that looks so odd to us.
+
+EPOPS This is how Sophocles outrages me in his tragedies. Know, I once
+was Tereus.(1)
+
+f(1) Sophocles had written a tragedy about Tereus, in which, no doubt,
+the king finally appears as a hoopoe.
+
+EUELPIDES You were Tereus, and what are you now? a bird or a peacock?(1)
+
+f(1) (O)ne would expect the question to be "bird or man."--Are you a
+peacock? The hoopoe resembles the peacock inasmuch as both have crests.
+
+EPOPS I am a bird.
+
+EUELPIDES Then where are your feathers? For I don't see them.
+
+EPOPS They have fallen off.
+
+EUELPIDES Through illness?
+
+EPOPS No. All birds moult their feathers, you know, every winter, and
+others grow in their place. But tell me, who are you?
+
+EUELPIDES We? We are mortals.
+
+EPOPS From what country?
+
+EUELPIDES From the land of the beautiful galleys.(1)
+
+f(1) Athens.
+
+EPOPS Are you dicasts?(1)
+
+f(1) The Athenians were madly addicted to lawsuits. (See 'The Wasps.')
+
+EUELPIDES No, if anything, we are anti-dicasts.
+
+EPOPS Is that kind of seed sown among you?(1)
+
+f(1) As much as to say, 'Then you have such things as anti-dicasts?' And
+Euelpides practically replaces, 'Very few.'
+
+EUELPIDES You have to look hard to find even a little in our fields.
+
+EPOPS What brings you here?
+
+EUELPIDES We wish to pay you a visit.
+
+EPOPS What for?
+
+EUELPIDES Because you formerly were a man, like we are, formerly you
+had debts, as we have, formerly you did not want to pay them, like
+ourselves; furthermore, being turned into a bird, you have when flying
+seen all lands and seas. Thus you have all human knowledge as well as
+that of birds. And hence we have come to you to beg you to direct us to
+some cosy town, in which one can repose as if on thick coverlets.
+
+EPOPS And are you looking for a greater city than Athens?
+
+EUELPIDES No, not a greater, but one more pleasant to dwell in.
+
+EPOPS Then you are looking for an aristocratic country.
+
+EUELPIDES I? Not at all! I hold the son of Scellias in horror.(1)
+
+f(1) His name was Aristocrates; he was a general and commanded a fleet
+sent in aid of Corcyra.
+
+EPOPS But, after all, what sort of city would please you best?
+
+EUELPIDES A place where the following would be the most important
+business transacted.--Some friend would come knocking at the door quite
+early in the morning saying, "By Olympian Zeus, be at my house early,
+as soon as you have bathed, and bring your children too. I am giving a
+nuptial feast, so don't fail, or else don't cross my threshold when I am
+in distress."
+
+EPOPS Ah! that's what may be called being fond of hardships! And what
+say you?
+
+PISTHETAERUS My tastes are similar.
+
+EPOPS And they are?
+
+PISTHETAERUS I want a town where the father of a handsome lad will stop
+in the street and say to me reproachfully as if I had failed him, "Ah!
+Is this well done, Stilbonides! You met my son coming from the bath
+after the gymnasium and you neither spoke to him, nor embraced him, nor
+took him with you, nor ever once twitched his parts. Would anyone call
+you an old friend of mine?"
+
+EPOPS Ah! wag, I see you are fond of suffering. But there is a city of
+delights, such as you want. 'Tis on the Red Sea.
+
+EUELPIDES Oh, no. Not a sea-port, where some fine morning the
+Salaminian(1) galley can appear, bringing a writ-server along. Have you
+no Greek town you can propose to us?
+
+f(1) The State galley, which carried the officials of the Athenian
+republic to their several departments and brought back those whose time
+had expired; it was this galley that was sent to Sicily to fetch back
+Alcibiades, who was accused of sacrilege.
+
+EPOPS Why not choose Lepreum in Elis for your settlement?
+
+EUELPIDES By Zeus! I could not look at Lepreum without disgust, because
+of Melanthius.(1)
+
+f(1) A tragic poet, who was a leper; there is a play, of course, on the
+word Lepreum.
+
+EPOPS Then, again, there is the Opuntian, where you could live.
+
+EUELPIDES I would not be Opuntian(1) for a talent. But come, what is it
+like to live with the birds? You should know pretty well.
+
+f(1) An allusion to Opuntius, who was one-eyed.
+
+EPOPS Why, 'tis not a disagreeable life. In the first place, one has no
+purse.
+
+EUELPIDES That does away with much roguery.
+
+EPOPS For food the gardens yield us white sesame, myrtle-berries,
+poppies and mint.
+
+EUELPIDES Why, 'tis the life of the newly-wed indeed.(1)
+
+f(1) The newly-married ate a sesame-cake, decorated with garlands of
+myrtle, poppies and mint.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ha! I am beginning to see a great plan, which will transfer
+the supreme power to the birds, if you will but take my advice.
+
+EPOPS Take your advice? In what way?
+
+PISTHETAERUS In what way? Well, firstly, do not fly in all directions
+with open beak; it is not dignified. Among us, when we see a thoughtless
+man, we ask, "What sort of bird is this?" and Teleas answers, "'Tis
+a man who has no brain, a bird that has lost his head, a creature you
+cannot catch, for it never remains in any one place."
+
+EPOPS By Zeus himself! your jest hits the mark. What then is to be done?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Found a city.
+
+EPOPS We birds? But what sort of city should we build?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh, really, really! 'tis spoken like a fool! Look down.
+
+EPOPS I am looking.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Now look upwards.
+
+EPOPS I am looking.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Turn your head round.
+
+EPOPS Ah! 'twill be pleasant for me, if I end in twisting my neck!
+
+PISTHETAERUS What have you seen?
+
+EPOPS The clouds and the sky.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Very well! is not this the pole of the birds then?
+
+EPOPS How their pole?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Or, if you like it, the land. And since it turns and passes
+through the whole universe, it is called, 'pole.'(1) If you build and
+fortify it, you will turn your pole into a fortified city.(2) In this
+way you will reign over mankind as you do over the grasshoppers and
+cause the gods to die of rabid hunger.
+
+f(1) From (the word meaning) 'to turn.'
+
+f(2) The Greek words for 'pole' and 'city' only differ by a single
+letter.
+
+EPOPS How so?
+
+PISTHETAERUS The air is 'twixt earth and heaven. When we want to go to
+Delphi, we ask the Boeotians(1) for leave of passage; in the same way,
+when men sacrifice to the gods, unless the latter pay you tribute, you
+exercise the right of every nation towards strangers and don't allow the
+smoke of the sacrifices to pass through your city and territory.
+
+f(1) Boeotia separated Attica from Phocis.
+
+EPOPS By earth! by snares! by network!(1) I never heard of anything more
+cleverly conceived; and, if the other birds approve, I am going to build
+the city along with you.
+
+f(1) He swears by the powers that are to him dreadful.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Who will explain the matter to them?
+
+EPOPS You must yourself. Before I came they were quite ignorant, but
+since I have lived with them I have taught them to speak.
+
+PISTHETAERUS But how can they be gathered together?
+
+EPOPS Easily. I will hasten down to the coppice to waken my dear
+Procne!(1) as soon as they hear our voices, they will come to us hot
+wing.
+
+f(1) As already stated, according to the legend accepted by
+Aristophanes, it was Procne who was turned into the nightengale.
+
+PISTHETAERUS My dear bird, lose no time, I beg. Fly at once into the
+coppice and awaken Procne.
+
+EPOPS Chase off drowsy sleep, dear companion. Let the sacred hymn gush
+from thy divine throat in melodious strains; roll forth in soft cadence
+your refreshing melodies to bewail the fate of Itys,(1) which has been
+the cause of so many tears to us both. Your pure notes rise through
+the thick leaves of the yew-tree right up to the throne of Zeus, where
+Phoebus listens to you, Phoebus with his golden hair. And his ivory lyre
+responds to your plaintive accents; he gathers the choir of the gods and
+from their immortal lips rushes a sacred chant of blessed voices. (THE
+FLUTE IS PLAYED BEHIND THE SCENE.)
+
+f(1) The son of Tereus and Procne.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! by Zeus! what a throat that little bird possesses. He
+has filled the whole coppice with honey-sweet melody!
+
+EUELPIDES Hush!
+
+PISTHETAERUS What's the matter?
+
+EUELPIDES Will you keep silence?
+
+PISTHETAERUS What for?
+
+EUELPIDES Epops is going to sing again.
+
+EPOPS (IN THE COPPICE) Epopoi poi popoi, epopoi, popoi, here, here,
+quick, quick, quick, my comrades in the air; all you who pillage the
+fertile lands of the husbandmen, the numberless tribes who gather and
+devour the barley seeds, the swift flying race who sing so sweetly. And
+you whose gentle twitter resounds through the fields with the little
+cry of tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tio; and you who hop about the
+branches of the ivy in the gardens; the mountain birds, who feed on the
+wild olive berries or the arbutus, hurry to come at my call, trioto,
+trioto, totobrix; you also, who snap up the sharp-stinging gnats in the
+marshy vales, and you who dwell in the fine plain of Marathon, all
+damp with dew, and you, the francolin with speckled wings; you too, the
+halcyons, who flit over the swelling waves of the sea, come hither to
+hear the tidings; let all the tribes of long-necked birds assemble here;
+know that a clever old man has come to us, bringing an entirely new
+idea and proposing great reforms. Let all come to the debate here,
+here, here, here. Torotorotorotorotix, kikkobau, kikkobau,
+torotorotorotorolililix.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Can you see any bird?
+
+EUELPIDES By Phoebus, no! and yet I am straining my eyesight to scan the
+sky.
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Twas really not worth Epops' while to go and bury himself
+in the thicket like a plover when a-hatching.
+
+PHOENICOPTERUS Torotina, torotina.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Hold, friend, here is another bird.
+
+EUELPIDES I' faith, yes, 'tis a bird, but of what kind? Isn't it a
+peacock?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Epops will tell us. What is this bird?
+
+EPOPS 'Tis not one of those you are used to seeing; 'tis a bird from the
+marshes.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! oh! but he is very handsome with his wings as crimson
+as flame.
+
+EPOPS Undoubtedly; indeed he is called flamingo.(1)
+
+f(1) An African bird, that comes to the southern countries of Europe, to
+Greece, Italy, and Spain; it is even seen in Provence.
+
+EUELPIDES Hi! I say! You!
+
+PISTHETAERUS What are you shouting for?
+
+EUELPIDES Why, here's another bird.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Aye, indeed; 'tis a foreign bird too. What is this bird
+from beyond the mountains with a look as solemn as it is stupid?
+
+EPOPS He is called the Mede.(1)
+
+f(1) Aristophanes amusingly mixes up real birds with people and
+individuals, whom he represents in the form of birds; he is personifying
+the Medians here.
+
+PISTHETAERUS The Mede! But, by Heracles, how, if a Mede, has he flown
+here without a camel?
+
+EUELPIDES Here's another bird with a crest.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! that's curious. I say, Epops, you are not the only one
+of your kind then?
+
+EPOPS This bird is the son of Philocles, who is the son of Epops;(1)
+so that, you see, I am his grandfather; just as one might say,
+Hipponicus,(2) the son of Callias, who is the son of Hipponicus.
+
+f(1) Philocles, a tragic poet, had written a tragedy on Tereus, which
+was simply a plagiarism of the play of the same name by Sophocles.
+Philocles is the son of Epops, because he got his inspiration from
+Sophocles' Tereus, and at the same time is father to Epops, since he
+himself produced another Tereus.
+
+f(2) This Hipponicus is probably the orator whose ears Alcibiades boxed
+to gain a bet; he was a descendant of Callias, who was famous for his
+hatred of Pisistratus.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Then this bird is Callias! Why, what a lot of his feathers
+he has lost!(1)
+
+f(1) This Callias, who must not be confounded with the foe of
+Pisistratus, had ruined himself.
+
+EPOPS That's because he is honest; so the informers set upon him and the
+women too pluck out his feathers.
+
+PISTHETAERUS By Posidon, do you see that many-coloured bird? What is his
+name?
+
+EPOPS This one? 'Tis the glutton.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Is there another glutton besides Cleonymus? But why, if
+he is Cleonymus, has he not thrown away his crest?(1) But what is the
+meaning of all these crests? Have these birds come to contend for the
+double stadium prize?(2)
+
+f(1) Cleonymus had cast away his shield; he was as great a glutton as he
+was a coward.
+
+f(2) A race in which the track had to be circled twice.
+
+EPOPS They are like the Carians, who cling to the crests of their
+mountains for greater safety.(1)
+
+f(1) A people of Asia Minor; when pursued by the Ionians they took
+refuge in the mountains.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh, Posidon! do you see what swarms of birds are gathering
+here?
+
+EUELPIDES By Phoebus! what a cloud! The entrance to the stage is no
+longer visible, so closely do they fly together.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Here is the partridge.
+
+EUELPIDES Faith! there is the francolin.
+
+PISTHETAERUS There is the poachard.
+
+EUELPIDES Here is the kingfisher. And over yonder?
+
+EPOPS 'Tis the barber.
+
+EUELPIDES What? a bird a barber?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why, Sporgilus is one.(1) Here comes the owl.
+
+f(1) An Athenian barber.
+
+EUELPIDES And who is it brings an owl to Athens?(1)
+
+f(1) The owl was dedicated to Athene, and being respected at Athens,
+it had greatly multiplied. Hence the proverb, 'taking owls to Athens,'
+similar to our English 'taking coals to Newcastle.'
+
+PISTHETAERUS Here is the magpie, the turtle-dove, the swallow, the
+horned owl, the buzzard, the pigeon, the falcon, the ring-dove, the
+cuckoo, the red-foot, the red-cap, the purple-cap, the kestrel, the
+diver, the ousel, the osprey, the woodpecker.
+
+EUELPIDES Oh! oh! what a lot of birds! what a quantity of blackbirds!
+how they scold, how they come rushing up! What a noise! what a noise!
+Can they be bearing us ill-will? Oh! there! there! they are opening
+their beaks and staring at us.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why, so they are.
+
+CHORUS Popopopopopopopoi. Where is he who called me? Where am I to find
+him?
+
+EPOPS I have been waiting for you this long while! I never fail in my
+word to my friends.
+
+CHORUS Titititititititi. What good thing have you to tell me?
+
+EPOPS Something that concerns our common safety, and that is just as
+pleasant as it is to the purpose. Two men, who are subtle reasoners,
+have come here to seek me.
+
+CHORUS Where? What? What are you saying?
+
+EPOPS I say, two old men have come from the abode of men to propose a
+vast and splendid scheme to us.
+
+CHORUS Oh! 'tis a horrible, unheard-of crime! What are you saying?
+
+EPOPS Nay! never let my words scare you.
+
+CHORUS What have you done then?
+
+EPOPS I have welcomed two men, who wish to live with us.
+
+CHORUS And you have dared to do that!
+
+EPOPS Aye, and am delighted at having done so.
+
+CHORUS Where are they?
+
+EPOPS In your midst, as I am.
+
+CHORUS Ah! ah! we are betrayed; 'tis sacrilege! Our friend, he who
+picked up corn-seeds in the same plains as ourselves, has violated our
+ancient laws; he has broken the oaths that bind all birds; he has laid a
+snare for me, he has handed us over to the attacks of that impious race
+which, throughout all time, has never ceased to war against us. As for
+this traitorous bird, we will decide his case later, but the two old men
+shall be punished forthwith; we are going to tear them to pieces.
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis all over with us.
+
+EUELPIDES You are the sole cause of all our trouble. Why did you bring
+me from down yonder?
+
+PISTHETAERUS To have you with me.
+
+EUELPIDES Say rather to have me melt into tears.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Go to! you are talking nonsense.
+
+EUELPIDES How so?
+
+PISTHETAERUS How will you be able to cry when once your eyes are pecked
+out?
+
+CHORUS Io! io! forward to the attack, throw yourselves upon the foe,
+spill his blood; take to your wings and surround them on all sides. Woe
+to them! let us get to work with our beaks, let us devour them. Nothing
+can save them from our wrath, neither the mountain forests, nor the
+clouds that float in the sky, nor the foaming deep. Come, peck, tear
+to ribbons. Where is the chief of the cohort? Let him engage the right
+wing.
+
+EUELPIDES This is the fatal moment. Where shall I fly to, unfortunate
+wretch that I am?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Stay! stop here!
+
+EUELPIDES That they may tear me to pieces?
+
+PISTHETAERUS And how do you think to escape them?
+
+EUELPIDES I don't know at all.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Come, I will tell you. We must stop and fight them. Let us
+arm ourselves with these stew-pots.
+
+EUELPIDES Why with the stew-pots?
+
+PISTHETAERUS The owl will not attack us.(1)
+
+f(1) An allusion to the Feast of Pots; it was kept at Athens on the
+third day of the Anthesteria, when all sorts of vegetables were stewed
+together and offered for the dead to Bacchus and Athene. This Feast
+was peculiar to Athens.--Hence Pisthetaerus thinks that the owl will
+recognize they are Athenians by seeing the stew-pots, and as he is an
+Athenian bird, he will not attack them.
+
+EUELPIDES But do you see all those hooked claws?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Seize the spit and pierce the foe on your side.
+
+EUELPIDES And how about my eyes?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Protect them with this dish or this vinegar-pot.
+
+EUELPIDES Oh! what cleverness! what inventive genius! You are a great
+general, even greater than Nicias,(1) where stratagem is concerned.
+
+f(1) Nicias, the famous Athenian general.--The siege of Melos in 417
+B.C., or two years previous to the production of 'The Birds,' had
+especially done him great credit. He was joint commander of the Sicilian
+expedition.
+
+CHORUS Forward, forward, charge with your beaks! Come, no delay. Tear,
+pluck, strike, flay them, and first of all smash the stew-pot.
+
+EPOPS Oh, most cruel of all animals, why tear these two men to pieces,
+why kill them? What have they done to you? They belong to the same
+tribe, to the same family as my wife.(1)
+
+f(1) Procne, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens.
+
+CHORUS Are wolves to be spared? Are they not our most mortal foes? So
+let us punish them.
+
+EPOPS If they are your foes by nature, they are your friends in heart,
+and they come here to give you useful advice.
+
+CHORUS Advice or a useful word from their lips, from them, the enemies
+of my forebears!
+
+EPOPS The wise can often profit by the lessons of a foe, for caution is
+the mother of safety. 'Tis just such a thing as one will not learn from
+a friend and which an enemy compels you to know. To begin with, 'tis the
+foe and not the friend that taught cities to build high walls, to equip
+long vessels of war; and 'tis this knowledge that protects our children,
+our slaves and our wealth.
+
+CHORUS Well then, I agree, let us first hear them, for 'tis best; one
+can even learn something in an enemy's school.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Their wrath seems to cool. Draw back a little.
+
+EPOPS 'Tis only justice, and you will thank me later.
+
+CHORUS Never have we opposed your advice up to now.
+
+PISTHETAERUS They are in a more peaceful mood; put down your stew-pot
+and your two dishes; spit in hand, doing duty for a spear, let us mount
+guard inside the camp close to the pot and watch in our arsenal closely;
+for we must not fly.
+
+EUELPIDES You are right. But where shall we be buried, if we die?
+
+PISTHETAERUS In the Ceramicus;(1) for, to get a public funeral, we shall
+tell the Strategi that we fell at Orneae,(2) fighting the country's
+foes.
+
+f(1) A space beyond the walls of Athens which contained the gardens of
+the Academy and the graves of citizens who had died for their country.
+
+f(2) A town in Western Argolis, where the Athenians had been recently
+defeated. The somewhat similar work in Greek signifies 'birds.'
+
+CHORUS Return to your ranks and lay down your courage beside your wrath
+as the Hoplites do. Then let us ask these men who they are, whence they
+come, and with what intent. Here, Epops, answer me.
+
+EPOPS Are you calling me? What do you want of me?
+
+CHORUS Who are they? From what country?
+
+EPOPS Strangers, who have come from Greece, the land of the wise.
+
+CHORUS And what fate has led them hither to the land of the birds?
+
+EPOPS Their love for you and their wish to share your kind of life; to
+dwell and remain with you always.
+
+CHORUS Indeed, and what are their plans?
+
+EPOPS They are wonderful, incredible, unheard of.
+
+CHORUS Why, do they think to see some advantage that determines them to
+settle here? Are they hoping with our help to triumph over their foes or
+to be useful to their friends?
+
+EPOPS They speak of benefits so great it is impossible either to
+describe or conceive them; all shall be yours, all that we see here,
+there, above and below us; this they vouch for.
+
+CHORUS Are they mad?
+
+EPOPS They are the sanest people in the world.
+
+CHORUS Clever men?
+
+EPOPS The slyest of foxes, cleverness its very self, men of the world,
+cunning, the cream of knowing folk.
+
+CHORUS Tell them to speak and speak quickly; why, as I listen to you, I
+am beside myself with delight.
+
+EPOPS Here, you there, take all these weapons and hang them up inside
+close to the fire, near the figure of the god who presides there and
+under his protection;(1) as for you, address the birds, tell them why I
+have gathered them together.
+
+f(1) Epops is addressing the two slaves, no doubt Xanthias and Manes,
+who are mentioned later on.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Not I, by Apollo, unless they agree with me as the little
+ape of an armourer agreed with his wife, not to bite me, nor pull me by
+the parts, nor shove things up my...
+
+CHORUS You mean the...(PUTS FINGER TO BOTTOM) Oh! be quite at ease.
+
+PISTHETAERUS No, I mean my eyes.
+
+CHORUS Agreed.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Swear it.
+
+CHORUS I swear it and, if I keep my promise, let judges and spectators
+give me the victory unanimously.
+
+PISTHETAERUS It is a bargain.
+
+CHORUS And if I break my word, may I succeed by one vote only.
+
+HERALD Hearken, ye people! Hoplites, pick up your weapons and return
+to your firesides; do not fail to read the decrees of dismissal we have
+posted.
+
+CHORUS Man is a truly cunning creature, but nevertheless explain.
+Perhaps you are going to show me some good way to extend my power,
+some way that I have not had the wit to find out and which you have
+discovered. Speak! 'tis to your own interest as well as to mine, for if
+you secure me some advantage, I will surely share it with you. But what
+object can have induced you to come among us? Speak boldly, for I shall
+not break the truce,--until you have told us all.
+
+PISTHETAERUS I am bursting with desire to speak; I have already mixed
+the dough of my address and nothing prevents me from kneading it....
+Slave! bring the chaplet and water, which you must pour over my hands.
+Be quick!(1)
+
+f(1) It was customary, when speaking in public and also at feasts, to
+wear a chaplet; hence the question Euelpides puts.--The guests wore
+chaplets of flowers, herbs, and leaves, which had the property of being
+refreshing.
+
+EUELPIDES Is it a question of feasting? What does it all mean?
+
+PISTHETAERUS By Zeus, no! but I am hunting for fine, tasty words to
+break down the hardness of their hearts.--I grieve so much for you, who
+at one time were kings...
+
+CHORUS We kings! Over whom?
+
+PISTHETAERUS ...of all that exists, firstly of me and of this man, even
+of Zeus himself. Your race is older than Saturn, the Titans and the
+Earth.
+
+CHORUS What, older than the Earth!
+
+PISTHETAERUS By Phoebus, yes.
+
+CHORUS By Zeus, but I never knew that before!
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis because you are ignorant and heedless, and have never
+read your Aesop. 'Tis he who tells us that the lark was born before all
+other creatures, indeed before the Earth; his father died of sickness,
+but the Earth did not exist then; he remained unburied for five days,
+when the bird in its dilemma decided, for want of a better place, to
+entomb its father in its own head.
+
+EUELPIDES So that the lark's father is buried at Cephalae.(1)
+
+f(1) A deme of Attica. In Greek the word also means 'heads,' and hence
+the pun.
+
+EPOPS Hence, if we existed before the Earth, before the gods, the
+kingship belongs to us by right of priority.
+
+EUELPIDES Undoubtedly, but sharpen your beak well; Zeus won't be in a
+hurry to hand over his sceptre to the woodpecker.
+
+PISTHETAERUS It was not the gods, but the birds, who were formerly the
+masters and kings over men; of this I have a thousand proofs. First of
+all, I will point you to the cock, who governed the Persians before all
+other monarchs, before Darius and Megabyzus.(1) 'Tis in memory of his
+reign that he is called the Persian bird.
+
+f(1) One of Darius' best generals. After his expedition against the
+Scythians, this prince gave him the command of the army which he left
+in Europe. Megabyzus took Perinthos (afterwards called Heraclea) and
+conquered Thrace.
+
+EUELPIDES For this reason also, even to-day, he alone of all the birds
+wears his tiara straight on his head, like the Great King.(1)
+
+f(1) All Persians wore the tiara, but always on one side; the Great King
+alone wore it straight on his head.
+
+PISTHETAERUS He was so strong, so great, so feared, that even now, on
+account of his ancient power, everyone jumps out of bed as soon as
+ever he crows at daybreak. Blacksmiths, potters, tanners, shoemakers,
+bathmen, corn-dealers, lyre-makers and armourers, all put on their shoes
+and go to work before it is daylight.
+
+EUELPIDES I can tell you something about that. 'Twas the cock's fault
+that I lost a splendid tunic of Phrygian wool. I was at a feast in town,
+given to celebrate the birth of a child; I had drunk pretty freely and
+had just fallen asleep, when a cock, I suppose in a greater hurry
+than the rest, began to crow. I thought it was dawn and set out for
+Alimos.(1) I had hardly got beyond the walls, when a footpad struck me
+in the back with his bludgeon; down I went and wanted to shout, but he
+had already made off with my mantle.
+
+f(1) Noted as the birthplace of Thucydides, a deme of Attica of the
+tribe of Leontis. Demosthenes tells us it was thirty-five stadia from
+Athens.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Formerly also the kite was ruler and king over the Greeks.
+
+EPOPS The Greeks?
+
+PISTHETAERUS And when he was king, 'twas he who first taught them to
+fall on their knees before the kites.(1)
+
+f(1) The appearance of the kite in Greece betokened the return of
+springtime; it was therefore worshipped as a symbol of that season.
+
+EUELPIDES By Zeus! 'tis what I did myself one day on seeing a kite; but
+at the moment I was on my knees, and leaning backwards(1) with mouth
+agape, I bolted an obolus and was forced to carry my bag home empty.(2)
+
+f(1) To look at the kite, who no doubt was flying high in the sky.
+
+f(2) As already shown, the Athenians were addicted to carrying small
+coins in their mouths.--This obolus was for the purpose of buying flour
+to fill the bag he was carrying
+
+PISTHETAERUS The cuckoo was king of Egypt and of the whole of Phoenicia.
+When he called out "cuckoo," all the Phoenicians hurried to the fields
+to reap their wheat and their barley.(1)
+
+f(1) In Phoenicia and Egypt the cuckoo makes its appearance about
+harvest-time.
+
+EUELPIDES Hence no doubt the proverb, "Cuckoo! cuckoo! go to the fields,
+ye circumcised."(1)
+
+f(1) This was an Egyptian proverb, meaning, 'When the cuckoo sings we
+go harvesting.' Both the Phoenicians and the Egyptians practised
+circumcision.
+
+PISTHETAERUS So powerful were the birds that the kings of Grecian
+cities, Agamemnon, Menelaus, for instance, carried a bird on the tip of
+their sceptres, who had his share of all presents.(1)
+
+f(1) The staff, called a sceptre, generally terminated in a piece of
+carved work, representing a flower, a fruit, and most often a bird.
+
+EUELPIDES That I didn't know and was much astonished when I saw Priam
+come upon the stage in the tragedies with a bird, which kept watching
+Lysicrates(1) to see if he got any present.
+
+f(1) A general accused of treachery. The bird watches Lysicrates,
+because, according to Pisthetaerus, he had a right to a share of the
+presents.
+
+PISTHETAERUS But the strongest proof of all is, that Zeus, who now
+reigns, is represented as standing with an eagle on his head as a symbol
+of his royalty;(1) his daughter has an owl, and Phoebus, as his servant,
+has a hawk.
+
+f(1) It is thus that Phidias represents his Olympian Zeus.
+
+EUELPIDES By Demeter, 'tis well spoken. But what are all these birds
+doing in heaven?
+
+PISTHETAERUS When anyone sacrifices and, according to the rite, offers
+the entrails to the gods, these birds take their share before Zeus.
+Formerly men always swore by the birds and never by the gods; even now
+Lampon(1) swears by the goose, when he wants to lie....Thus 'tis clear
+that you were great and sacred, but now you are looked upon as slaves,
+as fools, as Helots; stones are thrown at you as at raving madmen, even
+in holy places. A crowd of bird-catchers sets snares, traps, limed-twigs
+and nets of all sorts for you; you are caught, you are sold in heaps
+and the buyers finger you over to be certain you are fat. Again, if
+they would but serve you up simply roasted; but they rasp cheese into a
+mixture of oil, vinegar and laserwort, to which another sweet and greasy
+sauce is added, and the whole is poured scalding hot over your back, for
+all the world as if you were diseased meat.
+
+f(1) One of the diviners sent to Sybaris (in Magna Graecia, S. Italy)
+with the Athenian colonists, who rebuilt the town under the new name of
+Thurium.
+
+CHORUS Man, your words have made my heart bleed; I have groaned over the
+treachery of our fathers, who knew not how to transmit to us the high
+rank they held from their forefathers. But 'tis a benevolent Genius, a
+happy Fate, that sends you to us; you shall be our deliverer and I
+place the destiny of my little ones and my own in your hands with every
+confidence. But hasten to tell me what must be done; we should not
+be worthy to live, if we did not seek to regain our royalty by every
+possible means.
+
+PISTHETAERUS First I advise that the birds gather together in one city
+and that they build a wall of great bricks, like that at Babylon, round
+the plains of the air and the whole region of space that divides earth
+from heaven.
+
+EPOPS Oh, Cebriones! oh, Porphyrion!(1) what a terribly strong place!
+
+f(1) As if he were saying, "Oh, gods!" Like Lampon, he swears by the
+birds, instead of swearing by the gods.--The names of these birds are
+those of two of the Titans.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Th(en), this being well done and completed, you demand back
+the empire from Zeus; if he will not agree, if he refuses and does not
+at once confess himself beaten, you declare a sacred war against him and
+forbid the gods henceforward to pass through your country with lust, as
+hitherto, for the purpose of fondling their Alcmenas, their Alopes, or
+their Semeles!(1) if they try to pass through, you infibulate them with
+rings so that they can work no longer. You send another messenger to
+mankind, who will proclaim to them that the birds are kings, that for
+the future they must first of all sacrifice to them, and only afterwards
+to the gods; that it is fitting to appoint to each deity the bird
+that has most in common with it. For instance, are they sacrificing to
+Aphrodite, let them at the same time offer barley to the coot; are they
+immolating a sheep to Posidon, let them consecrate wheat in honour of
+the duck;(2) is a steer being offered to Heracles, let honey-cakes be
+dedicated to the gull;(3) is a goat being slain for King Zeus, there is
+a King-Bird, the wren,(4) to whom the sacrifice of a male gnat is due
+before Zeus himself even.
+
+f(1) Alcmena, wife of Amphitryon, King of Thebes and mother of
+Heracles.--Semele, the daughter of Cadmus and Hermione and mother of
+Bacchus; both seduced by Zeus.--Alope, daughter of Cercyon, a robber,
+who reigned at Eleusis and was conquered by Perseus. Alope was honoured
+with Posidon's caresses; by him she had a son named Hippothous, at first
+brought up by shepherds but who afterwards was restored to the throne of
+his grandfather by Theseus.
+
+f(2) Because water is the duck's domain, as it is that of Posidon.
+
+f(3) Because the gull, like Heracles, is voracious.
+
+f(4) The Germans still call it 'Zaunkonig' and the French 'roitelet,'
+both names thus containing the idea of 'king.'
+
+EUELPIDES This notion of an immolated gnat delights me! And now let the
+great Zeus thunder!
+
+EPOPS But how will mankind recognize us as gods and not as jays? Us, who
+have wings and fly?
+
+PISTHETAERUS You talk rubbish! Hermes is a god and has wings and flies,
+and so do many other gods. First of all, Victory flies with golden
+wings, Eros is undoubtedly winged too, and Iris is compared by Homer to
+a timorous dove.(1) If men in their blindness do not recognize you as
+gods and continue to worship the dwellers in Olympus, then a cloud of
+sparrows greedy for corn must descend upon their fields and eat up all
+their seeds; we shall see then if Demeter will mete them out any wheat.
+
+
+f(1) The scholiast draws our attention to the fact that Homer says this
+of Here and not of Iris (Iliad, V, 778); it is only another proof that
+the text of Homer has reached us in a corrupted form, or it may be that
+Aristophanes was liable, like other people, to occasional mistakes of
+quotation.
+
+EUELPIDES By Zeus, she'll take good care she does not, and you will see
+her inventing a thousand excuses.
+
+PISTHETAERUS The crows too will prove your divinity to them by pecking
+out the eyes of their flocks and of their draught-oxen; and then
+let Apollo cure them, since he is a physician and is paid for the
+purpose.(1)
+
+
+f(1) In sacrifices.
+
+EUELPIDES Oh! don't do that! Wait first until I have sold my two young
+bullocks.
+
+PISTHETAERUS If on the other hand they recognize that you are God, the
+principle of life, that you are Earth, Saturn, Posidon, they shall be
+loaded with benefits.
+
+EPOPS Name me one of these then.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Firstly, the locusts shall not eat up their vine-blossoms;
+a legion of owls and kestrels will devour them. Moreover, the gnats and
+the gall-bugs shall no longer ravage the figs; a flock of thrushes shall
+swallow the whole host down to the very last.
+
+EPOPS And how shall we give wealth to mankind? This is their strongest
+passion.
+
+PISTHETAERUS When they consult the omens, you will point them to the
+richest mines, you will reveal the paying ventures to the diviner, and
+not another shipwreck will happen or sailor perish.
+
+EPOPS No more shall perish? How is that?
+
+PISTHETAERUS When the auguries are examined before starting on a voyage,
+some bird will not fail to say, "Don't start! there will be a storm," or
+else, "Go! you will make a most profitable venture."
+
+EUELPIDES I shall buy a trading-vessel and go to sea, I will not stay
+with you.
+
+PISTHETAERUS You will discover treasures to them, which were buried in
+former times, for you know them. Do not all men say, "None knows where
+my treasure lies, unless perchance it be some bird."(1)
+
+
+f(1) An Athenian proverb.
+
+EUELPIDES I shall sell my boat and buy a spade to unearth the vessels.
+
+EPOPS And how are we to give them health, which belongs to the gods?
+
+PISTHETAERUS If they are happy, is not that the chief thing towards
+health? The miserable man is never well.
+
+EPOPS Old Age also dwells in Olympus. How will they get at it? Must they
+die in early youth?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why, the birds, by Zeus, will add three hundred years to
+their life.
+
+EPOPS From whom will they take them?
+
+PISTHETAERUS From whom? Why, from themselves. Don't you know the cawing
+crow lives five times as long as a man?
+
+EUELPIDES Ah! ah! these are far better kings for us than Zeus!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Far better, are they not? And firstly, we shall not have to
+build them temples of hewn stone, closed with gates of gold; they will
+dwell amongst the bushes and in the thickets of green oak; the most
+venerated of birds will have no other temple than the foliage of the
+olive tree; we shall not go to Delphi or to Ammon to sacrifice;(1) but
+standing erect in the midst of arbutus and wild olives and holding forth
+our hands filled with wheat and barley, we shall pray them to admit us
+to a share of the blessings they enjoy and shall at once obtain them for
+a few grains of wheat.
+
+
+f(1) A celebrated temple to Zeus in an oasis of Libya.
+
+CHORUS Old man, whom I detested, you are now to me the dearest of all;
+never shall I, if I can help it, fail to follow your advice. Inspirited
+by your words, I threaten my rivals the gods, and I swear that if you
+march in alliance with me against the gods and are faithful to our just,
+loyal and sacred bond, we shall soon have shattered their sceptre. 'Tis
+our part to undertake the toil, 'tis yours to advise.
+
+EPOPS By Zeus! 'tis no longer the time to delay and loiter like
+Nicias;(1) let us act as promptly as possible.... In the first place,
+come, enter my nest built of brushwood and blades of straw, and tell me
+your names.
+
+
+f(1) Nicias was commander, along with Demosthenes, and later on
+Alcibiades, of the Athenian forces before Syracuse, in the ill-fated
+Sicilian Expedition, 415-413 B.C. He was much blamed for dilatoriness
+and indecision.
+
+PISTHETAERUS That is soon done; my name is Pisthetaerus.
+
+EPOPS And his?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Euelpides, of the deme of Thria.
+
+EPOPS Good! and good luck to you.
+
+PISTHETAERUS We accept the omen.
+
+EPOPS Come in here.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Very well, 'tis you who lead us and must introduce us.
+
+EPOPS Come then.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! my god! do come back here. Hi! tell us how we are to
+follow you. You can fly, but we cannot.
+
+EPOPS Well, well.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Remember Aesop's fables. It is told there, that the fox
+fared very ill, because he had made an alliance with the eagle.
+
+EPOPS Be at ease. You shall eat a certain root and wings will grow on
+your shoulders.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Then let us enter. Xanthias and Manes,(1) pick up our
+baggage.
+
+
+f(1) Servants of Pisthetaerus and Euelpides.
+
+CHORUS Hi! Epops! do you hear me?
+
+EPOPS What's the matter?
+
+CHORUS Take them off to dine well and call your mate, the melodious
+Procne, whose songs are worthy of the Muses; she will delight our
+leisure moments.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! I conjure you, accede to their wish; for this
+delightful bird will leave her rushes at the sound of your voice; for
+the sake of the gods, let her come here, so that we may contemplate the
+nightingale.(1)
+
+
+f(1) It has already been mentioned that, according to the legend
+followed by Aristophanes, Procne had been changed into a nightingale and
+Philomela into a swallow.
+
+EPOPS Let it be as you desire. Come forth, Procne, show yourself to
+these strangers.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! great Zeus! what a beautiful little bird! what a dainty
+form! what brilliant plumage!(1)
+
+
+f(1) The actor, representing Procne, was dressed out as a courtesan, but
+wore a mask of a bird.
+
+EUELPIDES Do you know how dearly I should like to splint her legs for
+her?
+
+PISTHETAERUS She is dazzling all over with gold, like a young girl.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Young unmarried girls wore golden ornaments; the apparel of married
+women was much simpler.
+
+EUELPIDES Oh! how I should like to kiss her!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why, wretched man, she has two little sharp points on her
+beak!
+
+EUELPIDES I would treat her like an egg, the shell of which we remove
+before eating it; I would take off her mask and then kiss her pretty
+face.
+
+EPOPS Let us go in.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Lead the way, and may success attend us.
+
+CHORUS Lovable golden bird, whom I cherish above all others, you, whom I
+associate with all my songs, nightingale, you have come, you have come,
+to show yourself to me and to charm me with your notes. Come, you,
+who play spring melodies upon the harmonious flute,(1) lead off our
+anapaests.(2)
+
+Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the
+foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race, whose life is but darkness,
+as unreal as a shadow, the illusion of a dream, hearken to us, who
+are immortal beings, ethereal, ever young and occupied with eternal
+thoughts, for we shall teach you about all celestial matters; you shall
+know thoroughly what is the nature of the birds, what the origin of
+the gods, of the rivers, of Erebus, and Chaos; thanks to us, even
+Prodicus(3) will envy you your knowledge.
+
+At the beginning there was only Chaos, Night, dark Erebus, and
+deep Tartarus. Earth, the air and heaven had no existence. Firstly,
+black-winged Night laid a germless egg in the bosom of the infinite
+deeps of Erebus, and from this, after the revolution of long ages,
+sprang the graceful Eros with his glittering golden wings, swift as the
+whirlwinds of the tempest. He mated in deep Tartarus with dark Chaos,
+winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race, which was the
+first to see the light. That of the Immortals did not exist until Eros
+had brought together all the ingredients of the world, and from their
+marriage Heaven, Ocean, Earth and the imperishable race of blessed gods
+sprang into being. Thus our origin is very much older than that of the
+dwellers in Olympus. We are the offspring of Eros; there are a thousand
+proofs to show it. We have wings and we lend assistance to lovers. How
+many handsome youths, who had sworn to remain insensible, have not been
+vanquished by our power and have yielded themselves to their lovers when
+almost at the end of their youth, being led away by the gift of a quail,
+a waterfowl, a goose, or a cock.(4)
+
+And what important services do not the birds render to mortals! First
+of all, they mark the seasons for them, springtime, winter, and autumn.
+Does the screaming crane migrate to Libya,--it warns the husbandman
+to sow, the pilot to take his ease beside his tiller hung up in his
+dwelling,(5) and Orestes(6) to weave a tunic, so that the rigorous cold
+may not drive him any more to strip other folk. When the kite reappears,
+he tells of the return of spring and of the period when the fleece of
+the sheep must be clipped. Is the swallow in sight? All hasten to sell
+their warm tunic and to buy some light clothing. We are your Ammon,
+Delphi, Dodona, your Phoebus Apollo.(7) Before undertaking anything,
+whether a business transaction, a marriage, or the purchase of food,
+you consult the birds by reading the omens, and you give this name of
+omen(8) to all signs that tell of the future. With you a word is an
+omen, you call a sneeze an omen, a meeting an omen, an unknown sound
+an omen, a slave or an ass an omen.(9) Is it not clear that we are a
+prophetic Apollo to you? If you recognize us as gods, we shall be your
+divining Muses, through us you will know the winds and the seasons,
+summer, winter, and the temperate months. We shall not withdraw
+ourselves to the highest clouds like Zeus, but shall be among you
+and shall give to you and to your children and the children of your
+children, health and wealth, long life, peace, youth, laughter, songs
+and feasts; in short, you will all be so well off, that you will be
+weary and satiated with enjoyment.
+
+Oh, rustic Muse of such varied note, tio, tio, tio, tiotinx, I sing
+with you in the groves and on the mountain tops, tio, tio, tio, tio,
+tiotinx.(10) I poured forth sacred strains from my golden throat in
+honour of the god Pan,(11) tio, tio, tio, tiotinx, from the top of the
+thickly leaved ash, and my voice mingles with the mighty choirs who
+extol Cybele on the mountain tops,(12) tototototototototinx. 'Tis to our
+concerts that Phrynichus comes to pillage like a bee the ambrosia of
+his songs, the sweetness of which so charms the ear, tio, tio, tio, tio,
+tinx.
+
+If there be one of you spectators who wishes to spend the rest of
+his life quietly among the birds, let him come to us. All that is
+disgraceful and forbidden by law on earth is on the contrary honourable
+among us, the birds. For instance, among you 'tis a crime to beat your
+father, but with us 'tis an estimable deed; it's considered fine to run
+straight at your father and hit him, saying, "Come, lift your spur if
+you want to fight."(13) The runaway slave, whom you brand, is only a
+spotted francolin with us.(14) Are you Phrygian like Spintharus?(15)
+Among us you would be the Phrygian bird, the goldfinch, of the race of
+Philemon.(16) Are you a slave and a Carian like Execestides? Among us
+you can create yourself fore-fathers;(17) you can always find relations.
+Does the son of Pisias want to betray the gates of the city to the foe?
+Let him become a partridge, the fitting offspring of his father; among
+us there is no shame in escaping as cleverly as a partridge.
+
+So the swans on the banks of the Hebrus, tio, tio, tio, tio, tiotinx,
+mingle their voices to serenade Apollo, tio, tio, tio, tio. tiotinx,
+flapping their wings the while, tio, tio, tio, tio, tiotinx; their notes
+reach beyond the clouds of heaven; all the dwellers in the forest stand
+still with astonishment and delight; a calm rests upon the waters, and
+the Graces and the choirs in Olympus catch up the strain, tio, tio, tio,
+tio, tiotinx.
+
+There is nothing more useful nor more pleasant than to have wings. To
+begin with, just let us suppose a spectator to be dying with hunger and
+to be weary of the choruses of the tragic poets; if he were winged, he
+would fly off, go home to dine and come back with his stomach filled.
+Some Patroclides in urgent need would not have to soil his cloak, but
+could fly off, satisfy his requirements, and, having recovered his
+breath, return. If one of you, it matters not who, had adulterous
+relations and saw the husband of his mistress in the seats of the
+senators, he might stretch his wings, fly thither, and, having appeased
+his craving, resume his place. Is it not the most priceless gift of all,
+to be winged? Look at Diitrephes!(18) His wings were only wicker-work
+ones, and yet he got himself chosen Phylarch and then Hipparch; from
+being nobody, he has risen to be famous; 'tis now the finest gilded cock
+of his tribe.(19)
+
+
+f(1) The actor, representing Procne, was a flute-player.
+
+f(2) The parabasis.
+
+f(3) A sophist of the island of Ceos, a disciple of Protagoras, as
+celebrated for his knowledge as for his eloquence. The Athenians
+condemned him to death as a corrupter of youth in 396 B.C.
+
+
+f(4) Lovers were wont to make each other presents of birds. The cock and
+the goose are mentioned, of course, in jest.
+
+f(5) i.e. that it gave notice of the approach of winter, during which
+season the Ancients did not venture to sea.
+
+f(6) A notorious robber.
+
+f(7) Meaning, "We are your oracles." --Dodona was an oracle in
+Epirus.--The temple of Zeus there was surrounded by a dense forest,
+all the trees of which were endowed with the gift of prophecy; both the
+sacred oaks and the pigeons that lived in them answered the questions of
+those who came to consult the oracle in pure Greek.
+
+f(8) The Greek word for 'omen' is the same as that for 'bird.'
+
+f(9) A satire on the passion of the Greeks for seeing an omen in
+everything.
+
+f(10) An imitation of the nightingale's song.
+
+f(11) God of the groves and wilds.
+
+f(12) The 'Mother of the Gods'; roaming the mountains, she held dances,
+always attended by Pan and his accompanying rout of Fauns and Satyrs.
+
+f(13) An allusion to cock-fighting; the birds are armed with brazen
+spurs.
+
+f(14) An allusion to the spots on this bird, which resemble the scars
+left by a branding iron.
+
+f(15) He was of Asiatic origin, but wished to pass for an Athenian.
+
+f(16) Or Philamnon, King of Thrace; the scholiast remarks that the
+Phrygians and the Thracians had a common origin.
+
+f(17) The Greek word here is also the name of a little bird.
+
+f(18) A basket-maker who had become rich.--The Phylarchs were the
+headmen of the tribes. They presided at the private assemblies and were
+charged with the management of the treasury.--The Hipparchs, as the name
+implies, were the leaders of the cavalry; there were only two of these
+in the Athenian army.
+
+f(19) He had become a senator.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Halloa! What's this? By Zeus! I never saw anything so funny
+in all my life.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Pisthetaerus and Euelpides now both return with wings.
+
+EUELPIDES What makes you laugh?
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis your bits of wings. D'you know what you look like?
+Like a goose painted by some dauber-fellow.
+
+EUELPIDES And you look like a close-shaven blackbird.
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis ourselves asked for this transformation, and, as
+Aeschylus has it, "These are no borrowed feathers, but truly our
+own."(1)
+
+
+f(1) Meaning, 'tis we who wanted to have these wings.--The verse from
+Aeschylus, quoted here, is taken from 'The Myrmidons,' a tragedy of
+which only a few fragments remain.
+
+EPOPS Come now, what must be done?
+
+PISTHETAERUS First give our city a great and famous name, then sacrifice
+to the gods.
+
+EUELPIDES I think so too.
+
+EPOPS Let's see. What shall our city be called?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Will you have a high-sounding Laconian name? Shall we call
+it Sparta?
+
+EUELPIDES What! call my town Sparta? Why, I would not use esparto for my
+bed,(1) even though I had nothing but bands of rushes.
+
+
+f(1) The Greek word signified the city of Sparta, and also a kind of
+broom used for weaving rough matting, which served for the beds of the
+very poor.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Well then, what name can you suggest?
+
+EUELPIDES Some name borrowed from the clouds, from these lofty regions
+in which we dwell--in short, some well-known name.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Do you like Nephelococcygia?(1)
+
+
+f(1) A fanciful name constructed from (the word for) a cloud,
+and (the word for) a cuckoo; thus a city of clouds and
+cuckoos.--'Wolkenkukelheim' is a clever approximation in German.
+Cloud-cuckoo-town, perhaps, is the best English equivalent.
+
+EPOPS Oh! capital! truly 'tis a brilliant thought!
+
+EUELPIDES Is it in Nephelococcygia that all the wealth of Theovenes(1)
+and most of Aeschines'(2) is?
+
+
+f(1) He was a boaster nicknamed 'smoke,' because he promised a great
+deal and never kept his word.
+
+f(2) Also mentioned in 'The Wasps.'
+
+PISTHETAERUS No, 'tis rather the plain of Phlegra,(1) where the gods
+withered the pride of the sons of the Earth with their shafts.
+
+
+f(1) Because the war of the Titans against the gods was only a fiction
+of the poets.
+
+EUELPIDES Oh! what a splendid city! But what god shall be its patron?
+for whom shall we weave the peplus?(1)
+
+
+f(1) A sacred cloth, with which the statue of Athene in the Acropolis
+was draped.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why not choose Athene Polias?(1)
+
+
+f(1) Meaning, to be patron-goddess of the city. Athene had a temple of
+this name.
+
+EUELPIDES Oh! what a well-ordered town 'twould be to have a female deity
+armed from head to foot, while Clisthenes(1) was spinning!
+
+
+f(1) An Athenian effeminate, frequently ridiculed by Aristophanes.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Who then shall guard the Pelargicon?(1)
+
+
+f(1) This was the name of the wall surrounding the Acropolis.
+
+EPOPS One of us, a bird of Persian strain, who is everywhere proclaimed
+to be the bravest of all, a true chick of Ares.(1)
+
+
+f(1) i.e. the fighting cock.
+
+EUELPIDES Oh! noble chick! What a well-chosen god for a rocky home!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Come! into the air with you to help the workers who are
+building the wall; carry up rubble, strip yourself to mix the mortar,
+take up the hod, tumble down the ladder, an you like, post sentinels,
+keep the fire smouldering beneath the ashes, go round the walls, bell in
+hand,(1) and go to sleep up there yourself; then d(i)spatch two heralds,
+one to the gods above, the other to mankind on earth and come back here.
+
+
+f(1) To waken the sentinels, who might else have fallen asleep.--There
+are several merry contradictions in the various parts of this list of
+injunctions.
+
+EUELPIDES As for yourself, remain here, and may the plague take you for
+a troublesome fellow!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Go, friend, go where I send you, for without you my orders
+cannot be obeyed. For myself, I want to sacrifice to the new god, and I
+am going to summon the priest who must preside at the ceremony. Slaves!
+slaves! bring forward the basket and the lustral water.
+
+CHORUS I do as you do, and I wish as you wish, and I implore you to
+address powerful and solemn prayers to the gods, and in addition to
+immolate a sheep as a token of our gratitude. Let us sing the Pythian
+chant in honour of the god, and let Chaeris accompany our voices.
+
+PISTHETAERUS (TO THE FLUTE-PLAYER) Enough! but, by Heracles! what is
+this? Great gods! I have seen many prodigious things, but I never saw a
+muzzled raven.(1)
+
+
+f(1) In allusion to the leather strap which flute-players wore to
+constrict the cheeks and add to the power of the breath. The performer
+here no doubt wore a raven's mask.
+
+EPOPS Priest! 'tis high time! Sacrifice to the new gods.
+
+PRIEST I begin, but where is he with the basket? Pray to the Vesta of
+the birds, to the kite, who presides over the hearth, and to all the god
+and goddess-birds who dwell in Olympus.
+
+CHORUS Oh! Hawk, the sacred guardian of Sunium, oh, god of the storks!
+
+PRIEST Pray to the swan of Delos, to Latona the mother of the quails,
+and to Artemis, the goldfinch.
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis no longer Artemis Colaenis, but Artemis the
+goldfinch.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Hellanicus, the Mitylenian historian, tells that this surname of
+Artemis is derived from Colaenus, King of Athens before Cecrops and a
+descendant of Hermes. In obedience to an oracle he erected a temple to
+the goddess, invoking her as Artemis Colaenis (the Artemis of Colaenus).
+
+PRIEST And to Bacchus, the finch and Cybele, the ostrich and mother of
+the gods and mankind.
+
+CHORUS Oh! sovereign ostrich, Cybele, The mother of Cleocritus,(1) grant
+health and safety to the Nephelococcygians as well as to the dwellers in
+Chios...
+
+
+f(1) This Cleocritus, says the scholiast, was long-necked and strutted
+like an ostrich.
+
+PISTHETAERUS The dwellers in Chios! Ah! I am delighted they should be
+thus mentioned on all occasions.(1)
+
+
+f(1) The Chians were the most faithful allies of Athens, and hence their
+name was always mentioned in prayers, decrees, etc.
+
+CHORUS ...to the heroes, the birds, to the sons of heroes, to the
+porphyrion, the pelican, the spoon-bill, the redbreast, the grouse, the
+peacock, the horned-owl, the teal, the bittern, the heron, the stormy
+petrel, the fig-pecker, the titmouse...
+
+PISTHETAERUS Stop! stop! you drive me crazy with your endless list.
+Why, wretch, to what sacred feast are you inviting the vultures and the
+sea-eagles? Don't you see that a single kite could easily carry off the
+lot at once? Begone, you and your fillets and all; I shall know how to
+complete the sacrifice by myself.
+
+PRIEST It is imperative that I sing another sacred chant for the rite of
+the lustral water, and that I invoke the immortals, or at least one of
+them, provided always that you have some suitable food to offer him;
+from what I see here, in the shape of gifts, there is naught whatever
+but horn and hair.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Let us address our sacrifices and our prayers to the winged
+gods.
+
+A POET Oh, Muse! celebrate happy Nephelococcygia in your hymns.
+
+PISTHETAERUS What have we here? Where did you come from, tell me? Who
+are you?
+
+POET I am he whose language is sweeter than honey, the zealous slave of
+the Muses, as Homer has it.
+
+PISTHETAERUS You a slave! and yet you wear your hair long?
+
+POET No, but the fact is all we poets are the assiduous slaves of the
+Muses, according to Homer.
+
+PISTHETAERUS In truth your little cloak is quite holy too through zeal!
+But, poet, what ill wind drove you here?
+
+POET I have composed verses in honour of your Nephelococcygia, a host of
+splendid dithyrambs and parthenians(1) worthy of Simonides himself.
+
+
+f(1) Verses sung by maidens.
+
+PISTHETAERUS And when did you compose them? How long since?
+
+POET Oh! 'tis long, aye, very long, that I have sung in honour of this
+city.
+
+PISTHETAERUS But I am only celebrating its foundation with this
+sacrifice;(1) I have only just named it, as is done with little babies.
+
+
+f(1) This ceremony took place on the tenth day after birth, and may be
+styled the pagan baptism.
+
+POET "Just as the chargers fly with the speed of the wind, so does the
+voice of the Muses take its flight. Oh! thou noble founder of the town
+of Aetna,(1) thou, whose name recalls the holy sacrifices,(2) make us
+such gift as thy generous heart shall suggest."
+
+
+f(1) Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse.--This passage is borrowed from Pindar.
+
+
+f(2) (Hiero) in Greek means 'sacrifice.'
+
+PISTHETAERUS He will drive us silly if we do not get rid of him by some
+present. Here! you, who have a fur as well as your tunic, take it off
+and give it to this clever poet. Come, take this fur; you look to me to
+be shivering with cold.
+
+POET My Muse will gladly accept this gift; but engrave these verses of
+Pindar's on your mind.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! what a pest! 'Tis impossible then to be rid of him!
+
+POET "Straton wanders among the Scythian nomads, but has no linen
+garment. He is sad at only wearing an animal's pelt and no tunic." Do
+you conceive my bent?
+
+PISTHETAERUS I understand that you want me to offer you a tunic. Hi!
+you (TO EUELPIDES), take off yours; we must help the poet.... Come, you,
+take it and begone.
+
+POET I am going, and these are the verses that I address to this city:
+"Phoebus of the golden throne, celebrate this shivery, freezing city;
+I have travelled through fruitful and snow-covered plains. Tralala!
+Tralala!"(1)
+
+
+f(1) A parody of poetic pathos, not to say bathos.
+
+PISTHETAERUS What are you chanting us about frosts? Thanks to the tunic,
+you no longer fear them. Ah! by Zeus! I could not have believed this
+cursed fellow could so soon have learnt the way to our city. Come,
+priest, take the lustral water and circle the altar.
+
+PRIEST Let all keep silence!
+
+A PROPHET Let not the goat be sacrificed.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Which the priest was preparing to sacrifice.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Who are you?
+
+PROPHET Who am I? A prophet.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Get you gone.
+
+PROPHET Wretched man, insult not sacred things. For there is an oracle
+of Bacis, which exactly applies to Nephelococcygia.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why did you not reveal it to me before I founded my city?
+
+PROPHET The divine spirit was against it.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Well, 'tis best to know the terms of the oracle.
+
+PROPHET "But when the wolves and the white crows shall dwell together
+between Corinth and Sicyon..."
+
+PISTHETAERUS But how do the Corinthians concern me?
+
+PROPHET 'Tis the regions of the air that Bacis indicated in this manner.
+"They must first sacrifice a white-fleeced goat to Pandora, and give the
+prophet, who first reveals my words, a good cloak and new sandals."
+
+PISTHETAERUS Are the sandals there?
+
+PROPHET Read. "And besides this a goblet of wine and a good share of the
+entrails of the victim."
+
+PISTHETAERUS Of the entrails--is it so written?
+
+PROPHET Read. "If you do as I command, divine youth, you shall be an
+eagle among the clouds; if not, you shall be neither turtle-dove, nor
+eagle, nor woodpecker."
+
+PISTHETAERUS Is all that there?
+
+PROPHET Read.
+
+PISTHETAERUS This oracle in no sort of way resembles the one Apollo
+dictated to me: "If an impostor comes without invitation to annoy you
+during the sacrifice and to demand a share of the victim, apply a stout
+stick to his ribs."
+
+PROPHET You are drivelling.
+
+PISTHETAERUS "And don't spare him, were he an eagle from out of the
+clouds, were it Lampon(1) himself or the great Diopithes."(2)
+
+
+f(1) Noted Athenian diviner, who, when the power was still shared
+between Thucydides and Pericles, predicted that it would soon be centred
+in the hands of the latter; his ground for this prophecy was the sight
+of a ram with a single horn.
+
+f(2) No doubt another Athenian diviner, and possibly the same person
+whom Aristophanes names in 'The Knights' and 'The Wasps' as being a
+thief.
+
+PROPHET Is all that there?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Here, read it yourself, and go and hang yourself.
+
+PROPHET Oh! unfortunate wretch that I am.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Away with you, and take your prophecies elsewhere.
+
+METON(1) I have come to you.
+
+
+f(1) A celebrated geometrician and astronomer.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Yet another pest! What have you come to do? What's your
+plan? What's the purpose of your journey? Why these splendid buskins?
+
+METON I want to survey the plains of the air for you and to parcel them
+into lots.
+
+PISTHETAERUS In the name of the gods, who are you?
+
+METON Who am I? Meton, known throughout Greece and at Colonus.(1)
+
+
+f(1) A deme contiguous to Athens. It is as though he said, "Well known
+throughout all England and at Croydon.
+
+PISTHETAERUS What are these things?
+
+METON Tools for measuring the air. In truth, the spaces in the air have
+precisely the form of a furnace. With this bent ruler I draw a line
+from top to bottom; from one of its points I describe a circle with the
+compass. Do you understand?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Not the very least.
+
+METON With the straight ruler I set to work to inscribe a square within
+this circle; in its centre will be the market-place, into which all
+the straight streets will lead, converging to this centre like a star,
+which, although only orbicular, sends forth its rays in a straight line
+from all sides.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Meton, you new Thales...(1)
+
+
+f(1) Thales was no less famous as a geometrician than he was as a sage.
+
+METON What d'you want with me?
+
+PISTHETAERUS I want to give you a proof of my friendship. Use your legs.
+
+METON Why, what have I to fear?
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis the same here as in Sparta. Strangers are driven away,
+and blows rain down as thick as hail.
+
+METON Is there sedition in your city?
+
+PISTHETAERUS No, certainly not.
+
+METON What's wrong then?
+
+PISTHETAERUS We are agreed to sweep all quacks and impostors far from
+our borders.
+
+METON Then I'm off.
+
+PISTHETAERUS I fear 'tis too late. The thunder growls already. (BEATS
+HIM.)
+
+METON Oh, woe! oh, woe!
+
+PISTHETAERUS I warned you. Now, be off, and do your surveying somewhere
+else. (METON TAKES TO HIS HEELS.)
+
+AN INSPECTOR Where are the Proxeni?(1)
+
+
+f(1) Officers of Athens, whose duty was to protect strangers who came on
+political or other business, and see to their interests generally.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Who is this Sardanapalus?(1)
+
+
+f(1) He addresses the inspector thus because of the royal and
+magnificent manners he assumes.
+
+INSPECTOR I have been appointed by lot to come to Nephelococcygia as
+inspector.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Magistrates appointed to inspect the tributary towns.
+
+PISTHETAERUS An inspector! and who sends you here, you rascal?
+
+INSPECTOR A decree of T(e)leas.(1)
+
+
+f(1) A much-despised citizen, already mentioned. He ironically supposes
+him invested with the powers of an Archon, which ordinarily were
+entrusted only to men of good repute.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Will you just pocket your salary, do nothing, and be off?
+
+INSPECTOR I' faith! that I will; I am urgently needed to be at Athens
+to attend the assembly; for I am charged with the interests of
+Pharnaces.(1)
+
+
+f(1) A Persian satrap.--An allusion to certain orators, who, bribed with
+Asiatic gold, had often defended the interests of the foe in the Public
+Assembly.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Take it then, and be off. See, here is your salary. (BEATS
+HIM.)
+
+INSPECTOR What does this mean?
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis the assembly where you have to defend Pharnaces.
+
+INSPECTOR You shall testify that they dare to strike me, the inspector.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Are you not going to clear out with your urns? 'Tis not
+to be believed; they send us inspectors before we have so much as paid
+sacrifice to the gods.
+
+A DEALER IN DECREES "If the Nephelococcygian does wrong to the
+Athenian..."
+
+PISTHETAERUS Now whatever are these cursed parchments?
+
+DEALER IN DECREES I am a dealer in decrees, and I have come here to sell
+you the new laws.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Which?
+
+DEALER IN DECREES "The Nephelococcygians shall adopt the same weights,
+measures and decrees as the Olophyxians."(1)
+
+
+f(1) A Macedonian people in the peninsula of Chalcidice. This name is
+chosen because of its similarity to the Greek word (for) 'to groan.' It
+is from another verb, meaning the same thing, that Pisthetaerus coins
+the name of Ototyxians, i.e. groaners, because he is about to beat the
+dealer.--The mother-country had the right to impose any law it chose
+upon its colonies.
+
+PISTHETAERUS And you shall soon be imitating the Ototyxians. (BEATS
+HIM.)
+
+DEALER IN DECREES Hullo! what are you doing?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Now will you be off with your decrees? For I am going to
+let YOU see some severe ones.
+
+INSPECTOR (RETURNING) I summon Pisthetaerus for outrage for the month of
+Munychion.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Corresponding to our month of April.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ha! my friend! are you still there?
+
+DEALER IN DECREES "Should anyone drive away the magistrates and not
+receive them, according to the decree duly posted..."
+
+PISTHETAERUS What! rascal! you are there too?
+
+INSPECTOR Woe to you! I'll have you condemned to a fine of ten thousand
+drachmae.
+
+PISTHETAERUS And I'll smash your urns.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Which the inspector had brought with him for the purpose of
+inaugurating the assemblies of the people or some tribunal.
+
+INSPECTOR Do you recall that evening when you stooled against the column
+where the decrees are posted?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Here! here! let him be seized. (THE INSPECTOR RUNS OFF.)
+Well! don't you want to stop any longer?
+
+PRIEST Let us get indoors as quick as possible; we will sacrifice the
+goat inside.(1)
+
+
+f(1) So that the sacrifices might no longer be interrupted.
+
+CHORUS Henceforth it is to me that mortals must address their sacrifices
+and their prayers. Nothing escapes my sight nor my might. My glance
+embraces the universe, I preserve the fruit in the flower by destroying
+the thousand kinds of voracious insects the soil produces, which attack
+the trees and feed on the germ when it has scarcely formed in the calyx;
+I destroy those who ravage the balmy terrace gardens like a deadly
+plague; all these gnawing crawling creatures perish beneath the lash of
+my wing. I hear it proclaimed everywhere: "A talent for him who shall
+kill Diagoras of Melos,(1) and a talent for him who destroys one of the
+dead tyrants."(2) We likewise wish to make our proclamation: "A talent
+to him among you who shall kill Philocrates, the Struthian;(3) four,
+if he brings him to us alive. For this Philocrates skewers the finches
+together and sells them at the rate of an obolus for seven. He tortures
+the thrushes by blowing them out, so that they may look bigger, sticks
+their own feathers into the nostrils of blackbirds, and collects
+pigeons, which he shuts up and forces them, fastened in a net, to decoy
+others." That is what we wish to proclaim. And if anyone is keeping
+birds shut up in his yard, let him hasten to let them loose; those who
+disobey shall be seized by the birds and we shall put them in chains, so
+that in their turn they may decoy other men.
+
+Happy indeed is the race of winged birds who need no cloak in winter!
+Neither do I fear the relentless rays of the fiery dog-days; when the
+divine grasshopper, intoxicated with the sunlight, when noon is burning
+the ground, is breaking out into shrill melody; my home is beneath the
+foliage in the flowery meadows. I winter in deep caverns, where I frolic
+with the mountain nymphs, while in spring I despoil the gardens of the
+Graces and gather the white, virgin berry on the myrtle bushes.
+
+I want now to speak to the judges about the prize they are going to
+award; if they are favourable to us, we will load them with benefits far
+greater than those Paris(4) received. Firstly, the owls of Laurium,(5)
+which every judge desires above all things, shall never be wanting to
+you; you shall see them homing with you, building their nests in your
+money-bags and laying coins. Besides, you shall be housed like the
+gods, for we shall erect gables(6) over your dwellings; if you hold
+some public post and want to do a little pilfering, we will give you the
+sharp claws of a hawk. Are you dining in town, we will provide you with
+crops.(7) But, if your award is against us, don't fail to have metal
+covers fashioned for yourselves, like those they place over statues;(8)
+else, look out! for the day you wear a white tunic all the birds will
+soil it with their droppings.
+
+
+f(1) A disciple of Democrites; he passed over from superstition to
+atheism. The injustice and perversity of mankind led him to deny the
+existence of the gods, to lay bare the mysteries and to break the
+idols. The Athenians had put a price on his head, so he left Greece and
+perished soon afterwards in a storm at sea.
+
+f(2) By this jest Aristophanes means to imply that tyranny is dead, and
+that no one aspires to despotic power, though this silly accusation was
+constantly being raised by the demagogues and always favourably received
+by the populace.
+
+f(3) A poulterer.--Strouthian, used in joke to designate him, as if from
+the name of his 'deme,' is derived from (the Greek for) 'a sparrow.' The
+birds' foe is thus grotesquely furnished with an ornithological surname.
+
+f(4) From Aphrodite (Venus), to whom he had awarded the apple, prize of
+beauty, in the contest of the "goddesses three."
+
+f(5) Laurium was an Athenian deme at the extremity of the Attic
+peninsula containing valuable silver mines, the revenues of which were
+largely employed in the maintenance of the fleet and payment of the
+crews. The "owls of Laurium," of course, mean pieces of money; the
+Athenian coinage was stamped with a representation of an owl, the bird
+of Athene.
+
+f(6) A pun, impossible to keep in English, on the two meanings of (the
+Greek) word which signifies both an eagle and the gable of a house or
+pediment of a temple.
+
+f(7) That is, birds' crops, into which they could stow away plenty of
+good things.
+
+f(8) The Ancients appear to have placed metal discs over statues
+standing in the open air, to save them from injury from the weather,
+etc.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Birds! the sacrifice is propitious. But I see no messenger
+coming from the wall to tell us what is happening. Ah! here comes one
+running himself out of breath as though he were running the Olympic
+stadium.
+
+MESSENGER Where, where is he? Where, where, where is he? Where, where,
+where is he? Where is Pisthetaerus, our leader?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Here am I.
+
+MESSENGER The wall is finished.
+
+PISTHETAERUS That's good news.
+
+MESSENGER 'Tis a most beautiful, a most magnificent work of art. The
+wall is so broad that Proxenides, the Braggartian, and Theogenes could
+pass each other in their chariots, even if they were drawn by steeds as
+big as the Trojan horse.
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis wonderful!
+
+MESSENGER Its length is one hundred stadia; I measured it myself.
+
+PISTHETAERUS A decent length, by Posidon! And who built such a wall?
+
+MESSENGER Birds--birds only; they had neither Egyptian brickmaker, nor
+stone-mason, nor carpenter; the birds did it all themselves; I could
+hardly believe my eyes. Thirty thousand cranes came from Libya with
+a supply of stones,(1) intended for the foundations. The water-rails
+chiselled them with their beaks. Ten thousand storks were busy making
+bricks; plovers and other water fowl carried water into the air.
+
+
+f(1) So as not to be carried away by the wind when crossing the sea,
+cranes are popularly supposed to ballast themselves with stones, which
+they carry in their beaks.
+
+PISTHETAERUS And who carried the mortar?
+
+MESSENGER Herons, in hods.
+
+PISTHETAERUS But how could they put the mortar into hods?
+
+MESSENGER Oh! 'twas a truly clever invention; the geese used their feet
+like spades; they buried them in the pile of mortar and then emptied
+them into the hods.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! to what use cannot feet be put?(1)
+
+
+f(1) Pisthetaerus modifies the Greek proverbial saying, "To what use
+cannot hands be put?"
+
+MESSENGER You should have seen how eagerly the ducks carried bricks.
+To complete the tale, the swallows came flying to the work, their beaks
+full of mortar and their trowel on their back, just the way little
+children are carried.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Who would want paid servants after this? But tell me, who
+did the woodwork?
+
+MESSENGER Birds again, and clever carpenters too, the pelicans, for they
+squared up the gates with their beaks in such a fashion that one would
+have thought they were using axes; the noise was just like a dockyard.
+Now the whole wall is tight everywhere, securely bolted and well
+guarded; it is patrolled, bell in hand; the sentinels stand everywhere
+and beacons burn on the towers. But I must run off to clean myself; the
+rest is your business.
+
+CHORUS Well! what do you say to it? Are you not astonished at the wall
+being completed so quickly?
+
+PISTHETAERUS By the gods, yes, and with good reason. 'Tis really not to
+be believed. But here comes another messenger from the wall to bring us
+some further news! What a fighting look he has!
+
+SECOND MESSENGER Oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! oh!
+
+PISTHETAERUS What's the matter?
+
+SECOND MESSENGER A horrible outrage has occurred; a god sent by Zeus
+has passed through our gates and has penetrated the realms of the air
+without the knowledge of the jays, who are on guard in the daytime.
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis an unworthy and criminal deed. What god was it?
+
+SECOND MESSENGER We don't know that. All we know is, that he has got
+wings.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why were not guards sent against him at once?
+
+SECOND MESSENGER We have d(i)spatched thirty thousand hawks of the
+legion of Mounted Archers.(1) All the hook-clawed birds are moving
+against him, the kestrel, the buzzard, the vulture, the great-horned
+owl; they cleave the air, so that it resounds with the flapping of their
+wings; they are looking everywhere for the god, who cannot be far away;
+indeed, if I mistake not, he is coming from yonder side.
+
+
+f(1) A corps of Athenian cavalry was so named.
+
+PISTHETAERUS All arm themselves with slings and bows! This way, all our
+soldiers; shoot and strike! Some one give me a sling!
+
+CHORUS War, a terrible war is breaking out between us and the gods!
+Come, let each one guard Air, the son of Erebus,(1) in which the clouds
+float. Take care no immortal enters it without your knowledge. Scan
+all sides with your glance. Hark! methinks I can hear the rustle of the
+swift wings of a god from heaven.
+
+
+f(1) Chaos, Night, Tartarus, and Erebus alone existed in the beginning;
+Eros was born from Night and Erebus, and he wedded Chaos and begot
+Earth, Air, and Heaven; so runs the fable.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Hi! you woman! where are you flying to? Halt, don't stir!
+keep motionless! not a beat of your wing!--Who are you and from what
+country? You must say whence you come.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Iris appears from the top of the stage and arrests her flight in
+mid-career.
+
+IRIS I come from the abode of the Olympian gods.
+
+PISTHETAERUS What's your name, ship or cap?(1)
+
+
+f(1) Ship, because of her wings, which resemble oars; cap, because she
+no doubt wore the head-dress (as a messenger of the gods) with which
+Hermes is generally depicted.
+
+IRIS I am swift Iris.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Paralus or Salaminia?(1)
+
+
+f(1) The names of the two sacred galleys which carried Athenian
+officials on State business.
+
+IRIS What do you mean?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Let a buzzard rush at her and seize her.(1)
+
+
+f(1) A buzzard is named in order to raise a laugh, the Greek name also
+meaning, etymologically, provided with three testicles, vigorous in
+love.
+
+IRIS Seize me! But what do all these insults mean?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Woe to you!
+
+IRIS 'Tis incomprehensible.
+
+PISTHETAERUS By which gate did you pass through the wall, wretched
+woman?
+
+IRIS By which gate? Why, great gods, I don't know.
+
+PISTHETAERUS You hear how she holds us in derision. Did you present
+yourself to the officers in command of the jays? You don't answer. Have
+you a permit, bearing the seal of the storks?
+
+IRIS Am I awake?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Did you get one?
+
+IRIS Are you mad?
+
+PISTHETAERUS No head-bird gave you a safe-conduct?
+
+IRIS A safe-conduct to me, you poor fool!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! and so you slipped into this city on the sly and into
+these realms of air-land that don't belong to you.
+
+IRIS And what other roads can the gods travel?
+
+PISTHETAERUS By Zeus! I know nothing about that, not I. But they won't
+pass this way. And you still dare to complain! Why, if you were treated
+according to your deserts, no Iris would ever have more justly suffered
+death.
+
+IRIS I am immortal.
+
+PISTHETAERUS You would have died nevertheless.--Oh! 'twould be truly
+intolerable! What! should the universe obey us and the gods alone
+continue their insolence and not understand that they must submit to
+the law of the strongest in their due turn? But tell me, where are you
+flying to?
+
+IRIS I? The messenger of Zeus to mankind, I am going to tell them to
+sacrifice sheep and oxen on the altars and to fill their streets with
+the rich smoke of burning fat.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Of which gods are you speaking?
+
+IRIS Of which? Why, of ourselves, the gods of heaven.
+
+PISTHETAERUS You, gods?
+
+IRIS Are there others then?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Men now adore the birds as gods, and 'tis to them, by Zeus,
+that they must offer sacrifices, and not to Zeus at all!
+
+IRIS Oh! fool! fool! Rouse not the wrath of the gods, for 'tis terrible
+indeed. Armed with the brand of Zeus, Justice would annihilate your
+race; the lightning would strike you as it did Licymnius and consume
+both your body and the porticos of your palace.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Iris' reply is a parody of the tragic style.--'Lycimnius' is,
+according to the scholiast, the title of a tragedy by Euripides, which
+is about a ship that is struck by lightning.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Here! that's enough tall talk. Just you listen and keep
+quiet! Do you take me for a Lydian or a Phrygian(1) and think to
+frighten me with your big words? Know, that if Zeus worries me again,
+I shall go at the head of my eagles, who are armed with lightning, and
+reduce his dwelling and that of Amphion to cinders.(2) I shall send more
+than six hundred porphyrions clothed in leopards' skins(3) up to heaven
+against him; and formerly a single Porphyrion gave him enough to do.
+As for you, his messenger, if you annoy me, I shall begin by stretching
+your legs asunder, and so conduct myself, Iris though you be, that
+despite my age, you will be astonished. I will show you something that
+will make you three times over.
+
+
+f(1) i.e. for a poltroon, like the slaves, most of whom came to Athens
+from these countries.
+
+f(2) A parody of a passage in the lost tragedy of 'Niobe' of Aeschylus.
+
+f(3) Because this bird has a spotted plumage.--Porphyrion is also the
+name of one of the Titans who tried to storm heave.
+
+IRIS May you perish, you wretch, you and your infamous words!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Won't you be off quickly? Come, stretch your wings or look
+out for squalls!
+
+IRIS If my father does not punish you for your insults...
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ha!... but just you be off elsewhere to roast younger folk
+than us with your lightning.
+
+CHORUS We forbid the gods, the sons of Zeus, to pass through our city
+and the mortals to send them the smoke of their sacrifices by this road.
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis odd that the messenger we sent to the mortals has
+never returned.
+
+HERALD Oh! blessed Pisthetaerus, very wise, very illustrious, very
+gracious, thrice happy, very... Come, prompt me, somebody, do.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Get to your story!
+
+HERALD All peoples are filled with admiration for your wisdom, and they
+award you this golden crown.
+
+PISTHETAERUS I accept it. But tell me, why do the people admire me?
+
+HERALD Oh you, who have founded so illustrious a city in the air, you
+know not in what esteem men hold you and how many there are who burn
+with desire to dwell in it. Before your city was built, all men had a
+mania for Sparta; long hair and fasting were held in honour, men went
+dirty like Socrates and carried staves. Now all is changed. Firstly, as
+soon as 'tis dawn, they all spring out of bed together to go and seek
+their food, the same as you do; then they fly off towards the notices
+and finally devour the decrees. The bird-madness is so clear, that many
+actually bear the names of birds. There is a halting victualler, who
+styles himself the partridge; Menippus calls himself the swallow;
+Opuntius the one-eyed crow; Philocles the lark; Theogenes the fox-goose;
+Lycurgus the ibis; Chaerephon the bat; Syracosius the magpie; Midias the
+quail;(1) indeed he looks like a quail that has been hit hard over the
+head. Out of love for the birds they repeat all the songs which concern
+the swallow, the teal, the goose or the pigeon; in each verse you see
+wings, or at all events a few feathers. This is what is happening down
+there. Finally, there are more than ten thousand folk who are coming
+here from earth to ask you for feathers and hooked claws; so, mind you
+supply yourself with wings for the immigrants.
+
+
+f(1) All these surnames bore some relation to the character or the build
+of the individual to whom the poet applies them.--Chaerephon,
+Socrates' disciple, was of white and ashen hue.--Opuntius was
+one-eyed.--Syracosius was a braggart.--Midias had a passion for
+quail-fights, and, besides, resembled that bird physically.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! by Zeus, 'tis not the time for idling. Go as quick as
+possible and fill every hamper, every basket you can find with wings.
+Manes(1) will bring them to me outside the walls, where I will welcome
+those who present themselves.
+
+
+f(1) Pisthetaerus' servant, already mentioned.
+
+CHORUS This town will soon be inhabited by a crowd of men.
+
+PISTHETAERUS If fortune favours us.
+
+CHORUS Folk are more and more delighted with it.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Come, hurry up and bring them along.
+
+CHORUS Will not man find here everything that can please him--wisdom,
+love, the divine Graces, the sweet face of gentle peace?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! you lazy servant! won't you hurry yourself?
+
+CHORUS Let a basket of wings be brought speedily. Come, beat him as I
+do, and put some life into him; he is as lazy as an ass.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Aye, Manes is a great craven.
+
+CHORUS Begin by putting this heap of wings in order; divide them in
+three parts according to the birds from whom they came; the singing,
+the prophetic(1) and the aquatic birds; then you must take care to
+distribute them to the men according to their character.
+
+
+f(1) From the inspection of which auguries were taken, e.g. the eagles,
+the vultures, the crows.
+
+PISTHETAERUS (TO MANES) Oh! by the kestrels! I can keep my hands off you
+no longer; you are too slow and lazy altogether.
+
+A PARRICIDE(1) Oh! might I but become an eagle, who soars in the skies!
+Oh! might I fly above the azure waves of the barren sea!(2)
+
+
+f(1) Or rather, a young man who contemplated parricide.
+
+f(2) A parody of verses in Sophocles 'Oenomaus.'
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ha! 'twould seem the news was true; I hear someone coming
+who talks of wings.
+
+PARRICIDE Nothing is more charming than to fly; I burn with desire to
+live under the same laws as the birds; I am bird-mad and fly towards
+you, for I want to live with you and to obey your laws.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Which laws? The birds have many laws.
+
+PARRICIDE All of them; but the one that pleases me most is, that among
+the birds it is considered a fine thing to peck and strangle one's
+father.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Aye, by Zeus! according to us, he who dares to strike his
+father, while still a chick, is a brave fellow.
+
+PARRICIDE And therefore I want to dwell here, for I want to strangle my
+father and inherit his wealth.
+
+PISTHETAERUS But we have also an ancient law written in the code of the
+storks, which runs thus, "When the stork father has reared his young
+and has taught them to fly, the young must in their turn support the
+father."
+
+PARRICIDE 'Tis hardly worth while coming all this distance to be
+compelled to keep my father!
+
+PISTHETAERUS No, no, young friend, since you have come to us with such
+willingness, I am going to give you these black wings, as though you
+were an orphan bird; furthermore, some good advice, that I received
+myself in infancy. Don't strike your father, but take these wings in one
+hand and these spurs in the other; imagine you have a cock's crest on
+your head and go and mount guard and fight; live on your pay and respect
+your father's life. You're a gallant fellow! Very well, then! Fly to
+Thrace and fight.(1)
+
+
+f(1) The Athenians were then besieging Amphipolis in the Thracian
+Chalcidice.
+
+PARRICIDE By Bacchus! 'Tis well spoken; I will follow your counsel.
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis acting wisely, by Zeus.
+
+CINESIAS(1) "On my light pinions I soar off to Olympus; in its
+capricious flight my Muse flutters along the thousand paths of poetry in
+turn..."
+
+
+f(1) There was a real Cinesias--a dythyrambic poet born at Thebes.
+
+PISTHETAERUS This is a fellow will need a whole shipload of wings.
+
+CINESIAS (singing) "...and being fearless and vigorous, it is seeking
+fresh outlet."
+
+PISTHETAERUS Welcome, Cinesias, you lime-wood man!(1) Why have you come
+here a-twisting your game leg in circles?
+
+
+f(1) The scholiast thinks that Cinesias, who was tall and slight of
+build, wore a kind of corset of lime-wood to support his waist--surely
+rather a far-fetched interpretation!
+
+CINESIAS "I want to become a bird, a tuneful nightingale."
+
+PISTHETAERUS Enough of that sort of ditty. Tell me what you want.
+
+CINESIAS Give me wings and I will fly into the topmost airs to gather
+fresh songs in the clouds, in the midst of the vapours and the fleecy
+snow.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Gather songs in the clouds?
+
+CINESIAS 'Tis on them the whole of our latter-day art depends. The most
+brilliant dithyrambs are those that flap their wings in void space
+and are clothed in mist and dense obscurity. To appreciate this, just
+listen.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! no, no, no!
+
+CINESIAS By Hermes! but indeed you shall. "I shall travel through thine
+ethereal empire like a winged bird, who cleaveth space with his long
+neck..."
+
+PISTHETAERUS Stop! easy all, I say!(1)
+
+
+f(1) The Greek word used here was the word of command employed to stop
+the rowers.
+
+CINESIAS "...as I soar over the seas, carried by the breath of the
+winds..."
+
+PISTHETAERUS By Zeus! but I'll cut your breath short.
+
+CINESIAS "...now rushing along the tracks of Notus, now nearing Boreas
+across the infinite wastes of the ether." (PISTHETAERUS BEATS HIM.) Ah!
+old man, that's a pretty and clever idea truly!
+
+PISTHETAERUS What! are you not delighted to be cleaving the air?(1)
+
+
+f(1) Cinesias makes a bound each time that Pisthetaerus strikes him.
+
+CINESIAS To treat a dithyrambic poet, for whom the tribes dispute with
+each other, in this style!(1)
+
+
+f(1) The tribes of Athens, or rather the rich citizens belonging to
+them, were wont on feast-days to give representations of dithyrambic
+choruses as well as of tragedies and comedies.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Will you stay with us and form a chorus of winged birds as
+slender as Leotrophides(1) for the Cecropid tribe?
+
+
+f(1) Another dithyrambic poet, a man of extreme leanness.
+
+CINESIAS You are making game of me, 'tis clear; but know that I shall
+never leave you in peace if I do not have wings wherewith to traverse
+the air.
+
+AN INFORMER What are these birds with downy feathers, who look so
+pitiable to me? Tell me, oh swallow with the long dappled wings.(1)
+
+
+f(1) A parody of a hemistich from 'Alcaeus.'--The informer is
+dissatisfied at only seeing birds of sombre plumage and poor appearance.
+He would have preferred to denounce the rich.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! but 'tis a regular invasion that threatens us. Here
+comes another of them, humming along.
+
+INFORMER Swallow with the long dappled wings, once more I summon you.
+
+PISTHETAERUS It's his cloak I believe he's addressing; 'faith, it stands
+in great need of the swallows' return.(1)
+
+
+f(1) The informer, says the scholiast, was clothed with a ragged cloak,
+the tatters of which hung down like wings, in fact, a cloak that could
+not protect him from the cold and must have made him long for the
+swallows' return, i.e. the spring.
+
+INFORMER Where is he who gives out wings to all comers?
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis I, but you must tell me for what purpose you want
+them.
+
+INFORMER Ask no questions. I want wings, and wings I must have.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Do you want to fly straight to Pellene?(1)
+
+
+f(1) A town in Achaia, where woollen cloaks were made.
+
+INFORMER I? Why, I am an accuser of the islands,(1) an informer...
+
+
+f(1) His trade was to accuse the rich citizens of the subject islands,
+and drag them before the Athenian court; he explains later the special
+advantages of this branch of the informer's business.
+
+PISTHETAERUS A fine trade, truly!
+
+INFORMER ...a hatcher of lawsuits. Hence I have great need of wings to
+prowl round the cities and drag them before justice.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Would you do this better if you had wings?
+
+INFORMER No, but I should no longer fear the pirates; I should return
+with the cranes, loaded with a supply of lawsuits by way of ballast.
+
+PISTHETAERUS So it seems, despite all your youthful vigour, you make it
+your trade to denounce strangers?
+
+INFORMER Well, and why not? I don't know how to dig.
+
+PISTHETAERUS But, by Zeus! there are honest ways of gaining a living at
+your age without all this infamous trickery.
+
+INFORMER My friend, I am asking you for wings, not for words.
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis just my words that give you wings.
+
+INFORMER And how can you give a man wings with your words?
+
+PISTHETAERUS 'Tis thus that all first start.
+
+INFORMER All?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Have you not often heard the father say to young men in the
+barbers' shops, "It's astonishing how Diitrephes' advice has made my son
+fly to horse-riding."--"Mine," says another, "has flown towards tragic
+poetry on the wings of his imagination."
+
+INFORMER So that words give wings?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Undoubtedly; words give wings to the mind and make a man
+soar to heaven. Thus I hope that my wise words will give you wings to
+fly to some less degrading trade.
+
+INFORMER But I do not want to.
+
+PISTHETAERUS What do you reckon on doing then?
+
+INFORMER I won't belie my breeding; from generation to generation we
+have lived by informing. Quick, therefore, give me quickly some light,
+swift hawk or kestrel wings, so that I may summon the islanders, sustain
+the accusation here, and haste back there again on flying pinions.
+
+PISTHETAERUS I see. In this way the stranger will be condemned even
+before he appears.
+
+INFORMER That's just it.
+
+PISTHETAERUS And while he is on his way here by sea, you will be flying
+to the islands to despoil him of his property.
+
+INFORMER You've hit it, precisely; I must whirl hither and thither like
+a perfect humming-top.
+
+PISTHETAERUS I catch the idea. Wait, i' faith, I've got some fine
+Corcyraean wings.(1) How do you like them?
+
+
+f(1) That is, whips--Corcyra being famous for these articles.
+
+INFORMER Oh! woe is me! Why, 'tis a whip!
+
+PISTHETAERUS No, no; these are the wings, I tell you, that set the top
+a-spinning.
+
+INFORMER Oh! oh! oh!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Take your flight, clear off, you miserable cur, or you will
+soon see what comes of quibbling and lying. Come, let us gather up our
+wings and withdraw.
+
+CHORUS In my ethereal flights I have seen many things new and strange
+and wondrous beyond belief. There is a tree called Cleonymus belonging
+to an unknown species; it has no heart, is good for nothing and is as
+tall as it is cowardly. In springtime it shoots forth calumnies instead
+of buds and in autumn it strews the ground with bucklers in place of
+leaves.(1)
+
+Far away in the regions of darkness, where no ray of light ever enters,
+there is a country, where men sit at the table of the heroes and dwell
+with them always--save always in the evening. Should any mortal meet the
+hero Orestes at night, he would soon be stripped and covered with blows
+from head to foot.(2)
+
+
+f(1) Cleonymous is a standing butt of Aristophanes' wit, both as an
+informer and a notorious poltroon.
+
+f(2) In allusion to the cave of the bandit Orestes; the poet terms him a
+hero only because of his heroic name Orestes.
+
+PROMETHEUS Ah! by the gods! if only Zeus does not espy me! Where is
+Pisthetaerus?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ha! what is this? A masked man!
+
+PROMETHEUS Can you see any god behind me?
+
+PISTHETAERUS No, none. But who are you, pray?
+
+PROMETHEUS What's the time, please?
+
+PISTHETAERUS The time? Why, it's past noon. Who are you?
+
+PROMETHEUS Is it the fall of day? Is it no later than that?(1)
+
+
+f(1) Prometheus wants night to come and so reduce the risk of being seen
+from Olympus.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! 'pon my word! but you grow tiresome.
+
+PROMETHEUS What is Zeus doing? Is he dispersing the clouds or gathering
+them?(1)
+
+
+f(1) The clouds would prevent Zeus seeing what was happening below him.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Take care, lest I lose all patience.
+
+PROMETHEUS Come, I will raise my mask.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! my dear Prometheus!
+
+PROMETHEUS Stop! stop! speak lower!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why, what's the matter, Prometheus?
+
+PROMETHEUS H'sh! h'sh! Don't call me by my name; you will be my ruin, if
+Zeus should see me here. But, if you want me to tell you how things
+are going in heaven, take this umbrella and shield me, so that the gods
+don't see me.
+
+PISTHETAERUS I can recognize Prometheus in this cunning trick. Come,
+quick then, and fear nothing; speak on.
+
+PROMETHEUS Then listen.
+
+PISTHETAERUS I am listening, proceed!
+
+PROMETHEUS It's all over with Zeus.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! and since when, pray?
+
+PROMETHEUS Since you founded this city in the air. There is not a man
+who now sacrifices to the gods; the smoke of the victims no longer
+reaches us. Not the smallest offering comes! We fast as though it were
+the festival of Demeter.(1) The barbarian gods, who are dying of hunger,
+are bawling like Illyrians(2) and threaten to make an armed descent upon
+Zeus, if he does not open markets where joints of the victims are sold.
+
+
+f(1) The third day of the festival of Demeter was a fast.
+
+f(2) A semi-savage people, addicted to violence and brigandage.
+
+PISTHETAERUS What! there are other gods besides you, barbarian gods who
+dwell above Olympus?
+
+PROMETHEUS If there were no barbarian gods, who would be the patron of
+Execestides?(1)
+
+
+f(1) Who, being reputed a stranger despite his pretension to the title
+of a citizen, could only have a strange god for his patron or tutelary
+deity.
+
+PISTHETAERUS And what is the name of these gods?
+
+PROMETHEUS Their name? Why, the Triballi.(1)
+
+
+f(1) The Triballi were a Thracian people; it was a term commonly used in
+Athens to describe coarse men, obscene debauchees and greedy parasites.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah, indeed! 'tis from that no doubt that we derive the word
+'tribulation.'(1)
+
+
+f(1) There is a similar pun in the Greek.
+
+PROMETHEUS Most likely. But one thing I can tell you for certain,
+namely, that Zeus and the celestial Triballi are going to send deputies
+here to sue for peace. Now don't you treat, unless Zeus restores the
+sceptre to the birds and gives you Basileia(1) in marriage.
+
+
+f(1) i.e. the 'supremacy' of Greece, the real object of the war.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Who is this Basileia?
+
+PROMETHEUS A very fine young damsel, who makes the lightning for
+Zeus; all things come from her, wisdom, good laws, virtue, the fleet,
+calumnies, the public paymaster and the triobolus.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! then she is a sort of general manageress to the god.
+
+PROMETHEUS Yes, precisely. If he gives you her for your wife, yours will
+be the almighty power. That is what I have come to tell you; for you
+know my constant and habitual goodwill towards men.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh, yes! 'tis thanks to you that we roast our meat.(1)
+
+
+f(1) Prometheus had stolen the fire from the gods to gratify mankind.
+
+PROMETHEUS I hate the gods, as you know.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Aye, by Zeus, you have always detested them.
+
+PROMETHEUS Towards them I am a veritable Timon;(1) but I must return in
+all haste, so give me the umbrella; if Zeus should see me from up there,
+he would think I was escorting one of the Canephori.(2)
+
+
+f(1) A celebrated misanthrope, contemporary to Aristophanes. Hating the
+society of men, he had only a single friend, Apimantus, to whom he
+was attached, because of their similarity of character; he also liked
+Alcibiades, because he foresaw that this young man would be the ruin of
+his country.
+
+f(2) The Canephori were young maidens, chosen from the first families
+of the city, who carried baskets wreathed with myrtle at the feast of
+Athene, while at those of Bacchus and Demeter they appeared with gilded
+baskets.--The daughters of 'Metics,' or resident aliens, walked behind
+them, carrying an umbrella and a stool.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Wait, take this stool as well.
+
+CHORUS Near by the land of the Sciapodes(1) there is a marsh, from the
+borders whereof the odious Socrates evokes the souls of men. Pisander(2)
+came one day to see his soul, which he had left there when still alive.
+He offered a little victim, a camel,(3) slit his throat and, following
+the example of Ulysses, stepped one pace backwards.(4) Then that bat of
+a Chaerephon(5) came up from hell to drink the camel's blood.
+
+
+f(1) According to Ctesias, the Sciapodes were a people who dwelt on the
+borders of the Atlantic. Their feet were larger than the rest of their
+bodies, and to shield themselves from the sun's rays they held up one of
+their feet as an umbrella.--By giving the Socratic philosophers the name
+of Sciapodes here Aristophanes wishes to convey that they are walking in
+the dark and busying themselves with the greatest nonsense.
+
+f(2) This Pisander was a notorious coward; for this reason the poet
+jestingly supposes that he had lost his soul, the seat of courage.
+
+f(3) Considering the shape and height of the camel, (it) can certainly
+not be included in the list of SMALL victims, e.g. the sheep and the
+goat.
+
+f(4) In the evocation of the dead, Book XI of the Odyssey.
+
+f(5) Chaerephon was given this same title by the Herald earlier in this
+comedy.--Aristophanes supposes him to have come from hell because he is
+lean and pallid.
+
+POSIDON(1) This is the city of Nephelococcygia, Cloud-cuckoo-town,
+whither we come as ambassadors. (TO TRIBALLUS) Hi! what are you up to?
+you are throwing your cloak over the left shoulder. Come, fling it quick
+over the right! And why, pray, does it draggle in this fashion? Have
+you ulcers to hide like Laespodias?(2) Oh! democracy!(3) whither, oh!
+whither are you leading us? Is it possible that the gods have chosen
+such an envoy?
+
+
+f(1) Posidon appears on the stage accompanied by Heracles and a
+Triballian god.
+
+f(2) An Athenian general.--Neptune is trying to give Triballus some
+notions of elegance and good behaviour.
+
+f(3) Aristophanes supposes that democracy is in the ascendant in Olympus
+as it is in Athens.
+
+TRIBALLUS Leave me alone.
+
+POSIDON Ugh! the cursed savage! you are by far the most barbarous of all
+the gods.--Tell me, Heracles, what are we going to do?
+
+HERACLES I have already told you that I want to strangle the fellow who
+has dared to block us in.
+
+POSIDON But, my friend, we are envoys of peace.
+
+HERACLES All the more reason why I wish to strangle him.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Hand me the cheese-grater; bring me the silphium for sauce;
+pass me the cheese and watch the coals.(1)
+
+
+f(1) He is addressing his servant, Manes.
+
+HERACLES Mortal! we who greet you are three gods.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Wait a bit till I have prepared my silphium pickle.
+
+HERACLES What are these meats?(1)
+
+
+f(1) Heracles softens at sight of the food.--Heracles is the glutton of
+the comic poets.
+
+PISTHETAERUS These are birds that have been punished with death for
+attacking the people's friends.
+
+HERACLES And you are seasoning them before answering us?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! Heracles! welcome, welcome! What's the matter?(1)
+
+
+f(1) He pretends not to have seen them at first, being so much engaged
+with his cookery.
+
+HERACLES The gods have sent us here as ambassadors to treat for peace.
+
+A SERVANT There's no more oil in the flask.
+
+PISTHETAERUS And yet the birds must be thoroughly basted with it.(1)
+
+
+f(1) He pretends to forget the presence of the ambassadors.
+
+HERACLES We have no interest to serve in fighting you; as for you, be
+friends and we promise that you shall always have rain-water in your
+pools and the warmest of warm weather. So far as these points go we are
+armed with plenary authority.
+
+PISTHETAERUS We have never been the aggressors, and even now we are
+as well disposed for peace as yourselves, provided you agree to one
+equitable condition, namely, that Zeus yield his sceptre to the birds.
+If only this is agreed to, I invite the ambassadors to dinner.
+
+HERACLES That's good enough for me. I vote for peace.
+
+POSIDON You wretch! you are nothing but a fool and a glutton. Do you
+want to dethrone your own father?
+
+PISTHETAERUS What an error! Why, the gods will be much more powerful if
+the birds govern the earth. At present the mortals are hidden beneath
+the clouds, escape your observation, and commit perjury in your name;
+but if you had the birds for your allies, and a man, after having sworn
+by the crow and Zeus, should fail to keep his oath, the crow would dive
+down upon him unawares and pluck out his eye.
+
+POSIDON Well thought of, by Posidon!(1)
+
+
+f(1) Posidon jestingly swears by himself.
+
+HERACLES My notion too.
+
+PISTHETAERUS (TO THE TRIBALLIAN) And you, what's your opinion?
+
+TRIBALLUS Nabaisatreu.(1)
+
+
+f(1) The barbarian god utters some gibberish which Pisthetaerus
+interprets into consent.
+
+PISTHETAERUS D'you see? he also approves. But hear another thing in
+which we can serve you. If a man vows to offer a sacrifice to some god,
+and then procrastinates, pretending that the gods can wait, and thus
+does not keep his word, we shall punish his stinginess.
+
+POSIDON Ah! ah! and how?
+
+PISTHETAERUS While he is counting his money or is in the bath, a kite
+will relieve him, before he knows it, either in coin or in clothes, of
+the value of a couple of sheep, and carry it to the god.
+
+HERACLES I vote for restoring them the sceptre.
+
+POSIDON Ask the Triballian.
+
+HERACLES Hi Triballian, do you want a thrashing?
+
+TRIBALLUS Saunaka baktarikrousa.
+
+HERACLES He says, "Right willingly."
+
+POSIDON If that be the opinion of both of you, why, I consent too.
+
+HERACLES Very well! we accord the sceptre.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Ah! I was nearly forgetting another condition. I will leave
+Here to Zeus, but only if the young Basileia is given me in marriage.
+
+POSIDON Then you don't want peace. Let us withdraw.
+
+PISTHETAERUS It matters mighty little to me. Cook, look to the gravy.
+
+HERACLES What an odd fellow this Posidon is! Where are you off to? Are
+we going to war about a woman?
+
+POSIDON What else is there to do?
+
+HERACLES What else? Why, conclude peace.
+
+POSIDON Oh! you ninny! do you always want to be fooled? Why, you are
+seeking your own downfall. If Zeus were to die, after having yielded
+them the sovereignty, you would be ruined, for you are the heir of all
+the wealth he will leave behind.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Oh! by the gods! how he is cajoling you. Step aside, that
+I may have a word with you. Your uncle is getting the better of you,
+my poor friend.(1) The law will not allow you an obolus of the paternal
+property, for you are a bastard and not a legitimate child.
+
+
+f(1) Heracles, the god of strength, was far from being remarkable in the
+way of cleverness.
+
+HERACLES I a bastard! What's that you tell me?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Why, certainly; are you not born of a stranger woman?
+Besides, is not Athene recognized as Zeus' sole heiress? And no daughter
+would be that, if she had a legitimate brother.
+
+HERACLES But what if my father wished to give me his property on his
+death-bed, even though I be a bastard?
+
+PISTHETAERUS The law forbids it, and this same Posidon would be the
+first to lay claim to his wealth, in virtue of being his legitimate
+brother. Listen; thus runs Solon's law: "A bastard shall not inherit, if
+there are legitimate children; and if there are no legitimate children,
+the property shall pass to the nearest kin."(1)
+
+
+f(1) This was Athenian law.
+
+HERACLES And I get nothing whatever of the paternal property?
+
+PISTHETAERUS Absolutely nothing. But tell me, has your father had you
+entered on the registers of his phratria?(1)
+
+
+f(1) The poet attributes to the gods the same customs as those which
+governed Athens, and according to which no child was looked upon as
+legitimate unless his father had entered him on the registers of his
+phratria. The phratria was a division of the tribe and consisted of
+thirty families.
+
+HERACLES No, and I have long been surprised at the omission.
+
+PISTHETAERUS What ails you, that you should shake your fist at heaven?
+Do you want to fight it? Why, be on my side, I will make you a king and
+will feed you on bird's milk and honey.
+
+HERACLES Your further condition seems fair to me. I cede you the young
+damsel.
+
+POSIDON But I, I vote against this opinion.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Then it all depends on the Triballian. (TO THE TRIBALLIAN.)
+What do you say?
+
+TRIBALLUS Big bird give daughter pretty and queen.
+
+HERACLES You say that you give her?
+
+POSIDON Why no, he does not say anything of the sort, that he gives her;
+else I cannot understand any better than the swallows.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Exactly so. Does he not say she must be given to the
+swallows?
+
+POSIDON Very well! you two arrange the matter; make peace, since you
+wish it so; I'll hold my tongue.
+
+HERACLES We are of a mind to grant you all that you ask. But come up
+there with us to receive Basileia and the celestial bounty.
+
+PISTHETAERUS Here are birds already cut up, and very suitable for a
+nuptial feast.
+
+HERACLES You go and, if you like, I will stay here to roast them.
+
+PISTHETAERUS You to roast them! you are too much the glutton; come along
+with us.
+
+HERACLES Ah! how well I would have treated myself!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Let some(one) bring me a beautiful and magnificent tunic
+for the wedding.
+
+CHORUS(1) At Phanae,(2) near the Clepsydra,(3) there dwells a people who
+have neither faith nor law, the Englottogastors,(4) who reap, sow, pluck
+the vines and the figs(5) with their tongues; they belong to a barbaric
+race, and among them the Philippi and the Gorgiases(6) are to be found;
+'tis these Englottogastorian Philippi who introduced the custom all over
+Attica of cutting out the tongue separately at sacrifices.(7)
+
+
+f(1) The chorus continues to tell what it has seen on its flights.
+
+f(2) The harbour of the island of Chios; but this name is here used
+in the sense of being the land of informers ((from the Greek for) 'to
+denounce').
+
+f(3) i.e. near the orators' platform, in the Public Assembly, or because
+there stood the water-clock, by which speeches were limited.
+
+f(4) A coined name, made up of (the Greek for) the tongue, and (for) the
+stomach, and meaning those who fill their stomach with what they gain
+with their tongues, to wit, the orators.
+
+f(5) (The Greek for) a fig forms part of the word which in Greek means
+an informer.
+
+f(6) Both rhetoricians.
+
+f(7) Because they consecrated it specially to the god of eloquence.
+
+A MESSENGER Oh, you, whose unbounded happiness I cannot express in
+words, thrice happy race of airy birds, receive your king in your
+fortunate dwellings. More brilliant than the brightest star that illumes
+the earth, he is approaching his glittering golden palace; the sun
+itself does not shine with more dazzling glory. He is entering with his
+bride at his side,(1) whose beauty no human tongue can express; in his
+hand he brandishes the lightning, the winged shaft of Zeus; perfumes
+of unspeakable sweetness pervade the ethereal realms. 'Tis a glorious
+spectacle to see the clouds of incense wafting in light whirlwinds
+before the breath of the Zephyr! But here he is himself. Divine Muse!
+let thy sacred lips begin with songs of happy omen.
+
+
+f(1) Basileia, whom he brings back from heaven.
+
+CHORUS Fall back! to the right! to the left! advance!(1) Fly around this
+happy mortal, whom Fortune loads with her blessings. Oh! oh! what grace!
+what beauty! Oh, marriage so auspicious for our city! All honour to
+this man! 'tis through him that the birds are called to such glorious
+destinies. Let your nuptial hymns, your nuptial songs, greet him and his
+Basileia! 'Twas in the midst of such festivities that the Fates formerly
+united Olympian Here to the King who governs the gods from the summit
+of his inaccessible throne. Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus! Rosy Eros with
+the golden wings held the reins and guided the chariot; 'twas he, who
+presided over the union of Zeus and the fortunate Here. Oh! Hymen! oh!
+Hymenaeus!
+
+
+f(1) Terms used in regulating a dance.
+
+PISTHETAERUS I am delighted with your songs, I applaud your verses. Now
+celebrate the thunder that shakes the earth, the flaming lightning of
+Zeus and the terrible flashing thunderbolt.
+
+CHORUS Oh, thou golden flash of the lightning! oh, ye divine shafts of
+flame, that Zeus has hitherto shot forth! Oh, ye rolling thunders, that
+bring down the rain! 'Tis by the order of OUR king that ye shall now
+stagger the earth! Oh, Hymen! 'tis through thee that he commands the
+universe and that he makes Basileia, whom he has robbed from Zeus, take
+her seat at his side. Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaeus!
+
+PISTHETAERUS Let all the winged tribes of our fellow-citizens follow the
+bridal couple to the palace of Zeus(1) and to the nuptial couch! Stretch
+forth your hands, my dear wife! Take hold of me by my wings and let us
+dance; I am going to lift you up and carry you through the air.
+
+
+f(1) Where Pisthetaerus is henceforth to reign.
+
+CHORUS Oh, joy! Io Paean! Tralala! victory is thing, oh, thou greatest
+of the gods!
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Birds, by Aristophanes
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