The Birds
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Aristophanes >> The Birds
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.
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.