Aristophanes

The Birds

Warsaw 2020

Contents

CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

Euelpides

Pithetaerus

Trochilus, Servant to Epops

Epops (the Hoopoe)

A bird

A herald

A priest

A poet

An oracle-Monger

Meton, a Geometrician

An inspector

A dealer in decrees

Iris

A parricide

Cinesias, a Dithyrambic Poet

An informer

Prometheus

Posidon

Triballus

Heracles

Slaves of pithetaerus

Messengers

Chorus of birds

[Scene:-A wild and desolate region; only thickets, rocks, and a single tree are seen. Euelpides and Pithetaerus enter, each with a bird in his hand.]

Euelpides [to his jay]

Do you think I should walk straight for yon tree?

Pithetaerus [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; we’re wasting our time.

Pithetaerus

To think that I should trust to this crow, which has made me cover more than a thousand furlongs!

Euelpides

And that I, in obedience to this jay, should have worn my toes down to the nails!

Pithetaerus

If only I knew where we were....

Euelpides

Could you find your country again from here?

Pithetaerus

No, I feel quite sure I could not, any more than could Execestides find his.

Euelpides

Alas!

Pithetaerus

Aye, aye, my friend, it’s surely the road of “alases” 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, the Epops, who is a bird, without being born of one. He has indeed sold us this jay, a true son of Tharrhelides, for an obolus, and this crow for three, but what can they do? Why, nothing whatever but bite and scratch! [To his jay] 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.

Pithetaerus

Not even the vestige of a trail in any direction

Euelpides

And what does the crow say about the road to follow?

Pithetaerus

By Zeus, it no longer croaks the same thing it did.

Euelpides

And which way does it tell us to go now?

Pithetaerus

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 crows, 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. It’s not that we hate it; we recognize it to be great and rich, likewise that everyone has the right to ruin himself paying taxes; 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. That is why we started off with a basket, a stew-pot and some myrtle boughs! 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.

Pithetaerus

Here! look!

Euelpides

What’s the matter?

Pithetaerus

Why, the crow has been directing me to something up there for some time now.

Euelpides

And the jay is also opening it 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.

Pithetaerus

Do you know what to do? Knock your leg against this rock.

Euelpides

And you your head to double the noise.

Pithetaerus

Well then use a stone instead; take one and hammer with it.

Euelpides

Good idea! [He does so.] Ho there, within! Slave! slave!

Pithetaerus

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 [rushing out of a thicket]

Who’s there? Who calls my master?

Pithetaerus [in terror]

Apollo the Deliverer! what an enormous beak!

[He defecates. In the confusion both the jay and the crow fly away.]

Trochilus [equally frightened]

Good god! they are bird-catchers.

Euelpides [reassuring himself]

But is it so terrible? Wouldn’t it be better to explain things?

Trochilus [also reassuring himself]

You’re done for.

Euelpides

But we are not men.

Trochilus

What are you, then?

Euelpides [defecating also]

I am the Fearling, an African bird.

Trochilus

You talk nonsense.

Euelpides

Well, then, just ask it of my feet.

Trochilus

And this other one, what bird is it? [To Pithetaerus] Speak up

Pithetaerus [weakly]

I? I am a Crapple, from the land of the pheasants.

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 hoopoe, he begged me to become a bird also, to follow and to serve him.

Euelpides

Does a bird need a servant, then?

Trochilus

That’s no doubt because he was once a man. At times he wants to eat a dish of sardines 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. Come, Trochilus, do us the kindness to call your master.

Trochilus

Why, he has just fallen asleep after a feed of myrtle-berries and a few grubs.

Euelpides

Never mind; wake him up.

Trochilus

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This is a free sample. Please purchase full version of the book to continue.