The Birds

Aristophanes

Courier Dover Publications, May 14, 1999 - 80 pages

Disenchanted with the corruption of their native Athens, a pair of friends unite with the birds to found an idyllic city in the clouds. Widely acknowledged as Aristophanes' masterpiece, this sparkling fantasy resounds with comic vitality, combining witty dialog, interludes of exquisite lyricism, and clever stage effects for an irresistible extravaganza.

Popular passages

Page 44 - Nephelococcygia, to which 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?‎

Page 11 - CHORUS, singing: lo! 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.‎

Page 42 - 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.‎

Page 23 - ... all Olympus resounds, and astonishment seizes its rulers; the Olympian graces and Muses cry aloud the strain, tiotiotiotinx. LEADER OF SECOND SEMI-CHORUS 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, needing to take a crap, would not have to...‎

Page 26 - 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. The PRIEST departs.‎

Page 5 - No, not a greater, but one more pleasant to live in. EPOPS Then you are looking for an aristocratic country. EUELPIDES I? Not at all! I hold the son of Scellias in horror. 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...‎

Page 10 - 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.‎

Page 12 - 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?‎

About the author

ARISTOPHANES, the most famous comic dramatist of ancient Greece, was born an Athenian citizen in about 445 B.C. Forty-four plays have been attributed to Aristophanes; eleven of these have survived. His plays are the only extant representatives of Greek Old Comedy, a dramatic form whose conventions made it inevitable that the author would comment on the political and social issues of fifth-century Athens. This Aristophanes did so well that Plato, asked by the tyrant of Syracuse for an analysis of Athenians, sent a copy of Aristophanes' plays in reply.
    
His earliest play, the Banqueters, won the second prize in 427 B.C. when the dramatist must have been less than eighteen years old, since, as he notes in the Clouds (423), he was too young to produce it in his own name. Another early play, the Babylonians, criticized the demagogue Cleon, who responded by subjecting Aristophanes to legal persecution, and as the author charges in the Acharnians, Cleon had "slanged, and lied, and slandered and betongued me . . . till I well nigh was done to death." Nevertheless, in the Knights (424), he renewed his attack on the popular Athenian leader and won first prize in that year's contest. Plutus (388) was the last of the author's plays to be produced in his lifetime.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Birds; Dover Thrift Editions; Thrift Edition Series
• Author: Aristophanes
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Courier Dover Publications, 1999
• ISBN: 0486408868, 9780486408866
• Length: 80 pages
• Subjects: Birds; Birds/ Drama; Comedies; Drama / Ancient & Classical; Drama / General; Gods, Greek; Gods, Greek/ Drama; Imaginary societies; Imaginary societies/ Drama