Ὄρνιθες
Birds
Aristophanes · first staged City Dionysia, 414 BC · second prize
Two Athenians tired of the city persuade the birds to build a city in the sky, cutting the gods off from the smoke of sacrifice until Zeus gives in.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Ευ.Euelpides
- Πι.Peisthetaerus
- Θε.Servant of the Hoopoe
- Επο.Hoopoe
- Ορ.Bird
- Χο.Chorus
- Ιε.Priest
- Ποι.Poet
- Χρ.Oracle-monger
- Με.Meton
- Επι.Inspector
- Ψη.Decree-seller
- Αγ. ΑʹFirst Messenger
- Αγ. ΒʹSecond Messenger
- Ιρ.Iris
- Κη.Herald
- Πα.Father-beater
- Κι.Cinesias
- Συ.Informer
- Πρ.Prometheus
- Ποσ.Poseidon
- Ηρ.Heracles
- Τρ.Triballian
- Αγ.Messenger
Translations
- The Eleven Comediesprose · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Coulon's Greek
- W. J. Hickieprose · 1853 · aligned by speech · with Coulon's Greek
- William Arrowsmithverse · 1961 · aligned by speech · with Coulon's Greek
- Ian Johnston (VIU)verse · aligned by speech · with Coulon's Greek
Greek texts
- Coulon & van Daele, Aristophane, vol. 31928
- F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart, Aristophanis Comoediae, vol. 11906
Cite as Ar. Av. 1–1765
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Two Athenians, Peisthetaerus and Euelpides, have left Athens to be rid of lawsuits and are looking for Tereus, the king who became a hoopoe, to ask where to live. Peisthetaerus has a better idea: the birds should build a city in the air between men and gods and cut off the smoke of sacrifice. Cloudcuckooland is founded, the gods starve, and an embassy of Poseidon, Heracles, and a Triballian god comes to terms. Peisthetaerus gets Zeus's sceptre and marries Basileia, Sovereignty herself.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1881 plate of a black-figure oinochoe in the British Museum (Journal of Hellenic Studies 2, pl. XIV, fig. B.1): a piper playing the double pipes for two dancers in bird masks with crests and strapped-on wings, branches of ivy in the field; cut out and retraced.