Birds and Other Plays by Aristophanes

Author:Aristophanes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Drama, Ancient & Classical, Literary Criticism
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1998-07-15T05:40:24+00:00

[Flute music.]

CHORUS: Listen, you men down there in the half–light! Shadowy, impalpable, dreamlike phantoms: feeble, wingless, ephemeral creatures of clay, dragging out your painful lives till you wither like the leaves and crumble again to dust! Pay attention to us, the immortals; to us, the eternal, the airborne, the un–ageing, the imperishable; and hear from us the whole truth about what lies around and above you! We will explain to you the nature of birds, the birth of the gods, the genealogy of the rivers, the origin of Erebus and Chaos – and when you have learnt the truth you can pay off old Prodicus,14 with our compliments. – In the beginning there existed only Chaos, Night, Black Erebus and Dreary Tartarus: there was no Earth, no Air, no Sky. It was in the boundless womb of Erebus that the first egg was laid by black–winged Night; and from this egg, in due season, sprang Eros the deeply–desired, Eros the bright, the golden–winged. And it was he, mingling in Tartarus with murky Chaos, who begot our race and hatched us out and led us up to the light.

There was no race of immortal gods till Eros brought the elements together in love: only then did the Sky, the Ocean and the Earth come into being, and the deathless race of all the blessed gods.

So you see we are much older than any of the gods.

And that we are the children of Eros is plain by many tokens.

Like him, we fly.

Like him, we are associated with love.

Why, many a bashful beloved, in the prime of beauty and youth, has been won over, thanks to us: the gift of a quail, a goose or a cockerel at the critical moment has been known to work wonders.

It is from us, the birds, that Man receives all his greatest blessings. From us he learns of the coming of spring, of winter, of autumn. The cry of the crane as it flies back to Libya tells him it is the season for sowing; the shipmaster knows that he can hang up his rudder and enjoy a good night’s rest; Orestes15 weaves himself a warm winter cloak – no point in freezing to death while he’s on his way to steal someone else's. But when the kite appears, another season is at hand. Time for the sheepshearing! Spring is here! Then comes the swallow: time to sell those warm woollen clothes and buy something more summery.

We are your oracles too: your Ammon, your Dodona; your Delphi, your Phoebus Apollo. Whatever you are going to do, whether it’s a matter of trade, or feeding the family, or getting married, you always consult the birds. Why, you even use the word bird for anything that brings good luck or bad luck: whether it’s a chance remark, a sneeze, an unexpected meeting, a noise, a servant or a donkey, you call it a bird! So you see we really are the oracle you depend on most!

So let us be your gods

And your Muses prophetic!

To all your requests

We'll be most sympathetic.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.