The Hoopoe: Come, let me stop sleeping, my companion,
Epops: 'But loose the laws of sacred hymns.'
Ἔποψ: Whom you lament from a godlike mouth.
Epops: My and your much-tearing Itys;
Epops: while being lulled with sacred songs
Epops: of a yellow jaw
Hoopoe: She goes through the leafy wood cleanly.
Ibis: a croaking echo towards Zeus's throne,
Epops: so that golden-haired Phoebus, hearing
Epopos: singing in response to your elegies.
Epops: an ivory lyre of the gods.
Epops: He sets up choirs; but through the immortals
Epops: A consonant moves along with mouths.
Ibis: a divine shriek of the blessed.
Pisthetaerus: O king Zeus of the bird's cry;
Pisthetairos: Just how thoroughly he has stripped the entire roof!
Euelpides: This one.
Pisthetaerus: What is it?
Pisthetaerus: Will he not be silent?
Euelpides: What then?
Pisthetaerus: He is not yet prepared to sing again.
The hoopoe: Epopoi popopopopopo!
Epopos: iō iō itō itō itō itō,
hoopoe: let one of my fellow-winged ones come here.
Epopus: as many as the plowed fields of the boors
Epops: Be angry, countless flocks of goat-critics!
Epopos: and the races of gossipers
Ἔποψ: flying swiftly, casting soft feathers.
Ἔποψ: as many as often in the threshing floor
Epops: Make a bird-lime ball like this, thin.
The hoopoe: with a pleasing voice;
Epos: tiò tiò tiò tiò tiò tiò tiò tió.
Epops: as many as of yours along the gardens on the ivy
Epops: He has a pasture with cuttings,
Epops: both those in the mountains, and those with horn-like ears, and those that eat maggots,
Ἔποψ: Fly up towards my voice;
Hoopoe: Tria-to, tria-to, to-to-brix.
Ἔποψ: and those who sharpen their beaks along the marshy channels
Ἔποψ: Eat the seeds and whatever moist places of the earth
Epops: You have a dewy meadow of Marathon, bird.
Epops: and the plumed, spotted turtledove, the turtledove.
Epops: of which, too, the swelling of the sea.
Ἔποψ: 'It wanders with flocks of kingfishers,'
Epeps: Come here to learn the latest news,
hoopoe: for we gather here every kind of bird.
Epops: of birds with long necks.
Eupops: For a sharp envoy has arrived.
Epops: a new opinion.
Epopus: an undertaker of new works.
Epopos: But come, let us enter into all the discussion,
Epops: here, here, here, here.
Chorus: torotorotorototrix.
Chorus: kikkabau kikkabau.
Chorus: torotorotorotorolililix.
Pisthetaerus: Do you see a bird?
Euelpides: By Apollo, I certainly not;
Euelpides: Yet, gazing at the sky, I am gaping with wonder.
Pisthetaerus: Otherwise, then, it seems, we are not yet on the perch
Pisthetairos: He went inside, making a croaking sound like a jackdaw.
Bird Some: torotix torotix.
Pisthetaerus: Oh good, but this man here and some bird is coming.
Euelpides: By Zeus, it is indeed a bird. Who is it? Not surely a cow, is it?
Pisthetaerus: This man himself will tell us: Who is this bird?
hoopoe: this one is not one of the usual birds that you always see,
Ἔποψ: But a marsh-hen.
Euelpides: By Zeus, he is handsome and wears a crimson cloak.
Epops: quite rightly; for his name is also 'red-winged'.
Euelpides: 'This one, by Zeus!'
Pisthetaerus: Why are you bellowing?
Euelpides: another bird is this one.
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, this fellow too is another with a sallow complexion.
Pisthetaerus: Who is that strange, bird-loving, mountain-climbing bird?
Epos: His name was Medos.
Pisthetairos: A Mede? O lord Heracles!
Pisthetaerus: Then how did a Median, without a camel, get inside?
Euelpides: Another bird, this one, has seized the crest.
Pisthetaerus: What is this omen, I wonder? Were you not the only one who was a hoopoe,
Pisthetaerus: But even this one is another?
Epos: This man here is Philocleon's.
Epops: From an epops, and I am his grandfather, as if you were saying.
Epops: Hipponikos, son of Kallias, and Kallias, son of Hipponikos.
Pisthetaerus: Is this Callias a bird? He flies with his feathers!
Euelpides: for since he is noble, he is plucked by sycophants,
Euelpides: And the females pull out his feathers.
Pisthetaerus: O Poseidon, here comes another diving bird!
Pisthetaerus: Who will ever be called this man?
Epopus: This fellow is a glutton.
Pisthetaerus: For is there another glutton besides Cleonymus?
Eupolid: So how, being Kleonymos, would he not have lost his crest?
Pisthetaerus: But, tell me, what is this pluming of the birds?
Pisthetaerus: Have I come to the stadium?
The hoopoe: Just as the Carians, then,
Hoopoe: They dwell on the hills, good man, for the sake of security.
Pisthetaerus: Oh Poseidon, do you not see what a great evil has gathered together?
Pisthetaerus: Of birds?
Euelpides: O lord Apollo of the cloud. Iu, iou,
Euelpides: There is no longer even a glimpse of the entrance as they fly above.
Epops: This one is a partridge, but that one, by Zeus, is a quail.
Epops: this one is a hoopoe, and that one is a kingfisher.
Pisthetaerus: For who is behind her?
Epopos: Who is he? A Kerylos.
Pisthetaerus: for is it a hoopoe, a bird?
Epops: 'For isn't there Sporgilos?'
Epopos: And this one too is an owl.
Euelpides: What do you say? Who has brought an owl to Athens?
Eupops: a greenfinch, a lark, a thrush, a pigeon.
Epops: a hawk, a sparrowhawk, a cuckoo, a red-legged kingfisher, a fire-fly.
Cormorant: purple-dyed, net-diving, vine-pecking, night-jar, oak-pecking.
Pisthetaerus: Io, io of the birds, io, io of the hawks;
Pisthetaerus: How they chirp and run, shouting as they go.
Pisthetaerus: Are they threatening us, then? Alas, they have their mouths wide open!
Pisthetaerus: And they see you and me.
Euelpides: This also seems so to me.
Chorus: popo-popo-popo-popo-woe, where did I take you, then, who?
Chorus: Did he call? What place, then, did he ever pasture?
hoopoe: this man has been here for a long time and has not deserted his friends.
Chorus: what what what what what what what what; what reason, then, ever
Chorus: to me, having a friend?
Epops: common, safe, just, pleasant, beneficial.
Epopos: For let subtle accountants come here to me.
Chorus: Where? Where to? How do you say?
Hoopoe: Rumor has come here from men, two old ones;
Ἔποψ: Come then, bringing a great and monstrous business.
Chorus: O greatest mistake from the time I was raised,
Chorus: How do you say?
Epop: Do not yet be afraid of the speech.
Chorus: What have you done to me?
Epops: I welcomed a man who is the lover of this association.
Chorus: And you have accomplished this deed?
Epops: And I, having done it, rejoice.
Chorus: And is there already somewhere among us?
Epops: if I am with you.
Chorus: 'Ea, ea,'
Chorus: We have been betrayed, and we have suffered impiety.
Chorus: for he who was a friend and was brought up with us
Chorus: they grazed the meadows near us,
Chorus: They did indeed violate ancient laws,
Chorus: but they broke the oaths of the birds;
Chorus: and he invited me into a trap and placed me beside it.
Chorus: an impious race, which arose against me.
Chorus: he was brought up as an enemy.
Chorus: but as for him, we have a later account;
Chorus: But I think those two old men should be given this punishment.
Chorus: to be distinguished by us.
Pisthetaerus: So we are utterly ruined.
Euelpides: You alone are responsible for these evils.
Euelpides: For what purpose, then, were you leading me from there?
Pisthetaerus: So that you might follow me.
Euelpides: so that I might break off large ones.
Pisthetairos: saying this, you babble.
Pisthetaerus: Very well! For how will he cry, if you once cut out his eyes?
Chorus: iō iō,
Chorus: Strike, press, bring on the enemy!
Chorus: a murderous rush, and wings everywhere
Chorus: Step forward and circle around!
Chorus: as one ought to wail in unison for these things
Chorus: and to give a belch of fodder.
Chorus: for there is neither a shady mountain nor a cloud in the sky
Chorus: nor is there a gray sea that will receive it.
Chorus: having escaped this, me.
Chorus: But let us not delay now to pluck this and to bite it.
Chorus: Where is the general? Let him lead the right wing.
Euelpides: That's just what I was looking for; where can I flee, wretched man?
Pisthetaerus: Will this one not stand firm?
Euelpides: So that I may be carried off by these?
Pisthetairos: For how do you think these men
Pisthetaerus: 'To escape?'
Euelpides: I do not know how it might be.
Pisthetaerus: But I tell you this,
Pisthetaerus: that, since they are waiting, we must fight and take the pots.
Euelpides: But what will a pot ever profit you?
Pisthetaerus: The owl does not come near us.
Eupolis: And what about these crook-noses?
Pisthetaerus: seizing the spit,
Pisthetairos: Then stick it right in front of you.
Eupolis: 'But what about the eyes?'
Pisthetaerus: take from here a sharp-dyed piece of wool or a bowl.
Euelpides: O most wise one, you have hit upon it well and strategically;
Eupolis: You are already outstripping Nicias with your devices.
Chorus: E-le-le-uh, march on, put down your beak; you ought not to delay.
Chorus: pull, pluck, strike, beat, hit the pot first.
Hoopoe: tell me what you are planning, you most evil beasts of all.
Ἔποψ: having suffered loss, we men would neither be ruined nor torn apart.
Epops: "Of my wife's relative and fellow-tribesman?"
Chorus: For will we show more pity for these things than for wolves?
Chorus: Or whom else could we punish more bitterly than these?
Epops: if, indeed, they are enemies of nature but friends of mind,
Epops: And having taught you something useful, have they come here?
Chorus: How could these people ever teach us anything useful?
Chorus: Or would they have been able to perceive it, being enemies to my grandfathers?
Epops: But truly, the wise learn many things from their enemies.
Epops: for caution preserves everything. So then, from a friend
Epos: You would not have learned this, but the enemy immediately compelled [you].
Ἔποψ: 'The cities, at once, learned from men to be enemies and not friends.'
Epopos: to labor hard for high walls and to possess long ships;
Epops: But this lesson saves children, money, and the house.
Chorus: First, it is necessary to hear words, as it seems to us,
Chorus: Useful; for someone might even learn wisdom from his enemies.
Pisthetaerus: Let these relax from their anger. Come on, onto your leg!
Epops: And it is right for me too to pay you a favor.
Chorus: But indeed, we have not yet opposed any other thing to you.
Pisthetaerus: They are keeping the peace all the more, by Zeus, so that the pot...
Pisthetaerus: He settled down on the tray.
Pisthetaerus: And there must be a spear, a spit,
Pisthetaerus: to walk, having us
Pisthetaerus: the weapons inside, by her.
Pisthetaerus: seeing the pot empty
Pisthetaerus: Close by; we must not flee now.
Euelpides: 'It was true, then, that we should die,'
Eupolis: Where shall we be dug out of the ground?
Pisthetairos: The Kerameikos will take us.
Pisthetaerus: for let us bury him publicly,
Pisthetaerus: We will say to the generals
Pisthetaerus: fighting the enemies
Pisthetaerus: to die in the Birds.
Chorus: Lead again into line, back into the same place,
Chorus: And lay down your anger, bending over.
Chorus: alongside the anger, just like a hoplite;
Chorus: And let us ask these people who they are, pray.
Chorus: And from where did we come?
Chorus: For what idea?
Chorus: Io, hoopoe, I call you.
Epops: And you call [me] wishing to hear?
Chorus: Who are these people and where are they from?
Epops: I have come as a guest from wise Greece.
Chorus: and what luck brings it?
Chorus: once, by chance, to the birds
Chorus: To come?
Epops: love
Hoopoe: of life and of diet
Epops: to dwell together with you is for you.
Epopus: And to agree on everything.
Chorus: What do you say?
Chorus: So they are saying some sort of things?
Epopos: Untrustworthy and beyond hearing.
Chorus: It sees some profit here that is worthy.
Chorus: of one alone, in whom he trusts
Chorus: Having consorted with me,
Chorus: to hold either the enemy or
Chorus: Is it to be able to benefit one's friends?
Epops: He says that some great fortune neither
Epops: a bed that is neither solid nor reliable; like
Epopos: for all these things are yours, and
Hoopoe: this way and that way and
Epops: Let him come here, saying.
Chorus: whether he is raging?
Epops: 'Inexpressibly how wise.'
Chorus: Is there some wisdom in the mind?
Epos: a very dense cloud of quails,
Epos: a rascal, a knave, a rogue, a rascal—all of him.
Chorus: Tell, tell, order me to speak.
Chorus: for hearing what you are saying to me
Chorus: I am winged with words.
Epops: Come then, you and you, the full armor again
Epops: Take this and hang it in good luck.
Epopus: into the oven, inside, near the back wall;
Epops: And you, having gathered these things with the very same arguments with which I gathered them,
hoopoe: tell me, teach me.
Pisthetaerus: By Apollo, I do not.
Pisthetaerus: If these men do not make a will for me
Pisthetairos: which one the ape arranged for the woman,
Pisthetairos: the knife-maker, not to bite me these ones
Pisthetaerus: neither to drag down orchards nor to dig up —
Chorus: Not anywhere.
Chorus: 'The —?' 'By no means.'
Pisthetairos: No, but I am speaking of the eyes.
Chorus: I am ready.
Pisthetaerus: swear to me now by these things.
Chorus: I swear by these things, to beat all the judges.
Chorus: and to all the spectators.
Pisthetaerus: It will be like this.
Chorus: If I were to transgress, [I would win] only against one judge.
Herald: Listen, people! The hoplites now!
Herald: having taken up the weapons, go home again,
Herald: but look at whatever we may write beforehand on the tablets.
Chorus: treacherous, indeed, in every way
Chorus: a man has been born; but you, nevertheless, tell me.
Chorus: for perhaps you might happen
Chorus: Having said what is good that you overlook for me, or
Chorus: some greater power
Chorus: which my unintelligent mind has omitted;
Chorus: But you, say this to everyone aloud.
Chorus: for whatever you happen to find for me
Chorus: Having procured it, this will be common.
Chorus: But on whatever matter you have come to persuade me of your opinion,
Chorus: speak with confidence; we will not be the first to break the libations.
Pisthetaerus: Indeed, I am angry, by Zeus, and a certain plan has already occurred to me,
Pisthetaerus: whom he does not hinder from boasting; come on, boy, bring a crown; let him be anointed.
Pisthetaerus: Let someone quickly bring water in the hand.
Euelpides: Are we about to dine? Or what?
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, but I have long been seeking a great and loud speech,
Pisthetaerus: He will shatter the soul of these people; thus I suffer greatly for you.
Pisthetaerus: whoever you were before, kings —
Chorus: We, kings? Of whom?
Pisthetairos: you
Pisthetaerus: Of all things that are, first of all this, and Zeus himself,
Pisthetaerus: You were born before the Titans and even before the elder ones, before Cronus,
Pisthetaerus: and of land.
Chorus: and the earth?
Pisthetaerus: By Apollo.
Chorus: By Zeus, I have not farted.
Pisthetaerus: for you were born ignorant and not meddlesome, nor have you trodden upon Aesop,
Pisthetaerus: who used to say, speaking, that the lark was the first bird to be born of all,
Pisthetaerus: first [he took] a land greater than this earth, and then he died of disease, her father:
Pisthetaerus: that there is no land, but that one lies before in five days; but that she is in need
Pisthetaerus: to have buried her father in her head out of helplessness.
Euelpides: So now the father of the quail lies dead at Cephale.
Pisthetaerus: But then, if they were first in relation to the earth and first in relation to the gods,
Pisthetaerus: Since they are the very oldest, is the kingship right?
Euelpides: By Apollo! Then in the future you must certainly feed your snout.
Euelpides: Zeus will not soon return the scepter to the woodpecker.
Pisthetaerus: But since the gods did not rule over men in ancient times,
Pisthetaerus: But birds, even if you were kings, there are many proofs of this.
Pisthetaerus: Immediately, then, I will first show you the rooster, how he tyrannized.
Pisthetaerus: First of all, he ruled the Persians, Darius and Megabazus,
Pisthetaerus: So it is called the Persian bird from that very beginning.
Euelpides: For this reason, then, having [it] now just like the great king, I ride over [it].
Euelpides: alone, standing upright with the birds' turban on my head.
Pisthetaerus: Thus he was strong and great and numerous at that time, so that even now
Pisthetaerus: By the strength of that time then, whenever it only sings at dawn,
Pisthetaerus: They all jump up for the work of the bronze-working potter to saw the dogs.
Pisthetaerus: tanners, ball-cleansers, barley-exchangers, lathe-turners, shield-makers;
Pisthetaerus: but those who walk put on their shoes at night.
Eupolis: Ask me this.
Euelpides: For that villain lost a cloak because of him, a cloak of Phrygian wool.
Euelpides: for once, having been summoned to the tenth [year], I used to drink in the city,
Euelpides: And just now I was going to sleep, and before the others had dined, this fellow has sung:
Euelpides: And I, thinking it was dawn, was marching to Alimounta, and just now I appear.
Euelpides: Outside the wall, a thief is hitting my back with a club;
Euelpides: And I am falling, and I am about to shout, but he has spit on my cloak.
Pisthetairos: And so, at that time, a kite was leading the Greeks and was reigning as king.
Chorus: of the Greeks?
Pisthetaerus: And this man was the first to show himself ruling.
Pisthetaerus: to roll like a herring.
Euelpides: By Dionysus, certainly I [will do it].
Euelpides: I was rolling like an owl, having seen it; and then, lying on my back, I was gaping.
Euelpides: I swallowed an obol; then, with the purse empty, I dragged myself home.
Pisthetaerus: And the cuckoo was king of all Egypt and Phoenicia;
Pisthetaerus: And if the cuckoo from then on were to say 'cuckoo', then all the Phoenicians
Pisthetaerus: 'If only they were harvesting the wheat and the barley in the fields!'
Euelpides: That was indeed the very same bird; cuckoo-wolves to the plain.
Pisthetaerus: they ruled so violently that even if someone were king
Pisthetaerus: in the cities of the Greeks, Agamemnon or Menelaus,
Pisthetaerus: A bird sits on the scepters, accepting whatever bribes.
Euelpides: I certainly did not know this; and indeed I was amazed.
Eupolid: whenever some Priam comes out holding a bird among the tragedians,
Euelpides: And so he stood watching Lysicrates to see what bribe he would take.
Pisthetaerus: But the most terrible thing of all is this: for Zeus is now the king.
Pisthetairos: Even a king, when he is a king, stands holding an eagle-bird upon his head,
Pisthetaerus: And again the daughter is an owl, but Apollo is like a hawk, a servant.
Euelpides: By Demeter, you speak well of these things. For what reason, then, do they hold these things?
Pisthetaerus: in order that whenever someone sacrifices and then to them into the hand, as is the custom,
Pisthetaerus: Let him give the entrails, so that they may receive the entrails of Zeus first.
Pisthetaerus: No one then would have sworn by a god, but by all the birds.
Pisthetaerus: And Lampon swears even now still by the goose, whenever he deceives someone.
Pisthetaerus: Thus they used to think all of you beforehand great and holy,
Pisthetairos: Now, I have slaves, the foolish Manes;
Pisthetaerus: Just as now the madmen
Pisthetaerus: They are shooting at you, even in the sacred places.
Pisthetaerus: Every bird-catcher is upon you.
Pisthetaerus: He sets up nooses, traps, and sticks.
Pisthetaerus: Walls of clouds, nets, solid [ones].
Pisthetaerus: then, having taken them, sell them all together;
Pisthetaerus: But they are selling while wearing cloaks.
Pisthetaerus: And so not even if, indeed, it seems to do these things,
Pisthetaerus: Having roasted you, we placed you on the side,
Pisthetaerus: But they are dipping cheese in oil.
Pisthetaerus: silphium vinegar, and having rubbed
Pisthetaerus: another sweet and greasy sloshing,
Pisthetaerus: And then they scattered heat.
Pisthetaerus: This is against you.
Pisthetaerus: Like their empty gulls.
Chorus: very, very, very difficult words
Chorus: You have brought a man. How I have wept for my [own]!
Chorus: from the evil of fathers, who
Chorus: granting these honors to their ancestors
Chorus: They stayed with me.
Chorus: but you, according to a divine sign and some sort of coincidence,
Chorus: You have come as a savior, bringing good things to me.
Chorus: for having offered you I
Chorus: I will inhabit both the chicks and myself.
Chorus: But whatever must be done, you teach while present; for to live is not worthy for us,
Chorus: unless we win back our kingship in every possible way.
Pisthetaerus: And now, then, first I teach that there is a city of birds,
Pisthetaerus: And then the whole air in a circle and all this in between.
Pisthetaerus: to wall it in with large baked bricks, like Babylon.
Epopus: O Kebrión and Porphyrión, what a fearsome city this is.
Pisthetaerus: and then, if this has been restored, demand the beginning from Zeus;
Pisthetaerus: and if he does not say, nor is willing, nor immediately enters into a trial by combat,
Pisthetaerus: to wage a holy war against him, and to declare war against the gods as well
Pisthetaerus: since they have been born in your country, they should not frequent it.
Pisthetaerus: just as before they descended, having committed adultery with Alcmene's
Pisthetaerus: and the Alopes and the Semeles; for if she has pursued, she will attack.
Pisthetaerus: a seal for them on the penis, so that they may not wet them any longer.
Pisthetaerus: but I order that a different bird be sent as a herald to the men,
Pisthetaerus: that in future we must sacrifice to the birds as if the birds were ruling,
Pisthetaerus: And then later to the gods again; to distribute appropriately.
Pisthetaerus: to the gods of the birds whoever is fitting for each one individually;
Pisthetaerus: If you sacrifice to Aphrodite, you must sacrifice barley to the sparrow.
Pisthetaerus: If anyone sacrifices wine to Poseidon, let him boil the wheat to make it pure;
Pisthetairos: But if anyone sacrifices to Heracles, they should sacrifice to the lark honeyed guts;
Pisthetaerus: Even if he sacrifices a ram to Zeus the king, the king is the oryx bird,
Pisthetaerus: To which of them first must he sacrifice the self-castrated eunuch of Zeus.
Euelpides: I rejoiced at the sacrifice of a slave. Let the great Zeus thunder now.
Chorus: And how do men think us gods and not jackdaws,
Chorus: Shall we fly, and shall we have wings?
Pisthetairos: You are talking nonsense; and by Zeus, Hermes too
Pisthetaerus: Being a god, he flies and wears wings, and there are many other gods too.
Pisthetairos: Immediately, Victory flies with golden wings, and by Zeus, so does Eros;
Pisthetaerus: But Homer said that Hera was like the hole-piercing dove.
Euelpides: But will Zeus send us a winged thunderbolt without thundering?
Pisthetaerus: But if they think that you are ignorant, since you do nothing,
Pisthetaerus: and these gods in Olympus must then have a flock of sparrows lifted up.
Pisthetaerus: and to dig up the seed of these seed-eaters from the fields;
Pisthetairos: And then let Demeter measure out barley to them while they are hungry.
Euelpides: No, by Zeus, he will not be willing, but you will see her providing excuses.
Pisthetaerus: And the crows, with which they curse the fields,
Pisthetaerus: and [make] them gouge out the sheep's eyes as a trial;
Pisthetaerus: Then let Apollo, being a physician, heal; for he receives a fee.
Euelpides: Not before I repay my oxherd my own first.
Pisthetaerus: If they think of you as a god, you as life, you as earth, you as Cronus, you as Poseidon,
Pisthetairos: All these things will be present for them.
Epops: Speak now to me one of the good things.
Pisthetaerus: first of all, the thieves do not eat their wine-roses,
Pisthetaerus: But a single ambush of owls and kestrels will crush them.
Pisthetaerus: Then the jackdaws and hornets are always devouring the figs,
Pisthetaerus: But a single flock of quails will pick them all clean.
Epops: And from where will we give them to become rich? For they are very eager about this.
Pisthetaerus: These men will give the good prophecies to them as they consult the mines,
Pisthetaerus: And they deceive the merchants in their profitable dealings with the seer,
Pisthetaerus: So then no shipowner will be lost.
Epops: How will he not be destroyed?
Pisthetaerus: 'Will one of the birds always prophesy to the man asking about the voyage?'
Pisthetaerus: Now do not sail, winter will come; now sail, profit will follow.
Euelpides: I have a boat and a shipowner, and I would not stay with you.
Pisthetaerus: [they] will show them the treasures which the earlier ones deposited.
Pisthetaerus: of the money, for these men know; and all these men say the following,
Pisthetaerus: No one knows my treasure except perhaps a bird.
Eupolis: I sell a gull, I buy a swan, and I dig up the hydrias.
Epops: how will she give them health, since she is with the gods?
Pisthetaerus: If she is doing well, is this not a great sign of health? Be sure of it,
Pisthetaerus: Indeed, no one is healthy, as a man in bad condition.
Epops: But how will they ever reach old age? For this too is on Olympus;
Epops: Should a child, being one, die?
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, but three hundred to them
Pisthetaerus: The birds will yet add years.
Epops: from where?
Pisthetaerus: from whom? From themselves.
Pisthetaerus: Do you not know that the jackdaw lives for five generations of men?
Euelpides: Alas, these men are far more fit to rule us than Zeus.
Pisthetaerus: Not for long?
Pisthetaerus: First of all, it is not a temple that we [have].
Pisthetaerus: They must build stone ones for them,
Pisthetaerus: nor to knock at golden doors,
Pisthetairos: But under the bushes and under the young birds
Pisthetaerus: They will dwell. But the dignified ones, again
Pisthetairos: The bird's olive tree
Pisthetaerus: The temple will be; and not in Delphi.
Pisthetaerus: nor even having gone to Ammon there
Pisthetaerus: We will sacrifice, but in the marshes.
Pisthetaerus: and standing with the cothurni, having them
Pisthetaerus: Let us pray to them for barley and wheat.
Pisthetaerus: stretching forth your hands to the good things
Pisthetaerus: to give some part; and this to us.
Pisthetaerus: It will happen right away.
Pisthetairos: They will throw in a few seeds.
Chorus: O dearest to me, having passed over from being most hateful among the elders,
Chorus: There is no way that I would ever willingly still abandon your opinion.
Chorus: having stopped your words
Chorus: I threatened and swore an oath,
Chorus: If you set yourself by my side,
Chorus: words of like-minded and just purpose
Chorus: without fraud, pious
Chorus: to the gods, I cry out, to me
Chorus: thinking in unison, not for a long time
Chorus: the gods will yet polish my scepters.
Chorus: But as for those things that must be done by force, we ourselves will be ready for them;
Chorus: As for all these matters which it is necessary to deliberate by judgment, they all rest with you.
Epopus: Yes, by Zeus, I am not drowsy anymore.
Epops: It is time for us, and we should not delay,
Epops: but we must do something as quickly as possible; first of all
Epops: Come into my nest, please.
Epopos: and my chaff and the present twigs,
Epops: And tell us this name too.
Pisthetaerus: but it is easy.
Pisthetaerus: My name is Pisthetaerus, to this man
Pisthetaerus: Euelpides from Crios.
Hoopoe: but farewell
Ἔποψ: both.
Pisthetaerus: We accept.
hoopoe: then come in here.
Pisthetaerus: Let us go; you lead the way, taking us with you.
Epops: Go.
Pisthetairos: But the thing is, come back here again.
Pisthetaerus: Come, let me see, tell us, how I and this man
Pisthetaerus: Shall we accompany you who are flying, or those who are not flying?
Epops: "Well done."
Pisthetaerus: Look now, as in Aesop's fables
Pisthetaerus: it is said, to be sure, about the fox, as
Pisthetairos: He once consorted with an eagle in a shameful way.
Epops: Do not be afraid at all; for there is a root.
Eops: You who have been torn to pieces, you will be winged.
Pisthetairos: Let us enter this way. Come on now, Xanthias.
Pisthetaerus: And Manodorus, take the mattresses.
Chorus: I call you this, I say you.
Epops: What are you calling [me]?
Chorus: leading these along with yourself
Chorus: Sing a fine song well; but the sweet-voiced harmonious nightingale to the Muses
Chorus: leave us here, having brought her down, so that we may play with her.
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, I must persuade them.
Pisthetaerus: get that little bird down from the slaughterhouse.
Euelpides: Drive her off from here, by the gods, so that
Euelpides: And let us watch the nightingale.
Epops: But if it seems good to you two, these things must be done. Procnē
Epops: Get out and show yourself to the foreigners.
Pisthetaerus: O Zeus, greatly honored, how beautiful the little bird is!
Pisthetaerus: how tender, and how white.
Eupolis: Do you know then that
Euelpides: I would divide it gladly, if I could.
Pisthetaerus: As much gold as he has, just like a maiden.
Euelpides: As for me, I think I can even kiss her.
Pisthetaerus: But, wretched snout, it has an obelisk in it.
Euelpides: But by Zeus, just like an egg that has been pecked, one must [do it].
Euelpides: from the head the lemming and then thus to love.
Epops: Let us go.
Pisthetaerus: Lead us, then, with good fortune.
Chorus: O dear one, O beautiful one,
Chorus: O dearest of birds
Chorus: of all, my fellow-drinkers
Chorus: Of songs, nightingales raised together,
Chorus: You came, you came, you appeared,
Chorus: bringing a sweet sound to me.
Chorus: But O, beautiful-voiced crower,
Chorus: with flutes, morning sounds,
Chorus: Lead the antepast.
Chorus: Come now, breathe, men of dark life, like the generation of leaves,
Chorus: few-handed, creatures of clay, shadowy, powerless tribes,
Chorus: hapless, day-flying, mortal men, like dreamers,
Chorus: Pay attention to the mind of the immortal ones, to us who always are,
Chorus: to the airy, ageless ones, to those devising things imperishable,
Chorus: so that, having heard everything correctly from us about the lofty matters.
Chorus: the nature of birds, and the birth of gods, and of rivers, and of Erebus, and of Chaos.
Chorus: knowing this correctly, from now on tell Prodicus to weep from me.
Chorus: First there was Chaos and Night and dark Erebus and wide Tartarus,
Chorus: and there was neither earth nor air nor sky; but [there was] Erebus in boundless recesses
Chorus: Night, the dark-winged, first of all gave birth to the windward egg,
Chorus: From what seasons, revolving, Love the longed-for sprang forth,
Chorus: shining with a back of golden wings, like a whirlwind in the air.
Chorus: This one, having mingled with a winged one at night, goes down through broad Tartarus.
Chorus: Our race has been reborn, and first it has been brought into the light.
Chorus: For before, there was no race of immortals, until Eros mingled all things together;
Chorus: When others mixed with others, then the sky and Ocean were born.
Chorus: And the earth, imperishable stock of all the blessed gods. Here we are.
Chorus: most ancient of all the blessed ones. But we, as we are of Eros,
Chorus: It is clear to many; for we fly and we sit with those who are in love;
Chorus: many handsome boys who have been criticized at the limit of youth
Chorus: Because of our strength, lovers have divided us.
Chorus: the one who gave the partridge, the one the purple gallinule, the one the goose, the one the Persian bird.
Chorus: And for mortals, from us, the birds, the greatest things are.
Chorus: First we show the seasons of spring, winter, and summer.
Chorus: to sow, whenever a crane, croaking, moves into Libya.
Chorus: and then a rudder shows the shipowner, when he has hung it up, to sleep,
Chorus: Then let him weave a cloak for Orestes, so that he may not undress while shivering.
Chorus: And then after this, a snipe, appearing, declares another hour,
Chorus: When the time comes to shear the spring fleece of the sheep; then the swallow,
Chorus: When one must already sell a cloak and buy some leather.
Chorus: We are Ammon, Delphi, Dodona, Phoebus Apollo.
Chorus: for having come first to the birds, thus turn yourselves toward everything,
Chorus: both for trade, and for acquiring a livelihood, and for the marriage of a man.
Chorus: You believe that every bird is a seer and judge of all things concerning divination;
Chorus: Rumor is a bird for you, and you call the bird 'sneeze',
Chorus: a bird made of wood, a bird made of sound, a bird as a servant, a bird as a donkey.
Chorus: Are we not clearly oracles of Apollo to you?
Chorus: Then if you consider us gods,
Chorus: You will have to make use of the Muses as seers.
Chorus: with breezes, seasons, winter, summer
Chorus: he chokes with a moderate breath; and they do not escape
Chorus: let us sit down above, dignifying ourselves.
Chorus: near the clouds, just as even Zeus [does].
Chorus: but being present we will give to you
Chorus: to them, to children, to children of children,
Chorus: health and wealth.
Chorus: happy life, peace.
Chorus: youth, laughter, dances, revels
Chorus: and milk of the birds. So it will be available.
Chorus: you will grow weary from the good men;
Chorus: Thus you will all become rich.
Chorus: Muse of the bristling crest,
Chorus: tiō tiō tiō tiō tiō tiō tiotíngx,
Chorus: variegated, through which I
Chorus: to the nymphs and the mountain-tops in the mountains,
Chorus: tiō tiō tiō tiotinx,
Chorus: sitting on the foliage-bearing ash,
Chorus: tiō tiō tiō tiotíngx,
Chorus: through my reddish jaw of the limbs
Chorus: I reveal sacred laws to Pan.
Chorus: and with solemn dances to the mountain mother,
Chorus: tototototototototigx,
Chorus: From there, like a bee
Chorus: Phrynichos was always feeding on the fruit of the ambrosial songs.
Chorus: carrying a sweet song.
Chorus: tio tio tio tiotingx.
Chorus: if any one of you, spectators, wishes to be with the birds.
Chorus: from now on, let us weave together with pleasure, so that they may come to us.
Chorus: for whatever shameful things are ruled by the law here,
Chorus: All these things are fine with us, the birds.
Chorus: for if it is shameful here to beat one's father by law,
Chorus: That is fine among us, if one [does it] for his father.
Chorus: having run up and having struck, say, "Take the plectrum, if you are to fight."
Chorus: but if anyone of you happens to be a branded runaway,
Chorus: This quail will be called a colorful one among us.
Chorus: but if anyone happens to be a Phryx no less than Spintharus,
Chorus: a fringilla-bird will be here, of the family of Philémon.
Chorus: if he is a slave and a Carian like Exekestides,
Chorus: Let someone blow the pipes here with us, and the clan members will appear.
Chorus: but if Peisander's son is to betray the gates to the disfranchised
Chorus: he wishes to become a partridge, the chick of his father;
Chorus: There is nothing shameful about cuckolding among us.
Chorus: Such things, swans,
Chorus: tiò tiò tià tiò tiò tiotíngx,
Chorus: a mixed clamor together
Chorus: shaking the Bacchic cry of Apollo with wings,
Chorus: tiô tiô tiô tiotigx,
Chorus: sitting on the bank by the river Hebrus,
Chorus: tiō tiō tiō tiotíngx,
Chorus: For through an ethereal cloud came a shout;
Chorus: Fly away, then, the diverse tribes of beasts,
Chorus: and a windless sky extinguished the waves,
Chorus: totototototototototigx.
Chorus: and the whole of Olympus has been struck!
Chorus: and awe seized the rulers; and the Olympian Graces sang a song.
Chorus: And the Muses have cried out.
Chorus: tiò tiò tiò tiotíngx.
Chorus: There is nothing better or sweeter than growing wings.
Chorus: Immediately, if any of you spectators had wings,
Chorus: Then, being hungry, he was vexed by the choruses of the tragedies,
Chorus: If he had come home, he would have been struck with terror.
Chorus: And then, having been filled, he would fly back at us again.
Chorus: If any Patrokleides among you happens to be a cheese-grater,
Chorus: He would not have gone up into the tunic, but he fluttered upward,
Chorus: and suddenly, and having breathed again, once more he flew down;
Chorus: If any one of you happens to be an adulterer,
Chorus: And then he sees the husband of the woman in a council chamber,
Chorus: This one, fluttering again from among you, would have flown up,
Chorus: then, having been driven away from there, he flew back again.
Chorus: Is it worthy for anyone to become winged?
Chorus: As for Dientrephes, having only the wings of a pigeon.
Chorus: He was chosen guard-captain, then cavalry-commander, and then nothing.
Chorus: Great things are being done, and now there is a red-headed cockhorse.
Pisthetaerus: These things are just like that. By Zeus, I am not yet a man of action.
Pisthetaerus: I have never seen anything funnier.
Euelpides: Are you laughing at me?
Pisthetairos: on your swift wings.
Pisthetaerus: Do you know in what way you most resemble [someone] when you are winged?
Pisthetaerus: to a goose written at a low price.
Euelpides: and you, with a chisel, have finished off a small box.
Pisthetaerus: We have done this in the manner of Aeschylus;
Pisthetaerus: these things not by others, but by their own wings.
Epop: Come now, what must be done?
Pisthetairos: First, [let's give] the city a name.
Pisthetaerus: to establish something great and famous, and then to the gods
Pisthetaerus: Sacrifice after this.
Euelpides: These things also seem good to me.
Epops: Come, let me see, what name will we give the city?
Euelpides: Do you wish for this great thing from Lacedaemon?
Euelpides: Shall we call it 'Sparta'?
Pisthetairos: O Heracles!
Pisthetaerus: For I would put Sparta in my city, wouldn't I?
Pisthetaerus: Not even if you have a very ragged chiton.
Euelpides: What name, then, shall we give her?
Epos: from here
The hoopoe: from the clouds and the aerial places
Epops: a very lazy thing.
Pisthetaerus: Do you want Cloudcuckooland?
Epopus: Iou, iou!
Epops: Indeed, you have found a beautiful and great name.
Euelpides: Is this place Cloudcuckooland,
Euelpides: in order that even the many possessions of Theogenes
Eupolid: All of Aeschines' [plays], then?
Pisthetaerus: and, first of all, then
Pisthetaerus: the plain of Phlegra, where the gods [fought] the earth-born ones
Pisthetaerus: Bluffing, they have become insolent.
Epops: The city's money is fat. But who is the god?
Epops: Will he be a city-girdle? Shall we then strip the cloak?
Euelpides: Why don't we let the Athenian [be] a Polias?
Pisthetaerus: And how could a city still be well-ordered?
Pisthetaerus: where a god, having become a woman, has put on full armor
Pisthetairos: She is standing, holding [it], and Kleisthenes is holding a shuttle?
Euelpides: Who will then hold the Pelargic district of the city?
Epops: a bird from our own Persian race,
Epops: just as it is said to be most skillful everywhere.
Epops: A young of Ares.
Euelpides: O master chicklet!
Euelpides: but the god lives in a place suitable for living on rocks.
Pisthetaerus: Come now, you go towards the air
Pisthetaerus: and serve those who are building the wall as well,
Pisthetaerus: Carry pebbles, taking off your mud.
Pisthetaerus: bring the basin down, jump down from the ladder,
Pisthetaerus: set up guards, always hide the fire,
Pisthetaerus: run around carrying the bell and splash water there;
Pisthetaerus: send a herald, one up to the gods,
Pisthetaerus: Another one from above to the people below,
Pisthetairos: And from there again to me.
Euelpides: But you, staying right there,
Euelpides: Lament with me.
Pisthetairos: Come now, good man, I send you.
Pisthetaerus: For without you, none of these things that I say will be accomplished.
Pisthetaerus: But in order that I may sacrifice to the new gods,
Pisthetaerus: I call the one who will send the priest the procession.
Pisthetairos: boy, boy, take up the basket and the basin of lustral water.
Priest: I will be made to bleed, I will be made to be torn.
Priest: I have given my joint advice.
Priest: great solemn songs to approach the gods,
Priest: And at the same time, for the sake of favor, he sacrifices a lamb.
Priest: Let Pythias go, let her go to the god with a shout,
Priest: let Charis sing the song too.
Pisthetaerus: Stop blowing! Heracles, what was that?
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, I have seen many things and terrible ones indeed.
Pisthetaerus: I have not yet seen a crow that has been fattened.
Pisthetaerus: Priest, perform your duty; sacrifice to the new gods.
Priest: I will do these things. But where is the man holding the basket?
Priest: Pray to Hestia the bird-goddess and to the weasel who keeps the hearth and to the Olympian birds and to all the Olympian women —
Pisthetaerus: O son of Sunium, hail, lord of the Storks.
Priest: And to the Pythian swan, and to the Delian, and to Leto the bird-nesting, and to Artemis Akalanthis—
Pisthetaerus: No longer the Kolainian, but the Acalanthian Artemis.
Priest: and to the Phrygian Sabazios and to the great mother of gods and men, the sparrow—
Pisthetaerus: mistress Cybele, hen, mother of Cleocritus.
Priest: to give health and safety to the Cloudcuckoolanders and to them and to the Chians —
Pisthetaerus: I was delighted, [as you are] lying around everywhere for the Chians.
Priest: And to the hero-birds and the children of heroes, to the purple-robed ones and
Priest: with the axe, with the hatchet, with the saw, with the four-toothed saw, and with the plane.
Priest: and he pities and curses and drives and [makes a noise like] a heron and a waterfall
Priest: and to the black-crested and to the goat-shining one —
Pisthetairos: Stop swearing by the crows, stop swearing! ouch ouch,
Pisthetaerus: To what sort of sacrifice, you wretch, are you calling?
Pisthetaerus: Sea-eagles and vultures? Don't you see that
Pisthetaerus: Could a kite, one of them, snatch this up and make off?
Pisthetaerus: Go away from us, both you and your wreaths!
Pisthetaerus: for I myself will sacrifice this one alone.
Priest: Then again, even then to you
Priest: I need a second part.
Priest: 'Sprinkle the holy water, a pious person, and call out.'
Priest: Blessed, just one, if indeed you will have enough fish sauce.
Priest: For the victims present are nothing other than
Priest: He has a beard and horns.
Pisthetaerus: Let us sacrifice and pray to the winged gods.
Poet: The Happy Cloud-Cuckoo-land.
Poet: Muse, close with your hymns' songs.
Pisthetaerus: What sort of a thing is this? Tell me, who are you?
Poet: I, a shooter of the song of honey-tongued verses,
Poet: diligent servant of the Muses,
Poet: according to Homer.
Pisthetaerus: And then, really, being a slave, do you have long hair?
Poet: No, but all of us are the teachers.
Poet: Attentive servants of the Muses,
Poet: according to Homer.
Pisthetaerus: You don't have a year of vigor and the little bag.
Pisthetaerus: But why, O poet, have you come here?
Poet: he has composed songs for the Cloudcuckooland.
Poet: your many and beautiful circles
Poet: both maidenly and in the manner of Simonides.
Pisthetaerus: Did you do this? When did you do it?
Poet: Long, long ago I have been calling this city.
Pisthetaerus: I am not just now sacrificing the tenth of this,
Pisthetaerus: And shall I even now give it a name just as to a child?
Poet: but a swift report of the Muses
Poet: just like the splendor of horses.
Poet: but you, father, builder of Etna,
Poet: you who share the name of the sacred groves,
Poet: give me whatever.
Poet: Do you wish to behead her?
Poet: willingly give me the song.
Pisthetaerus: This will cause us trouble,
Pisthetaerus: unless, giving something to this man, we escape.
Pisthetaerus: You, however, have a tunic and a cloak,
Pisthetaerus: Take off your clothes and give them to the poet, the wise man.
Pisthetaerus: Take the spleen; you certainly seem to be shivering to me.
Poet: this, though, I do not love unwillingly.
Poet: the Muse accepts a gift;
Poet: But you, learn the Pindaric word with your mind—
Pisthetaerus: One of our men will not escape.
Poet: for among the Scythians, [they are] nomads.
Poet: Stratton wanders about,
Poet: he who has not worn the weaver's robe;
Poet: without a tunic, you have struck a blow without glory.
Poet: Understand what I say to you.
Pisthetaerus: Gather together whatever you wish to take the little tunic.
Pisthetaerus: Take off your clothes; for the poet must help.
Pisthetaerus: Go away taking this one.
Poet: I am departing,
Poet: And when I have come to the city, I will do this:
Poet: Open the door, oh golden-throned one, the terrible, shivering one.
Poet: We came to snowy fields and very rocky places without shouting.
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, but you have already fled from these things.
Pisthetairos: having taken the warm, this little tunic.
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, I never expected this evil,
Pisthetaerus: how quickly he learned about the city.
Pisthetaerus: Again, you, go around, having taken the lustral water.
Pisthetaerus: Let there be silence.
Oracle-priest: Do not begin with the goat.
Pisthetaerus: And who are you?
Oracle: Who? An oracle.
Pisthetaerus: Oh, woe is me now.
Oracle: Oh man, do not treat divine matters lightly;
Chresmologos: 'As there is an oracle of Bacis, which speaks clearly.'
Prophet: 'To the Cloud-Cuckoo-Land.'
Pisthetaerus: And then how?
Pisthetaerus: You were not giving oracles about these things before me [arrived] in the city.
Pisthetaerus: to settle this?
Prophet: The divine hindered me.
Pisthetaerus: But there is no way to hear the verses.
Chresmologos: But when wolves shall dwell and crows with long feathers
Prophet: at the same time, the place between Corinth and Sicyon, —
Pisthetaerus: So what, then, does concern me, Corinthians?
Oracle: Bakis has hinted at this to the air.
Prophet: First, sacrifice to Pandora a white-haired ram;
Prophet: And whoever comes first as a prophet from my verses,
Oracle: 'To give a clean cloak and new sandals —'
Pisthetaerus: Are the sandals also available?
Chresmologus: Take the scroll.
Chresmologus: 'And to give a bowl, and to fill a hand with entrails.'
Pisthetaerus: And can you give offal?
Prophet: take the book.
Prophet: and if indeed you do these things as I command, O inspired youth,
Chresmologus: you will become an eagle among the clouds; but if you do not give [it],
Oraclemonger: You will not be a thicket-woodpecker, nor an eagle, nor a woodpecker.
Pisthetaerus: And are these things present here?
Prophet: Take the book.
Pisthetairos: So the oracle is nothing like this one,
Pisthetaerus: whom I erased from the Delphic oracle;
Pisthetaerus: But when an uninvited, boastful man comes
Pisthetaerus: He annoys those sacrificing and wishes to have compassion,
Pisthetaerus: Now then, we must strike him in the middle of his ribs—
Chresmologos: I think you are saying nothing.
Pisthetaerus: Take the book.
Pisthetaerus: And spare nothing, not even an eagle in the clouds,
Pisthetaerus: neither may Lampo be, nor may the great Diopeithes be.
Prophet: And are these things here as well?
Pisthetaerus: Take the book.
Pisthetaerus: Aren't you the doorkeeper? Go to the crows!
Oracle: Alas, wretched me.
Pisthetairos: Won't you then go off elsewhere to give an oracle as you run?
Meton: I have come to you —
Pisthetairos: And this is another evil.
Pisthetairos: But what will you do next? And what is the plan of action?
Pisthetaerus: What is the idea, what is the buskin of the road?
Meton: I want to survey the air.
Méton: to divide for you by lot.
Pisthetaerus: by the gods
Pisthetaerus: But who are you of men?
Meto: Who am I? Meto,
Mecon: whom all Hellas and the deme of Colonus knows.
Pisthetaerus: tell me,
Pisthetaerus: But what are these things to you?
Mecon: rulers of the air.
Meto: for the air is actually all in appearance.
Meton: especially like a drowning man. So I added,
Meton: the rule, this curved one from above
Meiton: having inserted a measuring rod — do you understand?
Pisthetaerus: I do not understand.
Methon: I will measure and add it upright with a ruler, so that
Methon: May the circle become a square for you and in the middle.
Methon: a market, and let roads lead into it.
Meon: Straight towards that very center, just like a star.
Meiton: since it is round, it is upright everywhere.
Meto: May the sunbeams shine forth!
Pisthetairos: A man named Thales.
Pisthetairos: Meton—
Meton: "What is it?"
Pisthetairos: You know that I love you, I do,
Pisthetaerus: And having obeyed me, he will urge me off the road.
Meton: But what is terrible?
Pisthetaerus: just as in Sparta
Pisthetairos: foreigners are being expelled and some are already in an uproar;
Pisthetaerus: frequent blows throughout the city.
Meton: Are you quarrelling?
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, certainly not.
Meto: but how?
Pisthetaerus: all together
Pisthetaerus: It seems to me to strew all the charlatans with ashes.
Meto: I should be off, then.
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, I do not know how...
Pisthetaerus: You would be ruined; for they are pressing close upon you.
Meto: Alas, wretched me!
Pisthetaerus: Didn't I say so long ago?
Pisthetaerus: Will you not measure yourself off, going away somewhere else?
Episcopus: Where are the ambassadors?
Pisthetaerus: Who is this Sardapallos?
Overseer: I have come here as overseer having drawn the bean.
Scout: To the Cloudcuckooland.
Pisthetaerus: a spy?
Pisthetaerus: Who sent you here?
Ephorus: a bad book
Overseer: Complete it.
Pisthetaerus: What? Do you really want to take the fee?
Pisthetaerus: Is he in trouble, or should he go away?
Scout: By the gods.
Episkopos: I was actually wanting to convene an assembly while staying at home.
Episkopos: for there are things that have been sold by me to Pharnakes.
Pisthetaerus: Go, taking it; for the payment is right here.
Ephippus: What was this?
Pisthetaerus: An assembly about Pharnakes.
Ephorus: I swear, even though I am being beaten, I am an ephorus.
Pisthetaerus: Won't you be quiet? Won't you carry off the two jugs?
Pisthetairos: Isn't it terrible? And they are already sending out scouts.
Pisthetaerus: To the city, before also sacrificing to the gods?
Salesman of decrees: if, however, the Cloudcuckoolander wrongs the Athenian —
Pisthetaerus: What is this misfortune again, this scroll?
Bill-seller: I am a bill-seller and [I sell] new laws.
Bid-seller: I have come here to you to sell.
Pisthetaerus: 'What is it?'
Bill-Seller: let the Cloud-Cuckoo-Landers use these measures and
The bill-seller: on the stations and with the decrees just like the Olophyxians.
Pisthetaerus: But you will soon use the very things with which you were struck on the ears.
Bill-seller: "What is wrong with you?"
Pisthetaerus: Will you not take the laws away?
Pisthetaerus: I will show you bitter laws today.
Epidikos: I am called Pisthetaerus, having arrived in the month of Munychion to commit hubris against the people of Munychia.
Pisthetaerus: Is this true? For you were still here, weren't you?
The Bill-Seller: if someone drives out the rulers and does not receive them
Salesman of decrees: according to the stele —
Pisthetaerus: Alas, wretched me, and you were still here, then?
Ephoros: I will destroy you and I am writing you down for ten thousand drachmas.
Pisthetaerus: But as for you, I will amuse myself with the two jars.
Soldier of the Decree: do you remember when you threw down the stele in the evening?
Pisthetaerus: Alas! Let someone seize him. Will not this man endure?
Pisthetaerus: Let us go as quickly as possible from here.
Pisthetaerus: Sacrifice the he-goat inside for the gods.
Chorus: Now for me, the all-seeing one.
Chorus: and all mortals everywhere
Chorus: They will sacrifice with prayers that are asked for.
Chorus: for I plow every land,
Chorus: I save the abundant fruits.
Chorus: killing the stock of all races
Chorus: of beasts, all of them on the earth
Chorus: growing from a pod with all-devouring jaws
Chorus: and they browse on the trees for their daily food;
Chorus: I will kill those fragrant gardens.
Chorus: They destroy with most hateful filth,
Chorus: all creeping things and stinging things whatsoever
Chorus: There is one under my wing who is perishing in slaughter.
Chorus: However, it is most often proclaimed on this very day,
Chorus: If anyone among you kills Diagoras the Melian,
Chorus: to take a talent, if any of the tyrants [has] something
Chorus: whoever kills the dead takes a talent.
Chorus: Therefore we wish now to speak the same things here as well.
Chorus: If one of you kills Philocles son of Strouthion,
Chorus: he will receive a talent, but if he brings him alive, four.
Chorus: that he sells the sparrows for seven obols each,
Chorus: then, puffing up the larks, he points them out and plunders them,
Chorus: And to those with sharp beaks, pour their wings into their nostrils,
Chorus: Having similarly seized the doves, you have bound them.
Chorus: And he compels them to wrestle, bound in a net.
Chorus: We wish to say this: and if anyone keeps birds,
Chorus: We tell you to let go of those who are shut up in the courtyard.
Chorus: But if you do not obey, you will be arrested by the birds.
Chorus: Again, you will wrestle tied up here with us.
Chorus: Happy race of birds!
Chorus: of birds, who indeed in winter
Chorus: They do not wear cloaks.
Chorus: Nor again does a warm choking [of the] birds [affect] us.
Chorus: A far-shining ray warms.
Chorus: but of flowery meadows
Chorus: I dwell in the hollows of leaves,
Chorus: whenever the divine, piercing melody, the wailing,
Chorus: the sun-stricken one cries out with the warmth of the midday sun.
Chorus: I am suffering in hollow caves
Chorus: playing with the mountain nymphs;
Chorus: We are feeding on the grasses of spring and on maidens.
Chorus: White-fed myrtles of the Graces, and their gardens.
Chorus: We wish to say something to the judges concerning the victory,
Chorus: All the good things that they may judge us to be, we will give to all of them,
Chorus: so as to receive greater gifts than those of Alexander by far.
Chorus: For first of all, no judge is especially eager for it,
Chorus: The Attic owls will never abandon you;
Chorus: But they will dwell inside, and in the purses.
Chorus: they will be nine years old and they will steal small coins.
Chorus: And then, in addition to this, you will live as in sacred places;
Chorus: For we will plaster your houses against an eagle;
Chorus: And if you should draw lots for a small office, then would you wish to seize it?
Chorus: We will give you a sharp little hawk into your hands.
Chorus: But if you ever dine, we will send you heralds.
Chorus: If you do not judge, you will be forged to wear crescent-moons.
Chorus: like statues; as long as anyone among you does not hold a grudge,
Chorus: When you have a white cloak, then especially thus you will have justice.
Chorus: give it to us, all of you birds, while you pay the levy.
Pisthetaerus: The birds are our sacred birds, indeed, good ones.
Pisthetaerus: but a messenger is standing right by the wall.
Pisthetaerus: No one, from whom we will inquire about the affairs there.
Pisthetaerus: But this fellow is running, breathing the Alpheus.
Messenger A: Where, where is it, where, where is it, where, where is it where?
Messenger A: Where is Pisthetairos, the ruler?
Pisthetaerus: This one here.
Messenger A: The wall has been built for you.
Pisthetaerus: You speak well.
Messenger A: The most beautiful and most magnificent work;
Messenger A: So, on top, on the one hand, Proxenides the Trumper
Messenger A: And Theogenes [has] two opposing chariots,
Messenger A: the size of a horse when they are standing, as much as a spear.
Messenger A: I would have passed through on account of the width.
Pisthetaerus: Hercules.
Messenger A: But the length is this, for I measured it myself.
Messenger A: a hundred-yard long.
Pisthetairos: O Poseidon, you of the long hair.
Pisthetaerus: Who built it so large?
Messenger A: O birds, no one else, not an Egyptian.
Messenger A: a bricklayer, not a stone-mason, not a carpenter, was present,
Messenger A: But they are self-murderers, so as to wonder at me.
Messenger A: Indeed, I came from Libya, a force of thirty thousand.
Messenger A: cranes have sold foundations of stone.
Messenger A: These they were trampling with their snouts.
Messenger A: And ten thousand storks were bringing bricks.
Messenger A: They were carrying water up from below into the air.
Messenger A: The ravens and the other birds are thirsty.
Pisthetaerus: Were some of them carrying burdens?
Messenger A: pelicans
Messenger A: basins.
Pisthetairos: "And how did they throw the mud?"
Messenger A: This was discovered to be excellent and most cleverly.
Messenger A: the geese, stamping as if on threshing floors.
Messenger A: They were throwing it into the cauldrons with their two feet.
Pisthetaerus: Then what on earth would feet not be able to accomplish?
Messenger A: And by Zeus, the birds are indeed girded.
Messenger A: We were carrying bricks. And up above the guide.
Angel A: flying with their wings behind, just like children.
Messenger A: the swallows [fill] the mud in their mouths.
Pisthetaerus: So what would anyone hire for wages anymore?
Pisthetaerus: Bring it so I may see, what then? Who are those of the wooden wall?
Pisthetaerus: 'Have they been accomplished?'
Messenger A: The birds were builders.
Messenger A: Most wise woodpeckers, who with your snouts
Messenger A: They hacked at the gates; and the noise was [such].
Messenger A: like they are carpenters in a shipyard.
Messenger A: And now all those things have been walled up with gates.
Messenger A: and he has been thrown down and is being guarded all around,
Messenger A: He is being attacked, a bell is being carried [in alarm], everywhere,
Messenger A: The watchmen have been set up and the signal-fires.
Messenger A: In the towers. But as for me, I am running away
Messenger A: I will wash myself off; but you yourself do the rest now.
Chorus: What are you doing? Do you wonder that
Chorus: Thus has the wall been walled up so quickly?
Pisthetairos: By the gods, I do; for indeed it is fitting;
Pisthetaerus: For truly it seems to me to be equal to lies.
Pisthetaerus: But this man is a messenger from there, for he is a guard.
Pisthetaerus: He will eat a pyrrhic dance looking towards us here.
Messenger B: Io, io, io, io, io, io.
Pisthetaerus: What is this affair?
Messenger B: We have suffered terribly.
Messenger B.: For one of the gods has just now come from Zeus.
Messenger B.: He flew in through the gates into the air,
Messenger B.: Having slipped past the watchful magpie guards.
Pisthetaerus: Oh, what a terrible and outrageous deed I have accomplished.
Pisthetairos: Which of the gods?
Messenger B.: We do not know; but that he had wings,
Messenger B.: We know that.
Pisthetaerus: Surely then we ought not to have sent out patrols.
Pisthetaerus: To send against him immediately?
Messenger B: But we sent [them].
Messenger B.: thirty thousand hawk-archers,
Messenger B.: Let everyone go with his nails hooked,
Messenger B.: a hawk, a trireme commander, a vulture, a cumin, an eagle;
Messenger B.: with force, with wings, and with buzzing
Messenger B.: The air is shaken as the god is sought;
Messenger B.: Not from a distance, but somewhere right here.
Messenger B.: It is already [here].
Pisthetaerus: Shouldn't we then take slings?
Pisthetaerus: And bows? Come here, all the servants!
Pisthetaerus: Shoot, strike, someone throw me a sling.
Chorus: War is carried off, war is not spoken of.
Chorus: to me and the gods. But watch, everyone.
Chorus: the air surrounding the clouds, which Erebus bore,
Chorus: Let not some one of the gods passing this way escape your notice.
Chorus: But let everyone look around, watching,
Chorus: how near now is a flying spirit
Chorus: A whirring winged sound is heard.
Pisthetaerus: You there, where, where, where are you flying? Be quiet,
Pisthetaerus: Hold fast and steady; stand right there; stop your run.
Pisthetaerus: Who are you? Where from? You ought to say from where and when you are.
Iris: I come from the Olympian gods.
Pisthetairos: Your name is 'It.' What is it? A boat or a dog?
Iris: Iris the swift.
Pisthetaerus: Paralus or Salaminia?
Iris: But what is this?
Pisthetaerus: Won't someone catch this one?
Pisthetaerus: a trireme with its sails unfurled?
Iris: Will she arrest me?
Iris: What on earth is this evil?
Pisthetaerus: He will wail a long wail.
Iris: This is a strange thing.
Pisthetaerus: By which gate?
Pisthetaerus: Did you enter into the wall, most wretched one?
IRIS: I do not know, by Zeus, I myself, through which gates.
Pisthetaerus: Did you hear how she is mocking her?
Pisthetaerus: Have you approached the magpies? Are you not speaking?
Pisthetaerus: Do you have a seal from the storks?
Iris: What is the trouble?
Pisthetaerus: Didn't you take it?
Iris: Are you well?
Pisthetaerus: not even a password
Pisthetaerus: Has no bird-king been present to you?
Iris: By Zeus, no one has put a burden on me, my dear ones.
Pisthetaerus: And then, by Zeus, he flew away in silence.
Pisthetaerus: through the city of strangers and through the chaos?
Iris: For with what other wings ought the gods to fly?
Pisthetaerus: I do not know, by Zeus, I for one; for certainly not in this way.
Pisthetairos: You are acting unjustly even now. Do you know this fact that
Pisthetaerus: most justly would be taken of all the Iris's.
Pisthetaerus: You died, if you happened to be of worth?
Iris: But I am immortal.
Pisthetaerus: But still, you would have died.
Pisthetaerus: For, it seems to me, we shall be persuaded very cleverly,
Pisthetaerus: if we rule over the others, but you gods...
Pisthetaerus: Keep on being unrestrained, and you will not yet realize that
Pisthetaerus: You must listen to the better things in turn.
Pisthetairos: Tell me, then, by what sea route do you sail with your two wings?
Iris: Me? I fly to humans from my father.
Iris: having ordered to sacrifice to the Olympian gods
Iris: to slaughter sheep and to offer bulls on hearths
Iris: and let the streets steam.
Pisthetaerus: What are you saying? Which gods?
Iris: With whom? With us the gods in heaven.
Pisthetaerus: 'Are you, then, gods?'
Iris: For who else is there another god?
Pisthetaerus: Birds are now gods to men,
Pisthetaerus: They must be sacrificed to them, but by Zeus, not to Zeus.
Iris: O fool, fool, do not disturb the minds of the gods.
Iris: terrible, how your race will be utterly destroyed.
Iris: With a hammer of Zeus, Justice will turn everything upside down.
Iris: a flaxen body and the folds of the houses.
Iris: may the lightning bolts of Lykimnia strike you down.
Pisthetairos: Listen to this woman; stop your splashing;
Pisthetaerus: Hold still. Let me see, whether he is a Lydian or a Phrygian.
Pisthetaerus: Speaking these things, do you seem to be trying to frighten me?
Pisthetairos: Do you know that if Zeus upsets me any further,
Pisthetaerus: the halls and buildings of Amphion.
Pisthetaerus: shall I scorch the eagle-bearers of fire?
Pisthetaerus: I will send purple robes up to the sky.
Pisthetaerus: A leopard with its spotted skin on him.
Pisthetaerus: Six hundred by number. And indeed, once...
Pisthetaerus: He provided one Porphyrion with trouble.
Pisthetaerus: But if you ever annoy me in any way, [I will do something to] the maid.
Pisthetaerus: Stretching out my two legs, I will fart.
Pisthetaerus: Iris herself, so that one might wonder how
Pisthetaerus: Even though I am so old, I am being aroused to a state of excitement.
Iris: Your words have been torn apart, oh my dear!
Pisthetaerus: You will not be quiet? Not quickly? Strike it down with a blow.
Iris: Indeed, my father will stop your insolence.
Pisthetaerus: Alas, wretch! Surely not flying off in another direction?
Pisthetaerus: Will you behead some of the younger ones?
Chorus: we have summoned the god-born gods.
Chorus: no longer to cross my city,
Chorus: nor let anyone any more carry a sacrificial victim across the floor.
Chorus: to send smoke to the gods here among mortals.
Pisthetaerus: The herald among mortals is certainly terrible.
Pisthetaerus: go, if he does not ever return again.
Herald: O Pisthetaerus, O blessed one, O most wise one,
Herald: O most renowned, O most wise, O most cunning,
Herald: O thrice-happy one, O give the signal.
Pisthetaerus: What are you saying?
Messenger: with this golden crown, because of your wisdom
Crier: all the people crown and honor you.
Pisthetairos: I accept. Why then do the people honor me thus?
Herald: O you who have founded the most famous city in the ether,
Herald: Do you not know what great honor it brings among men,
Crier: and all the lovers of this country that you have.
Herald: for before you had founded this city,
Herald: Everyone was eating roasted hare at that time,
Herald: We had long hair, we were hungry, we were filthy, we were Socratic.
Herald: we carried the scepter, but now having turned back again
Herald: They are crazed for birds, and everything because of pleasure.
Crier: They do exactly what the birds imitate;
Herald: first of all, straight away, everyone together from the bed
Herald: They flew at dawn, just as we [flew] to the pasture;
Crier: and then they would have descended together into the books;
Herald: Then bring the decrees here.
Crier: 'They are bird-mad so conspicuously that even'
Crier: many birds had their names inscribed.
Keryx: one quail was called a huckster.
Herald: he was lame, and to Menippus the name was Swallow,
Herald: A crow that does not have an eye in the Opuntian manner,
Herald: a lark for Philocles, a goose-fox for Theogenes,
Herald: ibis to Lycurgus, bat to Chaerephon,
Herald: For a Syracusan, a kitta; and for Meidias, a kitta over there.
Herald: it was called 'ortux'; for indeed it used to fly like an ortyx.
Herald: [He is] struck on the head by a blow from a pestle.
Keryx: All sang songs under the influence of bird-love,
Herald: where there was some swallow that had been made of wax.
Crier: Is it a pelican or a goose or a pigeon?
Herald: Either wings, or something winged and small must have been present.
Herald: Such things, then, from there. But I say one thing to you:
Herald: They will come from there to here by the tens of thousands.
Herald: Needing wings and hooked-clawed manners;
Herald: So you need wings, the ones you have settled among.
Pisthetairos: By Zeus, then, there is still no work for us to do.
Pisthetaerus: but as quickly as possible, you, going, the hens
Pisthetaerus: And fill all the baskets with feathers;
Pisthetaerus: Let a madman bring my wings out to the door.
Pisthetaerus: But I will receive those who are approaching them.
Chorus: quickly, then, this city of many men
Chorus: Someone is calling among men.
Pisthetaerus: Let it be by mere chance.
Chorus: Loves hold our city.
Pisthetaerus: I order you to bring it faster.
Chorus: for what is not possible here?
Chorus: Is it good for a man to move house?
Chorus: Wisdom, Desire, Ambrosia, Graces
Chorus: and the peace of the gentle-minded
Chorus: a happy face.
Pisthetaerus: How foolishly you serve!
Pisthetaerus: Will you not get there sooner?
Chorus: Let someone swiftly bring a basket of wings,
Chorus: but you again, take off —
Pisthetaerus: [I will strike] this man thus.
Chorus: For someone is very slow, just like a donkey.
Pisthetaerus: For a coward is a madman.
Chorus: But you first the wings
Chorus: arrange these things with order,
Chorus: both the musical and the prophetic things too,
Chorus: The sea-birds. And then, how wisely
Chorus: 'As you look at the man, you will flap your wings.'
Pisthetaerus: No, by the kerchnaides, I will not hold out any longer.
Pisthetaerus: I see you in this way, being cowardly and slow.
Patralois: I wish to become a soaring eagle,
Patroloias: so that I might be overturned over a vineyard that has not yet been trodden.
Patralois: on the grey swelling of the lake.
Pisthetaerus: The messenger seems not to have lied.
Pisthetaerus: For this one here is approaching, singing, eagles.
Patralois: Alas!
Patralians: there is nothing sweeter than flying;
Patroclides: For I am a bird-madman and I fly and I wish to
Patralois: I wish to live with you and to enjoy the laws.
Pisthetaerus: Of what laws? For there are many laws of birds.
Patralois: of all things; especially because it is considered beautiful.
Patraloias: to strangle and bite the bird's father.
Pisthetaerus: And by Zeus, we certainly consider ourselves very manly,
Pisthetaerus: Whoever, while still a chick, strikes his father.
Patroloias: For this reason, however, having been brought here, I
Patralois: I wish to strangle my father and have everything.
Pisthetaerus: But we have a law for the birds.
Pisthetairos: old in the storks' nests;
Pisthetaerus: whenever the father, the stork, flies away
Pisthetaerus: if he feeds them all the storklings,
Pisthetaerus: the chicks must rear their father again.
Patroloias: 'I have certainly enjoyed it, by Zeus, coming here,' said Patroloias.
Patroloias: If indeed I must even feed my father.
Pisthetaerus: Nothing at all. For since you have come, my dear.
Pisthetaerus: I am well-disposed; I will feather you just like an orphaned bird.
Pisthetairos: But to you, young man, I shall not speak badly,
Pisthetaerus: But just as I learned myself when I was a child. For you
Pisthetaerus: do not beat the father; take this one here
Pisthetaerus: 'the wing and also this plectrum with the other,'
Pisthetaerus: thinking that he has this rooster's crest,
Pisthetaerus: Guard! You are a mercenary, feed yourself.
Pisthetaerus: Let your father live; but since you are a warrior,
Pisthetaerus: Fly down to the ground near Thrace and fight there.
Patroclides: By Dionysus, you seem to be speaking well to me,
Patralois: And I will obey you.
Pisthetairos: You will have sense, by Zeus.
Kinesias: Now I will fly up to Olympus with light wings;
Kinesias: I fly from one road to another, being careful—
Pisthetaerus: This business needs wings like a burden.
Kinesias: with fearless mind and following a young body—
Pisthetaerus: We embrace the poplar-scented Kinesias.
Pisthetaerus: Why do you, with your crooked foot, walk in circles around here?
Kinesias: I wish to become a clear-voiced nightingale.
Pisthetaerus: Stop singing, but tell me what you are saying.
Kinesias: Being winged by you, I want to soar upwards.
Kinesias: as I emerge from the clouds, to receive new things
Kinesias: wind-swept and snow-bearing flights.
Pisthetaerus: For wouldn't one take aim from the clouds?
Kinesias: Our art is therefore hanging from here.
Kinesias: for the brilliant things of dithyrambs are becoming
Kinesias: airy, dark, and blue-lit.
Kinesias: and wing-shaker. But you, listening, will soon go.
Pisthetaerus: Not at all, I certainly am not.
Kinesias: by Heracles, you certainly!
Kinésias: For I shall divide all the air with you.
Kinesias: statues of birds
Kinésias: of the sky-runners
Kinesias: of long-necked birds —
Pisthetaerus: I laid an egg.
Kinesias: having been deceived by the salt-dodger
Kinesias: Let me go with the breaths of the winds.
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, I will certainly put an end to your breaths.
Kinesias: sometimes going southward toward a road,
Kinesias: at that time, however, drawing near to the body with the north wind
Kinésias: cutting through the windless furrow of the aether.
Kinesias: you have contrived a charming and wise thing, old man.
Pisthetaerus: for do you not rejoice having become wing-fluttering?
Kinesias: You have done this to the cymbal teacher,
Kinesias: Am I always a fighter for the tribes?
Pisthetaerus: Do you want to teach, and so stay with us?
Pisthetaerus: A chorus of flying birds for Leotrophides.
Pisthetaerus: The Cecropian tribe?
Kinesias: You are mocking me; you are obvious.
Kinesias: But I certainly will not stop; be sure of this,
Kinesias: before I, having been winged, have run through the air.
Sycophant: some birds, having nothing, are wing-variegated,
Sycophant: 'Long-winged, varied swallow?'
Pisthetaerus: This evil has not awakened lightly.
Pisthetaerus: Here comes someone approaching us, humming.
Sycophant: with stretched wings, again, in various colors.
Pisthetaerus: I think he should sing to the crooked tunic,
Pisthetaerus: It seems that many swallows are needed.
Sycophant: Who is the one with wings who has come here to the arriving ones?
Pisthetaerus: Here I am. But one must speak when one must.
Sycophant: Wings, wings are needed; do not ask a second time.
Pisthetaerus: Do you really intend to fly straight to Pellene?
Sycophant: By Zeus, but I am an islander summoner.
Sycophant: and a sycophant —
Pisthetaerus: O happy man of the craft.
Sycophant: and one who gnaws at facts. Then I pray, having taken wings
Sycophant: being called to trim the cities all around.
Pisthetaerus: Are you summoning something under the wings that is more clever?
Sycophant: By Zeus, but so that the robbers may not distress me,
Sycophant: I am departing again from there with the cranes,
Sycophant: having sold many lawsuits in exchange for a rock.
Pisthetairos: you are doing this work, are you? Tell me,
Pisthetaerus: As a young man, do you slander the foreigners?
Sycophant: For what should I suffer? For I do not know how to dig.
Pisthetaerus: But by Zeus, there are other moderate deeds,
Pisthetaerus: from which a man should live to such an extent
Pisthetaerus: from the right, rather than from the lawsuit-patchers.
Sycophant: O my friend, do not give me advice, but fly!
Pisthetairos: Now, by Zeus, I am speaking to you with wings.
Sycophant: And how could [it be] by words
Sycophant: Will you wing a man?
Pisthetaerus: everyone [with] the speeches
Pisthetaerus: They are taking wing.
Sycophant: All of them?
Pisthetaerus: Have you not heard,
Pisthetaerus: whenever the fathers say each time
Pisthetaerus: Are these for the boys in the barbershops?
Pisthetaerus: Deinias is raising my boy very badly.
Pisthetaerus: Having spoken, he winged himself so that he could ride horses.
Pisthetaerus: but someone says that his own [work] is on tragedy
Pisthetaerus: to have grown wings and to have flown, my mind.
Sycophant: So they are winged by words, then?
Pisthetaerus: I say so.
Pisthetairos: For the mind is uplifted by words.
Pisthetaerus: A man is being lifted up. And so I will do with you.
Pisthetaerus: Having spread my wings, I wish to use kind words.
Pisthetaerus: turn to lawful action.
Sycophant: but I do not wish to.
Pisthetaerus: And what will you do?
Sycophant: I will not disgrace my family.
Sycophant: My life is to be a sycophant.
Sycophant: but with swift and light wings.
Sycophant: a hawk or a kite, as if [it were] regarding the foreigners.
Sycophant: having summoned and then having been summoned here
Sycophant: 'Now I fly back there again.'
Pisthetaerus: I understand.
Pisthetaerus: Thus you speak: so that he may have paid a penalty.
Pisthetaerus: The stranger was here before he arrived.
Sycophant: You learn very well.
Pisthetaerus: And after that, he will sail here, but you fly there.
Pisthetairos: being seized with his money.
Sycophant: You have everything.
Sycophant: The snail ought to differ in no way.
Pisthetaerus: I understand
Pisthetaerus: a snail. And by Zeus, I have one.
Pisthetaerus: Most excellently [like] Corcyrean wings in just such a way.
Sycophant: Alas, wretch, you have a whip.
Pisthetaerus: "Then certainly it will have wings,"
Pisthetaerus: I will make you buzz like a top today.
Sycophant: Alas, wretched me.
Pisthetairos: Weren't you winged from here?
Pisthetaerus: Will you not pour out a libation, you most wretched one, while you are washing?
Pisthetaerus: You will quickly see a bitter deceitful trickery.
Pisthetaerus: Let us go, having taken the wings.
Chorus: Indeed many and new and wonderful things.
Chorus: we were falling and
Chorus: We have seen terrible things.
Chorus: For there is a tree that has grown.
Chorus: A certain strange thing from the heart of the Cardians-
Chorus: further on, Cleonymus,
Chorus: nothing useful, otherwise
Chorus: but it is a pitiful and great thing.
Chorus: this is always of the spring
Chorus: it sprouts and it sues.
Chorus: but in the winter again the
Chorus: They shed leaves like an asp.
Chorus: But the land is there by him.
Chorus: Far away from the darkness is someone.
Chorus: by the loneliness of the lamps,
Chorus: Here, to the heroes, men
Chorus: they will join forces and join-
Chorus: They enter except for the evening.
Chorus: At that time, however, it was no longer.
Chorus: It is safe to meet.
Chorus: for if anyone should meet a hero,
Chorus: by night of mortals, to Orestes,
Chorus: He was naked, struck by him.
Chorus: all things on the right.
Prometheus: Alas, wretch, may Zeus not see me.
Prometheus: Where is Pithetaerus?
Pisthetairos: Leave this; what was it?
Pisthetaerus: Who is the hooded one?
Prometheus: do you see any of the gods?
Prometheus: After me, here?
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, I certainly not.
Pisthetairos: Who are you?
Prometheus: What time of day is it, then?
Pisthetaerus: When? A little after noon.
Pisthetaerus: But who are you?
Prometheus: 'Is it a cul-de-sac or further on?'
Pisthetaerus: Oh, how I loathe you.
Prometheus: For what is Zeus doing?
Prometheus: Is he clearing away the clouds or is he gathering them together?
Pisthetaerus: Wail aloud!
Prometheus: Thus I shall be fully unveiled.
Pisthetaerus: O friend Prometheus.
Prometheus: Stop, stop, do not shout.
Pisthetairos: For what is it?
Prometheus: Be quiet, do not call my name.
Prometheus: For you will destroy me, if Zeus sees me here.
Prometheus: But in order that I may tell you all the matters above,
Prometheus: Taking this, hold up my umbrella.
Prometheus: Upwards, so that the gods do not see me.
Pisthetaerus: Io! Io!
Pisthetaerus: You have indeed thought it up well and with foresight.
Pisthetaerus: Put on your disguise quickly and then, taking courage, speak.
Prometheus: Now then, listen.
Pisthetaerus: Speak, as he is listening.
Prometheus: Zeus is lost.
Pisthetaerus: At what time has it all been lost?
Prometheus: From the time when you settled the air.
Prometheus: for no one of men is sacrificing anything anymore.
Prometheus: to the gods, nor even the sizzle of thighs
Prometheus: He has ascended since that time, as he did us,
Prometheus: But just as we fast at the Thesmophoria
Prometheus: without animal sacrifices; but the barbarian gods
Prometheus: hungry like Illyrians, shrieking.
Prometheus: he said to march against Zeus from above,
Prometheus: if he does not provide the trade open,
Prometheus: so that the entrails might be brought in cut up.
Pisthetaerus: for there are other gods, some barbarians.
Pisthetaerus: From above, you?
Prometheus: for they are not barbarians,
Prometheus: From where is his ancestral [god] Exekestides?
Pisthetaerus: but these are the names of these barbarian gods
Pisthetaerus: What is it?
Prometheus: What is it? Triballi.
Pisthetaerus: I understand.
Pisthetaerus: So from here did it come to be the 'epitribes'?
Prometheus: Most certainly of all. And one thing I tell you clearly:
Prometheus: Envoys will come here concerning a reconciliation.
Prometheus: from Zeus and the Triballians who are above;
Prometheus: But you must not pour a libation, unless he hands it over.
Prometheus: the scepter, Zeus, to the birds again,
Prometheus: And may he give you to have the Queen as your wife.
Pisthetaerus: Who is the Queen?
Prometheus: 'most beautiful daughter,'
Prometheus: who keeps guard of the thunderbolt of Zeus
Prometheus: and everything else, the good counsel
Prometheus: the good order, the self-control, the ship-sheds,
Prometheus: the abuse, the butt-crack-striker, the three-obol piece.
Pisthetaerus: Is he indeed saving everything for himself?
Prometheus: I am the rumor.
Prometheus: Whatever you receive from him, you have everything.
Prometheus: For this reason I have come here, so that I may tell you.
Prometheus: For I am always well-disposed toward men.
Pisthetaerus: For we only charcoal-ize the gods through you.
Prometheus: I hate all the gods, as you know.
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, you are certainly a god-hater.
Prometheus: Timon is clean. But as if I am running away again,
Prometheus: Bring the sunshade, so that even Zeus may see me.
Prometheus: From above, I seem to be following a kanephoros.
Pisthetaerus: and having taken this seat, carry the seat.
Chorus: and besides the Skyapoi, a lake
Chorus: Is there anyone here who is unshaved?
Chorus: Socrates is leading souls away.
Chorus: There also came Peisander.
Chorus: I wish to see the soul which
Chorus: He left him alive,
Chorus: holding a slaughtered camel as a lamb
Chorus: Someone, whose necks I have cut off just as
Chorus: When did Odysseus depart?
Chorus: And then he went down to him from below.
Chorus: towards the camel's nose-ring
Chorus: Chaerephon, the nocturnal bird.
Poseidon: The city of Cloudcuckooland
Poseidon: It is possible to see this, for which we are ambassadors.
Poseidon: What is this man doing? Is he stretching out his arms to the left like this?
Poseidon: You will not change your tunic so skillfully?
Poseidon: What is it, you wretched fellow? Are you a Laispodian by nature?
Poseidon: O democracy, where are you leading us someday?
Poseidon: If the gods have voted for this fellow?
Triballus: Will you have it quietly?
Poseidon: Alas! for I will surely...
Poseidon: I have seen the most barbarous of all the gods.
Poseidon: Come then, what shall we do, Heracles?
Heracles: You have heard.
Heracles: Since I wish to strangle the man,
Heracles: whoever it is who walled off the gods.
Poseidon: But, by all means, you have been chosen regarding reconciliation.
Poseidon: ambassadors.
Heracles: it seems to me that it strangles me twice as much.
Pisthetaerus: Let someone hand over the cheese-grater; bring silphium!
Pisthetaerus: Let someone bring cheese; it will scorch the coals.
Poseidon: The gods bid the man farewell.
Poseidon: being three, we.
Pisthetaerus: But I will smell the silphium.
Heracles: And the meat, whose is it?
Pisthetaerus: some birds
Pisthetaerus: rising up against the common birds
Pisthetairos: They seemed to be doing wrong.
Heracles: Then indeed silphion.
Heracles: Should you tell them first?
Pisthetaerus: O hail, Heracles.
Pisthetaerus: What is it?
Poseidon: We have come as ambassadors.
Poseidon: concerning a reconciliation about war from the gods.
Pisthetaerus: There is no oil in the oil-flask.
Heracles: And indeed, it seems necessary that the birds are thin.
Poseidon: For we, fighting, gain nothing,
Poseidon: You would also be friends to us, the gods,
Poseidon: he would have rainy water in the marshes,
Poseidon: He would lead the halcyon days always.
Poseidon: We have come as rulers over all of these things.
Pisthetairos: But we have never before begun
Pisthetaerus: We are now willing to make war against you, if it seems good to you,
Pisthetaerus: If you are willing now to do something just,
Pisthetairos: To make libations. But the laws are as follows:
Pisthetaerus: the scepter for us, for the birds, again
Pisthetairos: to give back Zeus. And if we make a settlement.
Pisthetaerus: On this, I summon the ambassadors to lunch.
Heracles: These things are sufficient for me, and I vote.
Poseidon: What, wretch? You are foolish and gluttonous.
Poseidon: Do you deprive the father of tyranny?
Pisthetaerus: True? For you gods are not greater.
Pisthetaerus: Will you be strong, if the birds begin to rule down below?
Pisthetaerus: now indeed, hidden beneath the clouds
Pisthetaerus: mortals swear falsely to you when they bow down;
Pisthetaerus: if, however, you should have the birds as allies,
Pisthetaerus: whenever someone swears by the raven and by Zeus,
Pisthetaerus: the crow, having slipped by stealthily past the oath-breaker,
Pisthetaerus: I will strike and gouge out the eye.
Poseidon: By Poseidon, you speak these things very well indeed.
Heracles: And it seems to me too.
Pisthetaerus: So what do you say?
Triballus: I have eaten the fish.
Pisthetairos: Do you see? Even this one approves. Let's try another, then.
Pisthetaerus: Listen to what a good thing we are going to do for you.
Pisthetaerus: If any man [offers] a sacrifice to some god,
Pisthetaerus: having prayed, then he proceeds to outsmart [them], saying,
Pisthetaerus: Enduring gods, and does he repay me with hate?
Pisthetaerus: We will manage this too.
Poseidon: Come, let me see the way;
Pisthetaerus: when, counting, he happens upon a small coin.
Pisthetaerus: This man, is he sitting here being washed,
Pisthetairos: snatching like a kite, having fallen upon it stealthily
Pisthetairos: He will offer the price of two sheep to the god.
Heracles: I vote to give back the scepter again.
Heracles: To these, I.
Poseidon: And now I shall ask about the Triballian.
Heracles: The Triballian seems to you to be groaning?
Triballus: Sounaka
Triballus: a Bactrian crow.
Heracles: he says that I speak very well.
Poseidon: If these things seem good to you two, they seem good to me as well.
Heracles: this fellow seems to be doing these things on account of the sceptre.
Pisthetaerus: And by Zeus, there is another thing I have not mentioned.
Pisthetaerus: for indeed I hand over Hera to Zeus,
Pisthetaerus: But the Basileian girl, I want her as a wife for myself.
Pisthetaerus: We must escape.
Poseidon: He does not love without reconciliation.
Poseidon: Let us go home again.
Pisthetaerus: I care little.
Pisthetaerus: Cook, the sauce must be made sweet.
Heraclitus: O cursed Poseidon, where are you taking me?
Heracles: Shall we fight over one woman?
Poseidon: But what shall we do?
Heracles: What? Let us make peace.
Poseidon: What's the matter? Don't you know you've been deceived for a long time?
Poseidon: But you are harming yourself. For if you should die,
Poseidon: Zeus, having handed over the tyranny to these men,
Poseidon: You will be a poor man, for all things come to be from you.
Poseidon: the money, whatever Zeus, dying, may leave behind.
Pisthetaerus: Alas, wretched one, how cleverly you have been outwitted.
Pisthetaerus: Come here and withdraw from me, so that I may tell you something.
Pisthetaerus: Your uncle is slandering you, you villain.
Pisthetaerus: for you have no share even in your barren ancestral property.
Pisthetaerus: In accordance with the laws, for you are a bastard and not legitimate.
Heracles: I am a bastard? What are you saying?
Pisthetaerus: But you, by Zeus,
Pisthetaerus: Since he is a foreign woman. Or how could ever
Pisthetaerus: You think that the Athenian girl is an heiress,
Pisthetaerus: A daughter being born, with legitimate brothers?
Heracles: And what did my father give me the money for?
Heracles: 'Are you dying, bastard?'
Pisthetaerus: The law does not allow it.
Pisthetaerus: This Poseidon, who is now lifting you up,
Pisthetairos: It will endure against you from your ancestral property.
Pisthetaerus: claiming to be himself a legitimate brother.
Pisthetaerus: And I will tell you Solon's law too.
Pisthetaerus: and may there be no kinship with children, if they are illegitimate.
Pisthetaerus: legitimate. But if there are no legitimate children, to the...
Pisthetaerus: to be as close as possible to the source of the money.
Heracles: But for me, I have none of my father's property.
Heracles: Is there any?
Pisthetaerus: Not at all, by Zeus. But tell me,
Pisthetairos: Has your father already introduced you to the phratries?
Heracles: Not I, by Zeus. And indeed I have long been wondering.
Pisthetaerus: Why then do you stare up so intently while gazing at a swallow?
Pisthetaerus: But if you will be with us, I will set you up
Pisthetaerus: I will serve you a tyrant of birds with milk.
Heracles: You seem to me to speak justly, and that for a long time.
Heracles: concerning the girl, I too am handing her over to you.
Pisthetaerus: And what do you say?
Poseidon: I vote the opposite.
Pisthetaerus: In the Trerbalians, the whole matter. What are you saying?
Triballus: great jays and large robins.
Triballus: I hand over the bird.
Heracles: He says to surrender.
Poseidon: By Zeus, this one is certainly not saying that he will surrender,
Poseidon: If he does not walk, just as the swallows say.
Pisthetaerus: Then he says that he is to hand them over to the swallows.
Poseidon: Now reconcile with each other and agree!
Poseidon: But I, since it seems good to you both, will be silent.
Heracles: It seems to me that I should forgive all the things you say.
Heracles: But come yourself with us to heaven,
Heraclitus: in order that you may take the kingship and all things there.
Pisthetaerus: Have these men been cut down at the right moment?
Pisthetaerus: to the weddings.
Heracles: So do you want me, then, for now
Heracles: Should I roast these meats while staying? But you go.
Poseidon: Are you roasting the meat? You are speaking of a great roasting.
Poseidon: Are you not with us?
Heracles: Well, I was in good spirits indeed.
Pisthetaerus: But let someone bring me here a bridal cloak.
Chorus: There is also in Phanae near the
Chorus: Clepsydra, cunning de-
Chorus: the race of tongue-and-stomach-eaters,
Chorus: they both reap and sow
Chorus: and they lick with their tongues
Chorus: and they fig-speak;
Chorus: but they are barbarians by birth,
Chorus: Gorgias and Philip.
Chorus: and from the bird-bellies
Chorus: of those Philippics
Chorus: everywhere in Attica the
Chorus: a tongue is cut off without a knife.
Messenger: O you who are doing all things well, O greater than speech,
Messenger: O thrice-blessed bird, race of birds,
Messenger: welcome the tyrant into your blessed homes.
Messenger: for he approaches those who neither have a bright dawn
Messenger: A star shone forth to be seen from a golden-roofed house,
Messenger: nor the radiant light of the sun's rays
Messenger: such a flash has appeared, as comes
Messenger: He has a beauty of a woman not possible to speak,
Messenger: brandishing a thunderbolt, the winged bolt of Zeus;
Messenger: And an unnamed smell reaches the depth of the circle.
Messenger: Let's go, it's a fine spectacle; but about the incense,
Messenger: The breezes blow away the smoke-wreath.
Messenger: Here he is himself. But one must be silent.
Messenger: Open the holy and well-speaking mouth of the Muse.
Chorus: Move forward, move aside, move over, provide.
Chorus: Be in a state of surprise!
Chorus: O blessed one, with blessed fortune.
Chorus: oh woe, woe for the season of beauty.
Chorus: O blessed man, you have married this city.
Chorus: Great, great fortunes hold sway.
Chorus: race of birds
Chorus: on account of this man. But with wedding songs
Chorus: and with bridal songs welcome
Chorus: him and the queen.
Chorus: To Hera of Olympus once
Chorus: of the high-throned ones
Chorus: a great ruler for the gods
Chorus: The Fates have lulled [us] to sleep together.
Chorus: In such a wedding feast.
Chorus: Hymen, O Hymenaeus, O,
Chorus: Hymen, O Hymenaeus, O!
Chorus: But the dual-born Eros
Chorus: golden-winged reins
Chorus: It steered back the rudderless,
Chorus: Zeus's provider of marriages.
Chorus: of the happy Hera.
Chorus: Hymen, oh Hymenaeus, oh,
Chorus: Hymen, O Hymenaeus, O!
Pisthetaerus: I rejoiced at the hymns, I rejoiced at the songs;
Pisthetaerus: I admire speeches. Come now, let's do it here.
Pisthetaerus: And call up the thunder of the chthonic deities.
Pisthetaerus: and the fiery thunderbolts of Zeus,
Pisthetairos: a terrible, slow lightning bolt.
Chorus: O great light of lightning!
Chorus: O deathless, fire-bearing spear of Zeus,
Chorus: O earth-dwelling ones of heavy groans
Chorus: Rain-bringing, too, with the thunder!
Chorus: with whom this man now shakes the earth.
Chorus: having prevailed in everything on your account
Chorus: and Zeus has Basileia as his attendant.
Chorus: Hymen, O Hymenaeus, O!
Pisthetaerus: Follow now, O marriages!
Pisthetaerus: all the tribes of kindred.
Pisthetaerus: a winged one to the floor of Zeus
Pisthetaerus: And a nuptial bed.
Pisthetaerus: Stretch out, O blessed one, your hand.
Pisthetaerus: a hand and [the feathers] of my wings.
Pisthetaerus: Take it and dance along! Lift it up!
Pisthetaerus: But I will make you lighter.
Chorus: A la la la, iē Paean!
Chorus: tenealla kalinnikos, oh
Chorus: O supreme of the gods.