Birds

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 902 sections

130
saying, By Olympian Zeus, be at my house early, as soon as you have bathed, and bring your children too. I am giving a nuptial feast, so don't fail, or else don't cross my threshold when I am in distress.
135
Ah! that's what may be called being fond of hardships! To Pisthetaerus. And what say you?
136b
My tastes are similar.
136c
And they are?
137
I want a town where the father of a handsome lad will stop in the street and say to me reproachfully as if I had failed him, Ah! Is this well done, Stilbonides?
140
You met my son coming from the bath after the gymnasium and you neither spoke to him, nor kissed him, nor took him with you, nor ever once felt his balls. Would anyone call you an old friend of mine?
143
Ah! wag, I see you are fond of suffering. But there is a city of delights such as you want.
145
It's on the Red Sea.
145b
Oh, no. Not a sea-port, where some fine morning the Salaminian galley can appear, bringing a process-server along. Have you no Greek town you can propose to us?
149
Why not choose Lepreum in Elis for your settlement?
150b
By Zeus! I could not look at Lepreum without disgust, because of Melanthius.
152
Then, again, there is the Opuntian Locris, where you could live.
153b
I would not be Opuntian for a talent.
155
But come, what is it like to live with the birds? You should know pretty well.
156b
Why, it's not a disagreeable life. In the first place, one has no purse.
158
That does away with a lot of roguery.
159
For food the gardens yield us white sesame,
160
myrtle-berries, poppies and mint.
161
Why, 'tis the life of the newly-wed indeed.
161b
Ha! I am beginning to see a great plan, which will transfer the supreme power to the birds, if you will but take my advice.
164
Take your advice? In what way?
164b
In what way? Well, firstly,
165
do not fly in all directions with open beak; it is not dignified. Among us, when we see a thoughtless man, we ask, What sort of bird is this? and Teleas answers, It's a man who has no brain, a bird that has lost his head, a creature
170
you cannot catch, for it never remains in any one place.
171
By Zeus himself! your jest hits the mark. What then is to be done?
172b
Found a city.
173
We birds? But what sort of city should we build?
174
Oh, really, really! you talk like such a fool!
175
Look down.
175b
I am looking.
175c
Now look up.
176
I am looking.
176b
Turn your head round.
176c
Ah! it will be pleasant for me if I end in twisting my neck off!
178
What have you seen?
178b
The clouds and the sky.
179
Very well! is not this the pole of the birds then?
180
How their pole?
180b
Or, if you like it, their place. And since it turns and passes through the whole universe, it is called ‘pole.’ If you build and fortify it, you will turn your pole into a city.
185
In this way you will reign over mankind as you do over the grasshoppers and you will cause the gods to die of rabid hunger.
187
How so?
187b
The air is between earth and heaven. When we want to go to Delphi, we ask the Boeotians for leave of passage;
190
in the same way, when men sacrifice to the gods, unless the latter pay you tribute, you exercise the right of every nation towards strangers and don't allow the smoke of the sacrifices to pass through your city and territory.
194
By earth! by snares! by network! by cages!
195
I never heard of anything more cleverly conceived; and, if the other birds approve, I am going to build the city along with you.
198
Who will explain the matter to them?
198b
You must yourself. Before I came they were quite ignorant,
200
but since I have lived with them I have taught them to speak.
201
But how can they be gathered together?
201b
Easily. I will hasten down to the thicket to waken my dear Procne
205
and as soon as they hear our voices, they will come to us hot wing.
206
My dear bird, lose no time, please! Fly at once into the thicket and awaken Procne.
209
Chase off drowsy sleep, dear companion.
210
Let the sacred hymn gush from thy divine throat in melodious strains; roll forth in soft cadence your refreshing melodies to bewail the fate of Itys, which has been the cause of so many tears to us both.
215
Your pure notes rise through the thick leaves of the yew-tree right up to the throne of Zeus, where Phoebus listens to you, Phoebus with his golden hair. And his ivory lyre responds to your plaintive accents;
220
he gathers the choir of the gods and from their immortal lips pours forth a sacred chant of blessed voices.
223
Oh! by Zeus! what a throat that little bird possesses. He has filled the whole thicket with honey-sweet melody!
225
Hush!
225b
What's the matter?
225c
Be still!
225d
What for?
226
Epops is going to sing again.
227
Epopopoi popoi popopopoi popoi, here, here, quick, quick, quick, my comrades in the air;
230
all you who pillage the fertile lands of the husbandmen, the numberless tribes who gather and devour the barley seeds, the swift flying race that sings so sweetly. And you whose gentle twitter
235
resounds through the fields with the little cry of tiotiotiotiotiotiotiotio; and you who hop about the branches of the ivy in the gardens;
240
the mountain birds, who feed on the wild olive-berries or the arbutus, hurry to come at my call, trioto, trioto, totobrix; you also, who snap up the sharp-stinging
245
gnats in the marshy vales, and you who dwell in the fine plain of Marathon, all damp with dew, and you, the francolin with speckled wings;
250
you too, the halcyons, who flit over the swelling waves of the sea, come hither to hear the tidings; let all the tribes of long-necked birds assemble here;
255
know that a clever old man has come to us, bringing an entirely new idea and proposing great reforms. Let all come to the debate here, here, here, here.
260
Torotorotorotorotix, kikkabau, kikkabau, torotorotorolililix.
263
Can you see any bird?
263b
By Phoebus, no! and yet I am straining my eyesight to scan the sky.
265
It was hardly worth Epops' while to go and bury himself in the thicket like a hatching plover.
267
Torotix, torotix.
268
Wait, friend, there's a bird.
269
By Zeus, it is a bird, but what kind? Isn't it a peacock?
270
Epops will tell us. What is this bird?
271
It's not one of those you are used to seeing; it's a bird from the marshes.
272b
Oh! oh! but he is very handsome with his wings as crimson as flame.
273
Undoubtedly; indeed he is called flamingo.
274
Hi! I say! You!
274b
What are you shouting for?
274c
Why, here's another bird.
275
Aye, indeed; this one's a foreign bird too. To Epops. What is this bird from beyond the mountains with a look as solemn as it is stupid?
277
He is called the Mede.
277b
The Mede! But, by Heracles, how, if a Mede, has he flown here without a camel?
279
Here's another bird with a crest.
280
Ah! that's curious. I say, Epops, you are not the only one of your kind then?
281b
This bird is the son of Philocles, who is the son of Epops; so that, you see, I am his grandfather; just as one might say, Hipponicus, the son of Callias, who is the son of Hipponicus.
284
Then this bird is Callias! Why, what a lot of his feathers he has lost!
285
That's because he is honest; so the informers set upon him and the women too pluck out his feathers.
287
By Poseidon, do you see that many-coloured bird? What is his name?
288b
This one? That's the glutton.
289
Is there another glutton besides Cleonymus?
290
But why, if he is Cleonymus, has he not thrown away his crest?
291
But what is the meaning of all these crests? Have these birds come to contend for the double stadium prize?
292b
They are like the Carians, who cling to the crests of their mountains for greater safety.
294
Oh, Poseidon! look what awful swarms of birds are gathering here!
295b
By Phoebus! what a cloud! The entrance to the stage is no longer visible so closely do they fly together.
297
Here is the partridge.

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0019.tlg006.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.