← Library

Birds

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 902 sections

1. 447

   And if I break my word, may I succeed by one vote only.

2. 448

   Hearken, ye people! Hoplites, pick up your weapons and return to your firesides;

3. 450

   do not fail to read the decrees of dismissal we have posted.

4. 1.451

   Man is a truly cunning creature, but nevertheless explain. Perhaps you are going to show me some good way

5. 1.455

   to extend my power, some way that I have not had the wit to find out and which you have discovered. Speak! 'tis to your own interest as well as to mine, for if you secure me some advantage, I will surely share it with you.

6. 460

   But what object can have induced you to come among us? Speak boldly, for I shall not break the truce, —until you have told us all.

7. 462

   I am bursting with desire to speak; I have already mixed the dough of my address and nothing prevents me from kneading it.... Slave! bring the chaplet and water, which you must pour over my hands. Be quick!

8. 464b

   Is it a question of feasting? What does it all mean?

9. 465

   By Zeus, no! but I am hunting for fine, tasty words to break down the hardness of their hearts. To the Chorus. I grieve so much for you, who at one time were kings...

10. 467b

    We kings? Over whom?

11. 467c

    ... of all that exists, firstly of me and of this man, even of Zeus himself. Your race is older than Saturn, the Titans and the Earth.

12. 470b

    What, older than the Earth!

13. 470c

    By Phoebus, yes.

14. 470d

    By Zeus, but I never knew that before!

15. 471

    That's because you are ignorant and heedless, and have never read your Aesop. He is the one who tells us that the lark was born before all other creatures, indeed before the Earth; his father died of sickness, but the Earth did not exist then; he remained unburied for five days, when the bird in its dilemma decided,

16. 475

    for want of a better place, to entomb its father in its own head.

17. 476

    So that the lark's father is buried at Cephalae.

18. 477

    Hence, if they existed before the Earth, before the gods, the kingship belongs to them by right of priority.

19. 479

    Undoubtedly, but sharpen your beak well;

20. 480

    Zeus won't be in a hurry to hand over his scepter to the woodpecker.

21. 481

    It was not the gods, but the birds, who were formerly the masters and kings over men; of this I have a thousand proofs. First of all, I will point you to the cock, who governed the Persians before all other monarchs, before Darius and Megabazus.

22. 485

    It's in memory of his reign that he is called the Persian bird.

23. 486

    For this reason also, even to-day, he alone of all the birds wears his tiara straight on his head, like the Great King.

24. 488

    He was so strong, so great, so feared, that even now, on account of his ancient power,

25. 490

    everyone jumps out of bed as soon as ever he crows at daybreak. Blacksmiths, potters, tanners, shoemakers, bathmen, corn-dealers, lyre-makers and armorers, all put on their shoes and go to work before it is daylight.

26. 492b

    I can tell you something about that. It was the cock's fault that I lost a splendid tunic of Phrygian wool. I was at a feast in town, given to celebrate the birth of a child; I had drunk pretty freely

27. 495

    and had just fallen asleep, when a cock, I suppose in a greater hurry than the rest, began to crow. I thought it was dawn and set out for Halimus. I had hardly got beyond the walls, when a footpad struck me in the back with his bludgeon; down I went and wanted to shout, but he had already made off with my mantle.

28. 499

    Formerly also the kite was ruler and king over the Greeks.

29. 500

    The Greeks?

30. 500b

    And when he was king, he was the one who first taught them to fall on their knees before the kites.

31. 501b

    By Zeus! that's what I did myself one day on seeing a kite; but at the moment I was on my knees, and leaning backwards with mouth agape, I bolted an obolus and was forced to carry my meal-sack home empty.

32. 504

    The cuckoo was king of Egypt and of the whole of Phoenicia.

33. 505

    When he called out cuckoo, all the Phoenicians hurried to the fields to reap their wheat and their barley.

34. 507

    Hence no doubt the proverb, Cuckoo! cuckoo! go to the fields, ye circumcised.

35. 508

    So powerful were the birds that the kings of Grecian cities, Agamemnon, Menelaus, for instance,

36. 510

    carried a bird on the tip of their scepters, who had his share of all presents.

37. 511

    That I didn't know and was much astonished when I saw Priam come upon the stage in the tragedies with a bird, which kept watching Lysicrates to see if he got any present.

38. 514

    But the strongest proof of all is that Zeus, who now reigns,

39. 515

    is represented as standing with an eagle on his head as a symbol of his royalty; his daughter has an owl, and Phoebus, as his servant, has a hawk.

40. 517

    By Demeter, the point is well taken. But what are all these birds doing in heaven?

41. 518

    When anyone sacrifices and, according to the rite, offers the entrails to the gods, these birds take their share before Zeus.

42. 520

    Formerly men always swore by the birds and never by the gods. And even now Lampon swears by the goose whenever he wishes to deceive someone. Thus it is clear that you were once great and sacred,

43. 523

    but now you are looked upon as slaves, as fools, as Maneses; stones

44. 525

    are thrown at you as at raving madmen, even in holy places. A crowd of bird-catchers sets snares, traps, limed twigs and nets of all sorts for you; you are caught, you are sold in heaps

45. 530

    and the buyers finger you over to be certain you are fat. Again, if they would but serve you up simply roasted; but they rasp cheese into a mixture of oil, vinegar and laserwort,

46. 535

    to which another sweet and greasy sauce is added, and the whole is poured scalding hot over your back, for all the world as if you were diseased meat.

47. 539

    Man, your words have

48. 540

    made my heart bleed; I have groaned over the treachery of our fathers, who knew not how to transmit to us the high rank they held from their forefathers. But 'tis a benevolent Genius, a happy Fate, that sends you to us;

49. 545

    you shall be our deliverer and I place the destiny of my little ones and my own in your hands with every confidence.

50. 548

    But hasten to tell me what must be done; we should not be worthy to live, if we did not seek to regain our royalty by every possible means.

51. 550

    First I advise that the birds gather together in one city and that they build a wall of great bricks, like that at Babylon, round the plains of the air and the whole region of space that divides earth from heaven.

52. 553

    Oh, Cebriones! oh, Porphyrion! what a terribly strong place!

53. 554

    Then, when this has been well done and completed, you demand back the empire from Zeus;

54. 555

    if he will not agree, if he refuses and does not at once confess himself beaten, you declare a sacred war against him and forbid the gods henceforward to pass through your country with their tools up, as hitherto, for the purpose of laying their Alcmenas, their Alopes, or their Semeles! if they try to pass through,

55. 560

    you put rings on their tools so that they can't make love any longer. You send another messenger to mankind, who will proclaim to them that the birds are kings, that for the future they must first of all sacrifice to them, and only afterwards to the gods; that it is fitting to appoint to each deity the bird that has most in common with it.

56. 565

    For instance, are they sacrificing to Aphrodite, let them at the same time offer barley to the coot; are they immolating a sheep to Poseidon, let them consecrate wheat in honor of the duck; if a steer is being offered to Heracles, let honey-cakes be dedicated to the gull; if a goat is being slain for King Zeus, there is a King-Bird, the wren, to whom the sacrifice of a male gnat is due before Zeus himself even.

57. 570

    This notion of an immolated gnat delights me! And now let the great Zeus thunder!

58. 571

    But how will mankind recognize us as gods and not as jays? Us, who have wings and fly?

59. 572b

    You talk rubbish! Hermes is a god and has wings and flies, and so do many other gods. First of all, Victory flies with golden wings, Eros is undoubtedly winged too,

60. 575

    and Iris is compared by Homer to a timorous dove.

61. 576

    But will not Zeus thunder and send his winged bolts against us?

62. 577

    If men in their blindness do not recognize us as gods and so continue to worship the dwellers in Olympus? Then a cloud of sparrows greedy for corn must descend upon their fields and eat up all their seeds;

63. 580

    we shall see then if Demeter will mete them out any wheat.

64. 581

    By Zeus, she'll take good care she does not, and you will see her inventing a thousand excuses.

65. 582

    The crows too will prove your divinity to them by pecking out the eyes of their flocks and of their draught-oxen; and then let Apollo cure them, since he is a physician and is paid for the purpose.

66. 585

    Oh! don't do that! Wait first until I have sold my two young bullocks.

67. 586

    If on the other hand they recognize that you are God, the principle of life, that you are Earth, Kronos, Poseidon, they shall be loaded with benefits.

68. 587b

    Name me one of these then.

69. 588

    Firstly, the locusts shall not eat up their vine-blossoms; a legion of owls and kestrels will devour them.

70. 590

    Moreover, the gnats and the gallbugs shall no longer ravage the figs; a flock of thrushes shall swallow the whole host down to the very last.

71. 592

    And how shall we give wealth to mankind? This is their strongest passion.

72. 593

    When they consult the omens, you will point them to the richest mines, you will reveal the paying ventures to the diviner,

73. 595

    and not another shipwreck will happen or sailor perish.

74. 595b

    No more shall perish? How is that?

75. 596

    When the auguries are examined before starting on a voyage, some bird will not fail to say, Don't start! there will be a storm, or else, Go! you will make a most profitable venture.

76. 598

    I shall buy a trading-vessel and go to sea. I will not stay with you.

77. 599

    You will discover treasures to them, which were buried in former times,

78. 600

    for you know them. Do not all men say, None knows where my treasure lies, unless perchance it be some bird.

79. 602

    I shall sell my boat and buy a spade to unearth the vessels.

80. 603

    And how are we to give them health, which belongs to the gods?

81. 604

    If they are happy, is not that the chief thing towards health?

82. 605

    The miserable man is never well.

83. 606

    Old Age also dwells in Olympus. How will they get at it? Must they die in early youth?

84. 607b

    Why, the birds, by Zeus,

85. 608

    will add three hundred years to their life.

86. 608b

    From whom will they take them?

87. 608c

    From whom? Why, from themselves. Don't you know the cawing crow lives five times as long as a man?

88. 610

    Ah! ah! these are far better kings for us than Zeus!

89. 611

    Far better, are they not? And firstly, we shall not have to build them temples of hewn stone, closed with gates of gold;

90. 615

    they will dwell amongst the bushes and in the thickets of green oak; the most venerated of birds will have no other temple than the foliage of the olive tree; we shall not go to Delphi or to Ammon

91. 620

    to sacrifice; but standing erect in the midst of arbutus and wild olives and holding forth our hands filled with wheat and barley, we shall pray them to admit us to a share of the blessings they enjoy

92. 625

    and shall at once obtain them for a few grains of wheat.

93. 627

    Old man, whom I detested, you are now to me the dearest of all; never shall I, if I can help it, fail to follow your advice.

94. 629

    Inspirited by your words,

95. 630

    I threaten my rivals the gods, and I swear that if you march in alliance with me against the gods and are faithful to our just, loyal and sacred bond, we shall soon have shattered their scepter.

96. 637

    We shall charge ourselves with the performance of everything that requires force; that which demands thought and deliberation shall be yours to supply.

97. 658

    Hi! Epops! do you hear me?

98. 658b

    What's the matter?

99. 658c

    Take them off to dine well and call your mate, the melodious Procne, whose songs are worthy of the Muses;

100. 660

     she will delight our leisure moments.

← Previous · Next → — showing 301–400 of 902

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.