Birds

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 902 sections

976
Of the entrails —does it say that?
976b
Look at the book. If you do as I command, divine youth, you shall be an eagle among the clouds; if not, you shall be neither turtle-dove, nor eagle, nor woodpecker.
980
Does it say all that?
980b
Look at the book.
981
This oracle in no sort of way resembles the one Apollo dictated to me: If an impostor comes without invitation to annoy you during the sacrifice and to demand a share of the victim,
985
apply a stout stick to his ribs.
986
You are drivelling.
986b
Look at the book. And don't spare him, were he an eagle from out of the clouds, were it Lampon himself or the great Diopithes.
989
Does it say that?
989b
Look at the book
990
and go and hang yourself.
990b
Oh! unfortunate wretch that I am. He departs.
991
Away with you, and take your prophecies elsewhere.
992
I have come to you . . .
992b
Yet another pest! What have you come to do? What's your plan? What's the purpose of your journey? Why these splendid buskins?
995
I want to survey the plains of the air for you and to parcel them into lots.
996b
In the name of the gods, who are you?
997b
Who am I? Meton, known throughout Greece and at Colonus.
998b
What are these things?
999b
Tools for measuring the air.
1000
In truth, the spaces in the air have precisely the form of a furnace. With this bent ruler I draw a line from top to bottom; from one of its points I describe a circle with the compass. Do you understand?
1004
Not in the least.
1004b
With the straight ruler I set to work to inscribe
1005
a square within this circle; in its center will be the market-place, into which all the straight streets will lead, converging to this center like a star, which, although only orbicular, sends forth its rays in a straight line from all sides.
1009b
A regular Thales!
1010
Meton . . .
1010b
What d'you want with me?
1010c
I want to give you a proof of my friendship. Use your legs.
1012
Why, what have I to fear?
1012b
It's the same here as in Sparta. Strangers are driven away, and blows rain down as thick as hail.
1014b
Is there sedition in your city?
1015
No, certainly not.
1015b
What's wrong then?
1015c
We are agreed to sweep all quacks and impostors far from our borders.
1017
Then I'll be going.
1017b
I'm afraid it's too late. The thunder growls already.
1019
Oh, woe! oh, woe!
1019b
I warned you.
1020
Now, be off, and do your surveying somewhere else.
1021
Where are the Proxeni?
1021b
Who is this Sardanapalus?
1022
I have been appointed by lot to come to Nephelococcygia as inspector.
1023b
An inspector! and who sends you here, you rascal?
1024b
A decree of Teleas.
1025b
Will you just pocket your salary, do nothing, and get out?
1026b
Indeed I will; I am urgently needed to be at Athens to attend the Assembly; for I am charged with the interests of Pharnaces.
1029
Take it then, and get on your way. This is your salary. He beats him.
1030
What does this mean?
1030b
This is the assembly where you have to defend Pharnaces.
1031
You shall testify that they dare to strike me, the inspector.
1032
Are you not going to get out with your urns? It's not to be believed; they send us inspectors before we have so much as paid sacrifice to the gods.
1035
If the Nephelococcygian does wrong to the Athenian ...
1036
What trouble now? What book is that?
1037
I am a dealer in decrees, and I have come here to sell you the new laws.
1038b
Which?
1040
The Nephelococcygians shall adopt the same weights, measures and decrees as the Olophyxians.
1042
And you shall soon be imitating the Ototyxians.
1043
Ow! what are you doing?
1044
Now will you get out of here with your decrees? For I am going to let you see some severe ones.
1046
I summon Pisthetaerus for outrage for the month of Munychion.
1047
Ha! my friend! are you still here?
1050
Should anyone drive away the magistrates and not receive them, according to the decree duly posted ...
1052
What! rascal! you are back too?
1052a
Woe to you! I'll have you condemned to a fine of ten thousand drachmae.
1053
And I'll smash your urns.
1054
Do you recall that evening when you crapped on the column where the decrees are posted?
1055
Here! here! let him be seized. The Inspector runs off. Why, don't you want to stay any longer? But let us get indoors as quick as possible; we will sacrifice the goat inside.
1.1058
Henceforth it is to me that mortals must address
1.1060
their sacrifices and their prayers. Nothing escapes my sight nor my might. My glance embraces the universe, I preserve the fruit in the flower by destroying the thousand kinds of voracious insects the soil produces, which attack the trees
1.1065
and feed on the germ when it has scarcely formed in the calyx; I destroy those who ravage the balmy terrace gardens like a deadly plague;
1.1070
all these gnawing crawling creatures perish beneath the lash of my wing.
1072
I hear it proclaimed: A talent for him who shall kill Diagoras of Melos,
1075
and a talent for him who destroys one of the dead tyrants. We likewise wish to make our proclamation: A talent to him among you who shall kill Philocrates, the Struthian; four, if he brings him to us alive. For this Philocrates skewers the finches together and sells them at the rate of an obolus for seven.
1080
He tortures the thrushes by blowing them out, so that they may look bigger, sticks their own feathers into the nostrils of blackbirds, and collects pigeons, which he shuts up and forces them, fastened in a net, to decoy others. That is what we wish to proclaim. And if anyone is keeping birds
1085
shut up in his yard, let him hasten to let them loose; those who disobey shall be seized by the birds and we shall put them in chains, so that in their turn they may decoy other men.
1.1088
Happy indeed is the race of winged birds who
1.1090
need no cloak in winter! Neither do I fear the relentless rays of the fiery dog-days;
1.1095
when the divine grasshopper, intoxicated with the sunlight, as noon is burning the ground, is breaking out into shrill melody; my home is beneath the foliage in the flowery meadows. I winter in deep caverns, where I frolic with the mountain nymphs, while in spring I despoil
1.1100
the gardens of the Graces and gather the white, virgin berry on the myrtle bushes.
1102
I want now to speak to the judges about the prize they are going to award; if they are favourable to us, we will load them with benefits far greater than those Paris received.
1105
Firstly, the owls of Laurium, which every judge desires above all things, shall never be wanting to you; you shall see them homing with you, building their nests in your money-bags and laying coins. Besides, you shall be housed like the gods,
1110
for we shall erect gables over your dwellings; if you hold some public post and want to do a little pilfering, we will give you the sharp claws of a hawk. Are you dining in town, we will provide you with stomachs as capacious as a bird's crop. But, if your award is against us, don't fail to have metal covers fashioned for yourselves,
1115
like those they place over statues; else, look out! for the day you wear a white tunic all the birds will soil it with their droppings.
1.1189
War, a terrible war is breaking out
1.1190
between us and the gods! Come, let each one guard Air, the son of Erebus, in which the clouds float.
1.1195
Take care no immortal enters it without your knowledge.
1.1196
Scan all sides with your glance. Hark! methinks I can hear the rustle of the swift wings of a god from heaven.
1.1199
Hi! you woman! where, where, where are you flying to? Halt, don't stir!
1.1200
keep motionless! not a beat of your wing! She pauses in her flight. Who are you and from what country? You must say whence you come.
1.1202
I come from the abode of the Olympian gods.
1.1203
What's your name, ship or head-dress?
1.1204
I am swift Iris.
1.1204b
Paralus or Salaminia?
1.1205
What do you mean?
1.1205b
Let a buzzard rush at her and seize her.
1.1206b
Seize me? But what do all these insults mean?
1.1207b
Woe to you!
1.1208
I do not understand it.
1.1208b
By which gate did you pass through the wall, wretched woman?
1.1210
By which gate? Why, great gods, I don't know.

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.