Chapter 5
[71] A calumniator and a traitor (see 'The Acharnians').
[72] Cleonymus, whose name the poet modifies, so as to introduce the idea of a flatterer ([Greek: kolax]).
[73] Another flatterer, a creature of Cleon's.
[74] Athenian poor, having no purse, would put small coins into mouth for safety. We know that the triobolus was the daily of the judges. Its value was about 4-1/2 d.
[75] A jar of wine, which he had bought with his pay.
[76] A jar with two long ears or handles, in this way resembling an ass.
[77] A well-known flute-player.
[78] We have already seen that when accepting his son's challenge he swore to fall upon his sword if defeated in the debate.
[79] Pericles had first introduced the custom of sending poor citizens, among whom the land was divided, into the conquered countries. The island of Aegina had been mainly divided in this way among Athenian colonists.
[80] The choenix was a measure corresponding to our quart.
[81] A verse borrowed from Euripides' 'Bellerophon.'
[82] i.e. a legislator. The name given in Athens to the last six of the nine Archons, because it was their special duty to see the laws respected.
[83] Mentioned both in 'The Acharnians' and 'The Knights.'
[84] The drachma was worth six obols, or twice the pay of a heliast.
[85] We have already seen that the Athenians sometimes kept their small money in their mouth.
[86] Which were placed in the courts; dogs were sacrificed on them.
[87] As already stated, the statue of Lycus stood close to the place where the tribunals sat.
[88] The barrier in the Heliaea, which separated the heliasts from the public.
[89] The whole of this comic trial of the dog Labes is an allusion to the general Laches, already mentioned, who had failed in Sicily. He was accused of taking bribes of money from the Sicilians.
[90] To serve for a bar.
[91] This was a customary formula, [Greek: aph' Estias archou], "begin from Hestia," first adore Vesta, the god of the family hearth. In similar fashion, the Romans said, _ab Jove principium_.
[92] For conviction and acquittal.
[93] On which the sentence was entered.
[94] No doubt the stew-pot and the wine-jar.
[95] The _article_ Bdelycleon had brought.--The clepsydra was a kind of water-clock; the other vessel is compared to it, because of the liquid in it.
[96] A title of Apollo, worshipped as the god of healing.
[97] A title of Apollo, because of the sacrifices, which the Athenians offered him in the streets, from [Greek: aguia], a street.
[98] Bdelycleon.
[99] The formula used by the president before declaring the sitting of the Court opened.
[100] That is, by way of fine.
[101] A reference to the peculations Laches was supposed to have practised in keeping back part of the pay of the Athenian sailors engaged in the Sicilian Expedition.
[102] The [Greek: Thesmothetai] at Athens were the six junior Archons, who judged cases assigned to no special Court, presided at the allotment of magistrates, etc.
[103] Thucydides, son of Milesias, when accused by Pericles, could not say a word in his own defence. One would have said his tongue was paralysed. He was banished.--He must not be confounded with Thucydides the historian, whose exile took place after the production of 'The Wasps.'
[104] When the judges were touched by the pleading of the orator and were decided on acquittal, they said to the defending advocate, "_Cease speaking, descend from the rostrum._"
[105] There were two urns, one called that of Conviction, the other of Acquittal.
[106] Meaning, that he had at first produced pieces under the name of other poets, such as Callistrates and Phidonides.
[107] Eurycles, an Athenian diviner, surnamed the Engastromythes ([Greek: muthos], speech, [Greek: en gastri], in the belly), because he was believed to be inspired by a genius within him.--The same name was also given to the priestesses of Apollo, who spoke their oracles without moving their lips.
[108] Some poets misused their renown as a means of seduction among young men.
[109] Cleon, whom he attacked in 'The Knights,' the first Comedy that Aristophanes had produced in his own name.
[110] Cynna, like Salabaccha, was a shameless courtesan of the day.
[111] The lamiae were mysterious monsters, to whom the ancients ascribed the most varied forms. They were depicted most frequently with the face and bosom of a woman and the body of a serpent. Here Aristophanes endows them with organs of virility. It was said that the blood of young men had a special attraction for them. These lines, abusive of Cleon, occur again in the 'Peace,' II. 738-42.
[112] Socrates and the sophists, with whom the poet confounds him in his attacks.
[113] He likens them to vampires.
[114] The third Archon, whose duty was the protection of strangers. All cases involving the rights of citizenship were tried before him. These were a frequent cause of lawsuit at Athens.
[115] 'The Clouds' had not been well received.
[116] Aristophanes lets it be understood that the refusal to crown him arose from the fact that he had been too bold in his attack.
[117] To perfume their caskets, etc., the Ancients placed scented fruit, especially oranges, in them.
[118] The pastimes of love.
[119] At Marathon, where the Athenians defeated the Persian invaders, 490 B.C. The battle-field is a plain on the north-east coast of Attica, about twenty-seven miles from Athens.
[120] A favourable omen, of course. The owl was the bird of Athené.
[121] An allusion to Cimon's naval victories.
[122] The Cyclades islands and many towns on the coast of Asia Minor.
[123] The tribunals.
[124] The six last Archons presided over the civil courts and were styled Thesmothetae (see above).
[125] Magistrates, who had charge of criminal cases.
[126] Built by Pericles. Musical contests were held there. Here also took place distributions of flour, and the presence of the magistrates was no doubt necessary to decide on the spot any disputes that might arise regarding this.
[127] This, says the Scholiast, refers to magistrates appointed for the upkeep of the walls. They were selected by ballot from amongst the general body of Heliasts.
[128] The demagogues and their flatterers.
[129] The battle of Artemisium on the Euboean coast; a terrible storm arose and almost destroyed the barbarian fleet, while sparing that of the Athenians.
[130] A mantle trimmed with fur.
[131] A rural deme of Attica. Rough coats were made there, formed of skins sewn together.
[132] An effeminate poet.
[133] He compares the thick, shaggy stuff of the pelisse to the intestines of a bullock, which have a sort of crimped and curled look.
[134] An Attic talent was equal to about fifty-seven pounds avoirdupois.
[135] He grumbles over his own good fortune, as old men will.
[136] Lamia, the daughter of Belus and Libya, was loved by Zeus. Heré deprived her of her beauty and instilled her with a passion for blood; she is said to have plucked babes from their mothers' breast to devour them. Weary of her crimes, the gods turned her into a beast of prey.
[137] Theagenes, of the Acharnian deme, was afflicted with a weakness which caused him to be constantly letting off loud, stinking farts, even in public--the cause of many gibes on the part of the Comic poets and his contemporaries.
[138] He had been sent on a mission as an armed ambassador, i.e. as a common soldier, whose pay was two obols.
[139] The [Greek: pankration] was a combined exercise, including both wrestling and boxing.
[140] All these names have been already mentioned.
[141] Each time Philocleon takes up the song with words that are a satire on the guest who begins the strain.
[142] King Admetus (Euripides' 'Alcestis') had suffered his devoted wife Alcestis to die to save his life when ill to death. Heracles, however, to repay former benefits received, descended into Hades and rescued Alcestis from Pluto's clutches.
[143] A famous epicure, the Lucullus of Athens (see 'The Acharnians').
[144] A parasite renowned for his gluttony.
[145] A town in Thessaly.
[146] Because of his poverty.
[147] Four lines in 'The Knights' describe the infamous habits of Ariphrades in detail.
[148] That is, it ceases to support it; Aristophanes does the same to Cleon.
[149] Referring to Lysistratus' leanness.
[150] A tragic actor, whose wardrobe had been sold up, so the story went, by his creditors.
[151] He enters, followed closely by the persons he has ill-used, and leading a flute-girl by the hand.
[152] Meaning his penis.
[153] Dardanus, a district of Asia Minor, north of the Troad, supplied many flute-girls to the cities of Greece.
[154] Pointing to the flute-girl's _motte_.
[155] He tells his son the very story the latter had taught him.
[156] The name of the baker's wife.
[157] Or Agoranomi, who numbered ten at Athens.
[158] The disciple of Socrates.
[159] Lasus, a musician and dithyrambic poet, born about 500 B.C. in Argolis, was the rival of Simonides and thought himself his superior.
[160] Ino, the daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. Being pursued by her husband, Athamas, whom the Fury Tisiphoné had driven mad, she threw herself into the sea with Melicerta, whereupon they were both changed into sea-goddesses.--This is the subject of one of Euripides' tragedies.
[161] A famous town in Magna Graecia, south coast of Italy.
[162] A celebrated physician.--Philocleon means, "Instead of starting an action, go and have yourself cared for; that is better worth your while."
[163] The dances that Thespis, the originator of Tragedy, interspersed with the speaking parts of his plays.
[164] A verse borrowed from an unknown Tragedy.
[165] As was done in the stadia when the races were to be started.
[166] The ancients considered it a specific against madness.
[167] Phrynichus, like all the ancient tragic writers, mingled many dances with his pieces.
[168] Tragic poet. His three sons had also written tragedies and were dancers into the bargain.
[169] Carcinus, by a mere transposition of the accent ([Greek: karkívos]), means _crab_ in Greek; hence the pun.
[170] Carcinus' sons were small and thin.
[171] The third son of Carcinus.
[172] Meaning, the three sons of Carcinus, the dancers, because, as mentioned before, Phrynichus often introduced a chorus of dancers into his Tragedies.
[173] Carcinus himself.
[174] The Greek word is [Greek: triorchoi]--possessed of three testicles, of three-testicle power, inordinately lecherous; with the change of a letter ([Greek: triarchoi]) it means 'three rulers,' 'three kinglets.'
THE BIRDS
INTRODUCTION
The Birds' differs markedly from all the other Comedies of Aristophanes which have come down to us in subject and general conception. It is just an extravaganza pure and simple--a graceful, whimsical theme chosen expressly for the sake of the opportunities it afforded of bright, amusing dialogue, pleasing lyrical interludes, and charming displays of brilliant stage effects and pretty dresses. Unlike other plays of the same Author, there is here apparently no serious political _motif_ underlying the surface burlesque and buffoonery.
Some critics, it is true, profess to find in it a reference to the unfortunate Sicilian Expedition, then in progress, and a prophecy of its failure and the political downfall of Alcibiades. But as a matter of fact, the whole thing seems rather an attempt on the dramatist's part to relieve the overwrought minds of his fellow-citizens, anxious and discouraged at the unsatisfactory reports from before Syracuse, by a work conceived in a lighter vein than usual and mainly unconnected with contemporary realities.
The play was produced in the year 414 B.C., just when success or failure in Sicily hung in the balance, though already the outlook was gloomy, and many circumstances pointed to impending disaster. Moreover, the public conscience was still shocked and perturbed over the mysterious affair of the mutilation of the Hermae, which had occurred immediately before the sailing of the fleet, and strongly suspicious of Alcibiades' participation in the outrage. In spite of the inherent charm of the subject, the splendid outbursts of lyrical poetry in some of the choruses and the beauty of the scenery and costumes, 'The Birds' failed to win the first prize. This was acclaimed to a play of Aristophanes' rival, Amipsias, the title of which, 'The Comastae,' _or_ 'Revellers,' "seems to imply that the chief interest was derived from direct allusions to the outrage above mentioned and to the individuals suspected to have been engaged in it."
For this reason, which militated against its immediate success, viz. the absence of direct allusion to contemporary politics--there are, of course, incidental references here and there to topics and personages of the day--the play appeals perhaps more than any other of our Author's productions to the modern reader. Sparkling wit, whimsical fancy, poetic charm, are of all ages, and can be appreciated as readily by ourselves as by an Athenian audience of two thousand years ago, though, of course, much is inevitably lost "without the important adjuncts of music, scenery, dresses and what we may call 'spectacle' generally, which we know in this instance to have been on the most magnificent scale."
"The plot is this. Euelpides and Pisthetaerus, two old Athenians, disgusted with the litigiousness, wrangling and sycophancy of their countrymen, resolve upon quitting Attica. Having heard of the fame of Epops (the hoopoe), sometime called Tereus, and now King of the Birds, they determine, under the direction of a raven and a jackdaw, to seek from him and his subject birds a city free from all care and strife." Arrived at the Palace of Epops, they knock, and Trochilus (the wren), in a state of great flutter, as he mistakes them for fowlers, opens the door and informs them that his Majesty is asleep. When he awakes, the strangers appear before him, and after listening to a long and eloquent harangue on the superior attractions of a residence among the birds, they propose a notable scheme of their own to further enhance its advantages and definitely secure the sovereignty of the universe now exercised by the gods of Olympus.
The birds are summoned to meet in general council. They come flying up from all quarters of the heavens, and after a brief misunderstanding, during which they come near tearing the two human envoys to pieces, they listen to the exposition of the latters' plan. This is nothing less than the building of a new city, to be called Nephelococcygia, or 'Cloud-cuckoo-town,' between earth and heaven, to be garrisoned and guarded by the birds in such a way as to intercept all communication of the gods with their worshippers on earth. All steam of sacrifice will be prevented from rising to Olympus, and the Immortals will very soon be starved into an acceptance of any terms proposed.
The new Utopia is duly constructed, and the daring plan to secure the sovereignty is in a fair way to succeed. Meantime various quacks and charlatans, each with a special scheme for improving things, arrive from earth, and are one after the other exposed and dismissed. Presently arrives Prometheus, who informs Epops of the desperate straits to which the gods are by this time reduced, and advises him to push his claims and demand the hand of Basileia (Dominion), the handmaid of Zeus. Next an embassy from the Olympians appears on the scene, consisting of Heracles, Posidon and a god from the savage regions of the Triballians. After some disputation, it is agreed that all reasonable demands of the birds are to be granted, while Pisthetaerus is to have Basileia as his bride. The comedy winds up with the epithalamium in honour of the nuptials.
* * * * *
THE BIRDS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
EUELPIDES. PISTHETAERUS. EPOPS (the Hoopoe). TROCHILUS, Servant to Epops. PHOENICOPTERUS. HERALDS. A PRIEST. A POET. A PROPHET. METON, a Geometrician. A COMMISSIONER. A DEALER IN DECREES. IRIS. A PARRICIDE. CINESIAS, a Dithyrambic Bard. AN INFORMER. PROMETHEUS. POSIDON. TRIBALLUS. HERACLES. SERVANT of PISTHETAERUS. MESSENGERS. CHORUS OF BIRDS.
SCENE: A wild, desolate tract of open country; broken rocks and brushwood occupy the centre of the stage.
* * * * *
THE BIRDS
EUELPIDES (_to his jay_).[175] Do you think I should walk straight for yon tree?
PISTHETAERUS (_to his crow_). Cursed beast, what are you croaking to me?... to retrace my steps?
EUELPIDES. Why, you wretch, we are wandering at random, we are exerting ourselves only to return to the same spot; 'tis labour lost.
PISTHETAERUS. To think that I should trust to this crow, which has made me cover more than a thousand furlongs!
EUELPIDES. And I to this jay, who has torn every nail from my fingers!
PISTHETAERUS. If only I knew where we were. . . .
EUELPIDES. Could you find your country again from here?
PISTHETAERUS. No, I feel quite sure I could not, any more than could Execestides[176] find his.
EUELPIDES. Oh dear! oh dear!
PISTHETAERUS. Aye, aye, my friend, 'tis indeed the road of "oh dears" we are following.
EUELPIDES. That Philocrates, the bird-seller, played us a scurvy trick, when he pretended these two guides could help us to find Tereus,[177] the Epops, who is a bird, without being born of one. He has indeed sold us this jay, a true son of Tharelides,[178] for an obolus, and this crow for three, but what can they do? Why, nothing whatever but bite and scratch!--What's the matter with you then, that you keep opening your beak? Do you want us to fling ourselves headlong down these rocks? There is no road that way.
PISTHETAERUS. Not even the vestige of a track in any direction.
EUELPIDES. And what does the crow say about the road to follow?
PISTHETAERUS. By Zeus, it no longer croaks the same thing it did.
EUELPIDES. And which way does it tell us to go now?
PISTHETAERUS. It says that, by dint of gnawing, it will devour my fingers.
EUELPIDES. What misfortune is ours! we strain every nerve to get to the birds,[179] do everything we can to that end, and we cannot find our way! Yes, spectators, our madness is quite different to that of Sacas. He is not a citizen, and would fain be one at any cost; we, on the contrary, born of an honourable tribe and family and living in the midst of our fellow-citizens, we have fled from our country as hard as ever we could go. 'Tis not that we hate it; we recognize it to be great and rich, likewise that everyone has the right to ruin himself; but the crickets only chirrup among the fig-trees for a month or two, whereas the Athenians spend their whole lives in chanting forth judgments from their law courts.[180] That is why we started off with a basket, a stew-pot and some myrtle boughs[181] and have come to seek a quiet country in which to settle. We are going to Tereus, the Epops, to learn from him, whether, in his aerial flights, he has noticed some town of this kind.
PISTHETAERUS. Here! look!
EUELPIDES. What's the matter?
PISTHETAERUS. Why, the crow has been pointing me to something up there for some time now.
EUELPIDES. And the jay is also opening its beak and craning its neck to show me I know not what. Clearly, there are some birds about here. We shall soon know, if we kick up a noise to start them.
PISTHETAERUS. Do you know what to do? Knock your leg against this rock.
EUELPIDES. And you your head to double the noise.
PISTHETAERUS. Well then use a stone instead; take one and hammer with it.
EUELPIDES. Good idea! Ho there, within! Slave! slave!
PISTHETAERUS. What's that, friend! You say, "slave," to summon Epops! 'Twould be much better to shout, "Epops, Epops!"
EUELPIDES. Well then, Epops! Must I knock again? Epops!
TROCHILUS. Who's there? Who calls my master?
EUELPIDES. Apollo the Deliverer! what an enormous beak![182]
TROCHILUS. Good god! they are bird-catchers.
EUELPIDES. The mere sight of him petrifies me with terror. What a horrible monster!
TROCHILUS. Woe to you!
EUELPIDES. But we are not men.
TROCHILUS. What are you, then?
EUELPIDES. I am the Fearling, an African bird.
TROCHILUS. You talk nonsense.
EUELPIDES. Well, then, just ask it of my feet.[183]
TROCHILUS. And this other one, what bird is it?
PISTHETAERUS. I? I am a Cackling,[184] from the land of the pheasants.
EUELPIDES. But you yourself, in the name of the gods! what animal are you?
TROCHILUS. Why, I am a slave-bird.
EUELPIDES. Why, have you been conquered by a cock?
TROCHILUS. No, but when my master was turned into a peewit, he begged me to become a bird too, to follow and to serve him.
EUELPIDES. Does a bird need a servant, then?
TROCHILUS. 'Tis no doubt because he was a man. At times he wants to eat a dish of loach from Phalerum; I seize my dish and fly to fetch him some. Again he wants some pea-soup; I seize a ladle and a pot and run to get it.
EUELPIDES. This is, then, truly a running-bird.[185] Come, Trochilus, do us the kindness to call your master.
TROCHILUS. Why, he has just fallen asleep after a feed of myrtle-berries and a few grubs.
EUELPIDES. Never mind; wake him up.
TROCHILUS. I am certain he will be angry. However, I will wake him to please you.
PISTHETAERUS. You cursed brute! why, I am almost dead with terror!
EUELPIDES. Oh! my god! 'twas sheer fear that made me lose my jay.
PISTHETAERUS. Ah! you great coward! were you so frightened that you let go your jay?
EUELPIDES. And did you not lose your crow, when you fell sprawling on the ground? Pray tell me that.
PISTHETAERUS. No, no.
EUELPIDES. Where is it, then?
PISTHETAERUS. It has flown away.
EUELPIDES. Then you did not let it go! Oh! you brave fellow!
EPOPS. Open the forest,[186] that I may go out!
EUELPIDES. By Heracles! what a creature! what plumage! What means this triple crest?
EPOPS. Who wants me?
EUELPIDES. The twelve great gods have used you ill, meseems.
EPOPS. Are you chaffing me about my feathers? I have been a man, strangers.
EUELPIDES. 'Tis not you we are jeering at.
EPOPS. At what, then?
EUELPIDES. Why, 'tis your beak that looks so odd to us.
EPOPS. This is how Sophocles outrages me in his tragedies. Know, I once was Tereus.[187]
EUELPIDES. You were Tereus, and what are you now? a bird or a peacock?[188]
EPOPS. I am a bird.
EUELPIDES. Then where are your feathers? For I don't see them.
EPOPS. They have fallen off.
EUELPIDES. Through illness.
EPOPS. No. All birds moult their feathers, you know, every winter, and others grow in their place. But tell me, who are you?
EUELPIDES. We? We are mortals.
EPOPS. From what country?
EUELPIDES. From the land of the beautiful galleys.[189]
EPOPS. Are you dicasts?[190]
EUELPIDES. No, if anything, we are anti-dicasts.
EPOPS. Is that kind of seed sown among you?[191]
EUELPIDES. You have to look hard to find even a little in our fields.
EPOPS. What brings you here?
EUELPIDES. We wish to pay you a visit.
EPOPS. What for?
EUELPIDES. Because you formerly were a man, like we are, formerly you had debts, as we have, formerly you did not want to pay them, like ourselves; furthermore, being turned into a bird, you have when flying seen all lands and seas. Thus you have all human knowledge as well as that of birds. And hence we have come to you to beg you to direct us to some cosy town, in which one can repose as if on thick coverlets.
EPOPS. And are you looking for a greater city than Athens?
EUELPIDES. No, not a greater, but one more pleasant to dwell in.
EPOPS. Then you are looking for an aristocratic country.
EUELPIDES. I? Not at all! I hold the son of Scellias in horror.[192]
EPOPS. But, after all, what sort of city would please you best?