f(1) An allusion to the Feast of Pots; it was kept at Athens on the
third day of the Anthesteria, when all sorts of vegetables were stewed
together and offered for the dead to Bacchus and Athene. This Feast
was peculiar to Athens.--Hence Pisthetaerus thinks that the owl will
recognize they are Athenians by seeing the stew-pots, and as he is an
Athenian bird, he will not attack them.
EUELPIDES But do you see all those hooked claws?
PISTHETAERUS Seize the spit and pierce the foe on your side.
EUELPIDES And how about my eyes?
PISTHETAERUS Protect them with this dish or this vinegar-pot.
EUELPIDES Oh! what cleverness! what inventive genius! You are a great
general, even greater than Nicias,(1) where stratagem is concerned.
f(1) Nicias, the famous Athenian general.--The siege of Melos in 417
B.C., or two years previous to the production of 'The Birds,' had
especially done him great credit. He was joint commander of the Sicilian
expedition.
CHORUS Forward, forward, charge with your beaks! Come, no delay. Tear,
pluck, strike, flay them, and first of all smash the stew-pot.
EPOPS Oh, most cruel of all animals, why tear these two men to pieces,
why kill them? What have they done to you? They belong to the same
tribe, to the same family as my wife.(1)
f(1) Procne, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens.
CHORUS Are wolves to be spared? Are they not our most mortal foes? So
let us punish them.
EPOPS If they are your foes by nature, they are your friends in heart,
and they come here to give you useful advice.
CHORUS Advice or a useful word from their lips, from them, the enemies
of my forebears!
EPOPS The wise can often profit by the lessons of a foe, for caution is
the mother of safety. 'Tis just such a thing as one will not learn from
a friend and which an enemy compels you to know. To begin with, 'tis the
foe and not the friend that taught cities to build high walls, to equip
long vessels of war; and 'tis this knowledge that protects our children,
our slaves and our wealth.
CHORUS Well then, I agree, let us first hear them, for 'tis best; one
can even learn something in an enemy's school.
PISTHETAERUS Their wrath seems to cool. Draw back a little.
EPOPS 'Tis only justice, and you will thank me later.
CHORUS Never have we opposed your advice up to now.
PISTHETAERUS They are in a more peaceful mood; put down your stew-pot
and your two dishes; spit in hand, doing duty for a spear, let us mount
guard inside the camp close to the pot and watch in our arsenal closely;
for we must not fly.
EUELPIDES You are right. But where shall we be buried, if we die?
PISTHETAERUS In the Ceramicus;(1) for, to get a public funeral, we shall
tell the Strategi that we fell at Orneae,(2) fighting the country's
foes.
f(1) A space beyond the walls of Athens which contained the gardens of
the Academy and the graves of citizens who had died for their country.
f(2) A town in Western Argolis, where the Athenians had been recently
defeated. The somewhat similar work in Greek signifies 'birds.'
CHORUS Return to your ranks and lay down your courage beside your wrath
as the Hoplites do. Then let us ask these men who they are, whence they
come, and with what intent. Here, Epops, answer me.
EPOPS Are you calling me? What do you want of me?
CHORUS Who are they? From what country?
EPOPS Strangers, who have come from Greece, the land of the wise.
CHORUS And what fate has led them hither to the land of the birds?
EPOPS Their love for you and their wish to share your kind of life; to
dwell and remain with you always.
CHORUS Indeed, and what are their plans?
EPOPS They are wonderful, incredible, unheard of.
CHORUS Why, do they think to see some advantage that determines them to
settle here? Are they hoping with our help to triumph over their foes or
to be useful to their friends?
EPOPS They speak of benefits so great it is impossible either to
describe or conceive them; all shall be yours, all that we see here,
there, above and below us; this they vouch for.
CHORUS Are they mad?
EPOPS They are the sanest people in the world.
CHORUS Clever men?
EPOPS The slyest of foxes, cleverness its very self, men of the world,
cunning, the cream of knowing folk.
CHORUS Tell them to speak and speak quickly; why, as I listen to you, I
am beside myself with delight.
EPOPS Here, you there, take all these weapons and hang them up inside
close to the fire, near the figure of the god who presides there and
under his protection;(1) as for you, address the birds, tell them why I
have gathered them together.
f(1) Epops is addressing the two slaves, no doubt Xanthias and Manes,
who are mentioned later on.
PISTHETAERUS Not I, by Apollo, unless they agree with me as the little
ape of an armourer agreed with his wife, not to bite me, nor pull me by
the parts, nor shove things up my...
CHORUS You mean the...(PUTS FINGER TO BOTTOM) Oh! be quite at ease.
PISTHETAERUS No, I mean my eyes.
CHORUS Agreed.
PISTHETAERUS Swear it.
CHORUS I swear it and, if I keep my promise, let judges and spectators
give me the victory unanimously.
PISTHETAERUS It is a bargain.
CHORUS And if I break my word, may I succeed by one vote only.
HERALD Hearken, ye people! Hoplites, pick up your weapons and return
to your firesides; do not fail to read the decrees of dismissal we have
posted.
CHORUS Man is a truly cunning creature, but nevertheless explain.
Perhaps you are going to show me some good way 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. 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.
PISTHETAERUS 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!(1)
f(1) It was customary, when speaking in public and also at feasts, to
wear a chaplet; hence the question Euelpides puts.--The guests wore
chaplets of flowers, herbs, and leaves, which had the property of being
refreshing.
EUELPIDES Is it a question of feasting? What does it all mean?
PISTHETAERUS By Zeus, no! but I am hunting for fine, tasty words to
break down the hardness of their hearts.--I grieve so much for you, who
at one time were kings...
CHORUS We kings! Over whom?
PISTHETAERUS ...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.
CHORUS What, older than the Earth!
PISTHETAERUS By Phoebus, yes.
CHORUS By Zeus, but I never knew that before!
PISTHETAERUS 'Tis because you are ignorant and heedless, and have never
read your Aesop. 'Tis he 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, for want of a better place, to
entomb its father in its own head.