f(1) Pisthetaerus modifies the Greek proverbial saying, "To what use
cannot hands be put?"
MESSENGER You should have seen how eagerly the ducks carried bricks.
To complete the tale, the swallows came flying to the work, their beaks
full of mortar and their trowel on their back, just the way little
children are carried.
PISTHETAERUS Who would want paid servants after this? But tell me, who
did the woodwork?
MESSENGER Birds again, and clever carpenters too, the pelicans, for they
squared up the gates with their beaks in such a fashion that one would
have thought they were using axes; the noise was just like a dockyard.
Now the whole wall is tight everywhere, securely bolted and well
guarded; it is patrolled, bell in hand; the sentinels stand everywhere
and beacons burn on the towers. But I must run off to clean myself; the
rest is your business.
CHORUS Well! what do you say to it? Are you not astonished at the wall
being completed so quickly?
PISTHETAERUS By the gods, yes, and with good reason. 'Tis really not to
be believed. But here comes another messenger from the wall to bring us
some further news! What a fighting look he has!
SECOND MESSENGER Oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! oh!
PISTHETAERUS What's the matter?
SECOND MESSENGER A horrible outrage has occurred; a god sent by Zeus
has passed through our gates and has penetrated the realms of the air
without the knowledge of the jays, who are on guard in the daytime.
PISTHETAERUS 'Tis an unworthy and criminal deed. What god was it?
SECOND MESSENGER We don't know that. All we know is, that he has got
wings.
PISTHETAERUS Why were not guards sent against him at once?
SECOND MESSENGER We have d(i)spatched thirty thousand hawks of the
legion of Mounted Archers.(1) All the hook-clawed birds are moving
against him, the kestrel, the buzzard, the vulture, the great-horned
owl; they cleave the air, so that it resounds with the flapping of their
wings; they are looking everywhere for the god, who cannot be far away;
indeed, if I mistake not, he is coming from yonder side.
f(1) A corps of Athenian cavalry was so named.
PISTHETAERUS All arm themselves with slings and bows! This way, all our
soldiers; shoot and strike! Some one give me a sling!
CHORUS War, a terrible war is breaking out between us and the gods!
Come, let each one guard Air, the son of Erebus,(1) in which the clouds
float. Take care no immortal enters it without your knowledge. Scan
all sides with your glance. Hark! methinks I can hear the rustle of the
swift wings of a god from heaven.
f(1) Chaos, Night, Tartarus, and Erebus alone existed in the beginning;
Eros was born from Night and Erebus, and he wedded Chaos and begot
Earth, Air, and Heaven; so runs the fable.
PISTHETAERUS Hi! you woman! where are you flying to? Halt, don't stir!
keep motionless! not a beat of your wing!--Who are you and from what
country? You must say whence you come.(1)
f(1) Iris appears from the top of the stage and arrests her flight in
mid-career.
IRIS I come from the abode of the Olympian gods.