The Birds

What It's About

Two Athenians, Pisthetaerus and Euelpides, weary of lawsuits, taxes, and city life, set off in search of a quieter place to settle. They seek out Tereus, a man once transformed into a hoopoe, hoping he can recommend a peaceful city among the birds. Instead, Pisthetaerus persuades the birds themselves to build a magnificent city in the sky, Cloud Cuckoo Land, positioned between earth and Olympus so it can intercept the smoke of human sacrifices and starve the gods of their offerings. As word spreads, a stream of opportunists, poets, prophets, informers, and self-important officials descend on the new city, each hoping to profit from it, and the gods are eventually forced to take notice.

Key Concepts

The play is built around the fantasy of a utopia founded out of spite and ambition rather than idealism, and it uses that premise to mock Athenian bureaucracy, religion, poetry, and politics of the day. Much of the humour rests on topical references to real Athenian figures and institutions, alongside wordplay and mock-mythology built around the chorus of birds. Some scholars read it as a veiled commentary on Athenian imperial overreach around the time of the Sicilian expedition, though Aristophanes himself gives no explicit political message, and the play works equally well as pure comic fantasy.

About the Author

Aristophanes (c. 446 – c. 386 BC) was an Athenian playwright and the leading figure of Old Comedy, the earliest surviving form of Greek comic theatre. Little is known of his personal life beyond what can be inferred from his own plays. He wrote around forty comedies for the Athenian dramatic festivals, of which eleven survive complete, and was known for combining broad fantasy and bawdy humour with sharp satire of the politicians, philosophers, and cultural figures of his time.

About This Edition

This is a 1912 translation by The Athenian Society.