Firstly, as soon as it's dawn, they all spring out of bed together to go and seek their food, the same as you do; then they fly off towards the notices and finally devour the decrees.The bird-madness is so clear that many actually bear the names of birds.There is a halting victualler, who styles himself the partridge; Menippus calls himself the swallow; Opuntius the one-eyed crow; Philocles the lark;Theogenes the fox-goose; Lycurgus the ibis; Chaerephon the bat;Syracosius the magpie; Midias the quail; indeed he looks like a quail that has been hit hard on the head.Out of love for the birds they repeat all the songs which concern the swallow, the teal, the goose or the pigeon; in each verse you see wings, or at all events a few feathers.This is what is happening down there.Finally, there are more than ten thousand folk who are coming here from earth to ask you for feathers and hooked claws; so, mind you supply yourself with wings for the immigrants.
PITHETAERUS
Ah! by Zeus, there's no time for idling.(To some slaves) Go as quick as possible and fill every hamper, every basket you can find with wings.Manes will bring them to me outside the walls, where Iwill welcome those who present themselves.
CHORUS (Singing)
This town will soon be inhabited by a crowd of men.Fortune favours us alone and thus they have fallen in love with our city.
PITHETAERUS (to the slave MANES, who brings in a basket full of wings)Come, hurry up and bring them along.
CHORUS (singing)
Will not man find here everything that can please him-wisdom, love, the divine Graces, the sweet face of gentle peace?
PITHETAERUS (as MANES Comes in with another basket)Oh! you lazy servant! won't you hurry yourself?
CHORUS (singing)
Let a basket of wings be brought speedily.Come, beat him as I do, and put some life into him; he is as lazy as an ass.
PITHETAERUS
Aye, Manes is a great craven.
CHORUS (singing)
Begin by putting this heap of wings in order; divide them in three parts according to the birds from whom they came; the singing, the prophetic and the aquatic birds; then you must take care to distribute them to the men according to their character.
PITHETAERUS (to MANES, who is bringing in another basket)Oh! by the kestrels! I can keep my hands off you no longer; you are too slow and lazy altogether.
(He hits MANES, who runs away.A young PARRICIDE enters.)PARRICIDE (singing)
Oh! might I but become an eagle, who soars in the skies! Oh! might I fly above the azure waves of the barren sea!
PITHETAERUS
Ha! it would seem the news was true; I hear someone coming who talks of wings.
PARRICIDE
Nothing is more charming than to fly; I am bird-mad and fly towards you, for I want to live with you and to obey your laws.
PITHETAERUS
Which laws? The birds have many laws.
PARRICIDE
All of them; but the one that pleases me most is that among the birds it is considered a fine thing to peck and strangle one's father.
PITHETAERUS
Yes, by Zeus! according to us, he who dares to strike his father, while still a chick, is a brave fellow.
PARRICIDE
And therefore I want to dwell here, for I want to strangle my father and inherit his wealth.
PITHETAERUS
But we have also an ancient law written in the code of the storks, which runs thus, "When the stork father has reared his young and has taught them to fly, the young must in their turn support the father."PARRICIDE (petulantly)
It's hardly worth while coming all this distance to be compelled to keep my father!
PITHETAERUS
No, no, young friend, since you have come to us with such willingness, I am going to give you these black wings, as though you were an orphan bird; furthermore, some good advice, that I received myself in infancy.Don't strike your father, but take these wings in one hand and these spurs in the other; imagine you have a cock's crest on your head and go and mount guard and fight; live on your pay and respect your father's life.You're a gallant fellow! Very well, then! Fly to Thrace and fight.
PARRICIDE
By Bacchus! You're right; I will follow your counsel.
PITHETAERUS
It's acting wisely, by Zeus.
(The PARRICIDE departs, and the dithyrambic poet CINESIASarrives.)
CINESIAS (singing)
"On my light pinions I soar off to Olympus; in its capricious flight my Muse flutters along the thousand paths of poetry in turn..."PITHETAERUS
This is a fellow will need a whole shipload of wings.
CINESIAS (singing)
"...and being fearless and vigorous, it is seeking fresh outlet."PITHETAERUS
Welcome, Cinesias, you lime-wood man! Why have you come here twisting your game leg in circles?
CINESIAS (singing)
"I want to become a bird, a tuneful nightingale."PITHETAERUS
Enough of that sort of ditty.Tell me what you want.
CINESIAS
Give me wings and I will fly into the topmost airs to gather fresh songs in the clouds, in the midst of the vapours and the fleecy snow.
PITHETAERUS
Gather songs in the clouds?
CINESIAS
'Tis on them the whole of our latter-day art depends.The most brilliant dithyrambs are those that flap their wings in empty space and are clothed in mist and dense obscurity.To appreciate this, just listen.
PITHETAERUS
Oh! no, no, no!
CINESIAS
By Hermes! but indeed you shall.(He sings.) "I shall travel through thine ethereal empire like a winged bird, who cleaveth space with his long neck..."PITHETAERUS
Stop! Way enough!
CINESIAS
"...as I soar over the seas, carried by the breath of the winds..."PITHETAERUS
By Zeus! I'll cut your breath short.
(He picks up a pair of wings and begins trying to stop CINESIAS'
mouth with them.)
CINESIAS (running away)
"...now rushing along the tracks of Notus, now nearing Boreas across the infinite wastes of the ether." Ah! old man, that's a pretty and clever idea truly!
PITHETAERUS
What! are you not delighted to be cleaving the air?
CINESIAS
To treat a dithyrambic poet, for whom the tribes dispute with each other, in this style!
PITHETAERUS
Will you stay with us and form a chorus of winged birds as slender as Leotrophides for the Cecropid tribe?
CINESIAS