Aristophanes Birds 989

ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.

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Birds. Aristophanes. ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.. New York. 1938.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Current edition Experimental

Birds (OCR draft) (English) (Anonymous translation, 1938 compilation; legacy Perseus source migration. Preserved separately from the revised canonical perseus-eng2 at the project owner's request.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Ὄρνιθες Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.) — 989 focus
Translations (2)
Birds Perseus (Aristophanes. The Complete Greek Drama, Vol. 2. Anonymous, translator. O'Neill, Eugene; Oates, Whitney Jennings, editors. New York: Random House, 1938 (printing).)

No corresponding passage available

English (Sanjaya, generated; selected passages) (OCR draft) Experimental (Source: pnadelofficial/aristophanes-sanjaya, commit c319590c139e5603e71f0699caa0663d823af8ad. Machine-generated source annotations retained; see Sanjaya import audit for coverage and limitations.) — 989 focus

Commentary

Commentary (Sanjaya, generated; selected passages) (OCR draft) (Source: pnadelofficial/aristophanes-sanjaya, commit c319590c139e5603e71f0699caa0663d823af8ad. Machine-generated source annotations retained; see Sanjaya import audit for coverage and limitations.) focus

1010. mvp-tlg0019-tlg006-sanjaya-com-eng1-63

Line 1010

Μέτων —
This fragment represents the opening of a stichomythia (line-by-line dialogue) between Meton and the Birds. The character Meton is introduced here as a specific type of 'professor' (sophist) specializing in astronomy and geometry, whose later lines (e.g., claiming he can measure the sky with a surveyor's rod) serve as Aristophanes' satire of the new scientific empiricism and the pretensions of intellectual elites in late 5th-century Athens. The abruptness of the single name functions as a dramatic cue for the entrance of a new speaker in a rapid-fire exchange, a structural device common in the parabasis or early dialogue scenes of the play.

1021b. mvp-tlg0019-tlg006-sanjaya-com-eng1-64

Line 1021b

τίς ὁ Σαρδανάπαλλος οὑτοσί;
The character Peisthetaerus uses this question to mock the effeminacy and decadence of the Persian king Sardanapallus (a figure known from later Hellenistic and Roman tradition, notably Diodorus Siculus, rather than contemporary 5th-century sources). Aristophanes employs this anachronistic allusion to characterize the current political leader (likely Cleon or a similar demagogue) as a figure of moral corruption and softness, contrasting sharply with the traditional Greek ideal of martial virtue. The specific epithet 'Sardanapallus' functions as a cultural shorthand for extreme luxury and passivity, a rhetorical device that relies on the audience's recognition of the legendary Persian king as a symbol of Eastern decadence.