Aristophanes Birds 1148

Anonymous (Translator), ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr., ed. Whitney J. Oates, ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.

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Birds. Aristophanes. Anonymous (Translator), ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr., ed. Whitney J. Oates, ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.. New York. 1938.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Birds (English) (Aristophanes. The Complete Greek Drama, Vol. 2. Anonymous, translator. O'Neill, Eugene; Oates, Whitney Jennings, editors. New York: Random House, 1938 (printing).)

Editions (1)
Ὄρνιθες Perseus (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.) — 1148 focus
Translations (2)
Birds (OCR draft) Experimental (Anonymous translation, 1938 compilation; legacy Perseus source migration. Preserved separately from the revised canonical perseus-eng2 at the project owner's request.) — 1148 focus
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.) — 1148 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

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Line 1149

ἐπλινθοφόρουν· ἄνω δὲ τὸν ὑπαγωγέα
The verb ἐπλινθοφόρουν is a hapax legomenon in the surviving corpus of Aristophanes, formed with the prefix ἐπι- and the noun λινθοφόρος (brick-carrier). While the literal meaning 'to be carrying bricks upon' is clear from context, the specific prefix usage here implies an ongoing, perhaps burdensome or laborious action directed towards the construction of the Cloudcuckooland, reflecting the play's theme of laborious urban planning. The construction of the verb itself, combining a noun and a verb in a compound form to denote a specific, repetitive labor, is characteristic of Aristophanes' comic neologisms designed to evoke the absurdity of the birds' grand architectural project.

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ἐπέτοντʼ ἔχουσαι κατόπιν †ὥσπερ παιδία
The text is corrupt at the phrase †ὥσπερ παιδία. The dagger (†) indicates a lacuna or a conjectural emendation in the critical apparatus. While some manuscripts read ὥσπερ παιδία ('like children'), the context of birds flying in formation following one another often suggests a comparison to a military formation or a specific natural phenomenon (e.g., geese). Editors like Hermann and others have proposed alternatives such as ὥσπερ περὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον or other constructions, but the most significant textual crux involves the word παιδία itself, which some argue is a later gloss or a corruption of a word like περὶ τὴν ἄνθρωπον or similar, though the standard critical editions (e.g., Kock, Diggle) often retain παιδία with the understanding that it refers to the chaotic or specific flight patterns of young birds, contrasting with the disciplined flight of the birds in the play. However, the most robust textual issue is the presence of the dagger, signaling that the phrase is not securely transmitted and that the comparison 'like children' may be a secondary addition or a corruption of a more precise simile regarding flight formation, such as 'like a flock' or 'in order'.

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τὸν πηλὸν ἐν τοῖς στόμασιν† αἱ χελιδόνες.
The text contains a critical crux at the end of the line. The transmitted reading, 'αἱ χελιδόνες' ('the swallows'), makes little sense in the context of the preceding clause 'τὸν πηλὸν ἐν τοῖς στόμασιν' ('the mud in the mouths'), as swallows are not typically described as carrying mud in their mouths in this specific syntactic construction within the play's context of bird-city building. The dagger (†) indicates a suspected corruption. Most editors, following the logic of the play's plot where birds are constructing a city (Nephelokokkygia) and the specific imagery of construction, conjecture that the text should read 'ἐν τοῖς στόμασιν' followed by a verb or a different subject, or that the subject is missing entirely. A common conjecture involves emending the text to reflect the birds' activity of carrying clay/mud for building, possibly suggesting a reading like 'φέρουσι' (they carry) or re-evaluating the subject to fit the construction theme, as the current reading appears to be a scribal error or a corrupted gloss that has entered the main text.

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καὶ νῦν ἅπαντʼ ἐκεῖνα πεπύλωται πύλαις
The verb πεπύλωται is a hapax legomenon in Aristophanes, formed from the noun πύλη (door) with a perfect passive middle voice ending. The construction is a deliberate comic neologism (verbing a noun) to depict the city of Cloudcuckooland as having been sealed shut by its very gates, playing on the dual meaning of πύλαι as both the physical gates and the metaphorical 'barriers' of the new state. The perfect tense emphasizes the completed state resulting from the action, fitting the play's theme of a city that has been instantly and irrevocably fortified against the outside world.

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χωρεῖ δὲ πᾶς τις ὄνυχας ἠγκυλωμένος,
The participle ἠγκυλωμένος (from ἠγκυλῶ, to bend or curve) functions here as a periphrastic perfect participle describing the subject's state, yet it is used idiomatically to depict the physical posture of birds (and by extension, the characters in the play) hunched or crouching in anticipation. While the perfect participle of this verb is attested in other contexts to describe bent limbs, its application here to the collective action of 'all some' (πᾶς τις) creates a vivid, almost caricatured image of a flock simultaneously coiling, which is central to the play's central conceit of birds building a city in the sky (Nephelokokkygia). This usage is distinct from the more common ἠγκυλῶ meaning 'to hook' or 'to catch' in a literal sense, instead emphasizing the curved, predatory stance of the birds.