Aristophanes Birds 1

ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart

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Ἐυελπίδης

ὀρθὴν κελεύεις, ᾗ τὸ δένδρον φαίνεται;
1

Πισθέταιρος

διαρραγείης· ἥδε δʼ αὖ κρώζει πάλιν.

Ἐυελπίδης

τί ὦ πόνηρʼ ἄνω κάτω πλανύττομεν;

ἀπολούμεθʼ ἄλλως τὴν ὁδὸν προφορουμένω.

Πισθέταιρος

τὸ δʼ ἐμὲ κορώνῃ πειθόμενον τὸν ἄθλιον
5

ὁδοῦ περιελθεῖν στάδια πλεῖν ἢ χίλια.

Ἐυελπίδης

τὸ δʼ ἐμὲ κολοιῷ πειθόμενον τὸν δύσμορον

ἀποσποδῆσαι τοὺς ὄνυχας τῶν δακτύλων.

Πισθέταιρος

ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὅπου γῆς ἐσμὲν οἶδʼ ἔγωγʼ ἔτι.

Ἐυελπίδης

ἐντευθενὶ τὴν πατρίδʼ ἂν ἐξεύροις σύ που;
10

Πισθέταιρος

οὐδʼ ἂν μὰ Δία γʼ ἐντεῦθεν Ἐξηκεστίδης.

Ἐυελπίδης

οἴμοι.

Πισθέταιρος

σὺ μὲν ὦ τᾶν τὴν ὁδὸν ταύτην ἴθι.

Ἐυελπίδης

ἦ δεινὰ νὼ δέδρακεν οὑκ τῶν ὀρνέων,

ὁ πινακοπώλης φιλοκράτης μελαγχολῶν,

ὃς τώδʼ ἔφασκε νῷν φράσειν τὸν Τηρέα
15

τὸν ἔποφʼ ὃς ὄρνις ἐγένετʼ ἐκ τῶν ὀρνέων·

κἀπέδοτο τὸν μὲν Θαρρελείδου τουτονὶ

κολοιὸν ὀβολοῦ, τηνδεδὶ τριωβόλου.

τὼ δʼ οὐκ ἄρʼ ᾔστην οὐδὲν ἄλλο πλὴν δάκνειν.

καὶ νῦν τί κέχηνας; ἔσθʼ ὅποι κατὰ τῶν πετρῶν
20

ἡμᾶς ἔτʼ ἔξεις. οὐ γάρ ἐστʼ ἐνταῦθά τις

ὁδός.

Πισθέταιρος

οὐδὲ μὰ Δίʼ ἐνταῦθά γʼ ἀτραπὸς οὐδαμοῦ.

Ἐυελπίδης

οὐδʼ ἡ κορώνη τῆς ὁδοῦ τι λέγει πέρι;

Πισθέταιρος

οὐ ταὐτὰ κρώζει μὰ Δία νῦν τε καὶ τότε.

Ἐυελπίδης

τί δὴ λέγει περὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ;
25

Πισθέταιρος

τί δʼ ἄλλο γʼ ἢ

βρύκουσʼ ἀπέδεσθαί φησί μου τοὺς δακτύλους;

Ἐυελπίδης

οὐ δεινὸν οὖν δῆτʼ ἐστὶν ἡμᾶς δεομένους

ἐς κόρακας ἐλθεῖν καὶ παρεσκευασμένους

ἔπειτα μὴ ʼξευρεῖν δύνασθαι τὴν ὁδόν;

ἡμεῖς γάρ, ὦνδρες οἱ παρόντες ἐν λόγῳ,
30

νόσον νοσοῦμεν τὴν ἐναντίαν Σάκᾳ·

ὁ μὲν γὰρ ὢν οὐκ ἀστὸς ἐσβιάζεται,

ἡμεῖς δὲ φυλῇ καὶ γένει τιμώμενοι,

ἀστοὶ μετʼ ἀστῶν, οὐ σοβοῦντος οὐδενὸς

ἀνεπτόμεσθʼ ἐκ τῆς πατρίδος ἀμφοῖν ποδοῖν,
35

αὐτὴν μὲν οὐ μισοῦντʼ ἐκείνην τὴν πόλιν

τὸ μὴ οὐ μεγάλην εἶναι φύσει κεὐδαίμονα

καὶ πᾶσι κοινὴν ἐναποτεῖσαι χρήματα.

οἱ μὲν γὰρ οὖν τέττιγες ἕνα μῆνʼ ἢ δύο

ἐπὶ τῶν κραδῶν ᾄδουσʼ, Ἀθηναῖοι δʼ ἀεὶ
40

ἐπὶ τῶν δικῶν ᾄδουσι πάντα τὸν βίον.

διὰ ταῦτα τόνδε τὸν βάδον βαδίζομεν,

κανοῦν δʼ ἔχοντε καὶ χύτραν καὶ μυρρίνας

πλανώμεθα ζητοῦντε τόπον ἀπράγμονα,

ὅποι καθιδρυθέντε διαγενοίμεθʼ ἄν.
45

ὁ δὲ στόλος νῷν ἐστι παρὰ τὸν Τηρέα

τὸν ἔποπα, παρʼ ἐκείνου πυθέσθαι δεομἐνω,

εἴ που τοιαύτην εἶδε πόλιν ᾗ ʼπέπτετο.

Birds. Aristophanes. ed. F. W. Hall, ed. William M. Geldart. Oxford. 1906.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Ὄρνιθες (Greek) (Aristophanes. Aristophanis Comoediae, Vol. 1. Hall, F. W. and Geldart, William M., editors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.)

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

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.) — 1 focus

SCENE: A wild and desolate region; only thickets, rocks, and a single tree are seen. Euelpides and Pisthetaerus enter, each with a bird in his hand.

Euelpides

To his jay. Do you think I should walk straight for yon tree?

Pisthetaerus

To his crow. Cursed beast, what are you croaking to me? . . . to retrace my steps?

Euelpides

Why, you wretch, we are wandering at random, we are exerting ourselves only to return to the same spot; we're wasting our time.

Pisthetaerus

5 To think that I should trust to this crow, which has made me cover more than a thousand furlongs!

Euelpides

And that I, in obedience to this jay, should have worn my toes down to the nails!

Pisthetaerus

If only I knew where we were . . .

Euelpides

10 Could you find your country again from here?

Pisthetaerus

No, I feel quite sure I could not, any more than could Execestides find his.

Euelpides

Alas!

Pisthetaerus

Aye, aye, my friend, it's surely the road of “alases” we are following.

Euelpides

That Philocrates, the bird-seller, played us a scurvy trick, 15 when he pretended these two guides could help us to find Tereus, the Epops, who is a bird, without being born of one. He has indeed sold us this jay, a true son of Tharrhelides, for an obolus, and this crow for three, but what can they do? Why, nothing whatever but bite and scratch! To his jay. 20 What's the matter with you then, that you keep opening your beak? Do you want us to fling ourselves headlong down these rocks? There is no road that way.

Pisthetaerus

Not even the vestige of a trail in any direction

Euelpides

And what does the crow say about the road to follow?

Pisthetaerus

By Zeus, it no longer croaks the same thing it did.

Euelpides

25 And which way does it tell us to go now?

Pisthetaerus

It says that, by dint of gnawing, it will devour my fingers.

Euelpides

What misfortune is ours! we strain every nerve to get to the crows, do everything we can to that end, and we cannot find our way! 30 Yes, spectators, our madness is quite different from that of Sacas. He is not a citizen, and would fain be one at any cost; we, on the contrary, born of an honorable tribe and family and living in the midst of our fellow-citizens, 35 we have fled from our country as hard as ever we could go. It's not that we hate it; we recognize it to be great and rich, likewise that everyone has the right to ruin himself paying taxes; but the crickets only chirrup among the fig-trees for a month or two, 40 whereas the Athenians spend their whole lives in chanting forth judgments from their law-courts. That is why we started off with a basket, a stew-pot and some myrtle boughs and have come to seek a quiet country 45 in which to settle. We are going to Tereus, the Epops, to learn from him, whether, in his aerial flights, he has noticed some town of this kind.