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Χορός

ἄγε δὴ φύσιν ἄνδρες ἀμαυρόβιοι, φύλλων γενεᾷ προσόμοιοι,
685

ὀλιγοδρανέες, πλάσματα πηλοῦ, σκιοειδέα φῦλʼ ἀμενηνά,

ἀπτῆνες ἐφημέριοι ταλαοὶ βροτοὶ ἀνέρες εἰκελόνειροι,

προσέχετε τὸν νοῦν τοῖς ἀθανάτοις ἡμῖν τοῖς αἰὲν ἐοῦσιν,

τοῖς αἰθερίοις τοῖσιν ἀγήρῳς τοῖς ἄφθιτα μηδομένοισιν,

ἵνʼ ἀκούσαντες πάντα παρʼ ἡμῶν ὀρθῶς περὶ τῶν μετεώρων.
690

φύσιν οἰωνῶν γένεσίν τε θεῶν ποταμῶν τʼ Ἐρέβους τε Χάους τε

εἰδότες ὀρθῶς, Προδίκῳ παρʼ ἐμοῦ κλάειν εἴπητε τὸ λοιπόν.

Χάος ἦν καὶ Νὺξ Ἔρεβός τε μέλαν πρῶτον καὶ Τάρταρος εὐρύς,

γῆ δʼ οὐδʼ ἀὴρ οὐδʼ οὐρανὸς ἦν· Ἐρέβους δʼ ἐν ἀπείροσι κόλποις

τίκτει πρώτιστον ὑπηνέμιον Νὺξ ἡ μελανόπτερος ᾠόν,
695

ἐξ οὖ περιτελλομέναις ὥραις ἔβλαστεν Ἔρως ὁ ποθεινός,

στίλβων νῶτον πτερύγοιν χρυσαῖν, εἰκὼς ἀνεμώκεσι δίναις.

οὗτος δὲ Χάει πτερόεντι μιγεὶς νυχίῳ κατὰ Τάρταρον εὐρὺν

ἐνεόττευσεν γένος ἡμέτερον, καὶ πρῶτον ἀνήγαγεν ἐς φῶς.

πρότερον δʼ οὐκ ἦν γένος ἀθανάτων, πρὶν Ἔρως ξυνέμειξεν ἅπαντα·
700

ξυμμιγνυμένων δʼ ἑτέρων ἑτέροις γένετʼ οὐρανὸς ὠκεανός τε

καὶ γῆ πάντων τε θεῶν μακάρων γένος ἄφθιτον. ὦδε μέν ἐσμεν

πολὺ πρεσβύτατοι πάντων μακάρων. ἡμεῖς δʼ ὡς ἐσμὲν Ἔρωτος

πολλοῖς δῆλον· πετόμεσθά τε γὰρ καὶ τοῖσιν ἐρῶσι σύνεσμεν·

πολλοὺς δὲ καλοὺς ἀπομωμοκότας παῖδας πρὸς τέρμασιν ὥρας
705

διὰ τὴν ἰσχὺν τὴν ἡμετέραν διεμήρισαν ἄνδρες ἐρασταί,

ὁ μὲν ὄρτυγα δοὺς ὁ δὲ πορφυρίωνʼ ὁ δὲ χῆνʼ ὁ δὲ Περσικὸν ὄρνιν.

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 (3)

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.) — 685 focus

The Chorus turns and faces the audience.

Leader of the Chorus

685 Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race, whose life is but darkness, as unreal as a shadow, the illusion of a dream, hearken to us, who are immortal beings, ethereal, ever young and occupied with eternal thoughts, for we shall teach you about all celestial matters; 690 you shall know thoroughly what is the nature of the birds, what the origin of the gods, of the rivers, of Erebus, and Chaos; thanks to us, even Prodicus will envy you your knowledge.

At the beginning there was only Chaos, Night, dark Erebus, and deep Tartarus. Earth, the air and heaven had no existence. 695 Firstly, blackwinged Night laid a germless egg in the bosom of the infinite deeps of Erebus, and from this, after the revolution of long ages, sprang the graceful Eros with his glittering golden wings, swift as the whirlwinds of the tempest. He mated in deep Tartarus with dark Chaos, winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race, which was the first to see the light. 700 That of the Immortals did not exist until Eros had brought together all the ingredients of the world, and from their marriage Heaven, Ocean, Earth and the imperishable race of blessed gods sprang into being. Thus our origin is very much older than that of the dwellers in Olympus . We are the offspring of Eros; there are a thousand proofs to show it. We have wings and we lend assistance to lovers. 705 How many handsome youths, who had sworn to remain insensible, have opened their thighs because of our power and have yielded themselves to their lovers when almost at the end of their youth, being led away by the gift of a quail, a waterfowl, a goose, or a cock.

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.) — 685 focus

Chorus: Come now, breathe, men of dark life, like the generation of leaves,

685

Chorus: few-handed, creatures of clay, shadowy, powerless tribes,

Chorus: hapless, day-flying, mortal men, like dreamers,

Chorus: Pay attention to the mind of the immortal ones, to us who always are,

Chorus: to the airy, ageless ones, to those devising things imperishable,

Chorus: so that, having heard everything correctly from us about the lofty matters.

690

Chorus: the nature of birds, and the birth of gods, and of rivers, and of Erebus, and of Chaos.

Chorus: knowing this correctly, from now on tell Prodicus to weep from me.

Chorus: First there was Chaos and Night and dark Erebus and wide Tartarus,

Chorus: and there was neither earth nor air nor sky; but [there was] Erebus in boundless recesses

Chorus: Night, the dark-winged, first of all gave birth to the windward egg,

695

Chorus: From what seasons, revolving, Love the longed-for sprang forth,

Chorus: shining with a back of golden wings, like a whirlwind in the air.

Chorus: This one, having mingled with a winged one at night, goes down through broad Tartarus.

Chorus: Our race has been reborn, and first it has been brought into the light.

Chorus: For before, there was no race of immortals, until Eros mingled all things together;

700

Chorus: When others mixed with others, then the sky and Ocean were born.

Chorus: And the earth, imperishable stock of all the blessed gods. Here we are.

Chorus: most ancient of all the blessed ones. But we, as we are of Eros,

Chorus: It is clear to many; for we fly and we sit with those who are in love;

Chorus: many handsome boys who have been criticized at the limit of youth

705

Chorus: Because of our strength, lovers have divided us.

Chorus: the one who gave the partridge, the one the purple gallinule, the one the goose, the one the Persian bird.

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 689

τοῖς αἰθερίοις τοῖσιν ἀγήρῳς τοῖς ἄφθιτα μηδομένοισιν,

The phrase employs a unique combination of the dative plural with the article τοῖσιν (a Doric or poetic form of τοῖς) followed by three distinct participial phrases in the dative plural: ἀγήρῳς (dative plural of ἀγήρως, 'ageless'), ἄφθιτα (neuter plural accusative? No, context requires dative plural of ἄφθιτος, 'imperishable') and μηδομένοισιν (dative plural of the present middle participle of μεδόμεναι, 'planning'). The construction is an appositional dative of respect or specification, where the birds are identified by these three attributes. The use of ἄφθιτα in the dative plural (ἄφθιτοις) is metrically required here but the spelling ἄφθιτα suggests a textual crux or a specific dialectal variant. The phrase μηδομένοισιν is particularly significant as it uses the middle voice, implying the birds are 'planning for themselves' or 'concerning themselves,' which is a deliberate rhetorical choice by Aristophanes to characterize the birds as self-directed agents of cosmic order, contrasting with the mortal humans who are often passive or manipulated.

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Line 692

εἰδότες ὀρθῶς, Προδίκῳ παρʼ ἐμοῦ κλάειν εἴπητε τὸ λοιπόν.

The phrase κλάειν εἴπητε is a striking syntactic hybrid where the future imperative εἴπητε (speak) governs an infinitive κλάειν (to weep), effectively meaning 'tell him to weep' or 'have him weep.' While the future imperative often introduces a command, its combination with an infinitive to convey a jussive sense ('go and tell him to weep') is a specific Aristophanic usage that blurs the line between direct speech and reported command, characteristic of the play's linguistic playfulness regarding the Sophists' technicalities.

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Line 695

τίκτει πρώτιστον ὑπηνέμιον Νὺξ ἡ μελανόπτερος ᾠόν,

The genitive construction 'ὑπηνέμιον Νὺξ' (Night of the opposing wind) is a striking example of Aristophanic personification where the noun is modified by an adjective that would more naturally describe a physical phenomenon rather than a deity. While 'νέμεσις' (opposing wind) is a known epithet for Zephyrus, applying it to Night here creates a paradoxical cosmogony that aligns with the play's theme of constructing a world 'above the clouds' where traditional divine genealogies are inverted. This phrasing likely alludes to Hesiod's Theogony (where Night lays an egg) but subverts it by adding the 'opposing wind' element to emphasize the chaotic, unnatural setting of the bird-kingdom.

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Line 696

ἐξ οὖ περιτελλομέναις ὥραις ἔβλαστεν Ἔρως ὁ ποθεινός,

The phrase περιτελλομέναις ὥραις (cyclical seasons) functions as a dative of time or means in this Orphic cosmogony, evoking the Hesiodic and Orphic tradition where Eros emerges not merely as a force but as a primordial principle arising from the cyclical order of time itself, specifically the revolving seasons (cf. Orphic Fragment 143).

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Line 701

ξυμμιγνυμένων δʼ ἑτέρων ἑτέροις γένετʼ οὐρανὸς ὠκεανός τε

The genitive plural participle ξυμμιγνυμένων (from ξυμμίγνυμι) functions as a genitive absolute, yet the construction is semantically integrated with the main clause to describe a process of cosmic generation. The phrase οὐρανὸς ὠκεανός τε (Heaven and Ocean) alludes to the Hesiodic cosmogony of Theogony 116-118, where the primordial entities are Chaos, Gaia, and Tartarus, followed by Eros, Erebus, and Night, and then Heaven (Ouranos) and Earth (Gaia). Aristophanes' substitution of Oceanus for Earth in this specific context of bird-mixing creates a deliberate, humorous conflation of the birds' chaotic hybridization with the primordial chaos of creation, suggesting that the birds are not merely a new species but a re-creation of the cosmos itself.

Aristophanes Birds 685

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