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τά τε κατʼ ὄρεα τά τε κοτινοτράγα τά τε κομαροφάγα,
The compound adjective κοτινοτράγᾱ (kotlinotragai) is a striking example of Aristophanic comic neologism, literally 'cotton-goat-eaters' or 'cotton-stump-eaters.' The noun κοτῖνος (kotinos) refers to the cotton-plant (Gossypium), which was not native to Greece and was likely unknown to the Athenian audience in the 5th century BCE, or at least not as a cultivated food source. The compound suggests a fantastical, hyperbolic geography of the birds' realm, where they consume exotic flora alongside the local 'comarophagoi' (moss-eaters). This lexical construction relies on the audience's ignorance of actual botany to create a sense of the bizarre and the far-off, a common technique in the parabasis and the description of Cloudcuckooland.
Birds. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.