Aristophanes, Birds, 1058

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Chorus: Now for me, the all-seeing one.

Chorus: and all mortals everywhere

Chorus: They will sacrifice with prayers that are asked for.

1060

Chorus: for I plow every land,

Chorus: I save the abundant fruits.

Chorus: killing the stock of all races

Chorus: of beasts, all of them on the earth

Chorus: growing from a pod with all-devouring jaws

1065

Chorus: and they browse on the trees for their daily food;

Chorus: I will kill those fragrant gardens.

Chorus: They destroy with most hateful filth,

Chorus: all creeping things and stinging things whatsoever

Chorus: There is one under my wing who is perishing in slaughter.

1070

Birds. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.

Current edition Experimental

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

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.) — 1058 focus

Χορός

ἤδη ʼμοὶ τῷ παντόπτᾳ

καὶ παντάρχᾳ θνητοὶ πάντες

θύσουσʼ εὐκταίαις εὐχαῖς.
1060

πᾶσαν μὲν γὰρ γᾶν ὀπτεύω,

σῴζω δʼ εὐθαλεῖς καρποὺς

κτείνων παμφύλων γένναν

θηρῶν, ἂ πάντʼ ἐν γαίᾳ

ἐκ κάλυκος αὐξανόμενον γένυσι παμφάγοις
1065

δένδρεσί τʼ ἐφημένα καρπὸν ἀποβόσκεται·

κτείνω δʼ οἳ κήπους εὐώδεις

φθείρουσιν λύμαις ἐχθίσταις,

ἑρπετά τε καὶ δάκετα πάνθʼ ὅσαπερ

ἔστιν ὑπʼ ἐμᾶς πτέρυγος ἐν φοναῖς ὄλλυται.
1070

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.) — 1058 focus

First Semi-Chorus
Singing.

Henceforth it is to me that mortals must address 1060 their sacrifices and their prayers. Nothing escapes my sight nor my might. My glance embraces the universe, I preserve the fruit in the flower by destroying the thousand kinds of voracious insects the soil produces, which attack the trees 1065 and feed on the germ when it has scarcely formed in the calyx; I destroy those who ravage the balmy terrace gardens like a deadly plague; 1070 all these gnawing crawling creatures perish beneath the lash of my wing.

Aristophanes Birds 1058

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