Euelpides: That's just what I was looking for; where can I flee, wretched man?
Pisthetaerus: Will this one not stand firm?
Euelpides: So that I may be carried off by these?
355
Pisthetairos: For how do you think these men
Pisthetaerus: 'To escape?'
Euelpides: I do not know how it might be.
Pisthetaerus: But I tell you this,
Pisthetaerus: that, since they are waiting, we must fight and take the pots.
Euelpides: But what will a pot ever profit you?
Pisthetaerus: The owl does not come near us.
Eupolis: And what about these crook-noses?
Pisthetaerus: seizing the spit,
Pisthetairos: Then stick it right in front of you.
360
Eupolis: 'But what about the eyes?'
Pisthetaerus: take from here a sharp-dyed piece of wool or a bowl.
Euelpides: O most wise one, you have hit upon it well and strategically;
Eupolis: You are already outstripping Nicias with your devices.
Chorus: E-le-le-uh, march on, put down your beak; you ought not to delay.
Chorus: pull, pluck, strike, beat, hit the pot first.
365
Hoopoe: tell me what you are planning, you most evil beasts of all.
Ἔποψ: having suffered loss, we men would neither be ruined nor torn apart.
Epops: "Of my wife's relative and fellow-tribesman?"
Chorus: For will we show more pity for these things than for wolves?
Chorus: Or whom else could we punish more bitterly than these?
370
Epops: if, indeed, they are enemies of nature but friends of mind,
Epops: And having taught you something useful, have they come here?
Chorus: How could these people ever teach us anything useful?
Chorus: Or would they have been able to perceive it, being enemies to my grandfathers?
Epops: But truly, the wise learn many things from their enemies.
375
Epops: for caution preserves everything. So then, from a friend
Epos: You would not have learned this, but the enemy immediately compelled [you].
Ἔποψ: 'The cities, at once, learned from men to be enemies and not friends.'
Epopos: to labor hard for high walls and to possess long ships;
Epops: But this lesson saves children, money, and the house.
380
Chorus: First, it is necessary to hear words, as it seems to us,
Chorus: Useful; for someone might even learn wisdom from his enemies.
Pisthetaerus: Let these relax from their anger. Come on, onto your leg!
Epops: And it is right for me too to pay you a favor.
Chorus: But indeed, we have not yet opposed any other thing to you.
385
Birds. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.