Epops: And from where will we give them to become rich? For they are very eager about this.
Pisthetaerus: These men will give the good prophecies to them as they consult the mines,
Pisthetaerus: And they deceive the merchants in their profitable dealings with the seer,
Pisthetaerus: So then no shipowner will be lost.
595
Epops: How will he not be destroyed?
Pisthetaerus: 'Will one of the birds always prophesy to the man asking about the voyage?'
Pisthetaerus: Now do not sail, winter will come; now sail, profit will follow.
Euelpides: I have a boat and a shipowner, and I would not stay with you.
Pisthetaerus: [they] will show them the treasures which the earlier ones deposited.
Pisthetaerus: of the money, for these men know; and all these men say the following,
600
Pisthetaerus: No one knows my treasure except perhaps a bird.
Eupolis: I sell a gull, I buy a swan, and I dig up the hydrias.
Epops: how will she give them health, since she is with the gods?
Pisthetaerus: If she is doing well, is this not a great sign of health? Be sure of it,
Pisthetaerus: Indeed, no one is healthy, as a man in bad condition.
605
Epops: But how will they ever reach old age? For this too is on Olympus;
Epops: Should a child, being one, die?
Pisthetaerus: By Zeus, but three hundred to them
Pisthetaerus: The birds will yet add years.
Epops: from where?
Pisthetaerus: from whom? From themselves.
Pisthetaerus: Do you not know that the jackdaw lives for five generations of men?
Euelpides: Alas, these men are far more fit to rule us than Zeus.
610
Birds. Aristophanes. . 2026-09-08.