Aristophanes, Birds
Eugene O'Neill, Jr., Ed.

A Bird
Entering.
Torotix, torotix.

Pisthetaerus
Wait, friend, there's a bird.

Euelpides
By Zeus, it is a bird, but what kind? Isn't it a peacock?

Pisthetaerus
As Epops comes out of the thicket.
[270] Epops will tell us. What is this bird?

Epops
It's not one of those you are used to seeing; it's a bird from the marshes.

Euelpides
Oh! oh! but he is very handsome with his wings as crimson as flame.

Epops
Undoubtedly; indeed he is called flamingo.

Euelpides
Excitedly.
Hi! I say! You!

Pisthetaerus
What are you shouting for?

Euelpides
Why, here's another bird.

Pisthetaerus
[275] Aye, indeed; this one's a foreign bird too. To Epops. What is this bird from beyond the mountains with a look as solemn as it is stupid?

Epops
He is called the Mede.

Euelpides
The Mede! But, by Heracles, how, if a Mede, has he flown here without a camel?

Pisthetaerus
Here's another bird with a crest.

From here on, the numerous birds that make up the Chorus keep rushing in.

Euelpides
Ah! that's curious. I say, Epops, [280] you are not the only one of your kind then?

Epops
This bird is the son of Philocles, who is the son of Epops; so that, you see, I am his grandfather; just as one might say, Hipponicus, the son of Callias, who is the son of Hipponicus.

Euelpides
Then this bird is Callias! Why, what a lot of his feathers he has lost!

Epops
[285] That's because he is honest; so the informers set upon him and the women too pluck out his feathers.

Euelpides
By Poseidon, do you see that many-coloured bird? What is his name?

Epops
This one? That's the glutton.

Euelpides
Is there another glutton besides Cleonymus? [290] But why, if he is Cleonymus, has he not thrown away his crest? But what is the meaning of all these crests? Have these birds come to contend for the double stadium prize?

Epops
They are like the Carians, who cling to the crests of their mountains for greater safety.

Pisthetaerus
Oh, Poseidon! look what awful swarms of birds are gathering here!

Euelpides
[295] By Phoebus! what a cloud! The entrance to the stage is no longer visible so closely do they fly together.

Pisthetaerus
Here is the partridge.

Euelpides
Why, there is the francolin.

Pisthetaerus
There is the poachard.

Euelpides
Here is the kingfisher. To Epops. What's that bird behind the kingfisher?

Epops
That's the barber.

Euelpides
[300] What? a bird a barber?

Pisthetaerus
Why, Sporgilus is one.

Epops
Here comes the owl.

Euelpides
And who is it brings an owl to Athens?

Epops
Pointing to the various species.
Here is the magpie, the turtle-dove, the swallow, the horned-owl, the buzzard, the pigeon, the falcon, the ring-dove, the cuckoo, the red-foot, the red-cap, the purple-cap, the kestrel, the diver, the ousel, the osprey, the woodpecker . . .

Pisthetaerus
[305] Oh! what a lot of birds! Oh! what a lot of blackbirds! How they scold, how they come rushing up! What a noise! what a noise! Can they be bearing us ill-will? Oh! there! there! they are opening their beaks and staring at us.

Euelpides
Why, so they are.