Chorus Leader: To work, men. How do you propose to name our city?

Peisetairos: How about Sparta? That’s a grand old name with a fine pretentious ring.

Euelpides: Great Hercules, call my city Sparta? I wouldn’t even insult my mattress by giving it a name like Sparta.

Peisetairos: Well, what do you suggest instead?

Chorus Leader: Something big, smacking of the clouds. A pinch of fluff and rare air, a swollen sound.

Peisetairos: I’ve got it! Listen—Cloud Cuckoo Land!

—Aristophanes, The Birds, 414 B.C.E.