Euelpides is holding a jay and Pisthetærus a crow; they are the guides who are to lead them to the kingdom of the birds.
A stranger who wanted to pass as an Athenian, although coming originally from a faraway country.
A king of Thrace, a son of Ares, who married Procné, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens. He violated his sister-in-law, Philomela, and then cut out her tongue; she managed to convey to her sister how she had been treated. They agreed to kill Itys, whom Procné had borne to Tereus, and dished up the limbs of his son to the father; at the end of the meal Philomela appeared and threw the child’s head upon the table. Tereus rushed with drawn sword upon the princesses, but all the actors in this scene were metamorphised. Tereus became an Epops [hoopoe], Procné a nightingale, Philomela a swallow, and Itys a goldfinch.
An Athenian who had some resemblance to a jay.
Literally, to go to the crows, a proverbial expression equivalent to our going to the devil.
They leave Athens because of their hatred of lawsuits and informers; this is the especial failing of the Athenians satirized in ‘The Wasps.’
Myrtle boughs were used in sacrifices, and the founding of every colony was started by a sacrifice.
The actors wore masks made to resemble the birds they were supposed to represent.
Fear had had disastrous effects upon Euelpides’ internal economy, and this his feet evidenced.
The same mishap had occurred to Pisthetærus.
The Greek word for wren is derived from the same root as the Greek verb to run.
No doubt there was some scenery to represent a forest.
Sophocles had written a tragedy about Tereus, in which, no doubt, the king finally appears as a hoopoe.
Athens.
The Athenians were madly addicted to lawsuits.
As much as to say, Then you have such things as anti-dicasts? And Euelpides practically replies, Very few.
His name was Aristocrates; he was a general and commanded a fleet sent in aid of Corcyra.
The State galley, which carried the officials of the Athenian republic to their several departments and brought back those whose time had expired.
A tragic poet, who was a leper.
An allusion to Opuntius, who was one-eyed.
The newly-married ate a sesamè-cake, decorated with garlands of myrtle, poppies, and mint.
From the Greek verb that means to turn.
The Greek words for pole and city only differ by a single letter.
Bœotia separated Attica from Phocis.
The son of Tereus and Procné.
Aristophanes mixes up real birds with people and individuals, whom he represents in the form of birds; he is personifying the Medians here.
Philocles, a tragic poet, had written a tragedy on Tereus, which was a plagiarism of the play of the same name by Sophocles. Philocles is the son of Epops, because he got his inspiration from Sophocles’ Tereus, and at the same time is father to Epops, since he produced another Tereus.
This Hipponicus is probably the orator whose ears Alcibiades boxed to gain a bet; he was a descendant of Callias, who was famous for his hatred of Pisistratus.
This Callias, who must not be confounded with the foe of Pisistratus, had ruined himself.
Cleonymus had cast away his shield.
A race in which the track had to be circled twice.
A people of Asia Minor; when pursued by the Ionians they took refuge in the mountains.
An Athenian barber.
The owl was dedicated to Athenè, and being respected at Athens, it had greatly multiplied. Hence the proverb, taking owls to Athens, similar to our English taking coals to Newcastle.
An allusion to the Feast of Pots, when all sorts of vegetables were stewed together and offered for the dead to Bacchus and Athené. This Feast was peculiar to Athens. Hence Pisthetærus thinks that the owl will recognize they are Athenians by seeing the stew-pots, and as he is an Athenian bird, he will not attack them.
Nicias, the famous Athenian general.
Procné, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens.
A space beyond the walls of Athens which contained the gardens of the Academy and the graves of citizens who had died for their country.
A town in Western Argolis, where the Athenians had been recently defeated. A somewhat similar word in Greek signifies birds.
Epops is addressing the two slaves, no doubt Xanthias and Manes, who are mentioned later on.
It was customary, when speaking in public and also at feasts, to wear a chaplet; hence the question Euelpides puts.
A deme of Attica. In Greek the word also means heads, and hence the pun.
One of Darius’ best generals.
All Persians wore the tiara, but always on one side; the Great King alone wore it straight on his head.
Noted as the birthplace of Thucydides, a deme of Attica of the tribe of Leontis.
The appearance of the kite in Greece betokened the return of springtime; it was therefore worshipped as a symbol of that season.
To look at the kite, who no doubt was flying high in the sky.
The Athenians were addicted to carrying small coins in their mouths. This obolus was for the purpose of buying flour to fill the bag he was carrying
In Phœnicia and Egypt the cuckoo makes its appearance about harvest-time.
This was an Egyptian proverb, meaning, When the cuckoo sings we go harvesting. Both the Phœnicians and the Egyptians practised circumcision.
The staff, called a sceptre, generally terminated in a piece of carved work, representing a flower, a fruit, and most often a bird.
A general accused of treachery. The bird watches Lysicrates, because, according to Pisthetærus, he had a right to a share of the presents.
It is thus that Phidias represents his Olympian Zeus.
One of the diviners sent to Sybaris (in Magna Græcia, S. Italy) with the Athenian colonists, who rebuilt the town under the new name of Thurium.
As if he were saying, “Oh, gods!” Like Lampon, he swears by the birds, instead of swearing by the gods.
Alcmena, wife of Amphitryon, King of Thebes and mother of Heracles.—Semelé, the daughter of Cadmus and Hermioné and mother of Bacchus; both seduced by Zeus.—Alopé, daughter of Cercyon, a robber, who reigned at Eleusis and was conquered by Perseus. Alopé was honoured with Posidon’s caresses; by him she had a son named Hippothous, at first brought up by shepherds but who afterwards was restored to the throne of his grandfather by Theseus.
Because water is the duck’s domain, as it is that of Posidon.
Because the gull, like Heracles, is voracious.
In sacrifices.
A celebrated temple to Zeus in an oasis of Libya.
Nicias was commander, along with Demosthenes, and later on Alcibiades, of the Athenian forces before Syracuse, in the ill-fated Sicilian Expedition, 415–413 B.C. He was much blamed for dilatoriness and indecision.
Servants of Pisthetærus and Euelpides.
The actor representing Procné was dressed out as a courtesan, but wore the mask of a bird.
Young unmarried girls wore golden ornaments; the apparel of married women was much simpler.
The actor representing Procné was a flute-player.
The parabasis.
A sophist of the island of Ceos, a disciple of Protagoras, as celebrated for his knowledge as for his eloquence.
Lovers often gave each other presents of birds. The cock and the goose are mentioned in jest.
i.e. that it gave notice of the approach of winter, when the Ancients did not venture to sea.
A notorious robber.
Meaning, “We are your oracles.” Dodona was an oracle in Epirus.
The Greek word for omen is the same as that for bird.
A satire on the passion of the Greeks for seeing an omen in everything.
An imitation of the nightingale’s song.
God of the groves and wilds.
The ‘Mother of the Gods’; roaming the mountains, she held dances, always attended by Pan and his accompanying rout of Fauns and Satyrs.
An allusion to cock-fighting; the birds are armed with brazen spurs.
An allusion to the spots on this bird, which resemble the scars left by a branding iron.
He was of Asiatic origin, but wished to pass for an Athenian.
Or Philamnon, King of Thrace; the Phrygians and the Thracians had a common origin.
The Greek word here is also the name of a little bird.
A basket-maker who had become rich.—The Phylarchs were the headmen of the tribes. The Hipparchs were the leaders of the cavalry.
He had become a senator.
Pisthetærus and Euelpides now both return with wings.
Meaning, ’tis we who wanted to have these wings.
The Greek word signified the city of Sparta, and also a kind of broom used for weaving rough matting, which served for the beds of the very poor.
A fanciful name constructed from a cloud and a cuckoo; thus a city of clouds and cuckoos.
He was a boaster nicknamed smoke, because he promised a great deal and never kept his word.
A great Athenian orator, second only to Demosthenes.
Because the war of the Titans against the gods was only a fiction of the poets.
A sacred cloth, with which the statue of Athené in the Acropolis was draped.
Meaning, to be patron-goddess of the city. Athené had a temple of this name.
An Athenian effeminate, frequently ridiculed by Aristophanes.
This was the name of the wall surrounding the Acropolis.
i.e. the fighting-cock.
To waken the sentinels, who might else have fallen asleep.
An allusion to the leather strap which flute-players wore to constrict the cheeks and add to the power of the breath. The performer here no doubt wore a raven’s mask.
Hellanicus, the Mitylenian historian, tells that this surname of Artemis is derived from Colænus, King of Athens before Cecrops and a descendant of Hermes. In obedience to an oracle he erected a temple to the goddess, invoking her as Artemis Colaenis (the Artemis of Colænus).
This Cleocritus was long-necked and strutted like an ostrich.
The Chians were the most faithful allies of Athens, and hence their name was always mentioned in prayers, decrees, etc.
Verses sung by maidens.
This ceremony took place on the tenth day after birth.
Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse.
A parody of poetic pathos.
Which the priest was preparing to sacrifice.
Noted Athenian diviner.
No doubt another Athenian diviner.
A celebrated geometrician and astronomer.
A deme contiguous to Athens.
Thales was no less famous as a geometrician than he was as a sage.
Officers of Athens, whose duty was to protect strangers who came on political or other business, and see to their interests generally.
He addresses the inspector thus because of the royal and magnificent manners he assumes.
Magistrates appointed to inspect the tributary towns.
A much-despised citizen, already mentioned. He ironically supposes him invested with the powers of an Archon, which ordinarily were entrusted only to men of good repute.
A Persian satrap.—An allusion to certain orators, who, bribed with Asiatic gold, had often defended the interests of the foe in the Public Assembly.
A Macedonian people in the peninsula of Chalcidicè. This name is chosen because of its similarity to the Greek word to groan. It is from another verb meaning the same thing, that Pisthetærus coins the name of Ototyxians, i.e. groaners, because he is about to beat the dealer.—The mother-country had the right to impose any law it chose upon its colonies.
Corresponding to our month of April.
Which the inspector had brought with him for the purpose of inaugurating the assemblies of the people or some tribunal.
So that the sacrifices might no longer be interrupted.
A disciple of Democrites; he passed over from superstition to atheism.
By this jest Aristophanes means to imply that tyranny is dead, and that no one aspires to despotic power, though this silly accusation was constantly being raised by the demagogues and always favourably received by the populace.
A poulterer.—Strouthian, used in jest to designate him, as if from the name of his ‘deme,’ is derived from the Greek for sparrow. The birds’ foe is thus grotesquely furnished with an ornithological surname.
From Aphroditè (Venus), to whom he had awarded the apple, prize of beauty, in the contest of the “goddesses three.”
Laurium was an Athenian deme containing valuable silver mines, the revenues of which were largely employed in the maintenance of the fleet and payment of the crews. The “owls of Laurium,” means pieces of money; Athenian coinage was stamped with a representation of an owl, the bird of Athenè.
A pun, impossible to keep in English, on the two meanings of this word in Greek, which signifies both an eagle and the gable of a house or pediment of a temple.
That is, birds’ crops, into which they could stow away plenty of good things.
The Ancients appear to have placed metal discs over statues standing in the open air, to save them from injury from the weather, etc.
So as not to be carried away by the wind when crossing the sea, cranes are popularly supposed to ballast themselves with stones, which they carry in their beaks.
Pisthetærus modifies the Greek proverbial saying, “To what use cannot hands be put?”
A corps of Athenian cavalry was so named.
Chaos, Night, Tartarus, and Erebus alone existed in the beginning; Eros was born from Night and Erebus, and he wedded Chaos and begot Earth, Air, and Heaven; so runs the fable.
Iris appears from the top of the stage and arrests her flight in mid-career.
Ship, because of her wings, which resemble oars; cap, because she no doubt wore the head-dress [as a messenger of the gods] with which Hermes is generally depicted.
The names of the two sacred galleys which carried Athenian officials on State business.
A buzzard is named in order to raise a laugh, the Greek name also meaning, etymologically, provided with three testicles, vigorous in love.
Iris’ reply is a parody of the tragic style.—‘Lycimnius’ is the title of a tragedy by Euripides, which is about a ship that is struck by lightning.
i.e. for a poltroon, like the slaves, most of whom came to Athens from these countries.
A parody of a passage in the lost tragedy of ‘Niobe’ of Æschylus.
Because this bird has a spotted plumage.—Porphyrion is also the name of one of the Titans who tried to storm heaven.
All these surnames bore some relation to the character or the build of the individual to whom the poet applies them.—Chærephon, Socrates’ disciple, was of white and ashen hue.—Opuntius was one-eyed.—Syracosius was a braggart.—Midias had a passion for quail-fights, and, besides, resembled that bird physically.
Pisthetærus’ servant, already mentioned.
From the inspection of which auguries were taken, e.g. the eagles, the vultures, the crows.
Or rather, a young man who contemplated parricide.
A parody of verses in Sophocles ‘Œnomaus.’
The Athenians were then besieging Amphipolis in the Thracian Chalcidicè.
There was a real Cinesias—a dythyrambic poet, born at Thebes.
One scholarly interpretation has it that Cinesias, who was tall and slight of build, wore a kind of corset of lime-wood to support his waist.
The Greek word used here was the word of command employed to stop the rowers.
Cinesias makes a bound each time that Pisthetærus strikes him.
The tribes of Athens, or rather the rich citizens belonging to them, were wont on feast-days to give representations of dithyrambic choruses as well as of tragedies and comedies.
Another dithyrambic poet, a man of extreme leanness.
The informer is dissatisfied at only seeing birds of sombre plumage and poor appearance. He would have preferred to denounce the rich.
The informer was clothed with a ragged cloak, the tatters of which hung down like wings, in fact, a cloak that could not protect him from the cold and must have made him long for the swallows’ return, i.e. the spring.
A town in Achaia, where woollen cloaks were made
His trade was to accuse the rich citizens of the subject islands, and drag them before the Athenian courts.
That is, whips—Corcyra being famous for these articles.
Cleonymous is a standing butt of Aristophanes’ wit, both as an informer and a notorious poltroon.
In allusion to the cave of the bandit Orestes; the poet terms him a hero only because of his heroic name Orestes.
Prometheus wants night to come and so reduce the risk of being seen from Olympus.
The clouds would prevent Zeus seeing what was happening below him.
The third day of the festival of Demeter was a fast.
A semi-savage people, addicted to violence and brigandage.
Who, being reputed a stranger despite his pretension to the title of a citizen, could only have a strange god for his patron or tutelary deity.
The Triballi were a Thracian people; it was a term commonly used in Athens to describe coarse men, obscene debauchees and greedy parasites.
i.e. the supremacy of Greece, the real object of the war.
Prometheus had stolen the fire from the gods to gratify mankind.
A celebrated misanthrope, contemporary to Aristophanes.
The Canephori were young maidens, chosen from the first families of the city, who carried baskets wreathed with myrtle at the feast of Athenè, while at those of Bacchus and Demeter they appeared with gilded baskets.—The daughters of ‘Metics,’ or resident aliens, walked behind them, carrying an umbrella and a stool.
According to Ctesias, the Sciapodes were a people who dwelt on the borders of the Atlantic. Their feet were larger than the rest of their bodies, and to shield themselves from the sun’s rays they held up one of their feet as an umbrella.—By giving the Socratic philosophers the name of Sciapodes here Aristophanes wishes to convey that they are walking in the dark and busying themselves with the greatest nonsense.
This Pisander was a notorious coward; for this reason the poet jestingly supposes that he had lost his soul, the seat of courage.
In the evocation of the dead, Book XI of the Odyssey.
Chærephon was given this same title by the Herald earlier in this comedy.—Aristophanes supposes him to have come from hell because he is lean and pallid.
Posidon appears on the stage accompanied by Heracles and a Triballian god.
An Athenian general.—Neptune is trying to give Triballus some notions of elegance and good behaviour.
Aristophanes supposes that democracy is in the ascendant in Olympus as it is in Athens.
He is addressing his servant, Manes.
Heracles softens at sight of the food.—Heracles is the glutton of the comic poets.
He pretends not to have seen them at first, being so much engaged with his cookery.
He pretends to forget the presence of the ambassadors.
Posidon jestingly swears by himself.
The barbarian god utters some gibberish which Pisthetærus interprets as consent.
Heracles, the god of strength, was far from being remarkable in the way of cleverness.
The poet attributes to the gods the same customs as those which governed Athens, and according to which no child was looked upon as legitimate unless his father had entered him on the registers of his phratria. The phratria was a division of the tribe and consisted of thirty families.
The chorus continues to tell what it has seen on its flights.
The harbour of the island of Chios; but this name [from the Greek verb, to denounce] is used here in the sense of being the land of informers.
i.e. near the orators’ platform, in the Public Assembly, or because there stood the water-clock, by which speeches were limited.
A coined name, made up of the words tongue, and stomach, and meaning those who fill their stomach with what they gain with their tongues, to wit, the orators.
The Greek word for fig forms part of the Greek word for informer.
Both rhetoricians.
Because they consecrated it specially to the god of eloquence.
Basileia, whom he brings back from heaven.
Terms used in regulating a dance.
Where Pisthetærus is henceforth to reign.
Instead of naming the hotels [= mansions] of the great noblemen, Julia names the hotels [= inns] of the time. She thus shows where the countess had studied the aristocracy.
The Martial who did not write verses, sold perfumery, and was valet-de-chambre to the king’s brother. Martial, the Roman epigrammatist, lived in the first century after Christ.
Amateurs perform this more often than any other play of mine, and I urge them to omit all lines that I have enclosed in heavy round brackets ().—W.B.Y.