Reading The Birds by Aristophanes (414 B.C.) was a joyous romp. This is not the typical fare from "The Father of Comedy." There are no politics, no satire, no social commentary, no lampooning of public mores, no derision or mockery of public officials. It’s not just a play, but an exhibition. Full of burlesque buffoonery, modern admen would call it “A Spectacle! An Extravaganza! An Epic Fantasy!” If it were produced in the 20th Century, it would have to have been produced by Busby Berkley, Flo Ziegfeld or Cecil B. DeMille, For this show John Napier, who did the costume and set designs for the stage production of Cats, would have to be called in to dazzle our eyes. I enjoyed imagining what the costumes and set designs would be like. “Feathers! More feathers! I need more feathers!”

The play is characterized by wit, fancy, and charm. The high-blown, ornate language is rich and clever. The plot is ridiculously absurd. I particularly enjoyed the onomatopoeic bird calls employed by the chorus.

maybe i would have found this funnier if i lived in athens in 400BC. arrowsmith's translation was excellent, but the atmosphere was ruined by the fact i had to consult the notes at the back of the text every two sentences to understand the obscure political references and untranslatable puns.

A classic comedy that makes you think, without being too tiring to read or too heavy on the message that it wants to get through.

Now let the Golden Age of Birds begin
by lovely marriage ushered in.

At first blush it's hard or me to recommend this play by Aristophanes; Lysistrata is a lot more enjoyable and displays the comic at his moral zenith, while The Clouds is his best satire and was influential in getting Socrates killed. I would only recommend the play under review if you're ready to chew on something a bit more...well, ambiguous. While many scholars see The Birds as fun escapism, I'm part of the crowd that views it as desolating. Comedy at its most bleak and serious.

Two Athenians, Eulpides (Goodhope) and Pisthetaerus (Trustyfriend), leave Athens because they're tired of all the nonsense of the city: it's laws, it's wars, it's politicians, it's "philosophy." They want to go out and live in the wild as carefree birds. They discover an avian community and manage to integrate. The conflict begins when Pisthetaerus realizes the great latent potential of the birds. He convinces the myriad of species that they could not only take over the Earth, but also the gods themselves by interfering with human sacrifice, which relies on the sky as its plane of transport. The birds agree and starve the gods, which denies humans divine support. Pisthetaerus wins concessions from both sides, and establishes the birds at the top of a new universe-order, with himself at the helm.

The play is primarily a set-piece for satire: many great Athenians are depicted and ridiculed, and the bird mythos allows for a lot of thematic puns and jokes. For this reason The Birds is usually written off as fantastic escapism, and while funny, isn't required reading if viewed under that lens (comedy is often rigorously era-specific). I offer a different view of the play. For me, the work reads a lot like dark comedy opposing the absurd evil of imperialism. (A close cousin would be Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.) For Aristophanes, the atrocity of the Peloponnesian War is less significant than if the Athenians actually win, and take over everything. But it goes beyond that. The very human desire to exert total control over others seems implicit in our species, and it's something we have to identify as morally and intellectually insane.

This is not a new idea. But I enjoy Aristophanes handling of it, where the crowd is laughing and smiling the entire time, delighting at the gags and wit, only to find themselves stopped cold when the story culminates in a successful cosmic empire, led by idiots, and run by birds. This is the Athenian dream. No, this is mankind's dream, embedded in our culture, our gods, and our nature. Life is indeed a joke, but it's not quite as funny as we thought.

I liked the central premise here but I didn't really enjoy the direction that the play took.

The thought that the characters wanted to escape Athens because they hated the litigiousness of the city is interesting to me. The decision to join the birds and found Cloudcuckooland, modelled after the Athenian Empire, is even more interesting. That's what I've come to like about Aristophanes: cultural criticism. The way that the two main characters plan on leveraging Cloudcuckooland's position between the Earth and the Pantheon, in order to cut off human sacrifices (emitted through smoke) from the gods, such that the new city can eventually force the gods to surrender their power to the birds -- well, I find that interesting too, I suppose, as more cultural criticism of Athenian imperial practices. But it didn't always make for great reading. The long section in the middle where tons of random humans come visit Cloudcuckooland and try to stay -- that section lost my interest in a big way. It's a shame because the beginning of the play, and the whole premise, really, is great.

Hear us, you who are no more than leaves always falling, you mortals benighted by nature,
You enfeebled and powerless creatures of earth always haunting a world of mere shadows,
Entities without wings, insubstantial as dreams, you ephemeral things, you human beings:
Turn your minds to our words, our etherial words, for the words of the birds last forever!

Όρνιθες = The Birds: a comedy, Aristophanes

Aristophanes (Born: c. 446 BC, Athens, Greece, Diedt(c. 386 BC, Delphi, Greece), son of Philippus, was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens.

The Birds is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BC at the City Dionysia in Athens where it won second place.

Characters: Pisthetairos, Euelpides, Hoopoe

Birds is one of the Aristophanes' masterpieces, for its imaginative plot, and it is charming and original lyrics.

The play begins with two middle-aged men stumbling across a hillside wilderness, guided by a pet crow and a pet jackdaw.

One of them advises the audience that they are fed up with life in Athens, where people do nothing all day but argue over laws, and they are looking for Tereus, a king who was once metamorphosed into the Hoopoe, for they believe he might help them find a better life somewhere else.

Just then, a very large and fearsome bird emerges from a camouflaged bower, demanding to know what they are up to and accusing them of being bird-catchers.

He turns out to be the Hoopoe's servant. They appease him and he returns indoors to fetch his master. Moments later the Hoopoe himself appears—a not very convincing bird who attributes his lack of feathers to a severe case of moulting.

He is happy to discuss their plight with them and meanwhile one of them has a brilliant idea—the birds, he says, should stop flying about like idiots and instead should build themselves a great city in the sky, since this would not only allow them to lord it over men, it would also enable them to blockade the Olympian gods in the same way that the Athenians had recently starved the island of Melos into submission.

The Hoopoe likes the idea and he agrees to help implement it, provided of course that the two Athenians can first convince all the other birds.

He calls to his wife, the Nightingale, and bids her to begin her celestial music. The notes of an unseen flute swell through the theatre and meanwhile the Hoopoe provides the lyrics, summoning the birds of the world from their different habitats—birds of the fields, mountain birds and birds of the trees, birds of the waterways, marshes and seas.

These soon begin to appear and each of them is identified by name on arrival. Four of them dance together while the rest form into a Chorus. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز دوازده نوامبر سال2011میلادی

عنوان: پرندگان (مجموعه کمدیهای آریستوفان)؛ نویسنده آریستوفان؛ مترجم: رضا شیرمرز؛ تهران، قطره، سال1388؛ در112 ص؛ شابک9789643419400؛ چاپ دوم سال1392؛ چاپ سوم سال1393؛ موضوع نمایشنامه های نویسندگان یونان - سده 5پیش از میلاد

عنوان: کمدی پرندگان؛ نویسنده: آریستوفان؛ مترجم: عطاالله کوپال؛ تهران، نیلا، سال1378؛ در110ص؛ شابک9646900046؛

آریستوفان در سال چهارصدوچهل و پنج پیش از میلاد به دنیا آمدند، پدر ایشان «فیلیپوس» نام داشت، و در «آئیگینا» می‌زیسته‌ است؛ تولد و دوران جوانی ایشان، همزمان با اوج قدرت «پریکلس»، پایه‌ گذار دموکراسی «آتن» بود؛ در اینباره، که «آریستوفان»، اصالتاً «آتنی» بوده باشد، تردید وجود دارد، و شاید همین امر سبب گردید، تا مدتی نتواند کمدیهایش را، با نام راستین خود به نمایش بگذارد؛ «آریستوفان» پسری به نام «آراروس» داشت، که بعدها شغل پدر را دنبال کرد، و دو نمایشنامهٔ آخر «آریستوفان» را، ایشان به نمایش گذاشت؛ سال درگذشت «آریستوفان» را سال385پیش از میلاد، یاد کرده‌ اند؛ از مجموع آثار ایشان که بیش و کم چهل و چهار نمایشنامه بوده، دوازده کمدی کامل، و قطعاتی پراکنده به دست آمده‌ است؛ این آثار عبارتند از: «آشارنی‌ها (425پ.م)»، «قهرمانان یا نجیب‌ زاده‌ها (424پ.م)»، «کمدی صلح (421پ.م)»، «ابرها (423پ.م)»، «پرندگان (414پ.م)»، «لیستراتا (411پ.م)»، «قورباغه‌ها (405پ.م)»، «زنبورها (422پ.م)»، «مجمع زنان (392پ.م)»؛ «تسموفوریازوس (410پ.م)»، «آکلزوسیازس (391پ.م)» و «پلوتوس (388پ.م)»؛

نمایشنامه ی «پرندگان» را؛ «آریستوفان» کمدی‌ نویس نامدار «یونان»، با نگرشی انتقادی درباره ی حکومتگران «آتن»، بنوشته است؛ در این نمایش‌نامه، دو شهروند «آتنی»، که از جنگ‌های طاقت‌فرسای «آتن» با «اسپارت»، خسته شده‌ اند، برای بناکردن شهری آرمانی، به سرزمین پرندگان آمده‌ اند، تا آنها را به جای «زئوس»، و دیگر ایزدان «یونانی»، بر مسند قدرت بنشانند؛ «آریستوفان»، این اثر را با استفاده از اندیشه ی پرواز، در اساطیر «یونانی»، به نمایش می‌گذارند؛ و...؛

دو شهروند «آتنی» با نام‌های «اِوِلپیذیس» و «پیسثِتِرُس» از زندگی ملالت‌بار در «آتن» به ستوه آمده‌ اند، این دو «آتنی» به نزد «هدهُد» می‌روند، و طرح تأسیس جامعه‌ ای را ارائه می‌کنند؛ «هُدهُد»، پیشنهادهایی می‌دهد، که «اِوِلپیذیس» آنها را رد می‌کند؛ سپس «هُدهُد» به آنها پیشنهاد زندگی با پرندگان را می‌دهد؛ «پیسثِتِرُس» که ساکت بود، از حکومت پرندگان بر دنیا سخن می‌گوید؛ «هُدهُد» گروه همسرایان را فرا می‌خواند، و شمار بسیاری پرنده، از سراسر جهان وارد می‌شوند؛ پرندگان از حضور دو «آتنی» خشمگین هستند و می‌خواهند چشمان آن دو را از حدقه درآورند؛ «هُدهُد» آنها را آرام می‌کند، و از آنها می‌خواهد، تا به پیشنهاد «پیسثِتِرُس» گوش بسپارند؛ «پیسثِتِرُس» می‌گوید، که پرندگان، پیش از خدایان «اُلیمپُس»، حاکم بر جهان بوده‌ اند، و در صورت همدلی با او و دوستش، فرمانروایی پیشین خود را، دوباره به دست می‌آورند؛ پرندگان، از این طرح پشتیبانی می‌کنند، و دو «آتنی» به همراه «هُدهُد» به بیشه‌زار می‌روند، تا به ریزه کاریهای طرح بیندیشند؛ پس از اجرای قطعه «پاراواسیس» درباره ستایش «پروکنی» و «هُدهُد»، مبدأ تاریخ از دیدگاه پرندگان، خدمات پرندگان به بشریت، مزایای زندگی با پرندگان و...؛ «پیسثِتِرُس» و «اولپیدوس» بالدار از بیشه‌زار بیرون می‌آیند و آرمان‌شهر خود را بنا می‌نهند؛ نام آن شهر «نفلوکوکیگیا» است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 30/01/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 05/09/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Brilliant play with a cleverly executed political message. Very smart of Aristophanes to imagine the characters as birds. I enjoyed reading it a lot.
I've read two different translations for this one. The first one was a more modern translation, arranged for the stage by Robert Kerr; and the other one was by David Barrett (inside The Birds and Other Plays, pub. Penguin Classics).
I must say that I liked Kerr's version better since it was very detailed in terms of props and costumes, thus making it easier for me to imagine the scenes visually. The Penguin translation felt a little bit out-of-date but was enjoyable nonetheless. It was definitely much longer, with a lot of choral songs added. Overall quite an entertaining play and a must-read for everyone interested in Ancient Greek drama.

Liked it but didn’t love it. I think a lot of the humor passed me by, more likely due to my own inability to grasp it rather than owing to the author’s shortcomings. It’s been quite a while since I’ve read any ancient texts and the style is an acquired taste. I look forward to reading more of writings from this period.

Two Athenian friends decide to leave Athens to find a more peaceable city, less litigious and busy than Athens. They seek advice from the birds, for a place in the sky, between earth, inhabited by humans, and the heavens, inhabited by the gods. The place will be named “Cloud Cuckoo Land.” Comic, absurd, but with strong political overtones of Greek life, the play is one of the few extant writings of Aristophanes. Anthony Doerr’s novel, “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” uses themes from the play to weave together his stories, the idea of human connections, the love and preservation of books, the seeking of place free from strife.

Exceptional

This is one of those texts that could be laborious to read if you lack background knowledge about Aristophanes and his milieu. Obviously, on the surface, it's a silly comedy full of vulgar sexual innuendos and absurd dialogues. It's short enough that you could enjoy the play just based on these dirty jokes, but I don't think that would get you very far (or I just don't have a sense of humor.)

The missing star means I don't know enough to fully engage the text critically. I'm hoping to learn enough to finally put in the last star some day.

The plot is simple: two Athenians (humans) "fed up" with Athens got talked into self-exile by "Philocrates the poulterer." Literally, Philocrates (the name) means power-lover, and his epithet basically means bird-catcher. You know where this is heading.

BTW, this is contemporary to the infamous Alcibiades, a rhetorician / sophist who rekt Melos so hard, even Athenians seem to feel ashamed.

So anyway, these exiles convinced all the birds to build their own utopia in the sky, since they live between men and god, up in the air, they can blockade earthly sacrifices to the gods, and browbeat the gods into submission the same way Athens sacked Melos. No, literally, they cited Melos as their model, their simile, their scheme. Aristophanes is not very subtle here.

Who should show up with cheat-codes but Prometheus, lover of men, hater of gods?

If you think about it, without Prometheus' gift of fire, earthly men couldn't have developed their rituals of barbecue-offerings to the gods anyways. What Prometheus giveth, Prometheus taketh away. It's not like these gods actually care about justice or virtue or anything like that -- they just want to be revered. And Prometheus rekts that. This feels ... personal.

With sophistry as weapon, these exiles negotiated Zeus' surrender. The tyrant is gone! Freedom BBQ! But, wait, one tyrant down, another fills the void. Our power-loving bird-catcher roasts his "emancipated" bird-friends just as arbitrarily.

There are so many allusions to political events, the talks of realpolitik seems to anticipate Plato's Republic; and the threats to institution of divine authority and piety also seems similar to Plato's Euthyphro. That is, I think the play would be a lot more interesting to me if I knew more about the dialogue Aristophanes was having with his contemporaries, the political and social commentaries he was making with the play, the moods of the intended audience, etc etc.

I'll be back. Hoping the earn that last star, not for Aristophanes, he doesn't need that. I do.