Information ☽¤☾ Depth ☽¤☾ Texts ☽¤☾ Miscellania ☽¤☾ Site

Frogs

The Birds is an ancient comedic play written by a Greek playwright known as Aristophanes. It was performed for the Festival of Dionysus in 414 BC.

It is about the adventures of two Athenians who journey to sky realm of birds. They persuade the birds to create a new city in the skies while they are there. The new city will be called Cloudcuckoobury. One of the Athenian men takes over the city and has a wall to keep any visitor out. Soon the city becomes a focus of worship in place of the gods. Eventually the gods are forced to hand over their power to the birds.


It is around the middle of the play does Nyx appear in the Chorus's singing. The Leader of the Chorus tells the audience the origin of the gods. The following is an excerpt:

"Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race, whose life is but darkness, as unreal as a shadow, the illusion of a dream, hearken to us, who are immortal beings, ethereal, ever young and occupied with eternal thoughts, for we shall teach you about all celestial matters; you shall know thoroughly what is the nature of the birds, what the origin of the gods, of the rivers, of Erebus (Erebos), and Chaos (Khaos); thanks to us, even Prodicus will envy you your knowledge.

"At the beginning there was only Chaos (Khaos), Night (Nyx), dark Erebus (Erebos), and deep Tartarus. Earth, the air and heaven had no existence. Firstly, blackwinged Night (Nyx) laid a germless egg in the bosom of the infinite deeps of Erebus (Erebos), and from this, after the revolution of long ages, sprang the graceful Eros with his glittering golden wings, swift as the whirlwinds of the tempest. He mated in deep Tartarus with dark Chaos (Khaos), winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race, which was the first to see the light. That of the Immortals did not exist until Eros had brought together all the ingredients of the world, and from their marriage Heaven (Ouranos), Ocean (Okeanos), Earth (Ge) and the imperishable race of blessed gods sprang into being. Thus our origin is very much older than that of the dwellers in Olympus. We are the offspring of Eros; there are a thousand proofs to show it. We have wings and we lend assistance to lovers. How many handsome youths, who had sworn to remain insensible, have opened their thighs because of our power and have yielded themselves to their lovers when almost at the end of their youth, being led away by the gift of a quail, a waterfowl, a goose, or a cock."





Book sources:
Aristophanes. The Complete Greek Drama, vol. 2. Birds. English translation by Eugene O'Neill, Jr. New York: Random House. 1938.



☽¤☾ Back