The Birds
by Aristophanes · Ὄρνιθες
Assigned by 3 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 414 BCE
- Form
- Comedy
- Language
- Greek
- Length
- Short · 110 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Birds and Other Plays, translated by David Barrett and Alan H. SommersteinPenguin Classics, 2003Readable and funny, with notes on the topical jokes; the volume also includes Knights, Peace, Wealth and Assemblywomen.
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Two Athenians, Peisetairos and Euelpides, fed up with lawsuits and taxes, leave the city to find the hoopoe Tereus and a quieter life. Peisetairos persuades the birds that they were the original gods and should build a walled city in the sky, Cloudcuckooland, to cut off the smoke of sacrifices from Olympus. Priests, poets, oracle-mongers and inspectors from Athens arrive and are beaten off. Starving gods send an embassy; Peisetairos negotiates Zeus's sceptre and a divine bride and ends the play as ruler of the universe.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Birds are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
