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    Contents:
  • Prologue 1
  • Parodos 1
  • Agon 1
  • Choral 1
  • Episode 1
  • Agon 2
  • Lyric-scene 1
  • Episode 2
  • Parabasis 1
  • Lyric-scene 2
  • Parabasis 3
  • Lyric-scene 3
  • Choral 2
  • Episode 3
  • Lyric-scene 4
  • Episode 4
  • Exodus 1
    		•

    Aristophanes, Birds (ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.)

    Second Semi-Chorus

    Editions and translations: Greek (ed. F.W. Hall and W.M. Geldart) | English (ed. Eugene O'Neill, Jr.)
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    Leader of Second Semi-Chorus

    [785] There is nothing more useful nor more pleasant than to have wings. To begin with, just let us suppose a spectator to be dying with hunger and to be weary of the choruses of the tragic poets; if he were winged, he would fly off, go home to dine and come back with his stomach filled. [790] Some Patroclides, needing to take a crap, would not have to spill it out on his cloak, but could fly off, satisfy his requirements, let a few farts and, having recovered his breath, return. If one of you, it matters not who, had adulterous relations and saw the husband of his mistress in the seats of the senators, [795] he might stretch his wings, fly to her, and, having laid her, resume his place. Is it not the most priceless gift of all, to be winged? Look at Diitrephes! His wings were only wicker-work ones, and yet he got himself chosen Phylarch and then Hipparch; from being nobody, [800] he has risen to be famous; he's now the finest gilded cock of his tribe.


    There is one comment on or cross reference to this page.

    Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax:
    * [974-1184]

    Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristoph.+Birds+785

    The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.

    This text is based on the following book(s):
    Aristophanes. Birds. The Complete Greek Drama, vol. 2. Eugene O'Neill, Jr. New York. Random House. 1938.
    OCLC: 32280428


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