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Birds

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Birds is generally recognized as one of Aristophanes' masterpieces, for its imaginative plot (it is the source of the word "Cloudcuckooland"), and its charming and original lyrics. This abridgment of Nan Dunbar's widely acclaimed edition of Birds , published in 1995, preserves all the material designed to help the less advanced student of Greek or the non-specialist to translate, understand, and enjoy the play. It also retains the notes on staging, but the metrical, textual, and ornithological problems are dealt with more summarily, and purely illustrative parallels are omitted.

552 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 415

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Aristophanes

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Aristophanes (Greek: Αιστοφάνης; c.�446 � c.�386 BC) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.
Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates, although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher.
Aristophanes' second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court, but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through that play's Chorus, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."

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Profile Image for Ahmad Sharabiani.
9,563 reviews711 followers
November 27, 2021
Όρνιθες = The Birds: a comedy, Aristophanes

Aristophanes (Born: c. 446 BC, Athens, Greece, Died (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: «آشارنی‌ه� (425پ.م)»، «قهرمانان یا نجیب� زاده‌ه� (424پ.م)»، «کمدی صلح (421پ.م)»، «ابرها (423پ.م)»، «پرندگان (414پ.م)»، «لیستراتا (411پ.م)»، «قورباغه‌ه� (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 جنگ‌ها� طاقت‌فرسا� «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 نام‌ها� «اِوِلپیذیس» و «پیسثِتِرُس» از زندگی ملالت‌با� 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 می‌خواهن� 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 بیشه‌زا� 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 بیشه‌زا� بیرون می‌آین� و آرمان‌شه� خود را بنا می‌نهند� نام آن شهر «نفلوکوکیگیا» است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 30/01/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 05/09/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Profile Image for í.
2,246 reviews1,152 followers
September 17, 2024
When a play from the 5th century BC has themes that still speak to us, it proves it is thriving!
That's a comic critique of society, laws, and living together.
Profile Image for Phoenix2.
1,148 reviews108 followers
May 25, 2017
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.
Profile Image for Praj.
314 reviews877 followers
March 19, 2013

Nephelococcygia, a metropolis in air,
Zeus' cloudy nightmare,
Unlikely a bedroom scare
From a sparrow’s wild rare.

A respite between heaven and earth,
“An avian heaven�, says Pisthetaerus,
Flirting with the nightingale’s mirth
Hoopoe consents ; what a fucking putz!

Sacred chants float over the lustral waters,
The birds join the jubilant choir,
The peacock dancing in a tutu simply backfires,
It’s not an ass-whooping Le Ballet Noir!

The pelican, the spoon-bill, the horned-owl, the teal, the stormy petrel and the titmouse,
Solemnized the laws of the land,
Harboring the Olympians grouse,
I rather be chained and canned.

Messiah to Bitch Dependency,
“Birds over bitches!� proclaims a pimp called Slickback,
Pleading for wings is a bitch tendency,
Cloud-cuckoo town- a two-cent hustler.

Rainbows descent on womanly divinity,
“That’s a bitch!� , yelps Slickback,
Iris, messenger of Gods, heart of Zeus� affinity,
“That bitch’s gonna fuck y’all".

Perching on twigs, the birds laud the forgotten heroes,
A choral interlude, a cry for pigeons,
Howl the pigeons preening their Afros,
“You came to the wrong neighborhood, motherfucking wigeons!�

A cry of an amateur,
Verses may not rationally click
Least an award clincher,
I care a fuck ; I just blasted a stick!








Profile Image for Cemre.
708 reviews543 followers
July 30, 2019
Aslında Aristophanes'in Türkiye İş Bankası tarafından yayımlanan kitabını satın almak istemiştim; ancak en merak ettiğim oyun olan "Bulutlar"ı kitapta göremediğim için Mitos Boyut'u tercih ettim.

ş, aslında bir üٴDZⲹ. ... linkinden okuduğum kadarıyla Sicilya seferi öncesinde Tanrıların heykellerinin tahrip edilmiş ve bunun da uğursuzluk getirdiği inancı yerleşmiş. Buna sebebiyet verdikleri gerekçesiyle pek çok düşünür öldürülmüş. Oyun da Atina'daki bu tür problemlerden kurtulmak için kuşların ülkesine, bir üٴDZⲹya, göç eden iki arkadaşı anlatıyor.

Oyunda dönemin Atinasını, iktidarı, yargıyı eleştiren pek çok kısım var. Örneğin, "...yine de ülkemizden ayrılıyoruz. Ülkemizi sevmediğimizden mi? Yoo! Kim böylesine mutlu ve güzel bir kenti sevmez? İstediğin kadar para harca, bol bol vergi ve ceza öde. Ağustos böcekleri dallarda bir iki ay ötüp dururlar. Atinalılar ise insanı ömür boyu öttürürler. Nasıl mı? Mahkemelerle, tahkikatlarla... İşte bu yüzden yola çıktık" (s.8). İşte bu tür sebeplerden ötürü daha iyi bir ülke bulma amacıyla Pistetairos ve Euelpides yola çıkıyor ve buluyorlar da. Bu iki arkadaşın yerleştikleri kuşlar ülkesi ile Aristophanes özlem duyduğu ülkeyi anlatıyor olsa gerek. "Aranızda mutlu bir yaşam sürmek isteyen varsa bizimle gelsin. Bizim aramızda ayıp diye günah diye bir şey yoktur. ş yaptığınız her şeyi hoş görürler" (s.31). Bunun haricinde bu yeni ülkede kuşlar Tanrılara daha az adak adıyorlar, onlar için daha az şey kurban ediyorlar ve bu durum da Tanrıları çok rahatsız ediyor, iktidarlarını zedeliyor. Bu ülkede Tanrıların egemenliğinden ziyade ülkenin kuşlarının hüküm sürmesi isteniyor.

Bulutlar, Sokrates'i ölüme götüren oyun olarak zihnimde yer etmiş bir oyun. Sokrates'in bu oyun sonrasında ölüm cezasına mahkûm edildiği söylenir.

Gelenekçi bir yapıya sahip Aristophanes, Sokrates'i sofistlerle bir tutar ve onun birtakım ahlâk kurallarını, gelenekleri yıktığından, inançları sarstığından bahisle Sokrates'i yerden yere vurur. Bu oyun da tam anlamıyla bunun üzerine kurulu. Mahkemede borçlarını ödemekten kurtulmak isteyen Strepsiades kendisini mahkemede savunmak için oğlunun Sokrates'ten ders almasını ister. Başta oğlu kabul etmeyince kendi ders almaya gider; fakat pek başarılı olmaz. Bunun üzerine yeniden oğlunun Sokrates'ten eğitim almasına uğraşır ve bu sefer başarılır olur; ancak aldığı oğlunun eğitimin ne kadar "kötü ve yıkıcı" bir etkiye sahip olduğunu sonradan anlar. Bunun üzerine de Sokrates'in evini ateşe verir.

Oyun boyunca Sokrates, sofistlerle bir tutulur. Haklı çıkmak için, karşı tarafı ikna etmek için her türlü şeyi dener. Bu uğurda ahlâk kurallarını da yok sayar Tanrıları da. Hatta yağmuru Zeus'un yağdırmadığını, kasırga ile birlikte bulutların yağdırdığını bile iddia eder!

Özellikle felsefe meraklılarının okuması gereken bir oyun olduğunu düşünüyorum.
Profile Image for Paul Christensen.
Author6 books150 followers
June 3, 2019
I liked this - a strange and nebulous atmosphere
As two buffoon-clowns organise a biosphere,
An Avian Kingdom high up in the stratosphere.
Apparently this parodies the Sicilian sphere;
I couldn’t see that myself, but if it’s true I fear
That it proved to be prophetic in the coming year.
For the war was lost for Athens in that fateful year,
And the sharp decline of Hellas became über-clear.

Profile Image for Amene.
749 reviews82 followers
December 1, 2022
خوب بود .در مجموغ یک جور رسالة‌الطی� بود در قالب کمدی.
مشابهت‌ها� بسیاری با آثار فارسی تولید شده در حوزه‌ها� تمثیلی مرتبط با پرنده‌ه� داشت.
Profile Image for Leo.
4,789 reviews598 followers
January 3, 2021
Must have gotten a good translation on this because I enjoyed and understood the play much more then I thought I would.
Profile Image for denudatio_pulpae.
1,464 reviews33 followers
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February 7, 2021
A gdyby tak rzucić to wszystko i zamieszkać z ptakami (może być w Bieszczadach)?

"Ptaki" to kolejny utwór Arystofanesa, uchodzący za "arcydzieło komedii staroattyckiej", który (mea culpa) przeczytałam bez większego zainteresowania. Autor był gorliwym obrońcą pokoju i konserwatystą, czego wyraz chętnie dawał w swoich dziełach. W "Ptakach" znajdziemy jego wizję idealnego państwa, w którym nie znajdziemy żadnych wróżbitów, komisarzy ani sofistów z ich szkodliwymi naukami. Super, ja też marzę o państwie, w którym nie będzie niepasujących mi elementów politycznych. I to by było na tyle, bo to myślenie wyłącznie życzeniowe.
Profile Image for Jane.
1,659 reviews222 followers
August 10, 2016
Masterful translation of a witty play. I'm not sure of the meaning of the play, but I can see where elements of low humor today were birthed in ancient times. I appreciated the translator's notes and glossary. They explained many obscure [to us] references--cultural and topical in Aristophanes' day. I read this to compare it with Braunfels' treatment of the story in his opera "Die Vögel" based on the same play.
Profile Image for Yules.
232 reviews20 followers
June 25, 2022
Have you considered replacing your gods with birds? They're never far away - in some tree or bush - and while Zeus demands the sacrifice of a whole animal, you can appease birds with only a few grains of wheat. Also, they will give you wings (unless your reasons for wanting the wings are ridiculous. Then no. Obviously.) But what's really amazing is that many of Aristophanes' jokes are still funny over 2,400 years later.
Profile Image for Elinaz Ys.
96 reviews26 followers
June 19, 2015
من خصومت شخصيم با آريستوفان رفع نشده اما علت اينكه بسى لذت از اين كتاب بردم اينكه به شدت ياد مدينه فاضله عطار و منطق الطير نماد شخصيتى پرندگان و بالخصوص هدهد افتادم!!
Profile Image for psvchee.
84 reviews2 followers
March 9, 2022
très rigolo car un personnage s'appelle troudeballe mais sinon j'ai rien compris, qui peut m'expliquer svp j'ai ds dessus genre demain en culture antique
Profile Image for Kosar mobini.
27 reviews7 followers
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November 19, 2024
«خبرچین: پس، واژه ها بال پرواز می‌بخشند�
پیسثترس: بی شک! کلمات به ذهن بال می‌بخشن� و آدمیزاد تا عرش اوج می‌گیر�.»
Profile Image for Barry.
1,126 reviews48 followers
June 10, 2021
This play was occasionally amusing but overall feels a bit dated. Much of the humor seemed like it might have been more funny when it came out back in �14.

I mean 414.
BC.

Of the Ancient Greek Plays That Are Important for Every Well-educated Person to Read, this would surely fall into the 2nd tier. Maybe the third.
I did appreciate hearing the original use of the term “cloud-cuckoo-land� though.
10 reviews
March 24, 2014
"The Birds" was both witty and insightful about the nature of the Athenian dream: to live through play and not pay taxes. Though comical, it changes from a story of two men looking to escape their responsibilities, to their dream of a new world and overthrowing the gods, to the two men's domination. Ironically, much of their power was gained through a matter of others shrugging and doing their very best to avoid responsibility. I found that this play was both charmingly cheeky-- at a couple points faux-threatening the crowd to vote for the play in the competition it had been entered in-- and interesting for its complex view of human beings.
Profile Image for Ramona Cantaragiu.
1,380 reviews26 followers
January 22, 2022
I've read this as a play concerning the innate human craving for something better, a craving which can never be fully satiated, which could be taken as a satire for the Athenian desire for conquering (which always leads to war and destruction) and for always inventing new forms of political expression (which often results in people feeling lost and overwhelmed). I've enjoyed the talk about Eros, the lust that is inherently present in all of the characters. Just as an example, after Peisthetaerus and his friend establish Cloud-cuckoo-land, a patricide appears and states the following: "I’m in love with the laws of the Birds. I’m batty about the birds and I’m all in a flutter of desire to live with you, and I want your nomoi!�. Similarly, Kinesias says: “Because of Eros I flutter heavenwards of light wings�. And the link between politics and eroticism/passion is brought to its paroxysm in the end of the play when Peisthetaerus marries Basileia and establishes himself as a tyrant deity who is not necessarily creating a utopia since the wedding feast includes some roasted jailbirds. However, in comparison to other plays such as Lysistrata or the Assembly of Women, I found this play less comical and less enjoyable overall. This might be a masterpiece of political satire, but for me it proved a little too allegorical and difficult to follow than other plays.
Profile Image for Gini.
426 reviews20 followers
February 25, 2019
Skip this comedy and read Lysistrata instead would be my last word for it. This one gets 2 thumbs down.
Profile Image for Chad E Spilman.
376 reviews3 followers
March 4, 2024
A very entertaining comedy on how to build a kingdom and become a God. The people wanted to leave society and be among nature and came across the free birds and decided to be among them. They quickly became noticed and the greek gods also noticed and accepted them as leaders of the birds and were then gods.
Profile Image for Amber.
250 reviews36 followers
March 11, 2023
“Since Time was, I have been a friend of Man" ( Prometheus: The Birds)
Profile Image for Juri Ehring.
146 reviews
May 4, 2024
Super Idee aus dem alten Griechenland. Herrschaft der Vögel. Kurzweilige interessante Geschichte für zwischendurch. Viel bleibt aber nicht hängen.
Profile Image for ܳí.
17 reviews11 followers
March 25, 2023
Qué mal me cae este tío
Profile Image for Illiterate.
2,498 reviews46 followers
August 8, 2020
Social satire meets bawdy farce. Cloudcuckooland is appropriately full of the tittle tattle of religion, politics, philosophy, poetry.
Profile Image for Reza.
38 reviews12 followers
February 11, 2019
پنح اثر اول باقیمانده از آریستوفانس هر کدام با فاصله یک سال به روی صحنه رفته اند و میشود تحول اندیشه و تفکر او را در این پنج سال ردیابی کرد. در دو نمایشنامه اول باقیمانده از او، آخارنیایی ها و شوالیه ها که طنز در حد هجویات و هزلیات مستقیم (در حد "هله کیدی غلام ناقابل" و "این غر غرچه جغد دمن است") و شوخی های فالیک متعدد و ست پیس های گسسته و بی ربط در متن وجود داشت. سبکی که از نمایشنامه ای نویسی در پایان دهه دوم زندگی خیلی دور از ذهن نیست، هر چند روشنگری و تفکر سیاسی او از همان آثار اول تحسین برانگیز بودند.
اما پرندگان فاصله زیادی (هفت سال) با آثار دیگر او دارد و تغییر سبک و طرز تفکر تا حد زیادی آشکار است. اگر آثار قبلی حملاتی سنگین و مستقیم علیه بنیادهای سیاسی یونان معاصر بودن��، این اثر در حکم روایتی است اسوپی (یا کلیله و دمنه ای) و نمادین در مذمت اخلاقیات انسان معاصر که امید به آینده ای بهتر به همراه مبنای فکری قویتر را با خود همراه دارد. در پرندگان از هزل خبری نیست و شوخی های جنسی و فالیک در کمترین حد خود در اثر گنجانده اشده اند و هجو مستقیم اشخاص هم در مقایسه با آثار دیگر آریستوفانس به حد قابل توجهی کم شده است (هر چند کلیستنس و کلئونیموس بخت برگشته همیشه و در هر فرصت بی ربط و با ربطی، هدف شوخی های بی رحمانه آریستوفانس قرار گرفته اند. کلیستنس به دلیل امردی و کلئونیموس به دلیل بزدلی و چاقی)
پرندگان روایت دو شهروند آتنی است به اسم های فیستوتایروس و اولیپیدس که به دنبال سرزمینی بدون جنگ با پای پیاده از آتن به راه میفتند و به قلمروی ترئوس (شاه تراس که به دلیل تجاوز به همسر خواهرش به شکل شانه به سر در می آید و پادشاه پرنده ها می شود) می رسند. آنها به ت��ئوس پیشنهاد تشکیل کشوری را می دهند که بین زمین و آسمان بنا نهاده می شود. و درآمد آن از مالیات عوارض قربانی ها و افشانش تامین می شود. فیستوتایروس و اولیپیدس که خود به پرنده تبدیل شده اند و پادشاهان جدید این سرزمین هستند، پیشهاد برانداختن پادشاهی خدایان را به آنها میدهند و از روایات اساطیری کمک میگیرند تا اثبات کنند که پرندگان پیش از زئوس بوجود آمده اند.
مذهب جدید پرندگان، در مدت خیلی کوتاهی (کمتر از چند خط!) توجه مردم یونان خسته ازخدایان قدیم را به خود جلب می کند. شاعران، تاریخ نویسان، منجمان و پیش گویان به خدمت پادشاه پرندگان در میابند و تاریخ ادبیات اساطیری با تاریخ ادبیات پرندگان جایگزین می شود. انسان ها پرندگان را عبادت می کنند و اسم های پرنده ها را روی خود می گذارند و عادات زندگی پرندگان را تقلید می کنند.
در این میان، پرومتئوس، شورشی ابدی، به قلمروی پرندگان می آید و هراسناک از مجازاتی دیگر، راز دزدیدن تاج و تخت پادشاهی از زئوس را به پرندگان می گوید و پرندگان درفصل شاهکار پایانی و اندکی کفرآمیز، در مباحثه ای از حماقت خدایان استفاده می کنند و خدایان جدید تمامی عالم می شوند.
تم اصلی پرندگان یعنی ایجاد تفکری جدید، نابودی تفکر قدیمی و امید برای پیشرفت بر مبنای این تفکر جدید از محافظه کاری مثل آریستوفانس بعید به نظر می رسد. آریستوفانسی که در نمایشنامه "ابرها" از فلسفه سقراط و پیروان او (مثل دیاگوراس) انتقاد می کند (مسخره می کند) و تفکرات جدید را مبنای فروپایشی اخلاقیات جامعه می داند. طرز تفکری که در نمایشنامه ابرها بلاهت و ساده اندیشی آریستوفانس محافظه کار را نشان می دهد در پرندگان به باد انتقاد گرفته می شود و رسیدن به بینشی جدید پایه بنای ایجاد جامعه ای عاری از تفرقه و جنگ می شود.
Profile Image for Beth.
229 reviews
November 28, 2017
I read the George Theodoridis translation available here:


The only drawback to reading this version is that there are no annotations. It's a pretty accessible translation, so I understood most of it anyway, but I'd like to read an annotated version eventually, to see what I might have missed.

My favorite Aristophanes is still (I think I read the Lattimore translation) but this was fascinating. It's less explicitly political than , but very whimsical and imaginative. When I read earlier this year, the author had a great description of this play (in connection with the "ring of Gyges" story in Plato's Republic):

"A pair of idiots find themselves in the country of birds, where, to save their skins, they end up feathered and winged, organizing the birds into a political power. They start a bird-centric religion. The newly self-confident birds build a mighty fortress, Cloud Cuckooland, between the human world and Olympus... the gifts humans give the gods -- vaguely conceived of as aromas rising up out of the fires -- are embargoed. A deputation of Olympians (and one Thracian god, who can't speak Greek, or get his clothes on straight) come to Cuckooland on a diplomatic mission. They need this stuff they are used to getting from mortals on a regular basis!...

Also, when the humans-turned-birds find their new condition convenient, they reflect on why this is so. If you have powers no ordinary mortals do -- in this case, flight -- they can't touch you. Obviously you will get up to all sorts of unethical stuff, if there is no threat of punishment..."
Profile Image for Sarah.
396 reviews42 followers
October 27, 2014
"PEISTHETAERUS: The Air's betwixt the Earth and the Sky.
And just as we, if we go to Pytho,
Must crave a grant of passage from the Boeotia,
Even so, when men slay victims to the Gods,
Unless the Gods pay tribute, ye in turn
Will grant no passage for the savoury steam
To rise through Chaos, and a realm not theirs."

The Birds is another one of my all-time favorites from Aristophanes, ranking amongst plays such as The Clouds and The Frogs- it simply is an imaginative work of art to behold compared to the more "blah" plays that come from this playwright. I can definitely understand why this one is a well-known play amongst the Greek dramas.

In this play, two men encounter a community of birds and decide that they want to make a man-bird city between the sky and the earth, mainly so that they can provide more civilized representation for the birds. While this sounds like a ludicrous idea, Aristophanes pulls it off very well while providing his usual sense of wit. Additonally, I also learned much about the significance of birds in Greek society in relation to the gods- I'd call that pretty important.

I honestly can't say that I've read a play with such a far-out plot, but I think it's safe to say that Aristophanes was a very... imaginative person. The Birds simply is a top-notch represenation of this creative threshold and one that I would definitely categorize as an essential Greek comedy.
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