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.[FIRST BOY and SECOND BOY arrive as BUGLE SELLER, SPEAR SELLER, HELMET SELLER, and POTTER hurry away.]FIRST BOY: [pedantically]Let us sing the song of young men of fighting age.TRYGAEUS: Stop right there!Not wanted a song of bleeding young men of fighting age.We’re at peace, you damned ignorant brat!FIRST BOY: [in stolid recitative]455“Charging onwards they came to close quarters and smashedShield against shield and boss of buckler ’gainst boss.”TRYGAEUS: Enough about shields—shields put me on edge.FIRST BOY: “Cheers from the heroes mingled with groans then arose.”TRYGAEUS: You’ll be the one that groans if you sing of groans—groans with knobs on, by Dionysus, I swear.FIRST BOY: Then tell me what you would like me to sing of instead.TRYGAEUS: “And so on the flesh of beeves they feasted,” that sort ofthing.“Breakfast was set before them; on many a dainty they fed.”FIRST BOY: “Thus did they feast on the flesh of beeves and then unloosedfrom their harness the sweating necks of their steeds.”TRYGAEUS: That’s it: “They were sated with fighting and fell to eating.”Sing of that: sated with fighting and falling to eating.FIRST BOY: “And when they were done they started to pour.”TRYGAEUS: That’s the stuff!FIRST BOY: “.down from the turrets and then the unstoppable roarof battle began to engulf.”TRYGAEUS: To hell with you and your battles, contemptible urchin! All you can sing of is war.Whose son are you, anyway?FIRST BOY: Me?TRYGAEUS: Of course, you!FIRST BOY: Son of Lamachus.TRYGAEUS: [back to parodying Homer]Oh brother!Naturally I wondered as I heard you whetherYou were not the offspring of some benighted heroItching for a fight and sorry ever after.Off with you, and sing a song of spearmen!But where is Cleonymus’s little nipper?[FIRST BOY leaves.]Ah, boy, sing me something before we go in.It won’t be about aggression—that I’m sure:your father knows the better part of valor.456SECOND BOY: “Happy as some Saen457 with my splendid shield Which I flung into a bush as I fled the field.”TRYGAEUS: Tell me, little cockerel,is that your father that you’re singing of?SECOND BOY: “.and saved my life.”TRYGAEUS:But shamed your parents.But let’s go in.That song you sang about the shield, I’m quite sure you’llnot forget it, since you are your father’s son.[reverting to mock-grand manner]Meanwhile all of you who still remain hereThere’s nothing left for you to do but munch.No resting your oars but manfully to crunch.Clamp both jaws upon the fodderAnd pound away.For what’s the point, you blackguards, of white teethUnless you make them chew?LEADER: That we will do and we thank you, too, for what you say.[TRYGAEUS and SECOND BOY go into the house.]Well now, you ravenous crew, tuck into the cakes and hare.It’s not every day that cookies cross your path,So get those teeth busy on the fare.For if you miss it, you’ll regret it.[TRYGAEUS comes out of the house decked out as a bridegroom.]TRYGAEUS:Banish all evil boding and go to escort the brideWith torches and all the people cheering, here outside.And take everything you own back to the countrysideWith dancing and libations.Hyperbolus expel.With prayers to the gods that the Greeks excel,That barley be plentiful, and wine as well,With figs to nibble,And that our wives bear us young,and that all we lost once more belongTo us, and that we eschew the gleaming sword.[CORNUCOPIA, adorned as a bride, issues from the house.]Come, wife, with me to the countrysideAnd lie down beautifully, my beauty, by my side.CHORUS: Sing Hymen, Hymenai O!458Hymen, Hymenai O!LEADER: Happy, happy man, Deserving every boon.CHORUS: Hymen, Hymenai O! Hymen, Hymenai O!LEADER: What shall we do with the bride?CHORUS: What shall we do with the bride?CHORUS: We’ll pick her fruit.LEADER: Hey, up with the bridegroom, you boys up front![TRYGAEUS is hoisted onto young men’s shoulders.]CHORUS: Hymen, Hymenai O!Hymen, Hymenai O!LEADER: His fig is big and strong.Hers is ripe and sweet.TRYGAEUS: That’s what you’ll say at the feast Swigging wine at the toast.CHORUS: Hymen, Hymenai O! Hymen, Hymenai O!TRYGAEUS: Farewell, farewell, and good luck! And, Fellows, if you follow me You’ll be eating cake.BIRDSBirds, produced by Calistratus, won second placein the City Dionysia of 414 B.C., first place goingto Ameipsias with Revelers.THEMEOne might almost say that this elegant lighthearted comedy has no theme.Gone is the need for propaganda to stop the war with Sparta (Acharnians, Peace), precarious though the “Peace of Nicias” proved to be.Gone, too, the need to attack a common demagogue like Cleon (Knights), recently killed in battle.The rising star in the political arena was the aristocratic “golden boy” Alcibiades.With Athens at the height of her power and confidence, it’s as if Aristophanes were saying in this play: Let’s forget about worldly concerns and political issues.Let’s have some fun.CHARACTERSEUELPIDES, an Athenian (Mr.Hopeful)PEISETAIRUS, an Athenian (Mr.Trusting)SERVANT, of Tereus, now a hoopoeTEREUS, once King of Thrace, now king of birdsPRIESTPOETORACLEMONGERMETON, geometer and astromerINSPECTOR, from AthensNEWSAGENTFIRST MESSENGERSECOND MESSENGERIRIS, a swift small-time goddess (Rainbow)FIRST HERALDFATHER BEATERCINESIAS, dithyrambic poetINFORMERPROMETHEUS, the Titan who stole fine from Olympus andgave it to mankindPOSEIDON, god of the seaHERACLES, deified manTRIBALLUS, barbarian godSECOND HERALDCHORUS, of twenty-four species of birdsSILENT PARTSCROWJACKDAWXANTHIAS, servant of PeisetairusMANDORUS, servant of PeisetairusSERVANTS, of TereusFLAMINGOPHEASANTHOOPOEGULPER, a turkeyPROCNE, a nightingale, wife of TereusFLUTE GIRL, dressed as a crowSERVANTS, of PeisetairusPRINCESSTHE STORYTwo middle-aged Athenians, Peisetairus and Euelpides, fed up with the world they live in, decide to go in search of a better one.Under the direction of two pet birds, a crow and a jackdaw, they seek advice from Tereus, who used to be human but is now a hoopoe.The advice leads them nowhere, and suddenly Peisetairus has a brainstorm: why not join up with the bird world and create a new and invincible empire?He is excited by the idea but wonders how he can get on the good side of the birds, who hate human beings.OBSERVATIONSBirds was produced at a time when everything was going well for the Athenians.In the summer of 413 B.C., under the influence of Alcibiades, they had dispatched to Sicily a grand armada designed to curb the growing power of Syracuse and win a foothold in Sicily.A year later, in a mood of imperial pride and confidence, they sent a second expedition to reinforce the first.Unfortunately, Nicias, the general chosen to lead the campaign, was not the man for the job.Cautious and irresolute, he had been against the expedition in the first place.Things began to go wrong.The Athenian fleet found itself trapped in the Bay of Syracuse.Its ships were destroyed; their crews, together with the soldiers they carried, after several days of futile and costly flight, were taken prisoner or killed.Those left of some forty thousand men were either sold as slaves or herded into the stone quarries, which were soon filled with the diseased, the dead, and the dying.Both the Athenian generals, Nicias and Demosthenes, were put to death.Such was the end of a generation of young men: the flower of Athenian manhood [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]