Stasimon 1
[Agon]
are thrown at you as at raving madmen, even in holy places. A crowd of bird-catchers sets snares, traps, limed twigs and nets of all sorts for you; you are caught, you are sold in heaps
525
Pisthetaerus
and the buyers finger you over to be certain you are fat. Again, if they would but serve you up simply roasted; but they rasp cheese into a mixture of oil, vinegar and laserwort,
530
to which another sweet and greasy sauce is added, and the whole is poured scalding hot over your back, for all the world as if you were diseased meat.
535
Chorus
Man, your words have
made my heart bleed; I have groaned over the treachery of our fathers, who knew not how to transmit to us the high rank they held from their forefathers. But 'tis a benevolent Genius, a happy Fate, that sends you to us;
540
you shall be our deliverer and I place the destiny of my little ones and my own in your hands with every confidence.
545
Leader of the Chorus
But hasten to tell me what must be done; we should not be worthy to live, if we did not seek to regain our royalty by every possible means.
Pisthetaerus
First I advise that the birds gather together in one city and that they build a wall of great bricks, like that at Babylon, round the plains of the air and the whole region of space that divides earth from heaven.
550
Epops
Oh, Cebriones! oh, Porphyrion! what a terribly strong place!
Pisthetaerus
Then, when this has been well done and completed, you demand back the empire from Zeus;
if he will not agree, if he refuses and does not at once confess himself beaten, you declare a sacred war against him and forbid the gods henceforward to pass through your country with their tools up, as hitherto, for the purpose of laying their Alcmenas, their Alopes, or their Semeles! if they try to pass through,
555
you put rings on their tools so that they can't make love any longer. You send another messenger to mankind, who will proclaim to them that the birds are kings, that for the future they must first of all sacrifice to them, and only afterwards to the gods; that it is fitting to appoint to each deity the bird that has most in common with it.
560
For instance, are they sacrificing to Aphrodite, let them at the same time offer barley to the coot; are they immolating a sheep to Poseidon, let them consecrate wheat in honor of the duck; if a steer is being offered to Heracles, let honey-cakes be dedicated to the gull; if a goat is being slain for King Zeus, there is a King-Bird, the wren, to whom the sacrifice of a male gnat is due before Zeus himself even.
565
Euelpides
This notion of an immolated gnat delights me! And now let the great Zeus thunder!
570
Leader of the Chorus
But how will mankind recognize us as gods and not as jays? Us, who have wings and fly?
Pisthetaerus
You talk rubbish! Hermes is a god and has wings and flies, and so do many other gods. First of all, Victory flies with golden wings, Eros is undoubtedly winged too,
and Iris is compared by Homer to a timorous dove.
575
Euelpides
But will not Zeus thunder and send his winged bolts against us?
Pisthetaerus
If men in their blindness do not recognize us as gods and so continue to worship the dwellers in Olympus? Then a cloud of sparrows greedy for corn must descend upon their fields and eat up all their seeds;
we shall see then if Demeter will mete them out any wheat.
580
