Parodos
[Parodos]
Torotix, torotix.
Pisthetaerus
Wait, friend, there's a bird.
Euelpides
By Zeus, it is a bird, but what kind? Isn't it a peacock?
Pisthetaerus
Epops will tell us. What is this bird?
270
Epops
It's not one of those you are used to seeing; it's a bird from the marshes.
Euelpides
Oh! oh! but he is very handsome with his wings as crimson as flame.
Epops
Undoubtedly; indeed he is called flamingo.
Euelpides
Hi! I say! You!
Pisthetaerus
What are you shouting for?
Euelpides
Why, here's another bird.
Pisthetaerus
Aye, indeed; this one's a foreign bird too.
To Epops. What is this bird from beyond the mountains with a look as solemn as it is stupid?
275
Epops
He is called the Mede.
Euelpides
The Mede! But, by Heracles, how, if a Mede, has he flown here without a camel?
Pisthetaerus
Here's another bird with a crest.
Euelpides
Ah! that's curious. I say, Epops, you are not the only one of your kind then?
280
Epops
This bird is the son of Philocles, who is the son of Epops; so that, you see, I am his grandfather; just as one might say, Hipponicus, the son of Callias, who is the son of Hipponicus.
Euelpides
Then this bird is Callias! Why, what a lot of his feathers he has lost!
Epops
That's because he is honest; so the informers set upon him and the women too pluck out his feathers.
285
Euelpides
By Poseidon, do you see that many-coloured bird? What is his name?
Epops
This one? That's the glutton.
