PISTHETAERUS
'Tis all over with us.
EUELPIDES
You are the sole cause of all our trouble. Why did you bring me
from down yonder?
PISTHETAERUS
To have you with me.
EUELPIDES
Say rather to have me melt into tears.
PISTHETAERUS
Go to! you are talking nonsense.
EUELPIDES
How so?
PISTHETAERUS
How will you be able to cry when once your eyes are pecked out?
CHORUS
Io! io! forward to the attack, throw yourselves upon the foe,
spill his blood; take to your wings and surround them on all sides.
Woe to them! let us get to work with our beaks, let us devour them.
Nothing can save them from our wrath, neither the mountain forests,
nor the clouds that float in the sky, nor the foaming deep.
Come, peck, tear to ribbons. Where is the chief of the cohort? Let
him engage the right wing.
EUELPIDES
This is the fatal moment. Where shall I fly to, unfortunate wretch
that I am?
PISTHETAERUS
Stay! stop here!
EUELPIDES
That they may tear me to pieces?
PISTHETAERUS
And how do you think to escape them?
EUELPIDES
I don't know at all.
PISTHETAERUS
Come, I will tell you. We must stop and fight them. Let us arm
ourselves with these stew-pots.
EUELPIDES
Why with the stew-pots?
PISTHETAERUS
The owl will not attack us.[1]
f[1] An allusion to the Feast of Pots; it was kept at Athens
on the third day of the Anthesteria, when all sorts of vegetables
were stewed together and offered for the dead to Bacchus and Athene.
This Feast was peculiar to Athens. --Hence Pisthetaerus thinks that
the owl will recognize they are Athenians by seeing the stew-pots,
and as he is an Athenian bird, he will not attack them.
EUELPIDES
But do you see all those hooked claws?
PISTHETAERUS
Seize the spit and pierce the foe on your side.
EUELPIDES
And how about my eyes?
PISTHETAERUS
Protect them with this dish or this vinegar-pot.
EUELPIDES
Oh! what cleverness! what inventive genius! You are a great general,
even greater than Nicias,[1] where stratagem is concerned.
f[1] Nicias, the famous Athenian general. --The siege of Melos in 417
B.C., or two years previous to the production of 'The Birds,' had
especially done him great credit. He was joint commander of the Sicilian
expedition.
CHORUS
Forward, forward, charge with your beaks! Come, no delay. Tear,
pluck, strike, flay them, and first of all smash the stew-pot.
EPOPS
Oh, most cruel of all animals, why tear these two men to pieces,
why kill them? What have they done to you? They belong to the same
tribe, to the same family as my wife.[1]
f[1] Procne, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens.
CHORUS
Are wolves to be spared? Are they not our most mortal foes? So let
us punish them.
EPOPS
If they are your foes by nature, they are your friends in heart,
and they come here to give you useful advice.
CHORUS
Advice or a useful word from their lips, from them, the enemies of
my forebears!
EPOPS
The wise can often profit by the lessons of a foe, for caution
is the mother of safety. 'Tis just such a thing as one will not learn
from a friend and which an enemy compels you to know. To begin with,
'tis the foe and not the friend that taught cities to build high
walls, to equip long vessels of war; and 'tis this knowledge that
protects our children, our slaves and our wealth.
CHORUS
Well then, I agree, let us first hear them, for 'tis best;
one can even learn something in an enemy's school.
PISTHETAERUS
Their wrath seems to cool. Draw back a little.
EPOPS
'Tis only justice, and you will thank me later.
CHORUS
Never have we opposed your advice up to now.
PISTHETAERUS
They are in a more peaceful mood; put down your stew-pot and
your two dishes; spit in hand, doing duty for a spear, let us mount
guard inside the camp close to the pot and watch in our arsenal
closely; for we must not fly.
EUELPIDES
You are right. But where shall we be buried, if we die?
PISTHETAERUS
In the Ceramicus;[1] for, to get a public funeral, we shall tell
the Strategi that we fell at Orneae,[2] fighting the country's foes.
f[1] A space beyond the walls of Athens which contained the gardens
of the Academy and the graves of citizens who had died for their country.
f[2] A town in Western Argolis, where the Athenians had been recently
defeated. The somewhat similar work in Greek signifies 'birds.'
CHORUS
Return to your ranks and lay down your courage beside your wrath
as the Hoplites do. Then let us ask these men who they are, whence
they come, and with what intent. Here, Epops, answer me.
EPOPS
Are you calling me? What do you want of me?
CHORUS
Who are they? From what country?
EPOPS
Strangers, who have come from Greece, the land of the wise.
CHORUS
And what fate has led them hither to the land of the birds?
EPOPS
Their love for you and their wish to share your kind of life;
to dwell and remain with you always.
CHORUS
Indeed, and what are their plans?
EPOPS
They are wonderful, incredible, unheard of.
CHORUS
Why, do they think to see some advantage that determines them to
settle here? Are they hoping with our help to triumph over their
foes or to be useful to their friends?
EPOPS
They speak of benefits so great it is impossible either to describe
or conceive them; all shall be yours, all that we see here, there,
above and below us; this they vouch for.
CHORUS
Are they mad?
EPOPS
They are the sanest people in the world.
CHORUS
Clever men?
EPOPS
The slyest of foxes, cleverness its very self, men of the world,
cunning, the cream of knowing folk.
CHORUS
Tell them to speak and speak quickly; why, as I listen to you,
I am beside myself with delight.
EPOPS
Here, you there, take all these weapons and hang them up inside
close to the fire, near the figure of the god who presides there and
under his protection;[1] as for you, address the birds, tell them why
I have gathered them together.
f[1] Epops is addressing the two slaves, no doubt Xanthias and Manes,
who are mentioned later on.
PISTHETAERUS
Not I, by Apollo, unless they agree with me as the little ape of
an armourer agreed with his wife, not to bite me, nor pull me by the
parts, nor shove things up my...
CHORUS
You mean the...(PUTS FINGER TO BOTTOM) Oh! be quite at ease.
PISTHETAERUS
No, I mean my eyes.
CHORUS
Agreed.
PISTHETAERUS
Swear it.
CHORUS
I swear it and, if I keep my promise, let judges and spectators
give me the victory unanimously.
PISTHETAERUS
It is a bargain.
CHORUS
And if I break my word, may I succeed by one vote only.
HERALD
Hearken, ye people! Hoplites, pick up your weapons and return to
your firesides; do not fail to read the decrees of dismissal we have
posted.
CHORUS
Man is a truly cunning creature, but nevertheless explain. Perhaps
you are going to show me some good way to extend my power, some way
that I have not had the wit to find out and which you have discovered.
Speak! 'tis to your own interest as well as to mine, for if you secure
me some advantage, I will surely share it with you. But what object
can have induced you to come among us? Speak boldly, for I shall not
break
the truce, --until you have told us all.
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