The Birds Part 10

f(1) This was the name of the wall surrounding the Acropolis.

EPOPS One of us, a bird of Persian strain, who is everywhere proclaimed to be the bravest of all, a true chick of Ares.(1)

f(1) i.e. the fighting c.o.c.k.

EUELPIDES Oh! n.o.ble chick! What a well-chosen G.o.d for a rocky home!

PISTHETAERUS Come! into the air with you to help the workers who are building the wall; carry up rubble, strip yourself to mix the mortar, take up the hod, tumble down the ladder, an you like, post sentinels, keep the fire smouldering beneath the ashes, go round the walls, bell in hand,(1) and go to sleep up there yourself; then d(i)spatch two heralds, one to the G.o.ds above, the other to mankind on earth and come back here.

f(1) To waken the sentinels, who might else have fallen asleep.--There are several merry contradictions in the various parts of this list of injunctions.

EUELPIDES As for yourself, remain here, and may the plague take you for a troublesome fellow!

PISTHETAERUS Go, friend, go where I send you, for without you my orders cannot be obeyed. For myself, I want to sacrifice to the new G.o.d, and I am going to summon the priest who must preside at the ceremony. Slaves!

slaves! bring forward the basket and the l.u.s.tral water.

CHORUS I do as you do, and I wish as you wish, and I implore you to address powerful and solemn prayers to the G.o.ds, and in addition to immolate a sheep as a token of our grat.i.tude. Let us sing the Pythian chant in honour of the G.o.d, and let Chaeris accompany our voices.

PISTHETAERUS (TO THE FLUTE-PLAYER) Enough! but, by Heracles! what is this? Great G.o.ds! I have seen many prodigious things, but I never saw a muzzled raven.(1)

f(1) In allusion to the leather strap which flute-players wore to constrict the cheeks and add to the power of the breath. The performer here no doubt wore a raven's mask.

EPOPS Priest! 'tis high time! Sacrifice to the new G.o.ds.

PRIEST I begin, but where is he with the basket? Pray to the Vesta of the birds, to the kite, who presides over the hearth, and to all the G.o.d and G.o.ddess-birds who dwell in Olympus.

CHORUS Oh! Hawk, the sacred guardian of Sunium, oh, G.o.d of the storks!

PRIEST Pray to the swan of Delos, to Latona the mother of the quails, and to Artemis, the goldfinch.

PISTHETAERUS 'Tis no longer Artemis Colaenis, but Artemis the goldfinch.(1)

f(1) h.e.l.lanicus, the Mitylenian historian, tells that this surname of Artemis is derived from Colaenus, King of Athens before Cecrops and a descendant of Hermes. In obedience to an oracle he erected a temple to the G.o.ddess, invoking her as Artemis Colaenis (the Artemis of Colaenus).

PRIEST And to Bacchus, the finch and Cybele, the ostrich and mother of the G.o.ds and mankind.

CHORUS Oh! sovereign ostrich, Cybele, The mother of Cleocritus,(1) grant health and safety to the Nephelococcygians as well as to the dwellers in Chios...

f(1) This Cleocritus, says the scholiast, was long-necked and strutted like an ostrich.

PISTHETAERUS The dwellers in Chios! Ah! I am delighted they should be thus mentioned on all occasions.(1)

f(1) The Chians were the most faithful allies of Athens, and hence their name was always mentioned in prayers, decrees, etc.

CHORUS ...to the heroes, the birds, to the sons of heroes, to the porphyrion, the pelican, the spoon-bill, the redbreast, the grouse, the peac.o.c.k, the horned-owl, the teal, the bittern, the heron, the stormy petrel, the fig-p.e.c.k.e.r, the t.i.tmouse...

PISTHETAERUS Stop! stop! you drive me crazy with your endless list.

Why, wretch, to what sacred feast are you inviting the vultures and the sea-eagles? Don't you see that a single kite could easily carry off the lot at once? Begone, you and your fillets and all; I shall know how to complete the sacrifice by myself.

PRIEST It is imperative that I sing another sacred chant for the rite of the l.u.s.tral water, and that I invoke the immortals, or at least one of them, provided always that you have some suitable food to offer him; from what I see here, in the shape of gifts, there is naught whatever but horn and hair.

PISTHETAERUS Let us address our sacrifices and our prayers to the winged G.o.ds.

A POET Oh, Muse! celebrate happy Nephelococcygia in your hymns.

PISTHETAERUS What have we here? Where did you come from, tell me? Who are you?

POET I am he whose language is sweeter than honey, the zealous slave of the Muses, as Homer has it.

PISTHETAERUS You a slave! and yet you wear your hair long?

POET No, but the fact is all we poets are the a.s.siduous slaves of the Muses, according to Homer.

PISTHETAERUS In truth your little cloak is quite holy too through zeal!

But, poet, what ill wind drove you here?

POET I have composed verses in honour of your Nephelococcygia, a host of splendid dithyrambs and parthenians(1) worthy of Simonides himself.

f(1) Verses sung by maidens.

PISTHETAERUS And when did you compose them? How long since?

POET Oh! 'tis long, aye, very long, that I have sung in honour of this city.

PISTHETAERUS But I am only celebrating its foundation with this sacrifice;(1) I have only just named it, as is done with little babies.

f(1) This ceremony took place on the tenth day after birth, and may be styled the pagan baptism.

POET "Just as the chargers fly with the speed of the wind, so does the voice of the Muses take its flight. Oh! thou n.o.ble founder of the town of Aetna,(1) thou, whose name recalls the holy sacrifices,(2) make us such gift as thy generous heart shall suggest."

f(1) Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse.--This pa.s.sage is borrowed from Pindar.

f(2) (Hiero) in Greek means 'sacrifice.'

PISTHETAERUS He will drive us silly if we do not get rid of him by some present. Here! you, who have a fur as well as your tunic, take it off and give it to this clever poet. Come, take this fur; you look to me to be s.h.i.+vering with cold.

POET My Muse will gladly accept this gift; but engrave these verses of Pindar's on your mind.