Scaife ATLAS

CTS Library / Birds

Birds (1088-1152)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0019.tlg006.perseus-eng2:1088-1152
Refs {'start': {'reference': '1088', 'human_reference': 'Line 1088'}, 'end': {'reference': '1152', 'human_reference': 'Line 1152'}}
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Happy indeed is the race of winged birds who
need no cloak in winter! Neither do I fear the relentless rays of the fiery dog-days;
when the divine grasshopper, intoxicated with the sunlight, as noon is burning the ground, is breaking out into shrill melody; my home is beneath the foliage in the flowery meadows. I winter in deep caverns, where I frolic with the mountain nymphs, while in spring I despoil
the gardens of the Graces and gather the white, virgin berry on the myrtle bushes.
1102
Leader of Second Semi-Chorus
I want now to speak to the judges about the prize they are going to award; if they are favourable to us, we will load them with benefits far greater than those Paris received.
Firstly, the owls of Laurium, which every judge desires above all things, shall never be wanting to you; you shall see them homing with you, building their nests in your money-bags and laying coins. Besides, you shall be housed like the gods,
for we shall erect gables over your dwellings; if you hold some public post and want to do a little pilfering, we will give you the sharp claws of a hawk. Are you dining in town, we will provide you with stomachs as capacious as a bird's crop. But, if your award is against us, don't fail to have metal covers fashioned for yourselves,
like those they place over statues; else, look out! for the day you wear a white tunic all the birds will soil it with their droppings.
1118
Pisthetaerus
Birds! the sacrifice is propitious. But I see
no messenger coming from the wall to tell us what is happening. Ah! here comes one running himself out of breath as though he were in the Olympic stadium.
MessengerRunning back and forth.
Where, where, where is he? Where, where, where is he? Where, where, where is he? Where is Pisthetaerus, our leader?
Pisthetaerus
Here am I.
Messenger
The wall is finished.
Pisthetaerus
That's good news.
Messenger
It's a most beautiful, a most magnificent work of art. The wall is so broad that Proxenides, the Braggartian, and Theogenes could pass each other in their chariots, even if they were drawn by steeds as big as the Trojan horse.
Pisthetaerus
That's fine!
Messenger
Its length is one hundred stadia; I measured it myself.
Pisthetaerus
A decent length, by Poseidon! And who built such a wall?
Messenger
Birds birds only; they had neither Egyptian brickmaker, nor stonemason, nor carpenter;
the birds did it all themselves; I could hardly believe my eyes. Thirty thousand cranes came from Libya with a supply of stones, intended for the foundations. The water-rails chiselled them with their beaks. Ten thousand storks were busy making bricks;
plovers and other water fowl carried water into the air.
Pisthetaerus
And who carried the mortar?
Messenger
Herons, in hods.
Pisthetaerus
But how could they put the mortar into the hods?
Messenger
Oh! it was a truly clever invention;
the geese used their feet like spades; they buried them in the pile of mortar and then emptied them into the hods.
Pisthetaerus
Ah! to what use cannot feet be put?
1148
Messenger
You should have seen how eagerly the ducks carried bricks. To complete the tale,
the swallows came flying to the work, their beaks full of mortar and their trowels on their backs, just the way little children are carried.
Pisthetaerus
Who would want paid servants after this? But tell me, who did the woodwork?

Tokens

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