Birds (161b-201)

Ha! I am beginning to see a great plan, which will transfer the supreme power to the birds, if you will but take my advice.

Take your advice? In what way?

In what way? Well, firstly,

do not fly in all directions with open beak; it is not dignified. Among us, when we see a thoughtless man, we ask, What sort of bird is this? and Teleas answers, It's a man who has no brain, a bird that has lost his head, a creature

you cannot catch, for it never remains in any one place.

By Zeus himself! your jest hits the mark. What then is to be done?

Found a city.

We birds? But what sort of city should we build?

Oh, really, really! you talk like such a fool!

Look down.

I am looking.

Now look up.

I am looking.

Turn your head round.

Ah! it will be pleasant for me if I end in twisting my neck off!

What have you seen?

The clouds and the sky.

Very well! is not this the pole of the birds then?

How their pole?

Or, if you like it, their place. And since it turns and passes through the whole universe, it is called ‘pole.’ If you build and fortify it, you will turn your pole into a city.

In this way you will reign over mankind as you do over the grasshoppers and you will cause the gods to die of rabid hunger.

How so?

The air is between earth and heaven. When we want to go to Delphi, we ask the Boeotians for leave of passage;

in the same way, when men sacrifice to the gods, unless the latter pay you tribute, you exercise the right of every nation towards strangers and don't allow the smoke of the sacrifices to pass through your city and territory.

By earth! by snares! by network! by cages!

I never heard of anything more cleverly conceived; and, if the other birds approve, I am going to build the city along with you.

Who will explain the matter to them?

You must yourself. Before I came they were quite ignorant,

but since I have lived with them I have taught them to speak.

But how can they be gathered together?