Birds (350-386)

This is the fatal moment. Where shall I fly to, unfortunate wretch that I am?

Wait! Stay here!

That they may tear me to pieces?

And how do you think to escape them?

I don't know at all.

Come, I will tell you. We must stop and fight them. Let us arm ourselves with these stew-pots.

Why with the stew-pots?

The owl will not attack us then.

But do you see all those hooked claws?

Take the spit

and pierce the foe on your side.

And how about my eyes?

Protect them with this dish or this vinegar-pot.

Oh! what cleverness! what inventive genius! You are a great general, even greater than Nicias, where stratagem is concerned.

Forward, forward, charge with your beaks! Come, no delay.

Tear, pluck, strike, flay them, and first of all smash the stew-pot.

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.

Are wolves to be spared? Are they not our most mortal foes?

So let us punish them.

If they are your foes by nature, they are your friends in heart, and they come here to give you useful advice.

Advice or a useful word from their lips, from them, the enemies of my forebears?

The wise can often profit by the lessons of a foe, for caution is the mother of safety. It is just such a thing as one will not learn from a friend and which an enemy compels you to know. To begin with, it's the foe and not the friend that taught cities to build high walls, to equip long vessels of war;

and it's this knowledge that protects our children, our slaves and our wealth.

Well then, I agree, let us first hear them, for that is best; one can even learn something in an enemy's school.

Their wrath seems to cool. Draw back a little.

It's only justice, and you will thank me later.

Never have we opposed your advice up to now.