The Birds

woodwork? Messenger Birds again, and clever carpenters too, the pelicans, for they squared up the gates with their beaks in such a fashion that one would have thought they were using axes; the noise was just like a dockyard. Now the whole wall is tight everywhere, securely bolted and well guarded; it is patrolled, bell in hand; the sentinels stand everywhere and beacons burn on the towers. But I must run off to clean myself; the rest is your business. Chorus Well! what do you say to it? Are you not astonished at the wall being completed so quickly? Pisthetaerus By the gods, yes, and with good reason. ’Tis really not to be believed. But here comes another messenger from the wall to bring us some further news! What a fighting look he has! Second messenger Oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! oh! Pisthetaerus What’s the matter? Second messenger A horrible outrage has occurred; a god sent by Zeus has passed through our gates and has penetrated the realms of the air without the knowledge of the jays, who are on guard in the daytime. Pisthetaerus ’Tis an unworthy and criminal deed. What god was it? Second messenger We don’t know that. All we know is, that he has got wings. Pisthetaerus Why were not guards sent against him at once? Second messenger We have despatched thirty thousand hawks of the legion of Mounted Archers.139 All the hook-clawed birds are moving against him, the kestrel, the buzzard, the vulture, the great-horned owl; they cleave the air, so that it resounds with the flapping of their wings; they are looking everywhere for the god, who cannot be far away; indeed, if I mistake not, he is coming from yonder side. Pisthetaerus All arm themselves with slings and bows! This way, all our soldiers; shoot and strike! Someone give me a sling! Chorus War, a terrible war is breaking out between us and the gods! Come, let each one guard Air, the son of Erebus,140 in which the clouds float. Take care no immortal enters it without your knowledge. Scan all sides with your glance. Hark! methinks I can hear the rustle of the swift wings of a god from heaven. Pisthetaerus Hi! you woman! where are you flying to? Halt, don’t stir! keep motionless! not a beat of your wing!⁠—Who are you and from what country? You must say whence you come.141 Iris I come from the abode of the Olympian gods. Pisthetaerus What’s your name, ship or cap?142 Iris I am swift Iris. Pisthetaerus Paralus or Salaminia?143 Iris What do you mean? Pisthetaerus Let a buzzard rush at her and seize her.144 Iris Seize me! But what do all these insults mean? Pisthetaerus Woe to you! Iris ’Tis incomprehensible. Pisthetaerus By which gate did you pass through the wall, wretched woman? Iris By which gate? Why, great gods, I don’t know. Pisthetaerus You hear how she holds us in derision. Did you present yourself to the officers in command of the jays? You don’t answer. Have you a permit, bearing the seal of the storks? Iris Am I awake? Pisthetaerus Did you get one? Iris Are you mad? Pisthetaerus No head-bird gave you a safe-conduct? Iris A safe-conduct to me, you poor fool! Pisthetaerus Ah! and so you slipped into this city on the sly and into these realms of air-land that don’t belong to you. Iris And what other roads can the gods travel? Pisthetaerus By Zeus! I know nothing about that, not I. But they won’t pass this way. And you still dare to complain! Why, if you were treated according to your deserts, no Iris would ever have more justly suffered death. Iris I am immortal. Pisthetaerus You would have died nevertheless.⁠—Oh! ’twould be truly intolerable! What! should the universe obey us and the gods alone continue their insolence and not understand that they must submit to the law of the strongest in their due turn? But tell me, where are you flying to? Iris I? The messenger of Zeus to mankind, I am going to tell them to sacrifice sheep and oxen on the altars and to fill their streets with the rich smoke of burning fat. Pisthetaerus Of which gods are you speaking? Iris Of which? Why, of ourselves, the gods of heaven. Pisthetaerus You, gods? Iris Are there others then? Pisthetaerus Men now adore the birds as gods, and ’tis to them, by Zeus, that they must offer sacrifices, and not to Zeus at all! Iris Oh! fool! fool! Rouse not the wrath of the gods, for ’tis terrible indeed. Armed with the brand of Zeus, Justice would annihilate your race; the lightning would strike you as it did Licymnius and consume both your body and the porticos of your palace.145 Pisthetaerus Here! that’s enough tall talk. Just you listen and keep quiet! Do you take me for a Lydian or a Phrygian146 and think to frighten me with your big words? Know, that if Zeus worries me again, I shall go at the head of my eagles, who are armed with lightning, and reduce his dwelling and that of Amphion to cinders.147 I shall send more than six hundred porphyrions clothed in leopards’ skins148 up to heaven against him; and formerly a single Porphyrion gave him enough to do. As for you, his messenger, if you annoy me, I shall begin by stretching your legs asunder, and so conduct myself, Iris though you be, that despite my age, you will be astonished. I will show you something that will make you three times over. Iris May you perish, you wretch, you and your infamous words! Pisthetaerus Won’t you be off quickly? Come, stretch your wings or look out for squalls! Iris If my father does not punish you for your insults⁠ ⁠… Pisthetaerus Ha!⁠ ⁠… but just you be off elsewhere to roast younger folk than us with your lightning. Chorus We forbid the gods, the sons of Zeus, to pass through our city and the mortals to send them the smoke of their sacrifices by this road. Pisthetaerus ’Tis odd that the