The Birds
Ὄρνιθες
A classic of antiquity. First published 413 BC, written in Ancient Greek
The Birds is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BC at the City Dionysia in Athens where it won second place. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs. Unlike the author's other early plays, it includes no direct mention of the Peloponnesian War and there are few references to Athenian politics, and yet it was staged not long after the commencement of the Sicilian Expedition, an ambitious military campaign that greatly increased Athenian commitment to the war effort. In spite of that, the play has many indirect references to Athenian political and social life. It is the longest of Aristophanes's surviving plays and yet it is a fairly conventional example of Old Comedy.
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Your reading
Where it is set
- Athens
Greece
they are fed up with life in Athens, where people do nothing all day but argue over laws Source: Wikipedia, reviewed
What it draws on
AgamemnonClassic
Aeschylus, 457 BC
Aristophanes borrows from Aeschylus for comic effect: the nightingale's song and Iris's threats of divine anger in The Birds are lifted from Agamemnon.
Source: Wikipedia, The Birds (play)
“Moreover, a description of the nightingale (677) and Iris's threats of divine wrath (1240) are borrowed from Agamemnon, and Pisthetaerus' counter-threat to burn down Zeus's house (1246–7) appears to have been borrowed from Niobe.” Read it there
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