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Comedy by Aristophanes

The Birds (Ὄρνιθες (Órnithes)) 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. The plot of the play revolves around Pisthetaerus, an Athenian who convinces the birds to create a great city in the sky, and thus regain their status as the original gods. Pisthetaerus eventually transforms into a bird like god himself, and replaces Zeus as the king of the gods.

When The Birds was performed in 414 BC, Athenians were still optimistic about the future of the Sicilian Expedition, which had set out the year before under the joint command of Alcibiades, who had promoted it enthusiastically, and Athens' most experienced general, Nicias, who had opposed the venture. In spite of this public optimism, there was ongoing controversy in Athens over the mutilation of the Hermai, an act of impious vandalism that had cast ominous doubts over the Sicilian Expedition even before the fleet had left port. The vandalism had resulted in a 'witch hunt' led by religious extremists and endorsed by priests of the Eleusinian Mysteries, leading to the persecution of rationalist thinkers such as Diagoras of Melos. Alcibiades himself was suspected of involvement in anti religious activities and a state ship Salaminia was sent to Sicily to bring him back to trial. However, he managed to escape from custody and a reward of one talent of gold was subsequently offered by the Athenian authorities to anyone who could claim responsibility for his death. Alcibiades had already been a controversial figure in Athenian politics for some years before then – he had combined with Nicias to bring about the ostracism of the populist leader Hyperbolus. Hyperbolus was a frequent target of satire in Aristophanes' plays, a role previously filled by Cleon, who had died in 422.

The Birds resembles all the early plays of Aristophanes in key aspects of its dramatic structure. Such resemblances are evidence of a genre of ancient drama known as Old Comedy. Variations from these 'conventions' are significant since they demonstrate either a trend away from Old Comedy, a corruption in the text or a unique dramatic effect that the author intended. Variations in this play are found in the following conventions:
Agon: The agon is a debate or formal argument constructed as a 'symmetrical scene', with two declaimed sections and two songs. The protagonist generally defeats the antagonist in the debate and this decides the outcome of the play long before the play actually ends. The agon in The Birds (lines 451–626) is conventional in form but there is no antagonist – the two main speakers are Pisthetaerus and his friend Euelpides, with Pisthetaerus delivering a speech and Euelpides providing supportive comments. The birds provide a willing audience and they are easily won over to the protagonist's point of view. A similarly one sided agon is found in the next surviving play, Lysistrata. Parabasis: The parabasis is an address to the audience by the Chorus in the absence of any actors. Generally there is a long parabasis in the middle of the play, including a 'parabasis proper' in which the Chorus speaks as the author's representative on issues relating to his career, and usually there is a shorter parabasis near the end. In this play, the first parabasis (678–800) and the second (1058–1117) are conventional in structure but the Chorus always speaks in character as birds. Instead of speaking about the poet in the 'parabasis proper', the birds speak about themselves, outlining their genealogy, their value to the audience and their effect on the audience's vocabulary – in all these topics however there are amusing echoes of things a Chorus would ordinarily say on behalf of the poet. This 'parabasis proper' is in fact almost a satire on the convention of a parabasis proper. Unwelcome Visitors: The protagonist's early victory in the agon generally tends to ease dramatic tension early in the play and this is usually offset to some extent by a stream of minor characters or 'unwelcome visitors' that have to be chased off by the triumphant hero. This play is exceptional in that there are three waves of unwelcome visitors – the first wave comes before the walls of Cloudcuckooland have been completed, the second wave comes immediately after and the third wave comes as a delegation from Zeus. This repetition is the reason why The Birds is much longer than the other surviving plays.