Aristophanes, The Birds

Ian Storey (Trent University)

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Ed. by Jonathan Burgess, University of Toronto
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University)

Dates

First circulation or publication -414

Places

Ancient Greece (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Comedy
Play

Resources

Birds was produced in 414 BCE at the festival of the City Dionysia in Athens “through Kallistratos”, where it won the second prize. We know that Aristophanes used other men (Kallistratos, Philonides, his son Araros) to produce his comedies, not just in his early years (427-425), but throughout his dramatic career.

Two Athenians, Euelpides (“Good Hope”) and Peisetairos (“Persuasive Companion”), having fled Athens to avoid the annoyances of politics and the law courts, seek out Tereus, a mythical human with Athenian connections, now transformed into a hoopoe, a magpie-like bird with a very distinctive crest. Here Peisetairos has his great idea: to found a city in the clouds and by intercepting the worship and …

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2173 words

Citation: Storey, Ian. "The Birds". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 August 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13331, accessed 05 April 2025.]