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Study Guide for The Birds

 

 

 

The Birds was first performed in March or April 414 BCE during the City Dionysia in Athens. The Athenian Empire was at the height of its power: In 416, Athens had brutally conquered the small, neutral island of Melos, killed all the men and enslaved the rest. In the summer before the performance of The Birds, the Athenians had dispatched an expeditionary force, 25,000 men, to invade Sicily. The failure and loss of this huge army two years later would cause the final Athenian defeat even though the war would drag on for another eight years.

Most scholars interpret The Birds as an analogy on Athenian imperialism. Others, among them Steven Halliwell, the translator of our text edition, consider it an apolitical flight of fancy and a typically comical celebartion of pure egotism (p. 9). What do you think?

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Study Questions
 
1. Why do the two old Athenians, Peisetairos and Euelpides, leave Athens? What kind of place do they hope to reach?

2. Why do the birds attack the two humans (and possibly their slaves)? Why does the attack fail?

3. How does Peisetairos manage to persuade the birds that they should be the rulers of the world? Where does he find a basis for his arguments? Do you find his arguments convincing?

4. What is the function of the first parabasis (audience address) [lines 676-800]?

5. Who are the humans who try to profit from the foundation of Cloudcuckooland [lines 8001-1057]?

6. What is the function of the second parabasis (audience address) [lines 1058-1117]?

7. Why do the gods in the end have to surrender the rule of the world to Peisetairos and the birds? (NB: basileia means "princess" and, with a different accent, "monarchical rule").

8. Are the birds better off after Peisetairos' scheme is successful?

Assignment

Inform yourself on Perseus about the following mythical characters: Tereus, Prokne, Prometheus, Giants, Titans.


Videos - on reserve at Hatfield Library

Aristophanes: the Gods are Laughing (1996. 52 min.)
Call no: PA3879 .A74 1996

       This pseudo-biography juxtaposes elements of Aristophanic plays with the activities of contemporaneous people to show how Aristophanes became the father of political satire and why his theatrical innovations are still staples of the contemporary theatre.


Other Study Guides
 

Study Guide for Aristophanes' Birds - by Jacqueline Long of Loyola University Chicago

More Internet Resources for World Views

 
 
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Comments to: Ortwin Knorr
Last update: 8-12-02