The Birds of AristophanesJohn Bartlett, 1849 - 228 pages |
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Page 171 - That eagle's fate and mine are one, Which, on the shaft that made him die, Espied a feather of his own, Wherewith he wont to soar so high.
Page 193 - But who is this, what thing of sea or land ? Female of sex it seems, That, so bedecked, ornate, and gay, Comes this way, sailing Like a stately ship Of Tarsus, bound for the isles Of Javan or Gadire, With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Sails filled, and streamers waving...
Page 171 - Twas thine own genius gave the final blow, And helped to plant the wound that laid thee low : So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart, And...
Page x - The herald, who had been dispatched to the lower world, returns with an account that all Athens was gone bird-mad ; that it was grown a fashion to imitate them in their names and manners; and that shortly they might expect to see a whole convoy arrive, in order to settle among them. The chorus run to fetch a vast cargo of feathers and wings to equip their new citizens, when they come. Scene 5. The first, who appears...
Page 202 - Hence the term avKofyavrelv, which originally signified to lay an information against another for exporting figs, came to be applied to all illnatured, malicious, groundless, and vexatious accusations. Sycophantes in the time of Aristophanes and Demosthenes designated a person of a peculiar class, not capable of being described by any single word in our language, but well understood and appreciated by an Athenian. He had not much in common with our sycophant, but was a happy compound of the common...
Page x - This proves to be Iris, who in her return is stopped short, and seized by order of Pisthetserus. He examines her, Where is her passport ? Whether she had leave from the watch? What is her business? Who she is? — in short, he treats her with great authority. She tells her name, and that she was sent by Jove with orders to mankind, that they should keep holiday, and perform a grand sacrifice ; she wonders at their sauciness and madness, and threatens them with all her father's thunder.
Page vi - Trochilus, a bird that waits upon Epops, appears above ; he is frighted at the sight of two men, and they are much more so at the length of his beak and the fierceness of his aspect. He takes them for fowlers ; and they insist upon it, that they are not men, but birds. In their confusion, their guides, whom they held in a string, escape and fly away. Epops, during this, within is asleep, after having dined upon a dish of beetles and berries : their noise wakens him, and he comes out of the grove....
Page v - Pisthetserus, two ancient Athenians, thoroughly weary of the folly, injustice, and litigious temper of their countrymen, determine to leave Attica for good and all ; and having heard much of the fame of Epops, king of the birds, who was once a man under the name of Tereus, and had married an Athenian lady, they pack up a few necessary utensils, and set out for the court of that prince under the conduct of a jay and a raven, birds of great distinction in augury, without whose direction the Greeks...
Page xiii - Jupiter's death, if the birds are to have every thing during his lifetime. Pisthetserus clearly proves to Hercules that this is a mere imposition ; that by the laws of Solon a bastard has no inheritance ; that if Jove died without legitimate issue, his brothers would succeed to his estate, and that he speaks only out of interest.
Page ii - I have been permitted to avail myself in attempting to determine the species of gome of the birds not hitherto identified; and I have come to the conclusion that, in all cases, the character and habits of the birds are exactly and curiously adapted to the parts they perform in the comedy, showing Aristophanes to have been a careful observer of nature as well as a consummate poet...