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The Birds is an Attic comedy produced by Aristophanes (circa 450-385 BCE) at the City Dionysia of 414 BCE, winning second prize in the competition. The play, notable for its rich imagery and use of fantasy elements, follows two Athenians who leave their city and make a new home for themselves among the birds. Still widely read and adapted today, Aristophanes’s The Birds explores themes of Challenging the Supremacy of the Gods, The Relationship Between Humanity and Animals, and Fantasy and the Transgression of Natural Laws.

This study guide uses Stephen Halliwell’s translation of the play in the Oxford Classical Press edition of the plays of Aristophanes, Birds and Other Plays (1998).

Content Warning: The source text contains brief allusions to sexual violence.

Plot Summary

Some distance from Athens, Peisetairos and Euelpides enter with Peisetairos’s slaves. They are seeking the home of the birds, hoping to settle there and so escape the tedium and annoyances of daily life in Athens. They soon meet the Hoopoe, a figure from Greek myth who was once the human Tereus and who has left human cares behind to become the ruler of the birds, just as Peisetairos and Euelpides hope to do. Peisetairos persuades Tereus that the birds should build a city of their own. Tereus wakes his wife, the Nightingale, and they summon the other birds, who make up the play’s Chorus.

The Chorus enters. They initially react with hostility at finding humans in their territory. Peisetairos soon manages to convince them to found a city, on the grounds that such a city will give birds power over the cosmos. The Chorus sings the Parabasis, describing their power and importance to the audience.

The Parabasis is followed by the inauguration of the city of the birds, Cloudcuckooland. As Peisetairos conducts the rituals and sacrifices for the founding of the city, various parasitic newcomers arrive trying to peddle their wares: A Priest offers prayers for the city, a Poet offers to compose songs honoring the city, an Oracle-Monger offers oracles favoring the city, Meton offers his services as a city planner, and other visitors offer to sell rules and regulations. Peisetairos drives all these visitors away. The Chorus sings a second Parabasis, offering rewards to those who harm their enemies and bribes to the judges of the dramatic contest in which Aristophanes’s play is being performed.

A report that the building of Cloudcuckooland is progressing very quickly is followed by another report that Iris, the messenger of the gods, is flying through the city. Peisetairos aggressively stops Iris and drives her off. More undesirable human intruders arrive, but they are also driven away by Peisetairos. The Titan Prometheus then arrives at Cloudcuckooland to tell Peisetairos that the gods are suffering because the new city has blocked the traffic between the gods and their human worshipers.

Prometheus suggests that Peisetairos hold a parley with the gods to demand control of the cosmos. Peisetairos meets with an embassy dispatched by the gods, made up of Poseidon, Herakles, and a god of the barbarian Triballians. Peisetairos demands the scepter of Zeus and the hand of Basileia, the divine personification of “Kingship.” Though Poseidon is reluctant to give in to Peisetairos’s demands, Herakles and the Triballian god are manipulated into giving in. The play ends with Peisetairos’s symbolic marriage to Basileia as he assumes the role of ruler of the cosmos.