2 h 27 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if escaping the city means building another one in the sky—and challenging the gods?
Peisetaerus and Euelpides have had enough of Athens. Tired of lawsuits and city life, they set off along a rocky road with birds to guide them. In Aristophanes's comedy The Birds, their search for peace leads them to the Hoopoe, a king from myth who knows both human and bird worlds.
Peisetaerus sees more than a refuge among the birds. He sees a chance to build Cloudcuckooland, a city between earth and heaven. But the birds distrust humans, and a new city soon attracts familiar pests. This loose, fantastical play turns a dream of escape into sharp jokes about public life, grand schemes and power.
What you’ll discover
- A rocky road out Meet two weary Athenians whose search for quiet opens onto an unlikely adventure.
- Birds with something to reclaim Watch an angry chorus warm to Peisetaerus's promise of their old power.
- A city above Athens Enter Cloudcuckooland, where a bold idea gives political ambition room to spread its wings.
- Familiar pests take flight Discover jokes about informers, flattering poets and the people who gather around grand schemes.
- Fantasy with a sharp edge Enjoy a comedy that sets the wish for peace beside the lure of leadership.
Who will love it
For readers who love satire, fantasy and sharp political jokes, and for anyone curious about ancient Greek theatre.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two Athenians run away from home
- Peisetaerus wins over the angry birds
- Cloudcuckooland rises in the sky
- Every sort of pest wants a place
- The gods are starved of their smoke
- What the comedy is really about
Who’s who
- PeisetaerusA clever Athenian, tired of lawsuits, who talks the birds into building a city in the sky and seizes leadership.
- EuelpidesPeisetaerus's hopeful companion, who flees Athens with him and starts out as an equal partner in the scheme.
- The Hoopoe (Tereus)A king from myth turned into a bird, who knows both worlds and helps the two men reach the birds.
- The Chorus of BirdsMany kinds of birds, first angry at humans, then eager to reclaim the old power Peisetaerus says they once held.
- PrometheusThe Titan who gave fire to men and hates Zeus, who sneaks into Cloudcuckooland under an umbrella with news from Olympus.
- IrisThe gods' messenger, who flies down from Olympus and finds her path blocked by the new city.
- PoseidonThe sea god who leads a delegation of gods to Cloudcuckooland to bargain with Peisetaerus.
- HeraclesThe strong, hungry hero who joins the divine delegation, more interested in his dinner than in dignity.
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- Large print hardcover
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The Birds
by Aristophanes
Two Athenians seek peace among the birds, but their new city in the sky puts them at odds with the gods.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
Two Athenians run away from home
The play opens on a rocky roadside far from Athens. Two men trudge along, each carrying a bird in his hand, which they bought to guide them. One is Euelpides, whose name means hopeful. The other is Peisetaerus, whose name suggests a man good at persuading his friends. They are tired and lost, and the birds are no help at all.
The reason for their flight is simple. They are fed up with Athens, a city where people spend their days in court, suing each other over every small matter. They are not escaping debt or disgrace. They simply want a place without lawsuits, informers and endless public duties. Aristophanes makes the audience laugh at itself here, since the Athenians were famous for loving the courts.
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What is The Birds by Aristophanes about?
It is a comedy about two Athenians who leave their city, persuade the birds to build a city in the sky, and use it to cut the gods off from the smoke of human sacrifice.
What does Cloudcuckooland mean?
It translates the Greek name Nephelokokkygia, the sky city the birds build. Today the word stands for a silly, unreal dream world, a place that only exists in fantasy and wishful thinking.
When was The Birds written and performed?
Aristophanes staged it in 414 BC at the festival of Dionysus in Athens. It is a work of fiction and fantasy, though it jokes about real people and events of its day.
The author
Aristophanes
444 BC–384 BC · Ancient Greek comic playwright
Aristophanes was the great comic playwright of classical Athens, whose satires spared neither politicians nor philosophers. Lysistrata — in which the women of Greece go on strike to end a war — is among his most performed plays today.
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