My glance embraces the universe, I preserve the fruit in the flower by destroying the thousand kinds of voracious insects the soil produces, which attack the trees and feed on the germ when it has scarcely formed in the calyx; I destroy those who ravage the balmy terrace gardens like a deadly plague; all these gnawing crawling creatures perish beneath the lash of my wing.
LEADER OF FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
I hear it proclaimed everywhere: "A talent for him who shall kill Diagoras of Melos, and a talent for him who destroys one of the dead tyrants." We likewise wish to make our proclamation: "A talent to him among you who shall kill Philocrates, the Struthian; four, if he brings him to us alive.For this Philocrates skewers the finches together and sells them at the rate of an obolus for seven.He tortures the thrushes by blowing them out, so that they may look bigger, sticks their own feathers into the nostrils of blackbirds, and collects pigeons, which he shuts up and forces them, fastened in a net, to decoy others." That is what we wish to proclaim.And if anyone is keeping birds shut up in his yard, let him hasten to let them loose; those who disobey shall be seized by the birds and we shall put them in chains, so that in their turn they may decoy other men.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS (singing)
Happy indeed is the race of winged birds who need no cloak in winter! Neither do I fear the relentless rays of the fiery dog-days;when the divine grasshopper, intoxicated with the sunlight, as noon is burning the ground, is breaking out into shrill melody; my home is beneath the foliage in the flowery meadows.I winter in deep caverns, where I frolic with the mountain nymphs, while in spring Idespoil the gardens of the Graces and gather the white, virgin berry on the myrtle bushes.
LEADER OF SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
I want now to speak to the judges about the prize they are going to award; if they are favourable to us, we will load them with benefits far greater than those Paris received.Firstly, the owls of Laurium, which every judge desires above all things, shall never be wanting to you; you shall see them homing with you, building their nests in your money-bags and laying coins.Besides, you shall be housed like the gods, for we shall erect gables over your dwellings;if you hold some public post and want to do a little pilfering, we will give you the sharp claws of a hawk.Are you dining in town, we will provide you with stomachs as capacious as a bird's crop.But, if your award is against us, don't fail to have metal covers fashioned for yourselves, like those they place over statues; else, look out!
for the day you wear a white tunic all the birds will soil it with their droppings.
PITHETAERUS
Birds! the sacrifice is propitious.But I see no messenger coming from the wall to tell us what is happening.Ah! here comes one running himself out of breath as though he were in the Olympic stadium.
MESSENGER (running back and forth)
Where, where, where is he? Where, where, where is he? Where, where, where is he? Where is Pithetaerus, our leader?
PITHETAERUS
Here am I.
MESSENGER
The wall is finished.
PITHETAERUS
That's good news.
MESSENGER
It's a most beautiful, a most magnificent work of art.The wall is so broad that Proxenides, the Braggartian, and Theogenes could pass each other in their chariots, even if they were drawn by steeds as big as the Trojan horse.
PITHETAERUS
That's fine!
MESSENGER
Its length is one hundred stadia; I measured it myself.
PITHETAERUS
A decent length, by Posidon! And who built such a wall?
MESSENGER
Birds-birds only; they had neither Egyptian brickmaker, nor stone-mason, nor carpenter; the birds did it all themselves; I could hardly believe my eyes.Thirty thousand cranes came from Libya with a supply of stones, intended for the foundations.The water-rails chiselled them with their beaks.Ten thousand storks were busy making bricks; plovers and other water fowl carried water into the air.
PITHETAERUS
And who carried the mortar?
MESSENGER
Herons, in hods.
PITHETAERUS
But how could they put the mortar into the hods?
MESSENGER
Oh! it was a truly clever invention; the geese used their feet like spades; they buried them in the pile of mortar and then emptied them into the hods.
PITHETAERUS
Ah! to what use cannot feet be put?
MESSENGER
You should have seen how eagerly the ducks carried bricks.To complete the tale, the swallows came flying to the work, their beaks full of mortar and their trowels on their backs, just the way little children are carried.
PITHETAERUS
Who would want paid servants after this? But tell me, who did the woodwork?
MESSENGER
Birds again, aid clever carpenters too, the pelicans, for they squared up the gates with their beaks in such a fashion that one would have thought they were using axes; the noise was just like a dockyard.
Now the whole wall is tight everywhere, securely bolted and well guarded; it is patrolled, bell in hand; the sentinels stand everywhere and beacons burn on the towers.But I must run off to clean myself;the rest is your business.
(He departs.)
LEADER OF THE CHORUS (to PITHETAERUS)
Well! what do you say to it? Are you not astonished at the wall being completed so quickly?
PITHETAERUS
By the gods, yes, and with good reason.It's really not to be believed.But here comes another messenger from the wall to bring us some further news! What a fighting look he has!
SECOND MESSENGER (rushing in)
Alas! alas! alas! alas! alas! alas!
PITHETAERUS
What's the matter?
SECOND MESSENGER
A horrible outrage has occurred; a god sent by Zeus has passed through our gates and has penetrated the realms of the air without the knowledge of the jays, who are on guard in the daytime.
PITHETAERUS
It's a terrible and criminal deed.What god was it?
SECOND MESSENGER
We don't know that.All we know is, that he has got wings.
PITHETAERUS
Why were not patrolmen sent against him at once?
SECOND MESSENGER
