Parodos
[Lyric-Scene 1]
Here! that's enough tall talk. Just you listen and keep quiet! Do you take me for a Lydian or a Phrygian
Pisthetaerus
and think to frighten me with your big words? Know, that if Zeus worries me again, I shall go at the head of my eagles, who are armed with lightning, and reduce his dwelling and that of Amphion to cinders. I shall send more than six hundred porphyrions
1245
clothed in leopards' skins up to heaven against him; and formerly a single Porphyrion gave him enough to do. As for you, his messenger, if you annoy me, I shall begin by getting between your thighs,
1250
and even though you are Iris, you will be surprised at the erection the old man can produce; it's three times as good as the ram on a ship's prow!
1255
Iris
May you perish, you wretch, you and your infamous words!
Pisthetaerus
Won't you get out of here quickly? Come, stretch your wings or look out for squalls!
Iris
If my father does not punish you for your insults ...
Pisthetaerus
Ha! ... but just you be off elsewhere to roast younger folk than us with your lightning.
1260
Chorus
We forbid the gods, the sons of Zeus, to pass through our city
and the mortals to send them the smoke of their sacrifices by this road.
1265
Pisthetaerus
It's odd that the messenger
we sent to the mortals has never returned.
1270
Herald
Oh! blessed Pisthetaerus, very wise, very illustrious, very gracious, thrice happy, very ... Come, prompt me, somebody, do
Pisthetaerus
Get to your story!
Herald
All peoples are filled with admiration for your wisdom, and they award you this golden crown.
Pisthetaerus
I accept it. But tell me, why do the people admire me?
Herald
Oh you, who have founded so illustrious a city in the air, you know not in what esteem men hold you and how many there are who burn with desire to dwell in it.
Before your city was built, all men had a mania for Sparta; long hair and fasting were held in honor, men went dirty like Socrates and carried staves. Now all is changed.
1280
Firstly, as soon as it's dawn, they all spring out of bed together to go and seek their food, the same as you do; then they fly off towards the notices and finally devour the decrees.
1285
The bird-madness is so clear that many actually bear the names of birds. There is a halting victualler, who styles himself the partridge; Menippus calls himself the swallow; Opuntius the one-eyed crow;
1290
Philocles the lark; Theogenes the fox-goose; Lycurgus the ibis; Chaerephon the bat; Syracosius the magpie; Midias the quail; indeed he looks like a quail that has been hit hard on the head.
1295
Out of love for the birds they repeat all the songs which concern the swallow, the teal, the goose or the pigeon; in each verse you see wings, or at all events a few feathers. This is what is happening down there.
1300
Finally, there are more than ten thousand folk who are coming here from earth to ask you for feathers and hooked claws; so, mind you supply yourself with wings for the immigrants.
1305
Pisthetaerus
Ah! by Zeus, there's no time for idling. To some slaves. Go as quick as possible and fill every hamper,
every basket you can find with wings. Manes will bring them to me outside the walls, where I will welcome those who present themselves.
1310
[Choral 1]
This town will soon be inhabited by a crowd of men.
Chorus
Fortune favours us alone
1315
and thus they have fallen in love with our city.
Pisthetaerus
Come, hurry up and bring them along.
Chorus
Will not man find here everything that can please him —
