The Birds

The play begins some unspecified distance from Athens, in a desolate area or in the wilderness. Peisetairos and Euelpides enter with Peisetairos’s slaves, Manes and Xanthias, who are carrying their baggage. Both are carrying birds on their wrists: Peisetairos has a crow on his wrist, Euelpides a jackdaw.

Peisetairos and Euelpides fear that they are lost and that the man who sold them the crow and jackdaw swindled them when he promised the birds would lead them to Tereus, the mythical king who was transformed into a Hoopoe and who now rules over the birds. Euelpides, addressing the audience, explains that he and Peisetairos are fed up with the fines, lawsuits, and general drudgery of urban life in Athens and are hoping that the Hoopoe (Tereus) has discovered a place where they can lead carefree lives “while flying around” (48).

Peisetairos and Euelpides are guided to a cliff by their birds. Climbing up, they come across the Hoopoe’s kitchen inside a rock. The Hoopoe’s Servant—a talking bird—emerges from the rock, and after a brief exchange, Peisetairos and Euelpides ask him to fetch his master. The Hoopoe enters, a