Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

44 Nephelokokkygia

(c) Nephelokokkygia1.

It remains to consider in greater detail the most famous con-
ception of Cloud-land bequeathed to us by classical antiquity, the
Nephelokokkygia of Aristophanes' Birds. That remarkable drama
raises many problems, some of which we must attempt to solve.
Why did the poet choose Birds for his theme? Why lay such stress
on the Hoopoe, the Woodpecker, the Cuckoo? Who is Pisthetairos?
Who is Basileia? And what light does the whole fantasia throw on
the relation between Zeus and the Clouds? I begin by passing in
review the relevant incidents of the play.

Two typical Athenians, Pisthetairos and Euelpides, tired of
Athens and its perpetual lawsuits, set out, under the guidance of a
crow and a jackdaw, to seek the hoopoe Tereus. They would learn
from him, since he too had been a man and suffered like troubles,
where they may find peaceful quarters—

Fleecy as a rug and soft to lie upon2.

They want something more comfortable than their own Rock Town,
but scout his suggestions of the Red Sea in the east, Lepreos down
south, Opous up north. Euelpides thinks there is much to be said
for staying where they are, with the Birds. And Pisthetairos is
struck by a grand idea. If Tereus and the Birds would but hearken
to him, they might take possession of the Clouds—why not?—and
transform the very polos into a polis. This would enable them to
starve out the gods, who could receive no savoury sacrificial smoke
without first paying tribute to them! Hereupon Tereus and his mate,
Prokne the nightingale, summon an assembly of the Birds, a sus-
picious and hostile crowd3.

To allay their fears, Pisthetairos in a persuasive speech develops
his scheme4. He tells them that the Birds were formerly lords of
creation, being of older lineage than Kronos, the Titans, or Earth
herself—witness Aesop's fable of the Lark which, before earth existed,
had to bury her father in her own head5. Clearly then the Birds are

1 The first draft of this section appeared as 'Nephelokokkygia1 in Essays and Studies
presented to William Ridgeway Cambridge 1913 pp. 213—221 with pi. It is here re-
published with considerable alterations and additions.

- Aristoph. av. 121 f. s Id. ib. 1—450.

4 Id. ib. 451—538.

5 This fable, which is of a type still common in the Balkans (cp. M. Gaster Rumanian
Bird and Beast Stories London 1915 p. 236 f. no. 78 ' Why has the lark a tuft ?', p. 238 f.
no. 79 'Why is the tuft of the lark dishevelled?'), is not found in any ancient collection
of Aisopika. F. de Furia (Lipsiae 1810) fab. 415 and C. Halm (Lipsiae i860) fab. 211