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)

62 Nephelokokkygia

in hand soon after the production of the Peace in 4211. Now the
events of the period immediately succeeding the peace of Nikias
had turned all eyes towards Argos, which then became the centre

1 B. B. Rogers The Birds of Aristophanes London 1906 p. v f.: 'It is by far the
longest of the extant comedies; and dealing as it does with a subject outside the ordinary
range of the poet's thoughts and language...it is obviously a comedy which must have been
long in incubation, and could not (as was the case with the Peace) have been hastily put
together to meet a particular emergency. Indeed there are not wanting indications from
which we may surmise that it was taken in hand, if not immediately after the production
of the Peace, at all events whilst the mind of Aristophanes was still filled with the topics
and ideas which possessed it while he was engaged in the composition of the earlier play.
In the vagrant Oracle-monger (xpwftoMyos) of the Birds, with his prophecies of Bakis,
his lust for a share of the air\d.yxva, and finally his ignominious expulsion, we cannot fail to
recognize the exact counterpart of Hierocles, the xpV"'fJ-o\6yoi of the Peace. The
description which Cinesias gives of the sources from whence the dithyrambic poets derived
their inspiration is merely an amplification of a sarcasm placed previously in the mouth of
Trygaeus ; whilst the whole scheme of the proposed sacrifice on the stage, its preparation,
interruption, and final abandonment, with the allusion to the predatory habits of the Kite,
and to the unwelcome pipings of Chaeris, is substantially identical in the two plays.

So again the two plays have an idyllic character which belongs to no other of the poet's
comedies: the innocent charms of a country life are depicted as they are depicted nowhere
else; in each of them, and in them only, we hear the "sweet song" of the t<?tt(£, and in
each it is designated by its Doric name 6 dx^cts, the chirruper. Here too, and no-
where else in Aristophanes, the coaxing address (5 deiXaicpLuv is employed; and although
the Aeschylean phrase founds IwwaKeKTpvdiv is found also in the Frogs, yet it there occurs
in its natural place as part of a criticism on the style and the language of Aeschylus, while
in each of these two plays it is introduced, apropos of nothing, in the Parabasis, as the
sarcastic description of a showy military officer. And possibly the germ of the present
drama may be discovered in the determination of Trygaeus fier' dpvldoiv is /cfyaras
fiaolfriv [cp. av. 155, 753]- Minor coincidences, such as iroSeurds rb ybos, are very
numerous, but are hardly worthy of mention.

So again, although the Athenian dependencies on the coasts of Macedonia and Thrace
were in a chronic state of disturbance, and were giving some trouble at this very time,
yet the advice to the reckless young Athenian to "fly off to Thrace-ward regions and
fight there" would seem more naturally adapted to a time when those regions were the
chief seat of Athenian warfare, than to a time when the entire attention of the Athenian
people was directed to the military operations in Sicily. And the very remarkable verbal
allusions to the History of Herodotus would seem more suitable to a period when that
History was still fresh in the hands and thoughts of the poet and his audience.

But whatever weight may be due to these considerations, the comedy would of course
not receive its final touches until it was about to be sent in to the Archon, in the winter
of 415—414 '!-c-'

I have quoted at length the wise words of Mr Rogers because they form the best
reply to an objection raised by E. Wiist in the Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte der
klassischen Altertumswissenschaft 1923 cxcv. 151, who urges against me the contention of
A. Ruppel Konzeption und Ausarbeihtngder Aristophanischen Kombdien Darmstadt 1912
'class der Dichter immer nur 3—4 Monate mit der Ausarbeitung eines Stiickes beschaftigt
war' (E. Wiist loc. cit. 1916—1918 clxxiv. 133). But such a rule was obviously open to
exceptions. U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff 'Uber die Wespen des Aristophanes' in
the Sitzimgsber. d. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin 1911 p. 460 ff., rightly holding that the Kyon v.
Labes trial of vesp. 894ff. travestied the Kleon v. Laches trial of the year 425 B.C., infers
that the play was planned three years before its performance in 422 (E. Wiist loc. cit.
1916—1918 clxxiv. 132, 155).