Birds as anaristophanic satire
Answers
Birds, Greek Ornithes, drama by Aristophanes, produced in 414 BCE. Some critics regard Birds as a pure fantasy, but others see it as a political satire on the imperialistic dreams that had led the Athenians to undertake their ill-fated expedition of 415 BCE to conquer Syracuse in Sicily. The character Peisthetaerus (whose name means “Trusty”) is so disgusted with his city’s bureaucracy that he persuades the birds to join him in building a new city to be suspended between heaven and earth. This city is named Nephelokokkygia, and it is the original Cloud-cuckoo-land. The city is built, and Peisthetaerus and his bird comrades must then fend off the undesirable humans who want to join them in their new Utopia. He and the birds finally even starve the Olympian gods into cooperating with them. Birds is Aristophanes’ most fantastical play, but its escapist mood possibly echoes the dramatist’s sense of Athens’s impending decline.
Aristophanes
Aristophanes: Birds
This play can be regarded merely as a “comedy of fantasy,” but some scholars see Birds…
Aristophanes
Aristophanes: Birds
This play can be regarded merely as a “comedy of fantasy,” but some scholars see Birds (414…
Teatro Olimpico, designed by Andrea Palladio and completed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, 1585, Vicenza, Italy.
stagecraft: Classical theatrical costume
>The Birds, and The Frogs, calls for all manner of such figures and clothing. Actors…
Ruins of the Greek theatre of Hieron II and, above it, a nymphaeum (fountain), Syracuse, Italy.
Syracuse
Syracuse, city, on the east coast of Sicily, 33 miles (53 km) south of Catania. It was…
Sicily, Italy.
Sicily
Sicily, island, southern Italy, the largest and one of the most densely populated islands…
More, Sir Thomas
utopia
Utopia, an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants......