The Birds
The Birds was written by Aristophanes and performed at the City Dionysia in 414 BC and took second prize. The play was seen as a perfect fantasy with stunning mimicry of birds and uplifting songs. This is one of the oldest surviving plays of Aristophanes, and one of the most widely studied. The satire focuses on the circular nature of those who try to escape oppression by becoming the oppressors themselves.
The play begins with two men off in search of Tereus. They have become frustrated with life in Athens and with people doing nothing but arguing over laws. So they hope that by finding Tereus, a king who metamorphosed into the Hoopoe, they could find a better life somewhere else. They manage to find Tereus, who is not very convincing as a bird and blames his lack of feathers on molting. The men talk with Hoopoe and suggest that the birds stop flying about and build a city in the sky so that they can blockade the Olympian Gods.
Hoopoe likes the idea and tells the men that they should implement it, if the men can manage to convince the other birds. Hoopoe summons the other birds who immediately attack the men, for humans are the enemies of birds. The men defend themselves with kitchen utensils while Hoopoe convinces the birds to at least listen to the men. The men convince the birds to build the city and construction begins immediately.
One of the men, Pisthetaerus begins to take charge and organize a religious service to honor the birds as the new Gods of men. Men begin flocking to the new city in the sky hoping to join and other unwelcome visitors come to the city, pestering Pisthetaerus with their songs. Pisthetaerus turns them all away but Prometheus arrives with news that the Olympians are starving because they no longer get the offerings of men. The starving Olympians eventually agree to declare Pisthetaerus king and Zeus surrenders his scepter and his girlfriend, Sovereignty.